Danny Phantom
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- For the title character of this television series, see Danny Phantom (character).
| Danny Phantom | |
|---|---|
 Danny Phantom, as seen during the show's opening sequence. |
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| Genre | Animated television series |
| Creator(s) | Butch Hartman |
| Starring | David Kaufman Colleen O'Shaughnessey Rob Paulsen Kath Soucie Rickey D'Shon Collins Grey DeLisle Ron Perlman Cree Summer Martin Mull |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 53 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon |
| Original run | April 3, 2003 – TBA 2007 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. It is distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, the same as The Fairly OddParents (also created by Hartman).[1]
Contents |
[edit] Production
When Butch Hartman first developed the idea for a new show, it was originally titled "Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors", and it was supposed to be a show about a young (human) ghost fighter and a team of others who hunted and fought ghosts.[citation needed] However, Hartman later determined it would be cooler if the teen was a ghost, thus changing it just to "Danny Phantom". Among the other ideas that were considered before being rejected was the existence of a telepathic connection between the characters Danny and Samantha.
The designs were done by veteran character designer Stephen Silver, with Hartman adding his own touches. All Danny Phantom characters have necks and five digits on each hand. The majority of the stories are usually written by Steve Marmel with input from Mark Banker, Butch Hartman, Marty Isenberg, and Sib Ventress. As with Hartman's show The Fairly OddParents, the music for Danny Phantom was written by Guy Moon[2]
Only 53 episodes have been purchased by Nickelodeon. On January 24, 2006, Nickelodeon announced that it is ending support for new episodes of the series on February 2007. 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 express outrage at the cancellation, citing Butch Hartman's admission on his forums that he wished to create more episodes. See Action against cancellation. The show will premiere on Nicktoons Network on a unknown date.
[edit] Brief character descriptions
[edit] Main characters
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For more information, see the article about List of Danny Phantom characters.
- Daniel "Danny" Fenton/Danny Phantom (voiced by David Kaufman): The titular character of the show. Danny is a 14-year-old boy who gained ghost powers from a lab accident. 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. He briefly dated a girl named Valerie Gray who likes Danny, but hates his ghostly counterpart, Danny Phantom, whom she is trying to eliminate. He also seems to have feelings for Sam, but hasn't admitted to it.
- Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins): A lighthearted teenager obsessed with technology and one of Danny's two best friends along with Sam. When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls. Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief.
- Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Danny's other best friend. Though wealthy, (her great grandfather Izzy made the machine that twirls cellophane around Deli toothpicks) 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 extreme form of vegetarianism called Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarianism, a frequent protester for such things as animal rights, and a self-proclaimed Goth who prefers heavy metal music and favors an all-black, Gothic-influenced fashion. Sam has feelings for Danny, but she has yet to admit it to herself.
- Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey): Danny's know-it-all (and somewhat overprotective and perhaps overhelpful) older sister; a smart and highly sociable overachiever. Jazz considers her parents' obsession with ghosts as a sign of needing psychological help. She discovers that Danny has ghost powers in the episode "My Brother's Keeper", but she does not reveal her knowledge of it until "The Ultimate Enemy", in favor of waiting until he is ready to talk about it with her.
- Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen): Danny's father. Jack has an obsession with destroying ghosts and expresses hate for them. He is generally incompetent in nature, but when provoke, can be an effective fighter. He spends nearly all of his time in an orange jumpsuit. Jack cares about his family but is oblivious to Danny's powers. He also spends his time inventing gadgets that do not always work.
- Madeline "Maddie" Fenton (voiced by Kath Soucie): Danny's mother. Also a professional ghost hunter, Maddie is more interested in studying ghosts than simply destroying them. She is much more competent both as a parent and a ghost hunter than Jack.
[edit] Key antagonists
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For more information, see the article about List of Danny Phantom villains and ghosts.
- Valerie Gray (voiced by Cree Summer): A once popular kid whose life was accidentally turned upside-down by Danny's ghostly alter ego, Danny Phantom, and a ghost dog known as Cujo. She bears a grudge against him (although has a bit of a crush on Danny Fenton) and has vowed to hunt him down, mostly using equipment given to her by a mysterious benefactor (who turns out to be Vlad Plasmius), but dons a different gear later on.
- Vladimir "Vlad" Masters/Vlad Plasmius (voiced by Martin Mull): Danny's arch-enemy and a multi-millionaire. An old acquaintance of Jack and Maddie Fenton and one other known human-ghost hybrid like Danny. Vlad's ghost powers were thrust upon him by an accident with a Ghost Zone Portal prototype, which hospitalized him for many years with ecto-acne. He blames Jack and is resentful that his old "friend" married the love of his life, Maddie. Unlike Danny, his ghost powers are considerably more developed, and he has used them for personal gain.
[edit] Episodes
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For more information, see the article about List of Danny Phantom episodes.
[edit] Allusions
NOTE: This is a list of allusions that take place throughout the entire show. Allusions in individual episodes can be found on those episode pages.
- Several of the stores shown in the series are parodies, such as the clothing store ABYSS being one of GAP and the restaurant Nasty Burger being one of the restaurant in the Nickelodeon movie Good Burger. (Butch Hartman has said that the backstory was supposed to be that the restaurant was originally called "Tasty Burger", but vandals went and replaced the "T" with an "N", though this idea was never used).[3]
- Danny's hometown of Amity Park is likely named after Amityville, a village on Long Island infamous for the DeFeo murders that inspired the book/movie known as The Amityville Horror.
- The name of Danny's high school is Casper High, this of course is a reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost. The mascot of Casper High is the Casper High Ravens.
