Danny Phantom

Danny Phantom
Danny Fenton aka Danny Phantom in his ghost form on the title card of the synonymous show.
Format	Animated television series Action Adventure Comedy Romance Superhero Science fantasy
Created by	Butch Hartman
Voices of	David Kaufman Grey DeLisle Rickey D'Shon Collins Colleen O'Shaughnessey Rob Paulsen Kath Soucie Cree Summer Martin Mull
Opening theme	"Danny Phantom" by Butch Hartman and Guy Moon
Ending theme	"Danny Phantom" (instrumental)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	45 + 4 Specials (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Butch Hartman Steve Marmel (season 1-2) Mark Banker Marty Isenberg (season 1-2) Kevin Sullivan (season 3)
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Billionfold, Inc. Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Distributor	MTV Networks (Domestic) Nelvana (International)
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon (2004-2007) YTV (Canada) The N (2005-2009) Canal 5 (Mexico)
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Stereo
Original airing	April 3, 2004 (2004-04-03)
Chronology
Related shows	The Fairly OddParents T.U.F.F. Puppy

Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show was about a teenage half-ghost boy, who frequently saves his town and the world from ghost attacks, while attempting to keep his ghost half a secret. It was distributed by the Canadian animation company, Nelvana similar to its sister show, The Fairly OddParents.

Premise

Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventures of 14-year-old Danny Fenton, an unpopular but good-natured boy attending Casper High School (reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost) in his small American hometown of Amity Park. He lives with his eccentric ghost hunting parents, Maddie and Jack, and an overbearing 16-year-old sister, Jazz (short for Jasmine). Upon pressure from his best friends, Sam and Tucker, he decides to explore his parent's Ghost Portal. They had created it with the intent of finally bridging the real world and the Ghost Zone (the ghostly parallel universe of Earth), but upon plugging it in, it failed to work. Once inside, he accidentally presses the "On" button, (something that his naïve parents failed to do), subsequently activates the portal, and due to him being inside it at that moment, it infuses his DNA with ectoplasm, transforming him into a half ghost boy, nicknamed "The Halfa" by the rest of the ghost community.^[1]

A simple, but fitting saying for Danny's transformation is "going ghost". Danny and his friends use this saying the most. Danny, who calls himself 'Danny Phantom' in ghost form, develops the ability to fly, become invisible, and turn his body intangible at first and throughout the timespan of the series learns other powers such as his ghost ray, ghostly wail and cryokinesis. Danny panics over his newfound powers and initially has little control over them, but he soon realizes that he can use his powers to protect his town from ill-meaning ghosts. After the defeat of a Lunch Lady Ghost in the first episode, Danny turns to the life of a superhero, using his powers to rid his hometown from the various ghosts that plague it.^[2] Danny's best friends, technophile meat-loving Tucker Foley and goth-minded ultra-recyclo vegetarian Samantha (Sam) Manson support Danny and help him with his ghost fighting.

Danny's ghost self is a polarization of who he was when he entered the ghost portal. When he goes ghost, his black hair turns white, his blue eyes turn green and the white jumpsuit he was wearing during the accident is now black. Fortunately, in an episode, Sam removes the Jack Fenton logo on Danny's jumpsuit before the accident. If she had not, it would be part of Danny's ghost form every time he goes ghost. In the second season Sam accidentally wishes for her and Danny to never have met, and by the work of a malevolent ghost called Desiree, it comes true, and Danny loses his ghost powers as a result. In the end she convinces the 100% human Danny to reenact the accident in order to regain his powers, but before that happens, she puts her newly designed logo on the jumpsuit, giving him the new Danny Phantom logo when he goes ghost. The logo is a white "D" with a "P" inside it on Danny's chest. The intro also added the logo for seasons 2 and 3.

