TITLE: Micro Management: Warning, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids references will occur
EPISODE #: 33
SEASON: 2
AIRDATE: January 27, 2006
DIRECTOR: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak
STORY: Matt Wayne WRITERS: Steve Marmel, Matt Wayne
STORYBOARD: Butch Hartman, Ray Angrum, Robb Pratt, Shaunt Nigoghossian
ART DIRECTIONS: George Goodchild
MUSIC: Guy Moon
APPEARANCE: Danny, Dash, Ms. Tetslaff, Tucker and Sam, Fenton Family, Casper High students
GHOST APPEARANCE: Skulker
LESSON: So if they're small, are they trying to compensate for something with their fancy gadgets, ghost powers, and bullying {respectively}?
SUMMARY: "Amity Park: it’s calm here." For once, the billboard is correct. A glorious morning shot brings a tired Danny and Tucker in their school gym clothes, jogging to keep in shape for the Presidential Test on Physical Fitness. Their four minute jog is up to nine and only Sam remains in shape, bypassing the boys (and probably circling several laps in extension). Skulker brings the billboard to it's appropriate irony when he blasts the trio into near oblivion. Danny counters with a well-aimed Ecto Ray, hitting one of his mechanical wings, then going ghost for the full battle. And by full battle, I mean Danny blasts the shit out of Skulker’s armor before Sam breaks out the Fenton Thermos. Damn, Danny, j-just damn. Back in the school gym, Danny less-then-impressively shows off his pull-up skills, something Sam successes and how!
Thoroughly pissed at Danny’s "natural abilities" comment, Skulker updated his suit to be bulkier, but arguably better looking, armed to the teeth with weapons and gadget doo-dads. Time for Round Two. Danny isn’t flaying better; both he and Tucker are bringing the class average grade down. Somehow they stink worse then the four other students that briefly showed whom all sucked just as much. Tetslaff doesn’t seem to care and assigns fitness buddy to the two: Tucker with Sam, Danny with Dash. Hell sounds about good right now, no? "Is broken in half considered a shape?" Dash asked when Tetslaff asks him to get Danny in-shape. That kind of talk would have landed him in detention if this was real life. Or possibly suspension with potential ruling of student threat. Too bad Danny's in CartoonLand, there's no free passes there. Good luck, kid.
To add insult to injury, Danny remains the only one in his family that doesn’t seem to exercise; Jazz utilizes a training Fenton helmet to keep up her cardio. Jack busies himself with the Fenton Crammer, designed to shrink ghosts and their threat level. Interrupted by Jazz’s high kicks, Jack takes his pizza and heads upstairs. In the Fenton backyard, Tucker struggles to do a push-up with Sam’s foot on top of his back, adding in an extra challenge he can do without. Danny watches in amusement until Dash arrives, smacking Tucker to the ground after an insult, then grabbing Danny quickly afterward. Wanting to leave Danny with Dash and to further train Tucker, Sam brings out the SmartTech 5000, the latest PDA, not yet on the market. It helps to be rich. Helps further when it works.
Before any training can begin between the victim and the victimizer, Skulker arrives and nearly BBQs the two. Danny phases them out the moment Dash eyes Skulker. The next shot of them surely has the Danny/Dash pairing in a frenzy. Needing to transform, Danny puts on an act and runs away from the ghost in fear. Holy Shit, I know you need to transform, but couldn’t you at least grab Dash and lure him away first? The fact that Skulker’s next blast was barely two feet away gives ground that the backyard isn’t exactly a safe zone. Jack hears his son’s cry, throws down his pizza (which leaves a trail of cheesy goo down) and reaches for his new weapon, excited to test it out. His concern for his son as a second is wholly out of place for the man. Danny in the meantime henshins in an alley while Skulker chases Dash for some reason.
