TITLE: The Fright Before Christmas - Seriously, I'm gonna rhyme, I'm giving you a second warning
LOGO: “HO-HO-HORROR!”
EPISODE #: 30
SEASON: 2
AIRDATE: Dec. 6, 2005
DIRECTOR: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak
WRITERS: Marty Isenberg, Sib Ventress, Steve Marmel
STORYBOARD: Butch Hartman, Ben Balistreri, Fred Reyes, Shaunt Nigoghossian
ART DIRECTIONS: George Goodchild
MUSIC: Guy Moon
APPEARANCE: Danny, Tucker and Sam, Jazz, Fenton Folks, Sam’s parents and grandmother, Tucker's parents, Lancer, Mikey, a whole bunch of other people that inhabit’s the mall
FENTON GADGET APPEARANCE: None
GHOST APPEARANCE: Ghost Writer (1s appearance), Pretty much everyone except Dora, Pariah Dark, and Phantom
LESSON: Seriously? You're still going to read this shit? Fine, I warned you. Now reduce yourself to my horrid rhyming and leave with your eyes gouged while proclaiming how I wasted fifteen minutes of your time.
SUMMARY: Riddle me this, what does snowmen, carolers, and happy pink bunnies relate besides your recent acid trip? Christmas...on a billboard. Not that Amity Park Mall isn’t fashioned with yuletide goodies and oodles and oodles of last minute shoppers. The very thought gives me Vietnam flashbacks. In the mall, Sam cheerfully waves a Christmas (and Hanukkah to the rabbi) greetings, stunning local student Mikey on her sudden cheeriness.
“What’s with you?” Danny annoying asks. Tucker fills in the hole by stating Christmas is the one time Sam doesn’t engage in gloomy goth mode, ironically today, that’s Danny’s job. Okay, now I’m starting to be very convinced Danny and Tucker’s friendship with Sam WAS a lot recent then what the series hinted during “Splitting Images”. Tucker breaks out his mistletoe hat (just his red beret with a mistletoe attached to it) while Sam spots a random black guy and tells him to have a “Kickin’ Kwanzaa.” Way to diverse the ethnic gates, Manson. Tucker tries to smooch on an older lady, but gets a lip full of puppy lick from her dog instead.
Random bypassers with loads of presents zoom past Danny causing him to cry out in frustration on how much he hates the holidays. Sam is shocked until Tucker fills her in on why he’s such a heretic for the ho-ho-hos. As if my above statement on Sam needs no more evidence then this. In Santa’s workshop, gawking kids and parents watch as Jack and Maddie argue over Santa’s existence, the former in favor of his living stature, the latter against it, citing physics and logical reasoning to back up her support; Jack just has more hope and innocence on his side. Danny takes his bag of Christmas goodies (where the hell did that come from unless...*gasp* Danny, I never known you to be a thief!) and exits stage left. If you need him, he’ll be in the Ghost Zone, “getting rid of some frustration.”
In said Ghost Zone, there resides what looks like a combination of a museum and fancy-ass library. It’s the latter, just replace “library” with “manor filled with books on shelves and books on air”, lived and owned by Ghost Writer, one hot hunk constructed from the fabrics of Ectoplasmic goodies. Mm Mmmm. I know what I want for Christmas (that's not just Vlad). “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good fright.” Ghost Writer reads aloud, finishing his novel (“The Fright Before Christmas”) on his keyboard. He must have some serious discipline to be able to punch out a goddamn novel standing up the entire time. Coffee can do that to ya. His Christmas poem done (and damn is it a BIG one) , he walks out of his home. In the same area, Danny blasts off various Christmas crap from the bag he stol--took--while ranting over his parent’s Santa Claus obsession. You bet he’s destroying the evidence fast, he’s already in too much hot water with Walker as it is over human world possession.
Danny chucks the rest of the holiday junk to challenge his target practice, hitting them all without a beat (w-why does that fruitcake break like a piece of glass--is it that stale?). A lone elf doll makes it’s way to Ghost Writer’s book the minute he walks out and Danny, without missing beat destroys the book alongside the doll. Danny tries to apology, but when he finds it to be Christmas-related, he takes it in glee and destroys the last remaining page...and it was Ghost Writer’s only copy. Damn, j-just damn, that’s just cold. “Scornful child, scrooge-like urchin!” Ghost Writer points before he unleashes his keyboard. Having the power to make anything come true by typing, Ghost Writer whisks Danny away into his sequel, “The Fright Before Christmas 2: This time it’s personal.” Now with 85% rhyming!
Danny Fenton finds himself back at the mall of Amity Park
Stuck in Ghost Writer’s story until his lesson is learned.
No one else seems to recognize the writer's bold arc.
Though free will he is given, he must bind by his rule to get it unturned.
Danny’s friends asks what is churning Fenton’s head.
He tries to fill in on what he did to Ghost Writer.
But they shrug it off as insanity instead.
Sam asks for his gloomy tale on why Danny’s a Christmas fighter.
Tucker relates the plot of the ghost kid’s youth
His parents argue on his first holiday still then.
Ignoring their son for a dog mistaking him for a fire hydrant. How uncouth.
The one four years later, it happened again.
