Danny Phantom is the rare kids’ cartoon that took its own premise seriously. Butch Hartman’s series ran on Nickelodeon from April 3, 2004, when it premiered right after that year’s Kids’ Choice Awards, to August 24, 2007, three seasons in all. It has a cult following now, a campaign to revive it called the Go Ghost Again Movement, and a case to be made as one of the best superhero shows the network ever aired.
Half Ghost
Danny Fenton is a 14-year-old in the fictional town of Amity Park. His parents hunt ghosts. An accident with an unpredictable portal between the human world and the Ghost Zone turns him into a human-ghost hybrid, and as Danny Phantom he takes on the job of saving his town, and eventually the world, from the ghosts that follow. His powers evolve across the run. So does he.
David Kaufman voices Danny, and he plays him as a kid first and a hero second. That order matters. The show never forgets that its lead has homework.
The People Who Know
Only a few people know his secret. Sam Manson, voiced by Grey DeLisle, and Tucker Foley, voiced by Rickey D’Shon Collins, are the best friends who cover for him. His older sister Jazz, voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey, finds out later and becomes the most interesting relationship in the show, because she has to decide what to do with what she knows. Rob Paulsen and Kath Soucie voice Jack and Madeline Fenton, the ghost-hunting parents who cannot see what is in front of them, and Ron Perlman voices Vice Principal Lancer.
Why It Works
Hartman’s design sense is sharp, and the ghosts have personalities rather than just powers. The show is funny in the way a good school comedy is funny, and it is dramatic in the way a good superhero story is dramatic, and it rarely lets one undercut the other. That balance is harder than it looks, and the five Annie Award nominations it collected during its run suggest the people who make cartoons noticed.
The Third Season
The first two seasons ran 20 episodes each and the third ran 13. The final season is the weakest. The stories get bigger and the writing gets broader, and some of the discipline that made the early episodes work goes missing. It is still Danny Phantom. It is just a louder one.
Where It Falls Short
The villain-of-the-week structure wears, and the show’s mythology, which is genuinely interesting, is doled out too slowly for anyone watching week to week. The animation is functional. It was never the reason to watch.
The Verdict
Danny Phantom spawned video games, home video releases, toys and a fanbase that has kept petitioning for more nearly two decades on. It deserved a longer run than it got. What it got is still very good.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.