Danny doesn’t get a shot at Skulker and before he’s sliced and diced, Jack shrinks the both of them. Dash follows quickly after accidentally. The latter reacts to this news poorly, "I don’t do puny!" Skulker, uncaring that he’s as tiny as a mite, proceeds to dissect Danny. The ghost boy Ecto Rays him. Dash is ecstatic to see his hero, an awkward gesture for Danny. He lures Dash away and flies him to his backyard, hoping to reach Fenton Works to undo the damage. Unfortunately, we’re talking WAY at the top of the Fenton Opt-Center. This would have matter little if not for the fact that Danny’s flight power suddenly disappears after a wind shear. Skulker suspects the theory and is proven true when he can’t phase through the talons of a bird. His suit, however, does work and escapes through that. "Advantage: Skulker!"
Meanwhile, Sam is testing Tucker's jumping skills, tying the PDA with the Fenton Fisher and luring the Techno Geek from atop a tree. When the same bird that grabbed Skulker runs into and flies off with it, Tucker makes like the wind. And I don’t mean inappropriate gas. Danny leads Dash through his backyard. Expect them to fight a deadly scorpion, sleep inside a lego block, and befriend a lonely ant who them sacrifices itself. Ten feet left to go, the duo gets missile’d by the ever persistent Skulker. Danny Ecto Rays the grass to take the blast, the impact flinging him and Dash to the backyard door. Skulker sends out a barrage of knives (with his image on 'em) after Danny discovers he cannot phase through the door. Now he starts to suspect. Dash finds a mouse hole ("We have mice?") and orders Danny to "FLY!" Good gesture, good acting. He can’t, then tells him to run (because it’s good for his heart).
Inside, Danny uses his Ecto Ray as a makeshift flashlight while Dash comments on the lack of humanization of the mouse’s home. "You watch way too many cartoons." Danny declares. Just how stupid is the writer making Dash out to be? Eventually, the two are surrounded by an angry mouse and Skulker himself. Only when his Ecto Ray shorts out does Danny figure Jack’s weapon caused his power shortage. In the dark, Skulker lights up a flare and finds Danny missing. About to hunt Dash for the hell of it, it turns out Danny had possessed the mouse, using it’s tail to smack Skulker a new one. To what extent, I ask, can Danny do to others with his overshadowing abilities? Mice doesn’t have the capability to produce human speech, so the fact that Danny managed to do it with ease is truly an effort. This isn’t a criticism, but an intriguing observation of what ghosts could do with the living. Can they make living creatures--human or animals--behave in manners that is beyond their limitations? Walker and his goons did make them fly in "Public Enemies". Dash is impressed, but Danny’s grip on the mouse doesn’t last long. He sends Dash through a crack outside while he lures the mouse to Skulker with the flare and a piece of cheese, dumping both onto Skulker as he exits. "This...does not bode well."
After their escape, Danny tries to muster a plan while Dash cries and complains. Danny is one teardrop away from slapping him, but instead settles on grabbing him by the cheek. Still looks painful. With a straight face, he asks Dash why he’s here. He answers, then Danny states he needs Dash’s help as HIS "fitness buddy" to reach the top. The fact that Danny managed to lie without a train of bad acting makes me raise an eyebrow on the other time where he did commence it. It’s a slight irritation of mine’s whenever the media uses this tactic. Hey, we know they’re putting on an act, why do they have to force their lying? But whatever. After their team-up, Danny unexpectedly transforms his boots, replaced with his human sneakers. Dash asks what the mayhazy is up with him. Danny replies with a flimsy excuse.
A thunderous boom echoes the room. Jazz has entered the kitchen, taking off her helmet to wipe away the sweat. The giant water drops nearly crush the tiny souls, so they bolt to the living room. They end up back in the kitchen when Skulker returns, the mouse now his steed. Tucker meanwhile performs pull-ups as he clings from a tree branch, trying to grab the PDA from the angry bird’s sharp beak. Sam watches, counting every pull-up with a wide smile on her face. Danny and Dash gets lucky when help comes in the form of Maddie, using a [Fenton] broom to try and smack the mouse to prevent it from pooping all over her clean kitchen. It creates a giant dust bunny in the process, driving the two to leap out of harm’s way. Dash comments on his Super Mario-like jump skills before Danny Phantom's pants turns into Fenton jeans. He again points it out and again Danny brings out a clumsy excuse ("It’s...causal Friday?"). Another dust bunny runs over the two and drags the two to a small golf course, complete with painted ghost golf balls and a mini-Fenton Portal arc around the hole. Cute. Danny orders Dash to hide in the hole itself--Jack a rather poor golfer. I’m more worried that he hadn’t bother to search for his son--last I checked, he was aware his child was in DANGER. Was he like, "Yeah, I don’t know where he disappear to, so he must be safe."
