Review time, now I can complain. What the hell did they do to you, Danny? As if I needed further evidence of his derailment, "Beauty Marked" picks up where "Micro Management" [more or less] started by forcing Danny into realms of idiocy befitting his Season One role while upgrading Sam’s presence in front of him. Full frontal. Now Sam’s always been the smarter of the two. As the levelheaded figure, she’s the one swiping fireworks from the little boys while wagging her index finger in disapproval. Her attitude is perfect and her mannerisms more so, able to keep a straight head underneath all the concoctions of chaos and hormone-inducing stupidities.
But while Sam gets a larger leg up, Danny is stuck playing little leagues then with the big boys. Just one episode away from "Flirting With Disaster" and already he spends the greater first half playing Hugh Heffner to all the pretty girls of Casper High, soaking in the spotlight and heavy forbid, using the girls as his own personal servants. I find it too soon that he's dating nameless minor characters when he just got over a relationship that he still clings onto during this time, one where he risked his secret identity for. My reaction echoes the same as it did last episodes, their method of providing a moral lesson grows stale when the writers can do nothing at this point but make Danny a walking jackass to get their point across. If he’s suppose to be growing up, then why he is growing down in the process? That does not compute. It’s these kind of mad contradictions that irritates the second half of Danny Phantom and contributes to Danny’s derision. The less said about Tucker, the better. He did a bang-up job fighting, but his treatment in the end is unneeded and undeserved.
If Sam has a statement to bring individuality to the general public, the writers must have one of their own - Sam is right, Danny is wrong. Again, this grows weary. For one episode however, I'm making this a giant exception. Danny’s behavior needs to go on trial, but Sam’s determined personality shines. From entering the pageant to denounce it, from trying her darnest to prove she’s got more personality then most of the shallow doorknobs in Casper High (and she does), and turning a damsel-in-distress situation upside down, she walks the limelight and does it proud. Kidnapping means little when Sam is the gal with the plan, able to quickly find a way out of her dilemma. It would have worked with flying colors, too if not for Danny and Tucker’s untimely rescue, the two under belief she needed their assistance. Nay, Sam is not a weak-willed child. She’s independent, her mind and actions her own. She burps loudly at a royal figure and rejects his traditions. And she does it with style and spunk. She brings a massive subvert to the upbringings of the helpless kidnapped dames; Sam delivers her feelings about equal gender commendably.
Dora doesn’t. Aside from living with an abusive family (though her mother mentioned in an earlier episode is strangely absent), her personality splits in-between the first and second haphazardly. It's almost impossible to believe her strong, angry, and sassy personality as the fake Dora Mattingly in the first half when she swift changes into a submissive and wimpy princess by the second. Maybe she’s subconsciously spreading her legs out to the world outside of Aragon’s castle where she can be free to act the way she is (while under orders), but it’s jarring nonetheless. Her conflict isn’t of any interest either. She struggles, yes, and it’s enough to feel an ounce of pain for her, but her inharmonious personality and quick resolve to change from Sam's urgings isn’t enough to make it engaging. Her brother is a tad more enjoyable only for the sheer volume of his arrogance and intolerance for those who disobeys his rules and the laws of the Dark Age. But appearing strictly in the second act with nothing else to back up, he’s quickly forgettable.
What isn’t is his killer dragon designs, what with it’s achingly beautiful dark arches and detailed boil spots. He sports a menacing demeanor and further emphasizes his vicious stature. Nearly everyone in the cast looks good; Danny’s knightly armor is one of my favorite, Sam works the princess/knight mix, many of the girls of Casper High has on gorgeous wears, Dora's dress in the first half is gorgeous, and one-notes Archer and Ax ghost both look particularly amazing in design (which makes up for their haphazard role; if they’re so hell-bent on keeping Danny distracted, why the hell does Dora send the two after him when he‘s required to play judge? As another Reviewer pointed out, they seem to be there just to give Danny something to do for the first act). Killer on-models aside, the color scheme vibrates. Purple skies and green/teal grasses, the multiple colors of the girls’ dresses, the pink and purple stage with indigo skies, the yellow sun that shone brightly on Aragon’s kingdom at end, etc. This is why Danny Phantom always gets me when Hartman’s stiff artwork cannot; their colors are unpredictable and experimental. Everywhere they go, they create not just another cartoon, but art.
6/10
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Article Written in: Dec. 4, 2008
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