Danny Phantom is one of the most, if not THE most, popular Nickelodeon shows of the 2000s. It certainly seems to be the most well-liked of Butch Hartman's shows as well. What are MY thoughts on it?
Well, I... think I watched one episode with the sound off. I might've watched another one at some point, I don't know. I knew the theme song at least. I saw ads.
Yeah, sorry. I was never a huge Danny Phantom fan. I generally prefer comedic cartoons to action-based ones. I'm sure shows like Young Justice and Avatar are just as great as everyone makes them out to be, I've always just been more into comedy. Or maybe I just wasn't watching Nickelodeon when they happened to be airing an episode of the show (this was the pre-TiVo era, so you either had to watch it when it was on or wait for a DVD or iTunes release).
Okay, so what is Danny Phantom about? The theme song explains the show's premise: Danny Fenton (voiced by David Kaufman) is a fourteen-year-old boy living in the town of Amity Park. One day, his ghost hunter parents Jack (voiced by Rob Paulsen) and Maddie Fenton (voiced by Kath Souice) built a machine called the Ghost Portal to bridge the human world and the Ghost Zone, a world populated by ghosts. It didn't work. When Danny went inside the Ghost Portal, he inadvertently pressed the "ON" button and it infused his DNA with ectoplasm. Now Danny has ghost powers! He can walk through walls, turn invisible, possess people, all that stuff. And when you get cool powers, what else can one do with them than protect humanity from evil? Problem is, most of his town is afraid of ghosts, so he has to keep his identity and ghost powers secret.
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| Danny even appeared on boxes of Cap'n Crunch. Even SpongeBob never did THAT... probably because he had his own cereal. |
Has there ever been a superhero with ghost powers before? I'm sure there was and some huge Marvel or DC fan will tell me about it in the comments section of this post. But still, this is a really cool idea for a cartoon show, so I'm not surprised it became such a hit.
The first episode of Danny Phantom aired after the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on April 3rd, 2004. Alas, a huge fanbase didn't stop Nickelodeon from basically sabotaging it, giving the third season an erratic airing schedule and then cancelling it outright in 2007. Fans organized petitions and small organizations to get the show renewed, but Nickelodeon would not be swayed. The good news is, the whole series was released on DVD in 2014, and you can watch episodes on Paramount Plus and Apple TV if you have either of those streaming services.
I suppose I might as well do my part to help raise awareness of the show, even if I wind up not liking it. I suppose I probably should've saved this review for the Halloween season since it's about ghosts, but nah, I'll post it now. We'll be watching the third episode of the show, "One of a Kind", to see if Danny Phantom lives up to the hype or if... uh, insert ghost joke here.
The episode starts off with Danny fighting the Box Ghost, one of his most popular and least threatening recurring bad guys. His shtick is that he has "power over all containers cardboard and square". He's also voiced by Rob Paulsen doing sort of a fusion of Carl Wheezer and Mark Chang, which automatically makes him an amusing character.
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| I wonder if he's related to that crazy box-obsessed guy from Channel Umptee-3. |
Danny, for obvious reasons, does not take the Box Ghost very seriously. Especially not when he has his best friends Sam and Tucker to help him. For those unfamiliar with the show, Sam (voiced by Grey DeLisle-Griffin) is a goth obsessed with protecting the environment who may or may not have been intended to be Danny's love interest (though this doesn't stop most folks online from shipping him with every other female cartoon character in existence... seriously, check out DeviantArt if you don't believe me). And Tucker (voiced by Rickey Collins) is a techno-geek who thinks that chicks dig him but is wrong. Basically, they're this show's equivalent of Jake Long's two friends.
"Good night, everybody!" Tucker says, apparently believing that he's Yakko Warner, before he opens a magic thermos that sucks the Box Ghost inside. Good guys: 1, Box Ghost: zilch.
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| "Phenomenal cosmic powers... itty-bitty living space." |
Danny complains that Sam and Tucker aren't very focused for superhero sidekicks. Sam is supposed to be helping him study for a big test tomorrow and Tucker is supposed to be helping him catch ghosts so he HAS time to study. So, he's studying and fighting ghosts at the same time? Woof, talk about multitasking.
Then Tucker demonstrates that maybe Danny SHOULDN'T be taking him on his ghostbusting missions by dropping the thermos, which releases all of the ghosts. Or at least all of the balding sharp-toothed business suit-wearing ones.
