There was plenty humor in Danny Phantom, sometimes rather broad, but a mix of superhero action and adolescent issues were at the forefront of episodes. The premise – Danny Fenton, teenaged son of parapsychologists, acquires ghostly superpowers via a lab accident that he must use (as superhero Danny Phantom) to defeat the many ghosts escaping into his town – owed more of a debt to comic books than cartoons. And it was consciously developed to be more “real” than The Fairly Oddparents: the impetus for the series was Nick’s desire for a “ boy’s action show,” not another comedy. When nearly all Nicktoons still featured episodes of two 11-minute shorts, Danny Phantom was a full half-hour show. But Danny Phantom did distinguish itself in other ways: through tone, plot, and character. Conceived in 2001, premiering in 2004, Danny Phantom didn’t stand out because of any radical new direction in design the color palette was less cartoony than The Fairly Oddparents, and the characters were interpreted by artist Stephen Silver (and given a full five fingers compared to standard cartoon practice), but the show fit comfortably in the same aesthetic Hartman established with his first series. But Hartman did land a second series at Nick with Danny Phantom. A spin-off, Crash Nebula, got as far as a pilot that was later folded into a Season 4 episode of the parent show.

The Fairly Oddparents, with its jazzy score and classically cartoony sense of humor, hit its stride in the early part of the 2000s.

ChalkZone looked like nothing else on the network, CatDog was just bizarre, and the 2000s was when Avatar: The Last Airbender – a world apart from the rest of the Nicktoons – first premiered.Īmong the rest in that mix were the shows of Butch Hartman.

Also in the lineup was Hey Arnold!, from yet another school of design and storytelling. SpongeBob SquarePants achieved its superstar status in those days, but airing alongside it were the various Klasky-Csupo series of a completely different design sensibility, and with content ranging from silly baby antics ( Rugrats) to teenaged dramedy ( As Told By Ginger). A credit due Nickelodeon’s animation lineup back in the 2000s was variety.

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