Customer Reviews

Danny Phantom- Season 1 (4 Disc Set)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fans have been clamoring for Danny Phantom DVDs for ages, and while it's very exciting to finally get some, this is more than a little disappointing. The back cover claims "It's a scary good time with the COMPLETE first season of Danny Phantom." (emphasis mine.) However, it only contains the first 13 episodes, while season one was twenty episodes long. Similarly, the "Season Two" set contains episodes 14-26 and does NOT include the fan favorite "The Ultimate Enemy," which is probably why many fans wanted this one to begin with.

Save your money for a REAL box set that has all twenty episodes, plus extras and everything a season box set should have. This, sadly, isn't it.

Danny Phantom did the impossible for this cynical viewer; it made me love cartoons all over again. A wonderful lighthearted gem that told the story of a boy growing up while handling his ghost powers in a children's network managed to create depth, character development, and story arcs that increasingly gets better each episode (unfortunately to drop by the poorly conceived Season Three).

Season One starts at the beginning, where we're introduced to the main cast and their eccentric personalities. Little by little, the majority of them grow into their defined roles: Danny slowly gains confidence as he balances hero life with his normal alter ego, his older sister Jazz realizes the truth behind her brother and supports his decision in secret while softly embracing her family's ghost life, Valerie turns from a spoiled, rich brat to a kick butt ghost hunter out for revenge (and later, justice), etc. But truly it is the character Vlad Masters who shines with his debonair, mysterious, and complicated persona--his opposites and similarities with Danny all clear--a myth arc that plays a key role on Danny's struggle with darkness. There's a lot of continuity despite half of the episodes remaining as filler, but since it's the first season, those are meant to establish the characters and elements we all learned to love over time.

THE GOOD: "Parental Bonding" takes in numerous subplots and mixes them flawlessly. "What You What" is a roller coaster look into Tucker's inferior complex towards his newly supercharged best friend, delivered without hamming the emotions or loosing any. "Bitter Reunions" breaks the status quo and marks the beginning of the manipulatively awesome Vlad. "Shades of Gray" takes a pre-existing character and breathes new life into her as Valerie turns from pampered princess to hardened ghost hunter. "Fanning the Flames" established a solid story while making the Danny/Sam romance lovable (a farcry when Season Three makes it deplorable). "Public Enemies" raises the bar by having an antagonist succeed and Danny maturing to accept his duties. "Maternal Instincts" gives a topnotch performance between the mother/son relationship between Danny and Maddie and "Control Freaks" managed to prove Sam is more then just Danny's would-be love interest. But the best episode in Season One is the magnificent "My Brother's Keeper" which begins the excellent character development of Danny's older sister Jazz who starts off as a know-it-all constantly shielding Danny from the harsh realities of life. There, she begins to see the potential in her kid brother. It is, in my opinion, the most sentimental and heartwarming out of all the Danny Phantom episodes.

THE EH, AVERAGE: "Mystery Meat" properly introduces the characters and backgrounds, but falters in the second half with less-then-believable subplots. "One Of A Kind" shows the first sign of DP's use of Major Plot A and minor subplot B. "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale" is fine, but clumsily tries to tie Danny's heroism and normalcy that others succeed better in. "Prisoners of Love" does a commendable job showcasing the radically different Ghost Zone, but is tackled with a dumb subplot involve stereotypical rednecks and a predictable romance. "Teacher Of The Year" is so morally focused that it feels less Action/Comedy, more Saturday Morning educational program. "13" is decent, but lacks oomph. "Lucky in Love" enhances the Love Arc and boosts some secondary characters, but is otherwise unremarkable and "the Million Dollar Ghost" has a confusing Xanatos Gambit from Vlad and a faulty father/son bonding between Danny and Jack.

THE DOWNRIGHT BAD: "Splitting Images" which is all-around deplorable. Despite triggering Danny's Growing Darkness Arc, it's meshed with a antagonist who lost his purpose halfway through the series and a jarring concept of right vs. wrong between Danny and Sam. And lastly "Fright Night" which degrades Danny's current growth by making him unlikeable and jerky.

The DVD only covers the first 13 episodes. There are no extras, but the episodes themselves are in good quality. And I will give Nickelodeon credit; they did put the episodes in their PROPER chronological order. All except "Parental Bonding" (episode two) and "One of a Kind" (episode 3) which got switched with each other. The DVD covers, both front and back are also prone to error. The first volume alone for example has Danny with his "DP" chest insignia; something he does not receive until Season Two (partly covered in the second DVD).

Hardcore fans will feel ripped off while the casual (the type who considers DVD extras more luxury then mandatory) may enjoy it. Now that the DVD contains all 20 episodes in on boxed set, the once high price is slightly more reasonable, but be warned that it still does not contain any extras, let along subtitles.

When I first saw season one and two on Amazon, they couldn't be ordered. They just came back and season one is complete and in the proper order! Episodes one through twenty accounted for. I figure they removed it to deal with the complaints about the original discs. There are still some minor glitches in the packaging. They didn't change the picture with one actually from season one, and there is a misspelling on one of the episodes one the back (I'll let you figure out which one). There are also still no extra features.

Please read my review about season 2 before ordering, though.