Tucker and Sam leave from the first aid department at the Amity Park Recreation Center. Nice continuity of Tucker getting over his hospital fears. His hands may be bandaged, but he’s got his brand new PDA. It snaps in two like a brittle cookie, leaving Tucker upset that it was a fake, but otherwise, taking it in good stride. He jokingly tells Sam that with his hands busted, he needs help going to the bathroom; a little revenge for the torture she put you through?
Danny and Dash make their way up the stairs. Danny de-henshins some more, his upper half now replaced by a DP T-shirt. The official Nickelodeon shop used to sell these, but have since stopped production. Lucky I grabbed one in time. *whew* Dash again adds another comment ("What is this, Vegas?!"), but Danny has no excuse to give. He can’t, Skulker is blocking their path. Danny and Dash make like bunnies after he fires some more missiles, then they enter Danny’s room, closing the door on the way. Skulker leaves to find another way while Danny gets Dash to head to the Opt Center via...a ventilation blind...rope? That extends all the way from Danny’s room to the Opt Center? Bwaaaa---? Skulker enters Danny’s open window, but he counters with Lime and Vinegar chips ("Who eats that!?"). Skulker blasting the chips into bitty pieces doesn’t help and eventually, the entire bag lands on him. He escapes with his Wolverine claws, but is nonetheless displeased. He lets off a macho scream of ANGER.
Climbing to the Opt Center, Danny and Dash leaps to the window, the latter almost falling to his doom until Danny pulls him up. They then open it and proceed in. Again, Skulker arrives and narily misses them when the mouse, out for revenge, clings onto Skulker’s gauntlet, messing up his flight, and sending him far, far away. Also, half of Danny’s hair transform to his natural black. They climb up the gooey cheese trail from the pizza to reach the crammer. Skulker returns, crashing through a window and disposing of the mouse via Ecto-Goo. By dispose, I mean he just sticks the rodent to a wall. No animal rights protests needed, folks. Danny, now having turned completely human baring his ghost eyes quickly enter the nozzle of the Fenton Crammer before Dash could reach the top. He tells Dash to work the machine, giving off the angry glowing eyes to get his rear in gear. Soon after, he turns fully human.
"I’m faster then you, stronger then you, and you’re weak! WEAK!" Skulker frustratedly cries, a step away from Danny. Dash works the machine and Danny, in the middle of the blast reverts back into his ghostly half and original size. He grabs the still puny Skulker and jams him inside a fridge, no doubt placed there by a Mr. Jack Fenton. Danny uses the Fenton Crammer and brings Dash into normal-size status quo. Danny thanks Dash and just as he’s about to see a new light in him, Dash asks Danny to help him toss Danny Fenturd’s head inside a toilet "for giggles". Danny turns him teeny again. D-Did he just aimed at Dash’s groin?
The day of the Presidental Fitness Exam arrives. Danny, Tucker, and a bunch of nameless students start their course, running a track while passing obstacles: pull-ups and rope climbing, the latter with added commentary to unnecessary add a visual cue to how it relates to the plot. Newsflash, kids aren’t that dumb and it’s sorely unneeded. They barely managed to pass, but that’s more then enough for the two. They proceed to faint. Tetslaff thinks the same and rewards Dash and Sam with medals. He then tells Sam this will be the last time the two will ever do anything together. Inaccurate statement, Baxter. Tetslaff may have assigned you two with the same task, but together? Didn’t happen. Jack and Maddie watches from afar, the former proud Danny now has the "physical prowess of a 60-year-old president." Maddie scoops out some ice for Jack’s root beer, one of it’s cube housing Skulker who lets out a terrified scream the closer he gets to Jack’s mouth. How can he scream? He’s frozen.
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Article written in: Nov. 15, 2008
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