Danny Phantom
| Danny Phantom | |
|---|---|
 Intertitle |
|
| Format | Animated television series, Action Adventure |
| Created by | Butch Hartman |
| Developed by | Nickelodeon Studios |
| Starring | David Kaufman Colleen O'Shaughnessey Rob Paulsen Kath Soucie Rickey D'Shon Collins Grey DeLisle Cree Summer Martin Mull |
| Opening theme | "Danny Phantom" by Butch Hartman and Guy Moon |
| Ending theme | "Danny Phantom" (instrumental) |
| Country of origin | United States Canada |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 53 (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) |
| Producer(s) | Billionfold Studios (2004-2007) Nelvana (2004-2007) |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon (2004-2007) YTV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original run | April 3, 2004 – August 24, 2007 |
| Status | Ended |
Danny Phantom was an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show is 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 is distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation company, Nelvana.
Contents |
Production
Danny Phantom was conceived by Butch Hartman as a response to Nickelodeon's then desire for a "boy's action show" during February, 2001. He settled on making the main hero a 14-year-old teenage boy to expand on opportunities his other leading character, Timmy Turner (Fairly Oddparents), cannot express. The original premise was entitled "Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors" where normal teenager Danny would combat ghosts with superpowered sidekicks.[1] Hartman presented his idea to Nickelodeon executives Albie Hecht and Kevin Kay on October, 2001, selling a pilot for the series on the same night. Kevin Kay claimed they had intentions to say "yes" to anything Hartman would have proposed.[2][3]
Stephen Silver, Bob Boyle, and Shannon Tendall were hired as lead artists. Steve Marmel remained the head writer for the first two seasons. Guy Moon composed the music. Danny Phantom's beginning bass beat was inspired by Queen's "The Invisible Man" and has been rewritten twice to explain the origin of his super powers on request by the executives.[4] Butch Hartman describes the series as a little bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ghostbusters.[5]
The first season premiered in April 3, 2004 with twenty episodes.[5] The second aired on June 24, 2005 with another twenty, and the third and final season on October. 9, 2006, airing the sixth episode out of Season Three for promotional purposes.[6]
Premise
Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventures of 14-year-old Danny Fenton, an unpopular but sweet boy attending Casper High School. He lives with his eccentric ghost hunting parents, Maddie and Jack, and an overbearing 16-year-old sister, Jazz. Upon pressure from his best friends, Sam and Tucker, he wanders inside his parent's Ghost Portal. He accidentally presses a button that zaps his entire body, infusing his DNA with ectoplasm, transforming him into a half ghost boy, also called a halfa.[7] Danny, who calls himself 'Danny Phantom' in ghost form, develops the ability to fly, become invisible, and turn his body intangible. Danny panics over his ghost powers at first, 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, Danny turns to the life of a superhero, using his powers to rid his hometown of Amity Park from the various ghosts that plague it.[8] 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.
Aside from a variety of ghosts, Danny faces threats of many calibers, including vengeful ghost hunter Valerie Gray,[9] other half ghost/rival Vlad Masters/Plasmius,[10] 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.[11]
Characters
Protagonists
- Daniel "Danny" Fenton/"Danny Phantom" (voiced by David Kaufman) The titular character of the show. A freshman in high school along with his friends, Danny is a shy, 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.[8] An ongoing arc is his constant struggle to use his powers for the benefit of others than abuse it for his own selfishness.[11][12][13]
- Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey): Danny's know-it-all (and 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.[8][14] She eventually learns about Danny's powers,[15] but chooses not to reveal her knowledge until he is ready to talk about it with her.[13]
- 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".[16] When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls.[17] Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief.[18]
- Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Danny's other best friend. 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"[8] (often generalized as "not eating anything that had a face"), a frequent protester for such things as animal rights,[12] and a self-proclaimed goth. She has a crush on Danny.[11][19][20]
- Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen): Danny and Jazz's father and Maddie's husband. Jack expresses hatred for ghosts and is obsessed with destroying them, blindly going by the belief that all ghosts are evil and not worth living, including Danny Phantom.[21] He is generally incompetent in nature, but can be an effective fighter when provoked.[21][22][23] Jack cares about his family but is oblivious to Danny's powers.[8][14] He is almost never seen without his orange jumpsuit.