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| Way to go, Tucker. Now some office building is going to be haunted. |
Little does Danny know that he's being watched. Say hello to Skulker (Matthew St. Patrick), a ghost who's obsessed with hunting other ghosts for sport. And when he sees the half-human half-ghost being that is Danny, he decides that he'd make an excellent addition to his collection.
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| "Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting my own kind. Huhuhuhuhuhuh..." |
We get a look at Skulker's "collection", and honestly, I'm beginning to wonder how exactly ghosts work in this world. You have the Box Ghost and those ghosts we just saw flowing out of the thermos, who looked like transparent blue-skinned humans. But then you have these ghosts, which are green and look like residents of Monstropolis. Heck, Skulker's pretty different-looking from the other ghosts too. He looks like a skeleton with green flames for hair.
According to TV Tropes, Butch Hartman claimed that the ghosts in Danny Phantom aren't the spirits of once-living people, but rather monsters from another dimension who create backstories for themselves because they want to be human. This just raises further questions.
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| Are these guys the ghosts of ALIENS? Did Skulker fly to Mars to capture these guys? |
The next day, while Danny and his parents are having breakfast, in runs his big sister Jazz (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) excited about how "they said yes". "Who said 'yes'? The person you asked if you were a conceited snob?" Danny asks. Nope, a magazine that Jazz wrote a letter to asking if they could put Maddie on the cover: Genius Magazine, made FOR women geniuses BY women geniuses. The perfect magazine, Jazz claims, to prove to everyone that she has "normal" parents instead of "ghost-hunting freaks".
Jack and Maddie don't seem too annoyed by their daughter calling them freaks. Instead, Jack takes out a new device called the Ghost Gabber, which takes the mysterious sounds that ghosts make and translate them into English. For example, "Boo!" is translated into "I am a ghost. Fear me." Neat, huh? As for the magazine, Jack and Maddie believe that they should BOTH be on the cover. After all, they're a team. "The world needs to know that the Fentons are a family of geniuses!" Jack declares.
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| "I bought a giant American flag just so I could pose in front of it at random! Even when what we're talking about doesn't really have anything to do with the United States!" |
When Danny heads to his school, Casper High (get it? CASPER?), he discovers that he got a D on his most recent test. All of the ghost-hunting is taking away from his study time. "So much for the Fentons being a family of geniuses!" Tucker quips, presumably because he felt like being a tool. Sam suggests that he do an extra credit biology assignment to boost his grade, such as a report on the extremely rare purple-back gorilla (scientific name Magillius Violetstainonitsbackius).
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| It's got white fur... I think now we know what species of gorilla Bubba from Chop Socky Chooks is! |
According to Sam, the purple-back gorilla is extremely rare. There are only two left in existence, both of them male, so I guess the only chance of saving the species is for at least one of them to be set free, meet another gorilla that doesn't have white fur or a purple back, and hope that the babies take after their father. Danny tells Sam that he doesn't have time for extra credit or Sam's animal rights agendas, but Tucker says that he just needs to learn how to manage his time better.
"I've decided to become your time manager. It's the least I can do after Sam made me let all those ghosts out," Tucker continues. "It'll be my job to keep track of your schedule so you can do your schoolwork AND catch all those ghosts that Sam let loose." You see, the joke is that it was actually Tucker's own stupidity that led to the ghosts escaping from the thermos.
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| And now Sam's making an angry expression because Tucker is acting like it's all her fault. Nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck. |
Danny, Sam and Tucker run out of the library, and as soon as they do, Skulker shows up and takes a look at the computer and the image of the purple-back gorilla on the screen. Some poor kid makes the mistake of asking Skulker if he's finished with the computer, and winds up like this:
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| "AUGH! I'VE GOT TASTY PASTE IN MY EYES!" |
After school, Danny and his compadres head to the Amity Park Zoo, where one of the purple-back gorillas, Sampson, is conveniently living. Sam makes them spend six hours watching the gorilla scratch its butt because she thinks they'll eventually find something out about it that nobody's ever learned. Instead, Danny and Tucker wind up falling asleep - and cuddling, too, which prompts Sam to take a photo of them because she thinks it's funny. Never would've suspected that Sam was a homophobe.
