DVD Review: Danny Phantom Season 1

My Score:

Available September 13, 2011

Danny Phantom is a little cartoon that premiered on Nickelodeon back in 2004, and I must confess that until this DVD release, I had never heard of the show. What happened to me? I used to watch every cartoon that I could! Stupid growing up... well, I still do watch a lot of cartoons, but nowadays there are just so many that watching them all would be a full time job. Anyway, back to Danny Phantom. The show is about this 14 year old kid named Danny who can turn into a ghost and hunts other spirits that aren't so friendly.

The opening theme song explains that Danny's parents built a ghost portal so that they could look into the spirit world, but couldn't get it to work. Then the animation during the song shows Danny stepping into the portal device and pressing the "On" button, thus activating the portal and turning him into a ghost. Wait... they built the portal and didn't know that they built an "On" button? The theme song continues on, telling us that Danny now has the ability to fly, to phase through solid objects, and to turn invisible.

I like that the theme song tells you the main setup of the show so that you can pretty much drop in on any episode and understand what's going on. I was disappointed, though, that the first episode didn't cover any of the origin story. It also doesn't cover why his parents became so obsessed with ghosts. The first episode takes place a month after the accident mentioned in the theme song, and has Danny still learning to control his powers. The ghost portal is still open for some reason, and a lunch lady ghost escapes. So Danny not only has to battle and capture this ghost, but he has to do so while dealing with school bullies, faculty, and his parents. Luckily he has a couple friends to help him out, the tech guy Tucker and the goth chick Sam.

This is an action series aimed at young boys, with both the art and stories being much simpler than series such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Oban Star Racers, and the new Thundercats. Each episode stands on its own, as there is no overall story arc, but the shows are still entertaining and are sprinkled with comedic moments, most of which usually hit the mark. Danny's father is often a major source of comic relief seeing as how he is incompetent at almost everything, including ghost hunting. Danny's mom, on the other had, is both intelligent and athletically skilled, which is probably where Danny gets his ghost fighting talent. And Danny's sister is a very smart overachiever who at first bickers with Danny like brothers and sisters do, but then helps him out secretly once she learns his secret.

This set contains 4 discs with all twenty episodes of the first season. There are zero extra features, which is too bad. I would have like to heard from the creators or seen the vocal talent. The show is enjoyable enough, and I think kids would enjoy it, but it doesn't really have a lot to offer a more mature audience. It actually kind of reminded me of The Powerpuff Girls, which I used to watch all the time. It's a decent action cartoons with some comedy thrown in, but it's not too deep so makes for a good show to have on in the background while working on the computer or doing other stuff.

Disc 1

1. Mystery Meat
2. One of a Kind
3. Parental Bonding
4. Attack of the Killer Garage Sale
5. Splitting Images

Disc 2

6. What You Want
7. Bitter Reunions
8. Prisoners of Love
9. My Brother's Keeper
10. Shades of Gray

Disc 3

11. Fanning the Flames
12. Teacher of the Year
13. "13"
14. Public Enemies
15. Fright Night

Disc 4

16. Maternal Instinct
17. Lucky in Love
18. Life Lessons
19. The Million Dollar Ghost
20. Control Freaks