Aside from a variety of ghosts, Danny faces threats of many calibers, including vengeful ghost hunter Valerie Gray, who for a certain period of time becomes his love interest,^[3] other half ghost/rival Vlad Masters/Plasmius, an old friend of his father's and considered to be his true arch-rival,^[4] and even his own parents—being ghost hunters, they view Danny Phantom (and any ghosts) as a menace to society. In addition, Danny tries to keep his secret safe from his classmates, teachers, and family. Throughout it all, Danny slowly realizes his own potential and his purpose, while his worlds - both the Ghost Zone and Earth - slowly begin to accept him as their defender.^[5]

Characters

Protagonists

Main article: List of Danny Phantom characters

• Daniel "Danny" Fenton/"Danny Phantom" (voiced by David Kaufman) The titular character of the show. Danny and his friends are the "unpopular" kids, having "jock" bullies and quaint teachers. A freshman in high school along with his friends, Danny is a clumsy 14-year-old boy who gained ghost powers from a lab accident when he stepped into his parents' ghost portal. He later chooses to use these powers to fight against malevolent ghosts, which have begun to regularly escape the mysterious Ghost Zone and plague his hometown of Amity Park.^[2] An ongoing arc is his constant struggle to use his powers for the benefit of others than abuse it for his own selfishness. Danny can be benevolent and decisive. Since he is half-ghost, Danny's struggles, hardships faced by teenagers in his world, are unusually topped with deadly villains from the ghost zone; but in the end, with the help of his friends, he determinedly acts on the right decision. His various love interests throughout the series have included Valerie Gray, Paulina, and Samantha Manson, who eventually becomes his girlfriend. ^[5][6][7]

• Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Danny's female best friend, and eventually girlfriend at the end of the series, who is also responsible for the accident that gave Danny his powers. Though wealthy, she chooses to hide her family's monetary success (for quite some time), in favor of being liked for who she is. A strident individualist, Sam is a practitioner of an overly dramatized fictional form of vegetarianism called "Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarianism"^[2] (often generalized as "not eating anything that had a face"), a frequent protester for such things as animal rights,^[6] and a self-proclaimed goth. She has a crush on Danny.^[5][8][9]

• Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins): A lighthearted teenager obsessed with technology, getting a girlfriend, and meat, he has been Danny's best friend "since forever". When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls.^[10] Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief.^[11] The inventions Tucker sometimes makes will seem redundant, but ironically, they will work well in the ghost zone, or against ghosts. Tucker and Sam frequently handle the pros and cons of aiding Danny, especially when he "goes ghost." ^[12]

• Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey): Danny's somewhat overprotective and perhaps overly helpful older sister; a smart and highly sociable overachiever who also thinks herself as an adult. Jazz considers her parents' obsession with ghosts as a sign of needing psychological help.^[2][13] She eventually learns about Danny's powers,^[14] but chooses not to reveal her knowledge until he is ready to talk about it with her.

• Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen): Danny and Jazz's father and Maddie's husband. Jack expresses an obsession with destroying ghosts, blindly going by the belief that all ghosts are evil and must be destroyed, including Danny Phantom.^[15] He is generally incompetent in nature, but can be an effective fighter when provoked.^[15][16][17] Jack cares about his family but does not know about Danny's powers.^[2][13] He is almost never seen without his orange jumpsuit.

• Maddie Fenton (voiced by Kath Soucie) is Danny and Jazz's mother, and Jack's wife. She is a gifted genius and dedicated hunter of ghosts, though she usually aims to dissect and study them rather than destroy them.^[13] She is an excellent, competent fighter, from which Danny probably inheritted his own combat skills.^[16][18] Like her husband, she is rarely seen without her blue jumpsuit.

Antagonists

Main article: List of Danny Phantom villains and ghosts

Marketing

DVDs

Danny Phantom first appeared on DVD in the Nick Picks DVD sets, appearing in all five volumes^[19][20][21] and the Christmas special.^[22] Nickelodeon and Amazon.com later struck a deal to produce DVDs of various Nickelodeon shows. Amazon made the discs, cover art, and disc art themselves. On Amazon.com, Danny Phantom Season One and Two were released on Sept 16th.^[23]

Despite its claim, each set only contained thirteen episodes each—the first set including the first thirteen episodes; the second set carrying on with the next thirteen. The third Danny Phantom DVD was released on June. 9th.^[24] This set contains the entirety of Season Three, rather than the previous thirteen episode sets, skipping over the rest of Season Two. Later editions of the first two seasons contained the entire first and second seasons of Danny Phantom and was released in Nov. 2009. Those, and all the other episodes, can be found on iTunes.

