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Danny Phantom

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For the character of the same name, see Danny Phantom (character).
Danny Phantom
File:DannyPhantom.jpg
Danny Phantom, as seen on the show's opening sequence.
Created byButch Hartman
StarringDavid Kaufman
Colleen O'Shaughnessey
Rob Paulsen
Kath Soucie
Rickey D'Shon Collins
Grey DeLisle
Ron Perlman
Cree Summer
Martin Mull
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes40 (13 more in production)
Production
Running time22 minutes per episode
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
ReleaseApril 3, 2004 –
February 2007

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 are pulling the plug on the show on February 2007 (in terms of new episodes)called the Rocks.

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 cancellation.

Brief Character Descriptions

Major Characters

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  • Daniel "Danny" Fenton/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 the town.
  • 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. He also spends his time inventing gadgets that don't always work; and eating fudge. Lots and lots of fudge.
  • 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

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  • Valerie Gray (voiced by Cree Summer): First appearance: Parental Bonding. First starring role: 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 has somewhat 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).
  • 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. He is also Danny's arch-enemy. In Maternal Instincs he trys to persuade Maddie to leave Jack and have her and Danny live with him but Maddie refuses and storms out of his mountain cabin.

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 Park's exact location hasn't been shown yet. In the episode Fanning the Flames, Mr. Lancer mentioned the Northwestern Standardized Testing. This could mean that Amity Park is located in Northern California, Oregon or Washington. It is most likely that Amity Park is located in Northern California, perhaps near San Francisco, because in the episode Identity Crisis Danny's house, controlled by Technus, 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 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.
  • The resturaunt "Nasty Burger" is a parody to the resturaunt from the Nickelodeon movie "Good Burger". Originally, according to Butch Hartman, the restaurant was called "Tasty Burger", but vandals went and replaced the "T" with an "N". The idea was never used, but Tucker hints at it in Pirate Radio with the line, "Remember, Nasty is just one letter away from Tasty".
  • In the episode "What You Want", Paulina wishes she could be as adorable and loved as Sayonara Pussycat (a parody of Hello Kitty), so Desiree turns her into a similar figure. This also reveals that despite being the most popular girl in school, she still wants to be more popular.
  • Butch Hartman has indicated that some of the ghosts in "Danny Phantom" are not actually dead, but rather are creatures with powers that are attributed to ghosts. A few, like Desiree and The Dairy King, used to live on Earth. Thus, it is easiest to refer to them all as ghosts. For example, Skulker, whose real form, sans armor, does not appear human and is an ectoplasmic being. Desiree, on the other hand, was specifically stated as once-alive. "She died of a broken heart--and old age." It is unknown as to where Ember stands on this debate, for her song (RemEmber) brings up the possibility of once having a life on Earth.
  • Amity Park seems to be a town with a moderatly large population (200,000+) and land area, because it has a shopping mall, a few medium-tall buildings, and a lab. In the future when Danny was evil Amity Park looked about as large as Brooklyn or the Bronx in land area.
  • Until recently the D/P on Danny's chest wasn't there. When Danny lost his memory, he got a new suit and that one is shown from then on, even in the opening song.

Voice cast

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 show is expected to end in Feburary 2007. However, the efforts of fans seem to be working, for Nick has announced that it will reconsider, because the fans are extremely upset. [citation needed]

Home Video Releases

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Danny Phantom.

References


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