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| Sam thinks people being gay is funny, huh? Did she go on to write for Lilo and Stitch: The Series? |
Sam goes to the gorilla's enclosure, and it attempts to tell her that there's something going on in the nearby tiger exhibit. Unfortunately, Sam doesn't speak gorilla and thinks it's trying to tell her that it wants out. So she runs over to the big button that opens the door to its cage... I don't know why the zoo just has such a button out in the open, seems like that's just asking for trouble... and frees the majestic beast. Alas, by that point Skulker has already beaten up the poor tiger and trapped it in a net, but he is no match for the raw power that a purple-back gorilla possesses.
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| "CALL ME 'DONKEY KONG' ONE MORE TIME! I DARE YOU!" |
This is, quite possibly, the most awesome part of the entire episode, mainly because it's always cool seeing an animal triumph over an evil person. Eventually, the gorilla sends Skulker flying into the tower where Danny and Tucker are having their cuddling session, but before he can get his filthy hands on Danny (is it possible for a ghost to have filthy hands? I'm not sure), the gorilla shows up again and scares him off.
Danny and Tucker wake up screaming - both because of the gorilla and because they're hugging each other. But guess what? There's nothing wrong with two males hugging each other.
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| "...don't move. There's a big hairy spider crawling towards us." |
"I'm going ghost!" Danny says, transforming into Danny Phantom (a registered trademark of Nickelodeon!) and then lifting up the gorilla and carrying it back to its enclosure. Then he and Tucker start chewing out Sam for letting the gorilla out, only for Sam to take out the photo of them cuddling to shut them up.
The next day, an interviewer from Genius Magazine pays a visit to the Fenton household. To Jazz's dismay, all Jack and Maddie want to talk about is ghost hunting... I guess the majority of people in this world don't believe in ghosts. Danny, Sam, and Tucker show up, and when Maddie sees how disheveled Danny looks she says that she doesn't quite think she likes this "overnight zoo research". What does she think Danny is doing, mating with the wolverines?
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| "So, from what I can gather, you two are ghost hunters and your son is a Furry? Is your daughter the only normal one in this family?" |
Danny heads upstairs, opens the door to his room, and finds... Skulker standing in the doorway! How did he find out where Danny lived? Maybe he checked the phone book, I don't know. He traps Danny in a net and drags him into his room. Oh, no, how will Danny get out of this? We'll just have to see... right after a word from our sponsor!
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And now, back to our review!
"I am Skulker. A collector of things rare and unique," Skulker boasts. "And YOU, ghost child, are THAT and more!" Too bad he didn't count on Danny "going ghost" and escaping the net with ease. This leads to an epic fight scene that we don't get to see much of, instead cutting back to Sam and Tucker listening in from outside the door, and then Jack hearing the noise coming from upstairs and shouting, "Ghost! Ghost! GHOST!"
While Sam desperately tries to convince Jack and Maddie that there's no ghost in the house, Danny and Skulker fall through the floor of his bedroom and the fight continues into the kitchen, then into his parents' laboratory. By now, the interviewer is very confused.
Skulker activates the Ghost Portal and says that he's going to take Danny back to HIS world, where he'll be put on display (presumably after being taken to a ghost taxidermist and stuffed... apologies for that disturbing mental image). Fortunately, Sam shows up and is all, "You can't do that!"
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| I love the annoyed expression on Skulker's face here. Does Sam seriously think she has any chance of blocking his path when she's so much smaller than him? |
Sam gets up on her soapbox and rants about how it's wrong to put creatures in cages, just like how Sampson deserves to roam free instead of being in an enclosure at the zoo. This gives Danny the opportunity to kick a very confused Skulker across the room. Then Skulker notices the Palm Pilot-esque thing Tucker was using to manage Danny's time.
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| "How did YOU get your hands on a Game Boy Advance?! Everywhere I go, they're sold out!" |
The Palm Pilot thing makes Skulker even more powerful... somehow, I don't know, but it also seems to have a mind of its own and sends Skulker to the library to get a book on the eating habits of the purple-back gorilla via a jetpack. Okay then.
I initially assumed that this whole scene was taking place on a Saturday, because if it isn't, Danny, Sam, and Tucker are all tremendously late for school (and doesn't Jazz have to go to school too?). But apparently it isn't, because we then see them walking into their school, with Tucker commenting that Skulker hasn't bothered Danny for thirty-eight minutes. After his first period, Danny goes to his locker and guess who shows up? I'll give you a hint: his name is Skulker.