First of all, it is nice to see this show available on DVD, especially for those of us who don't want to watch it on a 2 inch screen on an ipod. The bad news is, this is a 'print-on-demand' disc that has a lot of glitches in it. As stated in the product description, it is recorded on DVD-R discs and is a manufacture on demand product. Although it has a slick package design, complete with the Nickolodeon logo and a bar code, and full color imprinted discs, I still can't help but feel that this is little more than something I could have made by setting my DVD recorder to tape the show when it airs. As a DVD-R disc, it has all the glitches one expects from "homemade videos." As stated in the product description, it will not play in a DVD-rom or computer drive, but I expected it to playback in a regular DVD player. Uh, no--my multi-disc player had difficulty reading the disc, as did my portable player, and it got hung up at certain points. There was nothing more annoying that getting half way through an episode and finding that you wouldn't get to see the end because of the glitch. incidentally, if you fast-forward the disc, it can bypass the glitch, but you will miss the dialogue. There are some duplication bloopers as well--for example, after the commercial break, sometimes entire lines of dialogue and even entnire scenes get repeated.

Another important aspect is that this is not the "complete season 1" as the package and advertising might lead you to believe--it is actually only the first half of the first season. The episodes are: (1)Mystery Meat (2)One of a Kind (3)Parental Bonding (4) Attack of the Killer GArage Sale (mistakenly titled "Attack of the Garage Sale") (5) Splitting Images (6)What You Want (7) Bitter Reunions (8)Prisoners of Love (9)My Brother's Keeper (10) Shades of Gray (11)Fanning the Flames (12)Teacher of the Year and (13) "13". The first 2 discs feature 5 episodes and the last one has only 3, which seemed to be a waste of a disc. There are no extra features or even subtitles and captioning is non existent, so at the price of $30 plus, it is not qorth it. The full series is available on I-Tunes so it is not as if there is no demand for it. If you can't wait and don't want to watch it on an ipod, go ahead and purchase the disc; if you don't mind tiny graphics and a 1 inch screen, go to the Itunes store.

Just a note for anyone planning to buy; even though the item says "in stock" (as of today, Sept 18) there have been order delays. The email I just got says my discs, which I preordered some weeks ago, should be arriving (I'm also outside the USA) in just over a month.

These are supposedly the product of an exclusive deal between Amazon and Nickelodeon, which is why nobody else is selling them, and they're to be printed on demand...so possibly there's a big backlog of orders waited to be produced. I don't mind the delay so much if there's a lot of demand, it makes the chances of a season 3 set much higher. Just thought I'd put the word out in case anyone's in a big hurry!

As the title says, this set is a mixed review.

The good, looks like they got the COMPLETE season out, not part like in the first release.

The bad, the physical discs themselves are cheap DVD-Rs, not even real commercial quality DVDs. This means they are very delicate and most likely will degrade in a year or two as the purple dye fades. The authoring on them is slipshod, I couldn't even play the first disc on an older DVD player without the disc skipping and the picture being pixilated beyond anything watchable. Ended up having to watch it on my PS3.

I really, really wanted the series and when it's finally released, it looks like a cheap pirate job. I am sorely disappointed in Nickelodeon, but unless its released on Blu-ray, I hate to say this is the only way to get the series.

So many fans have wanted these for so long, it is a sincere pleasure to see that Nickelodeon has finally produced this item for us. "Danny Phantom" is probably the most well-written and beautifully-animated series Nick has ever run, and I can't wait to get my discs. Thanks, Amazon!

Here's the back cover description:
SEASON 1
It's a scary good time with the complete first season of Danny Phantom! Cheer Danny on as he battles the school Lunch Lady who transforms into a 50-foot pile of mystery meat, help him stop technological ghost master Technus from taking over the world's computers, and enter the Ghost Zone with Danny on his quest to...rescue a package? It's a season full of out-of-this-world adventure at your fingertips!

2008 VERSION:
Disc 1:
Mystery Meat
One of a Kind
Parental Bonding
Attack of the Killer Garage Sale
Splitting Images

Disc 2:
What You Want
Bitter Reunions
Prisoners of Love
My Brother's Keeper
Shades of Gray

Disc 3:
Fanning the Flames
Teacher of the Year
"13"

The first version contains 13 episodes from Season 1.

2009 VERSION:
Disc 1:
Mystery Meat
One of a Kind
Parental Bonding
Attack of the Killer Garage Sale
Splitting Images

Disc 2:
What You Want
Bitter Reunions
Prisoners of Love
My Brother's Keeper
Shades of Gray

Disc 3:
Fanning the Flames
Teacher of the Year
"13"
Public Enemies
Fright Night

Disc 4:
Maternal Instincts
Lucky in Love
Life Lessons
The Million Dollar Ghost
Control Freaks

The second version contains all 20 episodes from Season 1.

Episode 2 is actually Parental Bonding and Episode 3 is One of a Kind.

I love Danny Phantom and I am still a fan as of now. However, when I got both season 1 and 2 (or so it claims on the DVDs) I was thinking I would have all the eps and watch them even after the show was canceled. However, I was very disappointed to see only just half the eps from season 1 on the first packet and the rest of it on the second one with just a few eps of season 2. My advice for all of you who love Danny Phantom and want all of the seasons, don't get these DVDs. Buy them somewhere legally online and download them to your PC and watch them from there.

Danny Phantom Season 1 is a 4 disc set featuring all season 1
episodes. The episodes are:

Disc 1:
Mystery Meat
One of a Kind
Parental Bonding
Attack of the Killer Garage Sale
Splitting Images

Disc 2:
What You Want
Bitter Reunions
Prisoners of Love
My Brother's Keeper
Shades of Gray

Disc 3:
Fanning the Flames
Teacher of the Year
"13"
Public Enemies
Fright Night

Disc 4:
Maternal Instincts
Lucky in Love
Life Lessons
The Million Dollar Ghost
Control Freaks

It's a load of fun for all.