Amazon has now discontinued the Create Space DVD Releases with the announcement of Shout! Factory releasing their own DVD sets.

On March 22, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory had secured the rights to the series.^[25] They released Season 1 in a 4 disc set on September 13, 2011.^[26] Season 2 will be announced Early 2012, while Season 3 will be announced Later 2012.

Shout Factory Releases	Release Date	Discs	Episodes
Season 1	September 13, 2011	4	20
Season 2	TBA, 2012	4	20
Season 3	TBA, 2012	2	13

Video games

There have been two video games released for the series. Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy for the (Game Boy Advance) was made to promote the then upcoming special "The Ultimate Enemy" with the main gameplay consisting of events from the TV movie. It is a 2D platformer and was released in Sept. 8, 2005.^[27] Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle for both the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS was to promote the Danny Phantom episode "Urban Jungle". It is loosely based on the episode and is strictly a shooter game. It was released Sept. 19, 2006.^[28]

Danny and other characters have also been featured in other Nickelodeon video games: Nicktoons: Summer Camp, Nicktoons Basketball for the PC, and Nicktoons Movin' Eyetoy for the (PlayStation 2). He is a playable character in the kart racer Nicktoons Winners Cup Racing (PC) and the latter Nicktoons Nitro developed by Raw Thrills for the arcade.^[29] Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy for the (Game Boy Advance), and Nicktoons: Android Invasion (Leapfrog). Danny plays a key role as one of the main heroes in the Nicktoons Unite! series, appearing in all four games and their subsequent handheld counterparts. Danny Phantom has appeared in two mobile games, Nicktoons Mini Golf (USA, www.nick.com) and Danny Phantom: El secuestro de Jazz, available only in Chile.

Production

Cancellation

On January 24 2006, Nickelodeon announced that it has ended support for new episodes of the series. Butch Hartman has said that although no new episodes would be made, the show would still continue to be broadcast "for years to come". Fans of the show expressed outrage at the cancellation, citing Butch Hartman's admission on his forums that he wished to create more episodes, however his initial public statement on his personal forum that he is willing to make more episodes if the show is picked up again. The series ended with the episode Phantom Planet.

Proposed Theatrical Movie

When the series began, Hartman tossed around the idea of a possible full fledged theatrical film (which he stated, he can do a lot more CGI and animation). He also stated that he had writers currently writing up ideas for the film. The status of the film hasn't been announced yet.

Main cast

• David Kaufman as Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom
• Grey DeLisle as Samantha "Sam" Manson, Star (1st voice), Valerie Gray (1st voice)
• Rickey D'Shon Collins as Tucker Foley
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Jazz Fenton
• Rob Paulsen as Jack Fenton, Nicolai Technus, The Box Ghost
• Kath Soucie as Maddie Fenton, The Lunch Lady Ghost (2nd voice), Box Lunch, Grandma Ida Manson
• Martin Mull as Vladimir "Vlad Masters"/Vlad Plasmius