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| And none of the other students see this going on? Is the hallway completely deserted aside from Danny, Tucker, and Sam? |
But then Skulker is sent flying again by the Palm Pilot thing. This exact same scene happens AGAIN immediately afterward: Skulker shows up and tries to capture Danny. Palm Pilot thing sends him flying off to do something Danny was supposed to do for his extra credit. Eventually, Danny manages to at least avoid getting trapped by Skulker before he's blasted off to his next location by tricking school bully Dash (S. Scott Bullock) into getting trapped instead.
"When Skulker put your PDA into his technology, he became bound to MY schedule," Danny explains to Tucker. "He has to go where I was going to go next." And he doesn't just take it off becaaaaaaaaaaause? Maybe he thinks it looks good on him, I don't know. Either way, Danny says that it's time for the hunter to become the huntED.
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| I'm so used to seeing Tucker with his hat on that he looks really weird without it. |
Sure enough, Skulker is hiding out in the gorilla enclosure at the zoo, where Danny was supposed to go after school. But when he gets there, he discovers that Sampson has been replaced by Sam and Tucker in a gorilla costume! Skulker has been PUNKED!
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| Oh, no, they skinned Sampson and made his fur into a blanket?! You'd think Sam would be opposed to that... |
Because Tucker has another one of those Palm Pilot things, he can mess with the one Skulker has on to make him do stuff like push-ups and polishing his armor. This comes in handy when Danny shows up and starts beating the crap out of him. Unfortunately, Skulker manages to destroy the other Palm Pilot thing with an arrow. "Tucker, you're fired," Danny says, resulting in me being very tempted to make a Donald Trump joke. Remember when he was just that ugly guy on TV who said "You're fired" and not the president of the United States for some inexplicable reason? Good times...
So does Skulker have Danny at his mercy? Nope. Danny starts acting like a gorilla - because people acting like primates is automatically hilarious, right? Oh, wait. It's not - which summons Sampson, who promptly pummels Skulker to a pulp.
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| Pictured: why you shouldn't tick off a gorilla. |
Not only does Sampson utterly destroy Skulker, he also winds up destroying Skulker's high-tech battle suit, and it's revealed that Skulker's head is actually just a helmet. He's not really that scary-looking. Instead, he looks like... this:
I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it's a pretty funny twist, but on the other hand, it makes Skulker a lot less cool. It's like if in Aladdin, they randomly revealed that Jafar was actually an Abu-esque monkey in a robotic suit the whole time.
Anyhow, Danny and his pals suck the little snot creature into the thermos. Sure, Danny doesn't have anything he can use for his extra credit, but at least the day and the gorilla are saved. Then Danny notices something else...
Yes, "Sampson" is actually a "Delilah"! Well, problem solved - now they can just have her mate with the other purple-backed gorilla and the species will be saved! "Well, Fenton, I have to admit I'm impressed. You wanted to get your grade up so bad, you risked getting mauled by a gorilla," Danny's teacher, Mr. Lancer (Ron Perlman), says. So Danny's grade is raised from a D to... a C, much to his annoyance. At least he can take his aggression out on the Box Ghost.
What's the Verdict?
I honestly thought this was pretty good. Most of the characters are likeable, even the dimwitted (Tucker) and stuck-up (Jazz) ones who would've been tremendously annoying if the writing weren't as good as it was. The animation is on par with that of the other 2000s NickToons. The voice actors all do a fine job. The only problem I really have with it (at least this specific episode) is that several of the jokes aren't very funny. I mean, they do the "Skulker tries to capture Danny only for the Palm Pilot thing to send him flying" joke at least three times. Gets very repetitive. I guess the writers were probably more focused on action than comedy here, but even then we don't get that much action.
Nonetheless, I think Danny Phantom is worth checking out. And I'll certainly be checking out more episodes of the show (it'll be pretty hard to take Skulker seriously since I now know that he's actually just a tiny speck of snot, though). Butch Hartman's shows for Nickelodeon sure are a mixed bag, aren't they? You've got this. You've got The Fairly OddParents, which started out good but then took a turn for the worse in the 2010s (I actually don't mind Poof or Sparky, but having a new kid usurp Timmy's position as the main character is where I put my foot down). You've got TUFF Puppy, which is a pretty big guilty pleasure for me. And then you have Bunsen is a Beast, which I have never watched because it looked pretty bad. We'll probably review it on this blog another time.
Also, this has nothing to do with the review, but please go see The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie in theaters if you haven't already. We really need it to at least be a modest success.
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