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Danny Phantom

Danny Phantom was an American animated television show 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, the same as The Fairly OddParents (also created by Hartman).

Production

When Butch Hartman first developed the idea for a new show, it was originally titled "Danny Phantom and the Spector 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. However, Hartman later determined it would be cooler and better 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 Sam.

The designs were helped by veteran character designer Stephen Silver, helping 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. It has also been stated that the theme song was inspired by Queen's 1989 song "The Invisible Man".

53 episodes have been purchased by Nickelodeon. On January 24 2006, Nickelodeon announced that it has ended support for new episodes of the series. 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 expressed outrage at the cancellation, citing Butch Hartman's admission on his forums that he wished to create more episodes, however his initial public statement on his personal forum that though he is willing to make more episodes if the show is picked up again. The series ended with the episode Phantom Planet. The show premiered on Nicktoons Network on June 1, 2007.

Plot

Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventures of 14-year-old Danny Fenton, an unpopular boy attending Casper High. He lives with eccentric ghost hunting parents and an older sister, Jazz, who is often overbearing. Upon pressure of 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. Danny, who calls himself 'Danny Phantom' in ghost form, develops the ability to fly, become invisible, and turn his body intangible. Over time Danny becomes more powerful and develops other powers which he has to learn to control.

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 bipolar 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 (either entities/monsters or spirits of the deceased from another dimension) that plague it. Danny's best friends, technophile 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, other half ghost/rival Vlad Masters/Plasmius, 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.

Protagonists

Daniel "Danny" Fenton a.k.a. 'Danny Phantom' (voiced by David Kaufman) The titular character of the show. Danny is a shy 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. Aside from ghosts, he deals with ghost hunter Valerie Gray who likes Danny Fenton, but hates his ghostly counterpart, Danny Phantom, whom she is trying to eliminate. He is often clueless about Sam's crush on him, but from time-to-time shows some romantic interest in her. Danny's a straight "C" student.

Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins): A lighthearted black teenager obsessed with technology and meat. One of Danny's 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. Tucker's favorite ghost is The Lunch Lady Ghost because like him she got mad when Sam changed the menu and got rid of meat.

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 overly dramatized fictional form of vegetarianism called Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarianism, a frequent protester for such things as animal rights, and a self-proclaimed goth. She displays frequent crushes towards Danny.

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, and she also thinks she is an adult. 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. Her parents espicially Maddie wanted her to get a boyfriend and be married.

Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen): Jazz and Danny's father. Maddie's husband. Jack has an obsession with destroying ghosts and expresses hate for them. He blindly goes by the belief that all ghosts are evil, even Danny Phantom. He is generally incompetent in nature, but when provoked, can be an effective fighter. Jack cares about his family but is oblivious to Danny's powers. He also spends his time inventing gadgets that do not always work and is almost never seen without his orange jumpsuit. Jack's overweight. He loves junk food especially Fudge.

Madeline "Maddie" Fenton (voiced by Kath Soucie): Jazz and Danny's mother. Jack's wife. Also a professional ghost hunter, Maddie is more interested in studying ghosts than simply destroying them, but like Jack she also believes that all ghosts are bad. She is much more competent both as a parent and a ghost hunter than Jack.

Key Antagonists

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 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.

Episodes

DVD Releases

Nick Picks Vol. 1–7 & Nick Picks Holiday.

Danny Phantom: Season 1 & 2: Nickelodeon and Amazon.com have struck a deal to produce DVDs of new and old Nickelodeon shows. Amazon will be making the discs, cover art, and disc art themselves. It is currently only available in Amazon.com, released on Sept 16th. However, these are not true "season" sets. Each set contains thirteen episodes each--the first set includes episodes 1 through 13; the second set, episodes 14 through 26, covering Season One and a few episodes from Season Two.

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: Summer Camp (TV games)
Nicktoons Basketball (PC)
Nicktoons Movin' Eyetoy (Playstation 2)
Nicktoons Winners Cup Racing (PC)
Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy (Game Boy Advance)
Nicktoons Unite! (Nintendo GameCube, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance)
Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island (Nintendo GameCube, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance)
Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (Wii, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS)
Nicktoons: Globs of Doom (Wii, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS)

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)
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)