Whenever Danny Phantom takes in a tired ol’ cliché, they either play it straight or play it straight with style. "Memory Blank" took in the hero amnesia plot and utilized it through a wish then the ol' bonked-in-the-head format. The high school flour-sitting plot mixed unusually with “The Most Dangerous Game” story. Here, it’s "Honey, I shrunk the Phantom" with the bonus twist of degenerating ghost powers. Adding Danny’s lack of physical prowess are tag-a-longs normal teen Dash who, worse to worse, is a student bully from his school, and a renegade ghost hell-bent on murder. It works splendidly. The episode makes no rest stop and spends the cat-and-mouse chase between Danny and Skulker with ease; Danny and Dash climb stairs, open windows, and corporate copious amounts of running. The everyday objects we take for granted has become life's obstacles.
There is no trainer/trainee montage nor 80’s power ballads to kick it to the beat. For once, neither Dash nor Danny are inferior or equals to each other. Dash’s high school standards of popularity and man-muscle strengths mean nothing to a super powered hero to the city. Danny Fenton’s existence is nothing but Dash’s favorite punching bag. By downgrading Phantom’s abilities, the two are on comparable terms. It’s that one similar trait that they cling onto and build a healthy partnership. Danny by end sees a new light in Dash and so do the viewers when they find that the football jock is a Danny Phantom fan. It’s cut short when Dash makes a fledgling insult on Fenton, rendering any potential hope between the two negligent, but he was always meant to be a tertiary character, so it's no crying shame. This is a good story that takes advantage of it's potential...
...mucked by bad timing. Tucker’s subplot serves the same function as Danny's, but his is less about training as it is about the writers inflicting torture. Unlike Danny, Tucker doesn’t shown any noticeable improvement with his physical skills and it ends with him treated as the universe's plaything. Again, a fine method (since it’s an established essence of his character), but irksome when there’s little justification of any character boosts or good faith in the poor boy. In the end, all we’re doing is constantly feeling sorry for him.
There is no doubt that Danny spent the majority fighting with his ghost form. His weak human half have virtually no shot against his ghostly counterpart. Understandable; if Danny’s not fighting, he’s portraying normal teenage mannerisms. He isn’t on any sports team and he seems bent on spending time watching TV, computer gaming, and eating junk food. "Maternal Instinct" proved he keeps in tiptoe shape, but that’s his Phantom form. How far does the boundaries between human and ghost stretch? Is Phantom really a different aspect of Danny that while he gains strength, Danny Fenton doesn’t? Yet they can also be combined to be one whole if you accept that Danny Phantom and Fenton are both extensions of each other. This isn’t so much a criticism as it is a curiosity. Because of the ambiguous nature of the matter, anything is possible. Maybe Danny Phantom and Fenton are too separate or maybe they’re one in whole.
And yet, why must his human half be downgraded? Danny Fenton and Phantom, regardless of theories, still reflect aspects of one whole person in some manner. Fenton and Phantom are as separate and together as their ghostly flexibilities allow them to. Why shouldn't he, after months of fighting--challenged in strength, reflexes, and impossible feat--not gain some form of stamina? It’s the most jarring when this appears after "Pirate Radio". He got plenty of helping hands, but Danny, as a human, underwent battle against dangerous ghost pirates with enough strength to hold his own without breaking a sweat. Tucker? Slightly more understandable; he doesn't seem to get as many action scene as the other two and prefers to combat with his PDA. Danny? Much more vague...and bothersome. If this had been a Season One episode, the setting would feel better at home. Those days were meant to focus on Danny's beginnings that slowly, over time, expanded. He's suppose to mature now (which "PR" not only did physically, but mentally and emotionally). If Phantom didn't cater to his needs, he has two parents who can give him the training he desires. Considering their constant anti-ghost demonstrations, I find it hard to believe our hero refused to pick up on anything unless he's forced into it. In the end, they withered Danny's character in an attempt to squeeze in moral/life lessons instead of finding a better, efficient way around it. By this point--the second half of Danny Phantom--the concept starts to grow stale. But the show is called Danny Phantom; the focus is on his ghost half and by all means, in the long run, it should stay that way. If anything, the biggest bothersome nature concerning Danny’s weak-willed body isn't this, but Sam.
"Teacher Of the Year" hinted that Sam is an experienced athlete, able to show off her handy basketball skills in front of the boys and "Claw of the Wild" extends it with a montage of Sam vs. Ghosts Cops. The former subtly emphasizes that anything the boys can do, so can the girls, a lesson that episode danced around with. Here the reasons are less admirable. The episode doesn’t play off the idea that "TOTY" exhibited, so Sam circling the boys with a near standoffish attitude isn’t just overkill, it’s demeaning. Suddenly she’s better then they are. Suddenly she’s not their equal, she’s their superior. Sam has always played the rational figure to the careless Danny and Tucker, but here it doesn’t work. The former--despite my rant above--is progressing in his varied fields, the latter is forced into an exercise worthy of sadists. She gleefully shows off her healthy lifestyle, amuses over Tucker’s antics, and is given no comeuppance for her crass behavior. Whenever Danny pulls out that kind of no-nonsense, he gets a moral lesson that subtly raises his character. Main character or not, she gets off scot-free. It’s this kind of thinking that ultimately lead her to be a livid Canon Sue-ish character by Season Three. And that’s no good.
Much like Vlad, Skulker seems to be getting more desperate and crazier. Aside from a one-time only suit upgrade, the mechanized menace spins heads and tails over the duo like fly to a bug zapper. His brawn shadows appropriately over the action scenes, but the writer doesn’t skimp on his intelligence: when he’s blocked, he finds another way in, when he’s losing his ghost powers, he harnesses his suit’s powers to the fullest and effortlessly takes advantage of it. He one-ups them constantly, able to predict their movements like the effective hunter that he is.
The action is passable. The colors are solid, but exceptional in a couple of scenes: the morning sunrise at the beginning and the eerie green glow from Danny’s "flashlight" for example. The animation is thoroughly decent. I’m impressed and applaud the animator’s abilities to keep an eye on Danny’s ever-changing transformation and keeping it consistent. If they can punch out five different looks on Danny in one episode, why couldn’t they bother to animate full winter wardrobes? I also would have killed for more worm’s eye view or a longer emphasis on the bigger backgrounds instead of continuous close shots of the characters. Otherwise, the art delivers.
7/10
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Article written in: Nov. 15, 2008
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