Danny Phantom

Daniel "Danny" Fenton, a fourteen-year-old boy living in the small town of Amity Park, lives with his ghost-hunting parents, Jack and Madeline "Maddie" and his overprotective but caring sixteen-year-old sister, Jasmine. Upon pressure from his two best friends, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley, Danny decides to explore the Ghost Portal created by his parents in their attempt to bridge the human world and the Ghost Zone (the parallel universe in which ghosts reside), that when plugged in, failed to work. Once inside, he inadvertently presses the "On" button (which his parents naively failed to do), thus activating the Portal and infusing his DNA with ectoplasm, transforming him into a half-ghost.[3]

Danny, who calls himself "Danny Phantom" in ghost form, develops the ability to fly, to become invisible, to become intangible, and to "overshadow" (possess and control) people after first learning how to switch back and forth at will between his ghost and human forms. Over time, he develops much stronger abilities, such as his Ghost Ray (a concentrated blast of energy he fires from his hand), his Ghostly Wail (an intensely powerful scream with sonic capabilities that knocks back anything caught in its path), and even cryokinesis. Danny is initially frightened by his new abilities and has little control over them, but he soon learns to use them to protect his town from malevolent spirits. Danny turns to the life of a superhero, using his powers to rid his hometown from the various ghosts who begin to plague it and are almost always brought into the world thanks to the sporadic activation of the Fentons' Ghost Portal. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz are Danny's primary allies in his ghost-fighting activities,[4] and help him keep his ghost-half a secret.

Danny's ghost form is a polarization of what he looked like when he first entered the Ghost Portal. When he "goes ghost", his black hair turns white, his blue eyes turn green, and the black-and-white jumpsuit he had put on before the accident appears in negative color, with the originally white areas of the suit appearing black, and vice versa. In the premiere episode of season two, a ghost grants Sam's inadvertent wish that she and Danny had never met; in consequence, Danny loses not only memories, but his ghost powers as well, as Sam had primarily been the one to persuade Danny to investigate the Portal in the first place, which led to the accident. Luckily, however, Sam had been protected from the wish by the ghost-hunting tech of Danny's parents, allowing her to persuade the now fully human Danny to regain his powers by re-enacting the accident. This time, before Danny enters the Portal, Sam replaces the logo of his father's face on the jumpsuit, which she also had removed the first time (if she hadn't, it would have been part of Danny's ghost form), with her newly designed "DP" fused-letter logo on the chest so that it appears when he goes ghost from then on.

Danny faces threats of many kinds, including vengeful ghost hunter Valerie Gray (Cree Summer) who, for a short period of time, becomes his love interest,[5] an enemy half-ghost Vlad Masters (Martin Mull), an old college friend of his father's and considered to be Danny's true arch-rival,[6] and even his own parents who, as ghost hunters, view Danny Phantom (as they would and do to any ghosts) as nothing but a menace to human society. Furthermore, Danny tries to keep his secret safe from his classmates, teachers, and family.[7] Throughout the progression of the series, Danny slowly realizes his own potential and purpose, while both worlds slowly begin to accept him as their defender.[8]

• Daniel "Danny" Fenton / Danny Phantom is the series' titular protagonist. Danny is a fourteen-year-old boy who gains ghost powers in a lab accident when he steps into and activates his parents' Ghost Portal. Now a human-ghost hybrid, he chooses to use his powers to fight against malevolent scary ghosts who have begun to regularly escape the mysterious Ghost Zone and plague his hometown of Amity Park.[4] A rather unpopular student in high school along with his friends, Danny also faces the typical hardships of living a normal teenager's life, but with the additional challenges of protecting Amity Park from frequent ghost attacks, learning to control his ghost powers, and maintaining his secret identity as "Danny Phantom." An ongoing story arc is his struggle to use his powers for the benefit of others rather than abuse them for his own needs, though he ultimately makes the right decision with the help of his friends. Despite frequently struggling with self-confidence, Danny values his altruism and comes to appreciate his own self-worth.[8][9][10]
• Samantha "Sam" Manson is Danny's female best friend and eventually girlfriend at the end of the series; she is also responsible for the accident in which Danny gains his powers. She is a self-proclaimed Goth who is also a practitioner of a dramatized form of vegetarianism called "Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarianism"[4] (often generalized as "not eating anything that had a face") and is an amateur activist, often protesting about environmental issues and animal rights. At first, she is Danny's closest friend; however, her romantic feelings for Danny strengthen over time. Her patience pays off, as Danny secretly falls in love with her as well; they ultimately share their true feelings with each other and become a couple.[8][11][12]
• Tucker Foley is Danny's male best friend, a nerd who is obsessed with technology and carries a PDA at all times. When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls.[13] Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts and send them back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief.[14] Tucker's gadgets are sometimes redundant but work well in the Ghost Zone or against ghosts. Tucker and Sam frequently handle the toils and triumphs of aiding Danny, especially when he's "going ghost."[15]
• Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton is Danny's somewhat overprotective but loving older sister, an intelligent and highly sociable overachiever who considers herself an adult. Jazz views her parents' obsession with ghosts as a sign of needing psychological help.[4][16] She eventually learns about Danny's powers,[17] but chooses not to reveal her knowledge until he is ready to talk about them with her.
• Jack Fenton is Danny and Jazz's father and Maddie's husband. Jack expresses an obsession with destroying ghosts, blindly holding the belief that all ghosts are evil and must be destroyed, including Danny Phantom.[18] He is generally incompetent in nature, but can be an effective fighter when provoked.[18][19][20] Jack cares about his family but does not know about Danny's powers.[4][16] He is almost never seen without his orange jumpsuit.
• Maddie Fenton is Danny and Jazz's mother and Jack's wife. She is a gifted genius and dedicated hunter of ghosts, though she usually aims to dissect and study them rather than destroy them.[16] A ninth-degree black belt, she is an excellent, competent fighter from whom Danny probably inherited his own talent for combat.[19][21] Like her husband, she does not know about Danny's powers and is almost never seen without her blue jumpsuit.
• Vlad Masters / Vlad Plasmius is Danny's nemesis throughout the series. Vlad had attended college at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with Jack and Maddie until Jack's prototype Ghost Portal shot ghost energy into Vlad's face, giving Vlad ecto-acne and ghost powers and ruining his social life. Half-ghost for 20 years, Vlad has much more experience with his ghost powers than Danny. Vlad serves as the main antagonist throughout the entire series as he always tries to steal Maddie away from Jack and to persuade Danny to join his side and destroy his friends. He first appears in "Bitter Reunions".

Danny Phantom premiered on April 3, 2004 at 9:30 p.m. with its first episode airing after the 2004 Kids' Choice Awards, two days after Nickelodeon's 25th Anniversary. The series aired its final episode on August 24, 2007. The series aired on CBC and YTV in Canada.[22]

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