- Maddie Fenton (voiced by Kath Soucie) is Danny and Jazz's mother. Like her husband, she is a gifted genius and dedicator of destroying ghosts, though she usually aims to dissect and study them.[14] She is an excellent, competent fighter.[22][24] Like her husband, she is rarely seen without her blue jumpsuit.
Antagonist
- Vladimir "Vlad" Masters/Vlad Plasmius (voiced by Martin Mull): Danny's arch-enemy and a multi-billionaire. An old acquaintance of Jack and Maddie Fenton and the other known human-ghost hybrid. 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.[10][25] Unlike Danny, his ghost powers are considerably more developed via twenty years of practice, and he has used them for personal gain to obtain his rich status.[26]
Episodes
Merchandises
DVDs
Danny Phantom first appeared on DVD in the Nick Picks DVD sets, appearing in all five volumes[27][28][29] and the Christmas special.[30] 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. It is currently only available in Amazon.com. Danny Phantom Season One and Two were released on Sept 16th.[31]
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.[32] 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.
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.[33] 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.[34]
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.[35] 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.
Proposed Movie
When the series began. Hartman tossed around the idea of a possible film, which he stated he can do a lot more CG 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, but it is likely currently shelved.[36]
Voice Actors
Main 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)
- Martin Mull as Vladimir "Vlad Masters"/Vlad Plasmius
Additional cast
- June Angela as Principal Ishiyama
- Will Arnett as the Ghost Writer
- María 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)
- Peter Lurie as Mr. Lancer
- Dat Phan as Kwan (1st voice)
- Kevin Michael Richardson as The Dragon Ghost, Skulker (2nd voice)
- Chris Irvine as Kyle 'Sparky' Spencer/Electro
- 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
- ↑ Interview with Butch Hartman, March. 30, 2006
- ↑ Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons. Writer: Jerry Beck..
- ↑ Interview with Butch Hartman, March. 30, 2006
- ↑ Interview with Butch Hartman, March. 30, 2006
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Butch Hartman Talks Danny Phantom - Animationmagazine.net, April. 8, 2004
- ↑ Danny Phantom Phreeze, October 9, 2006
- ↑ "Memory Blank. Director: Butch Hartman, Ken Bruce, Gary Conrad; Writer: Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-06-24. No. 21, season 2.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "Mystery Meat. Director: Butch Hartman; Writer: Butch Hartman, Mark Banner, Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-04-03. No. 01, season 1.
- ↑ "Shades of Gray. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-09-24. No. 10, season 1.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Bitter Reunions. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-05-08. No. 07, season 1.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Reign Storm. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak; Writer: Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-07-29. No. 24/25, season 2.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Splitting Images. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Richard Bowman; Writer: Marty Isenberg.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-04-24. No. 05, season 1.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "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.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "One of a Kind. Director: Butch Hartman; Writer: Butch Hartman, Mark Banner, Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-04-10. No. 03, season 1.
- ↑ "My Brother's Keeper. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-06-25. No. 09, season 1.
- ↑ "What You Want. Director: Butch Hartman, Rick Bowman, Wincat Alcala; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2004-05-01. No. 06, season 1.
- ↑ "Parental Bonding. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Sean Dempsey; Writer: Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005 04-7. No. 02, season 1.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ "Lucky in Love. Director: Butch Hartman, Gary Conrad, Ken Bruce; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-02-11. No. 17, season 1.
- ↑ "Flirting with Disaster. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak; Writer: Steve Marmel.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2006-01-13. No. 32, season 2.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 "The Million Dollar Ghost. Director: Butch Hartman, Ken Bruce, Gary Conrad; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-06-03. No. 19, season 1.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Maternal Instincts. Director: Butch Hartman, Gary Conrad, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2005-02-18. No. 16, season 1.
- ↑ "Girls' Night Out. Director: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Gary Conrad; Writer: Kevin Sullivan.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2007-07-10. No. 43, season 3.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ "Masters of All Time. Director: Butch Hartman, Gary Conrad, Juli Hashiguchi; Writer: Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2006-03-23. No. 36, season 2.
- ↑ "Kindred Spirits. Director: Butch Hartman, Daniel De La Vega, Gary Conrad; Writer: Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress.". Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon. 2006-04-07. No. 40, season 2.
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External links
- Danny Phantom at the Internet Movie Database
- Danny Phantom at TV.com
- Danny Phantom at the Big Cartoon DataBase
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