- Mr. Lancer has a tendency to shout out titles of famous books as exclamations (Examples: Lord of the Flies, Chicken Soup for the Soul). Similarly, Vlad Masters shouts out the names of various snack foods. The most used of his is "butter biscuits!". (Examples: butter nuts, sugar cookies).
[edit] Trivia
- Danny Phantom was viewed as a ghost menace among the citizens of the city, and often blamed for the ensuing damage or chaos that followed his battles. Not knowing what his name was, the people took to calling him "Inviso-Bill", an obvious pun on "invisible" and the ability of ghosts to be transparent or invisible. As of the events of "Reign Storm", Danny is now officially recognized by his actual name and is, for the most part, seen as a town hero.
- Butch Hartman has indicated that some of the ghosts in Danny Phantom are not actually dead, but rather are ectoplasmic creatures with similar powers. A few, like Johnny 13, Desiree, The Dairy King, and Sidney Poindexter, previously lived on Earth and can be taken as being true ghosts. However, Skulker is an ectoplasmic being whose real form (without armor) does not appear human. The status of Ember in this regard is uncertain; her song "Remember" brings up the possibility of once having a life on Earth.[4]
- Much like in some of the early "Fairly OddParents" episodes, "Danny Phantom" occasionally makes a humorous jab towards more adult themes. For example, in "What You Want", right after Danny flies through the Ghost Catcher, he asks what his parents are doing under the tent in the lab, then wonders if he wants to know.
- The original theme song, later scrapped for a newer version, had a distinct similarity to Queen's 1989 song "The Invisible Man".
[edit] Action Against cancellation
Since the annoucement that Nickelodeon was cancelling production of Danny Phantom in January, fans have been taking action. One group in particular, Keep Flying or Save the Phantom, has been organizing opposition to the cancellation. They have been mailing letters to Nickelodeon Studios, trying to convince them to keep the show in production. They have also been actively working on other various things to help save the show. Examples of this include everything from scrapbooks of various moments critical to the show to also mailing various marketing companies in hopes of getting more Danny Phantom merchandise into stores. A small rally took place at Viacom's headquarters in New York City on July 24 to further support the cause.
The production of Danny Phantom finished in February 2007. Although there will be no more than 53 half-hour episodes, it has been verified that the show will rerun indefinitely.
[edit] Home video releases
- Nick Picks Vol. 1–7
[edit] Video games
There have been two video games released thus far for the show.
- Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy (Game Boy Advance)
- Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS)
Characters from the show (mainly Danny) have also been featured in other Nickelodeon video games. The characters appear in the following Nick games:
- Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2)
- Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy (Game Boy Advance)
- Nicktoons Movin Eyetoy (Playstation 2)
- Nicktoons Unite! (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2)
- Nicktoons Basketball (PC)
- Nicktoons Winners Cup Racing (PC)
[edit] Voice Cast
- David Kaufman as Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom
- 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
- Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Jazz Fenton
- Rickey D'Shon Collins as Tucker Foley
- Grey DeLisle as Samantha "Sam" Manson, Star (1st voice), Valerie Gray (1st voice)
- Ron Perlman as Mr. Lancer
- Maria Canals as Paulina
- S. Scott Bullock as Dash Baxter, Klemper, Mr. Jeremy Manson, Hotep Ra
- Dat Phan as Kwan (1st voice)
- James Sie as Kwan (2nd voice)
[edit] Additional Cast
- June Angela as Principal Ishiyama
- Will Arnett as the Ghost Writer
- William Baldwin as Johnny 13
- Dee Bradley Baker as Wulf, Observant #1, Prince Aragon, Mikey, Gregor
- Susan Blakeslee as Dora Mattingly (Dorethea the Dragon Ghost)
- David Carradine as Clockwork
- Brian Cox as Pariah Dark
- Jon Cryer as Freakshow
- Michael Dorn as Fright Knight
- 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
- Phil Morris as Damon Gray, Observant #2
- Martin Mull as Vladimir "Vlad Masters"/Vlad Plasmius
- Laraine Newman as Mrs. Tetslaff, Mrs. Pamela Manson
- Daran Norris as Bullet
- Matthew St. Patrick as Skulker (1st voice)
- Kevin Michael Richardson as The Dragon Ghost, Skulker (2nd voice)
- Chynna Phillips as Kitty
- AnnaSophia Robb as Danielle "Dani" Phantom"
- Tara Strong as Star (2nd voice), Ember, Penelope Spectra, Tiffany Snow
- Cree Summer as Valerie Gray (2nd voice)
- James Arnold Taylor as Walker
- Jim Ward as Bertrand
[edit] Notes
- ^ Notice the similarity between Danny Fenton, Cosmo, Chip Skylark and Timmy Turner's hair style.
- ^ Moon wrote two versions of the theme song; the original was scrapped, but it can be heard here at Hartman's website.
- ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [1]
- ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [2]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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| Main Characters | Main Ghosts | |||||
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Danny Phantom/Fenton |
Lunch Lady Ghost • Box Ghost • Skulker • Technus |
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| Recurring Characters | Special Episodes | |||||
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Mr. Lancer • Dash • Paulina • Valerie Gray |
Reign Storm • Fright Before Christmas |
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| Misc. | Video Games | |||||
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Episodes • Characters • Villains & Ghosts |
Ultimate Enemy • Urban Jungle |
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Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Nicktoons | Animated television series | 2004 television program debuts | 2007 television program series endings | 2000s American television series | Danny Phantom | Television spin-offs | Fantasy television series | Television series named after fictional characters | Superhero television programs
