Synopsis
Danny Phantom stars 14-year-old Danny Fenton, an unpopular but good-natured boy attending Casper High School in his small American hometown. Danny lives with his strange, ghost hunting parents Maddie and Jack as well as an overbearing 16-year-old sister, Jasmine. One day, while exploring his parents’ Ghost Portal, Danny accidentally turns himself into a half ghost boy launching a series of memorable adventures. Accompanied by his best friends Samantha and Tucker, Danny battles ghosts, the spiteful ghost hunter Valerie Gray, his ghost hunting parents all while keeping his new identity a secret!
The show really did develop a solid identity of its own through very wacky, fun (and sometimes scary) characters. One of the first things I noticed about this show is how established the personalities of each character really was for a first season. If you know anything about television then you know that all first seasons are very rough. Nickelodeon had plenty of first-runs that never made it out of the gate. It’s a very tough business that requires creators to catch their audience and hold their attention; Danny Phantom accomplishes such a task.
The first item to get right in the first season is to find the perfect actors to play your characters.
David Kaufman sells Danny’s character really well. He plays a nervous kid that is beginning to learn his powers. Each episode has our ghostly hero discovering something new about himself. In one episode he discovers that he can’t push himself too hard or he will become incredibly exhausted. He learns in another that he can go through walls, turn invisible and do other ghost power related things. The audience grows with the main character, which is a great move when you’re telling a story. Along the way, we get some great comedy relief from the likes of Grey DeLisle as Danny’s should-be girlfriend Sam Manson. We also get very good comedy from Danny’s friend Tucker played by Rickey D’Shon Collins. All three actors seem to work well together, as their personalities gel solidly through their respective characters on the show.
Actors aside, the element that I really think makes Danny Phantom: Season One fun is the ‘scare’ element. Since the show is pretty much based around ghosts and ghost worlds, you’ll find plenty of fun, creepy moments to enjoy in season one. For example, there is an episode where you’ll find a demented lunch lady ghost trying to stop Casper High (yeah, I had to explain that name to one of my kids — they still didn’t get it) from serving only vegetables. The lunch lady is creepy/scary and works well within this storyline. Another example of scare is a ghost that hunts other ghosts for their ghost show in the Nether Reaches. The concept of a ghastly ghoul collecting Danny Phantom is pretty shocking for kids to watch, but again it’s fun. The show really has a Halloween feel to it, so maybe that’s why it works well as a release right now.
In the end of the first season of Danny Phantom you won’t walk away feeling disappointed. As first seasons go it was pretty darn solid. You get some ups and downs, some great scares and solid story and character development. You can’t beat that stuff.
So is there anything bad about this release? Well, there aren’t any features. Much like the Hey Arnold! release in August, there aren’t any extras. Your kids were surely get a kick out of the season, but the absence of a little bit more substance is sad. I would have loved to hear some commentary or possibly have seen a featurette or two, but regretfully there is nothing extra.
It does look good on DVD and all 20 shows will keep the kids entertained, so in the end it does serve its purpose. I just wanted a bit more out of it.