Additional cast

• June Angela as Principal Ishiyama and Shelly Makamoto
• Will Arnett as the Ghost Writer
• Maria Canals Barrera as Paulina
• William Baldwin as Johnny 13
• Dee Bradley Baker as Wulf, Observant #1, Prince Aragon, Mikey, Gregor
• Susanne Blakeslee as Dora Mattingly (Dorethea the Dragon Ghost)
• Dave Boat as Vortex
• S. Scott Bullock as Dash Baxter, Klemper, Mr. Jeremy Manson, Hotep Ra
• David Carradine as Clockwork
• Brian Cox as Pariah Dark
• Jon Cryer as Freakshow
• Michael Dorn as Fright Knight
• James Garrett as Nocturn
• Peri Gilpin as Desiree
• Mark Hamill as Undergrowth
• Patricia Heaton as The Lunch Lady Ghost (1st voice)
• Bob Joles as Frostbite
• Taylor Lautner as Youngblood
• Eric Roberts as Dark Danny
• Peter MacNicol as Sidney Poindexter
• Danny Mann as Amorpho
• Phil Morris as Damon Gray, Observant #2
• Laraine Newman as Mrs. Tetslaff, Mrs. Pamela Manson
• Daran Norris as Bullet
• Mathew St. Patrick as Skulker (1st voice)
• Ron Perlman as Mr. Lancer
• Dat Phan as Kwan (1st voice)
• Kevin Michael Richardson as The Dragon Ghost, Skulker (2nd voice)
• Chynna Phillips as Kitty
• AnnaSophia Robb as Danielle "Dani" Phantom (1st voice)
• James Sie as Kwan (2nd voice)
• Krista Swan as Danielle "Dani" Phantom (2nd voice)
• Tara Strong as Ember, Penelope Spectra, Tiffany Snow, Star (2nd voice)
• Cree Summer as Valerie Gray (2nd voice)
• James Arnold Taylor as Walker
• Jim Ward as Bertrand

References

1. ^ "Memory Blank. Director: Butch Hartman, Ken Bruce, Gary Conrad; Writer: Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-06-24. No. 21, season 2.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Mystery Meat. Director: Butch Hartman; Writer: Butch Hartman, Mark Banner, Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-04-03. No. 01, season 1.
3. ^ "Shades of Gray. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-09-24. No. 10, season 1.
4. ^ "Bitter Reunions. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-05-08. No. 07, season 1.
5. ^ ^{a b c} "Reign Storm. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak; Writer: Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-07-29. No. 24/25, season 2.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Splitting Images. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Richard Bowman; Writer: Marty Isenberg.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-04-24. No. 05, season 1.
7. ^ "The Ultimate Enemy. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak; Writer: Marty Isenberg, Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-09-16. No. 28/29, season 5.
8. ^ "Lucky in Love. Director: Butch Hartman, Gary Conrad, Ken Bruce; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-02-11. No. 17, season 1.
9. ^ "Flirting with Disaster. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak; Writer: Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2006-01-13. No. 32, season 2.
10. ^ "Parental Bonding. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Sean Dempsey; Writer: Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005 04-7. No. 02, season 1.
11. ^ "Torrent of Terror. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Gary Conrad; Writer: Butch Hartman, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2007-07-11. No. 44, season 3.
12. ^ "Kindred Spirits"
13. ^ ^{a b c} "One of a Kind. Director: Butch Hartman; Writer: Butch Hartman, Mark Banner, Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-04-10. No. 03, season 1.
14. ^ "My Brother's Keeper. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-06-25. No. 09, season 1.
15. ^ ^{a b} "The Million Dollar Ghost. Director: Butch Hartman, Ken Bruce, Gary Conrad; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-06-03. No. 19, season 1.
16. ^ ^{a b} "Maternal Instincts. Director: Butch Hartman, Gary Conrad, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-02-18. No. 16, season 1.
17. ^ "Girls' Night Out. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Gary Conrad; Writer: Kevin Sullivan.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2007-07-10. No. 43, season 3.
18. ^ "Public Enemies. Ghost Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguch; Writer: Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-02-04. No. 14, season 1.
19. ^ [1]
20. ^ [2]
21. ^ [3]
22. ^ [4]
23. ^ [5]
24. ^ [6]
25. ^ [7]
26. ^ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Danny-Phantom-Season-1/15509
27. ^ [8]
28. ^ [9]
29. ^ [10]

External links

	Nickelodeon portal
	Animation portal
	Television portal

• Danny Phantom at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny Phantom at TV.com
• Danny Phantom at the Big Cartoon DataBase