Danny Phantom
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- For the character of the same name, see Danny Phantom (character).
Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios, and distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, the same as The Fairly OddParents.
Production
The show was created by Butch Hartman, who also created the television series The Fairly OddParents (notice similarity between Danny Fenton and Timmy Turner's hair style). The first episode aired in the United States on April 3, 2004.
The designs were done by veteran character designer Stephen Silver, with Butch 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. The music for the show, as with another Butch Hartman show The Fairly OddParents, was written by Guy Moon.
Nickelodeon ordered an initial thirteen episodes, after which there was a hiatus of six months with no new episodes. In the UK, the lack of new episodes led to the show being pulled off the air and was only put back on air in October 2005.
Only 53 episodes have been purchased by Nickelodeon, and on January 24, 2006, Nickelodeon announced that they would not purchase anymore. As a result, the show will run out of new episodes and only air reruns as of February 2007.
Fans of the show initially expressed outrage at the cancellation, citing Butch Hartman's admission on his forums that he wished to create more episodes. More information on what is being done is located at action against cancelation.
Brief Character Descriptions
Major Characters
- For more information, see the article about List of Danny Phantom characters.
- Daniel "Danny" Fenton/Phantom (voiced by David Kaufman): The titular character of the show. Danny is a 14-year old boy who accidentally 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 the town. Danny has feelings for Sam, but he has yet to admit to himself.
- Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins): A nerd/geek obsessed with technology and one of Danny's two best friends. When not obsessing over gadgets, he's obsessing over girls. Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps out when it comes to returning ghosts to the Ghost Zone.
- Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Danny's other best friend. Though technically 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 practioner 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, Goth-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 does not reveal her knowledge of it until "The Ultimate Enemy", in favor of waiting until he's ready to talk about it with her.
- Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulson) Danny's father. Jack has an obsession with destroying ghosts and expresses hate for them. He spends nearly all of his time in an orange jump suit. Jack cares about his family but is oblivious to Danny's powers.
- 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.
Key antagonists
- For more information, see the article about List of Danny Phantom villains and ghosts.
- Valerie Gray (voiced by Cree Summer): First appearance Parental Bonding/Shades of Grey. A kid whose life was accidentally turned upside-down by Danny's ghostly alter-ego, Danny Phantom. She bears a grudge against him (although she sort of has 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).
- Vlad Masters/Plasmius (voiced by Martin Mull): First appearance: Bitter Reunions. An old acquaintance of Jack and Maddie Fenton and the only other known human-ghost hybrid like Danny. His ghost powers were thrust upon him by an accident with a Ghost Zone Portal prototype, which hospitalised 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 his powers for personal gain.
Trivia
- The name of the town the series takes place in, Amity Park, is a reference to the real world town of Amityville, where the paranormal novel/movie The Amityville Horror took place.
- Amity Parks exact location hasn't been shown yet. Although in the episode Fanning the Flames Mr. Lancer mentioned the Northwestern Standerdised Testing. Which porbably means that Amity Park is located in Northern California, Oregon or Washington. It is most likely that Amity Park is located in Northern California, probably near San Francisco, because in the Episode Identity Crisis the house is controlled by a ghost then later stops at a beach with Palm Trees. There are also a few Palm Trees at a waterpark seen in the episode Lucky in Love.
- The name of Danny's high school, Casper High, is a reference to the classic cartoon Casper the Friendly Ghost.
- The clothing store ABYSS's logo is an obvious parody of GAP with the middle letter larger than the others, and the names are closely related by definition.
- Mr. Lancer has a tendency to shout out titles of famous books as exclamations (Lord of the Flies, Chicken Soup for the Soul, War of The Worlds, Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones Diary, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Moby Dick, Gulliver's Travels and Fast Food Nation to name a few).
- In the episode "What You Want", Paulina wishes she could be as adorable and loved as Sayonara Pussycat, so Desiree turns her into a Hello-Kitty similar figure.
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)
- June Angela as Principal Ishiyama
- Will Arnett as 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
- Patricia Heaton as The Lunch Lady Ghost (1st voice)
- Taylor Lautner as Youngblood
- Eric Roberts as Dark Danny/Dan Phantom
- 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
- Anna Sophia 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
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 nonsupportive of the cancellation thus far. 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 petition on July 24 will take place at Viacom studios. #redirect
Home Video Releases
- Nick Picks Vol. 1-4
See also
- List of Danny Phantom episodes
- List of Danny Phantom episodes of season one
- List of Danny Phantom episodes of season two
- List of Danny Phantom episodes of season three
External links
References
- [] at TV.com
- ''[}}}] at the Big Cartoon DataBase
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