Danny Phantom

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Danny Phantom is an American animated series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. It was produced by Billionfold Studios and distributed in Canada by Nelvana, a Canadian animation company. The series follows a teenage boy who, after an accident with an unpredictable portal between the human world and the "Ghost Zone", becomes a human-ghost hybrid and takes on the task of saving his town (and the world) from subsequent ghost attacks using an evolving variety of supernatural powers. He is aided in his quest by his two best friends, and later, his older sister, who for most of the series' run are among the only people who know of his double life.

The series premiered on April 3, 2004, its first episode airing after the 2004 Kids' Choice Awards, and ended on August 24, 2007, totalling 53 episodes over three seasons. Danny Phantom has received critical and audience acclaim, with praise primarily directed at its ensemble cast and comic book-influenced themes and storyline. Hartman himself has noted that the series is arguably his most popular and acclaimed work, despite its relatively short production life compared to The Fairly OddParents. Danny Phantom has spawned video games, home video releases, as well as toys and various other merchandise.

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Premise

Danny Phantom DANNY PHANTOM favourites by mayozilla on DeviantArt

Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventures of 14-year-old Danny Fenton, a shy and quiet high school student living in the small town of Amity Park. He lives with his eccentric ghost-hunting parents, Maddie and Jack, and his overprotective but caring 16-year-old sister, Jazz. Upon pressure from one of his best friends, goth girl Samantha "Sam" Manson, Danny decides to explore the Ghost Portal that his parents had created in a failed attempt to bridge the real world and the Ghost Zone (the parallel universe in which ghosts reside). Once inside, he inadvertently presses the "On" button (which his parents failed to do), thus activating the Portal, infusing his DNA with ectoplasm, and transforming him into a half-ghost.

Danny, who calls himself "Danny Phantom" in ghost form, develops the ability to fly, to become invisible, to become intangible, and to "overshadow" (possess and control) people after first learning how to switch back and forth at will between his ghost and human forms. Over time, he develops much stronger abilities, such as his Ghost Ray (a concentrated blast of kinetic energy he fires from his hand), his Ghostly Wail (an intensely powerful scream with sonic capabilities that knocks back anything caught in its path), telekinesis and even cryokinesis. Danny is initially frightened by his new abilities and has little control over them, but he soon learns to use them to protect his town from malevolent ghosts. Danny turns to the life of a superhero, using his powers to rid his hometown from the various ghosts who plague it and are almost always brought into the world thanks to the sporadic activation of the Fentons' Ghost Portal. Sam, fun-loving technophile Tucker Foley, and eventually Jazz are Danny's primary allies in his ghost-fighting activities.

Danny's ghost form is a polarization of what he looked like when he first entered the Ghost Portal. When he "goes ghost", his black hair turns white, his blue eyes turn green, and the black-and-white jumpsuit he was wearing during the accident appears in negative color, with the originally white areas of the suit appearing black, and vice versa. In season two, a ghost grants Sam's inadvertent wish that she and Danny had never met; in consequence, Danny loses his ghost powers, as Sam had been the one to persuade Danny to investigate the Portal in the first place, which led to the accident. Sam then persuades the now fully human Danny to regain his powers by re-enacting the accident, this time wearing the jumpsuit with her newly designed "DP" logo on the chest so that it appears when he goes ghost from then on.

Danny faces threats of many kinds, including vengeful ghost hunter Valerie Gray, who, for a short period of time, becomes his love interest, an enemy half-ghost Vlad Masters, an old college friend of his father's and considered to be Danny's true arch-rival, and even his own parents who, as ghost hunters, view Danny Phantom (and any other ghosts) as a menace to society. In addition, Danny tries to keep his secret safe from his classmates, teachers, and family. Throughout the series, Danny slowly realizes his own potential and his purpose, while both worlds slowly begin to accept him as their defender.

Characters

Danny Fenton/Danny "Phantom" (voiced by David Kaufman) is the series' titular protagonist. Danny is a clumsy 14-year-old who gains ghost powers in a lab accident when he steps into and activates his parents' Ghost Portal. Now half-ghost, he chooses to use his powers to fight against malevolent ghosts who have begun to regularly escape the mysterious Ghost Zone and plague his hometown of Amity Park. An unpopular freshman in high school along with his friends, Danny also faces the typical hardships of a teenager in his world, but with the additional challenges of protecting Amity Park from frequent ghost attacks, learning to control his ghost powers, and maintaining his secret identity as "Danny Phantom." An ongoing story arc is his struggle to use his powers for the benefit of others rather than abuse them for his own selfishness, though he ultimately makes the right decision with the help of his friends. Danny can be benevolent and decisive despite his struggles with his self-confidence. He likes NASA and aspires to become an astronaut.

Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is Danny's female best friend and eventually girlfriend at the end of the series; she is also responsible for the accident in which Danny gains 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 (although she often demonstrates authoritarian tendencies), Sam is a practitioner of an overly dramatized form of vegetarianism called "Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarianism" (often generalized as "not eating anything that had a face"), a frequent protester for causes such as animal rights, and a self-proclaimed goth. At first, she is Danny's best friend. Over time, however, her feelings for Danny begin to strengthen; she eventually falls in love with him but cannot bring herself to tell him for fear of ruining their friendship. Her patience pays off, as Danny secretly falls in love with her as well; they ultimately share their true feelings with each other and become a couple. She wears a black crop top, plaid skirt, and combat boots.

Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins) is a friendly and lighthearted teenager who is obsessed with technology and carries a PDA at all times. He has been Danny's best friend "since forever". 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. Tucker's inventions sometimes seem redundant but, ironically, work well in the Ghost Zone or against ghosts. Tucker and Sam frequently handle the toils and triumphs of aiding Danny, especially when he's "going ghost."

Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey) is Danny's somewhat overprotective but loving older sister, an intelligent and highly sociable overachiever who thinks of herself as an adult. Jazz considers her parents' obsession with ghosts a sign of needing psychological help. She eventually learns about Danny's powers, but chooses not to reveal her knowledge until he is ready to talk about them with her.

Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is Danny and Jazz's father and Maddie's husband. Jack expresses an obsession with destroying ghosts, blindly holding the belief that all ghosts are evil and must be destroyed, including Danny Phantom. He is generally incompetent in nature, but can be an effective fighter when provoked. Jack cares about his family but does not know about Danny's powers. 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. A ninth-degree black belt, she is an excellent, competent fighter from whom Danny probably inherited his own talent for combat. Like her husband, she does not know about Danny's powers and is almost never seen without her blue jumpsuit.

Vlad Plasmius (voiced by Martin Mull) is Danny's arch-rival throughout the series. Vlad had attended college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Jack and Maddie until Jack's prototype Ghost Portal beamed ecto-acne into Vlad's face, giving Vlad ghost powers and ruining his social life. Half-ghost for 20 years, Vlad has much more experience with his ghost powers than Danny. Vlad serves as the main antagonist throughout the entire series as he always tries to steal Maddie away from Jack and to persuade Danny to join his side and destroy his friends. He first appears in "Bitter Reunions."

DVDs

Danny Phantom first appeared on DVD in the Nick Picks DVD sets, appearing in all five volumes and the Christmas special. Nickelodeon and Amazon.com later struck a deal to produce DVDs of various Nickelodeon shows. Amazon made the discs, cover art and disc art, and released Danny Phantom Season One and Two on Sept 16.

Despite its claim, each set only contains thirteen episodes each, the first set including the first thirteen episodes and the second set continuing with the next thirteen. The third Danny Phantom DVD was released on June 9. 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 home video rights to the series from Nickelodeon. They released Season 1 in a 4-disc set on September 13, 2011. Season 2: Part 1 was released in a 2-disc set on April 3, 2012. Season 2: Part 2 was released on August 28, 2012.

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. 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.

Danny plays one of the main heroes in the Nicktoons Unite! series, appearing in all four games across multiple platforms, Nicktoons Unite!, Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island, Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, and SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom.

Danny and other characters have also been featured in other Nickelodeon crossover video games: Nicktoons MLB, 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. Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy for the (Game Boy Advance), and Nicktoons: Android Invasion (LeapFrog Didj).

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.

Main cast

David Kaufman as Daniel "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 Jasmine "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

Dee Bradley Baker as Wulf, Observant#1, Prince Aragon, Mikey, Gregor

William Baldwin as Johnny 13

María Canals Barrera as Paulina

Susanne Blakeslee as Dora Mattingly (Dorethea the Dragon Ghost)

Dave Boat as Vortex

Kimberly Brooks as Mrs. Foley

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

Peri Gilpin as Desiree

Mark Hamill as Undergrowth

Patricia Heaton as The Lunch Lady Ghost (in "Mystery Meat")

Bob Joles as Frostbite

James Garrett as Nocturn

Phil LaMarr as Mr. Maurice Foley

Taylor Lautner as Youngblood

Peter MacNicol as Sidney Poindexter

Danny Mann as Amorpho

Krista Swan as Dani Phantom (in D-Stabilized)

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) (in "One of a Kind", "Bitter Reunions", and "Prisoners of Love")

Kevin Michael Richardson (2nd Voice) (in "Life Lessons","Reign Storm","the Ultimate Enemy","Secret Weapons","The Fright Before Christmas","Micro Management","Double Cross My Heart","Livin Large","Boxed up Fury" and "Phantom Planet")

Ron Perlman as Mr. Lancer

Dat Phan as Kwan (1st voice)

Chynna Phillips as Kitty

Kevin Michael Richardson as The Dragon Ghost, Skulker (2nd Voice)

AnnaSophia Robb as Dani Phantom (in "Kindred Spirits")

Eric Roberts as Dark Danny

James Sie as Kwan (2nd voice)

April Stewart as Pandora

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

Possible Revival and Internet Short

For years following the series' end, Hartman has teased fans of Danny Phantom ("Phans") of a possible sequel or reboot of the franchise. In 2016, on YouTube, Hartman released concept artwork for a potential revival while alluding to ideas about what has happened to the characters over the last 10 years. Love for the series has also sparked a social media campaign, "#GoGhostAgain," dedicated to bringing back the series after its ten-year cancellation.

On February 21, 2017, Nickelodeon released an online animated Danny Phantom short, "The Fairly Odd Phantom," a crossover featuring characters from The Fairly OddParents, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Bunsen Is a Beast.

References

Danny Phantom Wikipedia

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