Their parents ranted and raved, ruining Christmas dinner.
The turkey came alive in front of the Fenton kids to harass.
Jazz surprised the viewers by declaring herself the winner
When she kicked the turkey’s ass.
Cue back to the present where Jack and Maddie berate some more.
To annoy Danny, Ghost Writer turns the reindeer into ghosts.
Nothing but prime nightmare fuel and less to adore
They attacked and slash the mall like well done pot roasts.
“Going Ghost” said Danny as he turned into his superhero form
To kick some reindeer butt.
He hogties one and gives a rodeo perform.
(Cheese logs make Neo Yi puke her guts.)
He fails and makes a mess of everything while the reindeer escapes.
Left to take the blame, have these people learned nothing from “Reign Storm?”
Later back home, Jack demonstrates Santa can fit into a chimney as Danny gapes.
As Ghost Writer continues to narrate to whom Danny angrily deforms.
He finally confronts his parents on their grave issue at hand.
He leaves home to clear his head until Christmas presents follow behind.
Utilized by Ghost Writer to give the ghost boy more blame expand.
Jack and Maddie fires the weapon and Danny flies off, reclined
To Sam’s Jewish home to escape the holiday cheers.
Only to find her presents lost much to her family’s disappointment.
Ghost Writer makes it so that she, too blames Danny and makes with the jeers.
He then sends an army of toys as further payment.
Nothing’s more amusing then Bearbert with a chainsaw
And the toys they did merge.
Danny and Sam watched in awe.
As the toys became one to commence their Nutcracker scourge.
The nutcracker brandished much brutal asskickery
Danny kept attacking till nothing remained.
Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Lancer cry over Danny’s brutally.
Their toys are destroyed and they left, tearstained.
To make matters worse, he conjures ghost Christmas trees.
Surrounded, but realizing Danny's missing, Maddie takes charge
And searches for her child, kicking much ghostly booties.
Struggling to fight with a group so large
Danny delivers with a Ghostly Wail.
The powerful attack tired him, but he was finally done
He unwillingly transformed back into human, leaving a branchy trail.
When the hell did he have his jacket, he left without one!
Maddie found her tot after delivering action.
She rescues Danny and takes him home for tea.
In the Fenton lab, Danny finally puts on a smart reaction
By flying to Ghost Writer’s home to battle to be set free.
But he’s still in control as Danny will face
When he finds himself transported to where all his ghostly foes lie within.
“We’ve been waiting for you.” Skulker said with seemingly disgrace.
Box Ghost adds, “Now our holiday party can finally begin!”
Lights turn and Christmas tree sparkled in dazzling gold decorations.
There will no fighting, it’s the Ghost Zone Christmas truce!
It’s a firm law held by the ghostly nation.
So go on, Danny and have some warm cooked goose.
Ghost Writer is bewildered the truce is still in place.
Danny tells the other ghosts he broke the law.
“Oh, goddamn crappy shit!” Ghost Writer holds a priceless expression on his face.
Of course, those expletives are paraphrased, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t anymore raw.
He types desperately, but Danny and the others come in full force pretty damn fast.
Ghost Writer writes it so they’re beating each other instead.
He struggles to write their scenes until he gets to orange
That stops him momentarily because nothing rhymes with orange!
(Except door hinge).
“You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses” is a foreign concept to Danny.
He kicked Ghost Writer’s butt and destroyed his keyboard.
But yet he still rhymes with ultimate uncanny.
As he’s dragged off to jail, Ghost Writer fills in the rest of the cord.
“Want the story to end? There’s only two ways.
Either I press “The End”
Or you change your Christmas hating haze.”
Upset and defeated, Danny flies home, bypassing his friend.
Tucker calls Sam and they give him warmth and comfort.
Danny regrets his angry deposition and wishes for redemption.
Then suddenly out of the blue do the gifts turn unhurt.
Changed into perfect pieces by Danny’s emotion.
The ghosts then arrive to lend a hand and support.
To return Amity Park into it’s perfect Christmas visual.
They return Christmas trees and presents to every home and court.
Lancer’s lonely existence is blatantly brutal.
With the tasks done does the snow fall
Danny heads to Fenton Works to face his family.
He apologizes and gives presents (and Bearbert) to all.
They share their love, if not more then any.
Then Jack and Maddie spot the ghosts riding their mutant-induced reindeer sleigh.
They break out their guns and go to town.
While Danny reminisces, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz play.
He’ll try to be better come next Christmas and smile instead of frown.
Sam: Uh, nice sentiment, but what are you, a greeting card?
Tucker: Yeah, why are you talking in rhyme?
Jazz: Such a dork.
Danny: *realizing* We’re not talking in rhyme. *ecstatic* WE’RE NOT TALKING IN RHYME!
And thus ends Neo yi’s pathetic rhyming. I am NEVER doing that again, it’s just much too hard. I’m no writer, let along a poet. Ghost Writer closes his book, satisfied that the lesson is learned while in Walker’s cell. They must be out of prison clothes for him to wear, but he’s got bigger problems when his roommate is a literal hulk of a ghost, kinda looks like a yellow Sully on a bad day. Walker torments him further by presenting an orange to which he shrivels in fear.
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Article written in: Aug. 30, 2008
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