underrated show IMHO

R

Ranken

New member
Danny Phantom, I remember avoiding most cartoons like this, then my nephew started to get me into it. I realized that it was an homage to my two favorite things as a kid, Ghostbusters and Marvel comic books. I love the pseudo-teen angst mixed with action and light-hearted fun. I actually liked this better than Fairly odd parents.
 
I'd hardly call Danny Phantom an underrated show. During its' run, it was greatly hyped and promoted, and it had (and still has) a substantial fan base.
 
It didn't get any true recognition until people found out it was to be cancelled, and quite a few decided to check it out before it was took off the network.
 
I found Nickelodeon's Doug to be relatively underrated. It was often either overshadowed by Ren & Stimpy outspoken edgyness or the later phenomenon of teh success of Rugrats. It was no classic to be sure, but it had some overall good writing, characters, and voicework and knew how to stretch the believability of the plots just right.

I do believe Disney's inferior continuation Nickelodeon's Doug tainted the show's reputation as well.
 
Danny Phantom wasn`t a very popular show, but as others stated, it wasn`t in the realms of complete ignorance. During it`s inital run, this was one of maybe three Nicktoons this forum alone talked on a daily basis.

It doesn`t have Avatar level fanbase (I`m debating whether that`s a good or bad thing--the DP fanbase had some serious business in the worst ways), but it still holds a decent circle of devotees, me included. If anything, it has a small cult status following.

If it helps, my myopic obsession for the show has been going three years strong with no sign of stopping. It`s the best cartoon I`ve watched in years and yes, that includes Avatar.
 
Using this forum (or any online forum) for the basis of popularity isn't an accurate estimate, internet popularity does not reflect actual real-world popularity (otherwise Firefly would be the most popular show ever :sweat:). Browsing some articles, one of it's TV movies reached almost 5 million viewers in terms of ratings, nothing compared to Rugrat's 12+ million, or FOP's 8.8 Million, but not much lower than Avatar's, so either they're both not very popular or they both are, kind of hard to draw a line between them with a (relatively) small gap. (Relatively as in when the high end seems to be over 7 million and upwards of 12 million people)
 
Maybe Wayside and Kappa Mikey might fit in this category.

Then does the old-school series who was on Nick like The Mysterious Cities of Gold and Belle & Sebastian could be classifield as underrated? They seems to be overshadowed by YCDTOTV, Danger Mouse, Pinwheel and Count Duckula.
 
I think Back at the Barnyard deserves more attention that it gets. Sure the CG animation isn't fantastic but I'm really enjoying the characters and humor. It's nice to see a show featuring good old fashioned talking animals without any drama or un-needed kid characters getting in the way. It's not my favorite show, but it's fun to watch all the same.
 
It's ironic, I would totally disagree. I'd say Danny Phantom was OVERrated. It was pretty popular, but I absolutely hate what Hartman (or rather Bob Boyle) did with the art in Fairly Oddparents and Danny Phantom, I hate the glass pieces look where everything has edges (that's one thing me and John K agree on). And it's so strange because Butch Hartman has a very nice, fluid, not so sharp style of character designs. The WAC! short that he did, Gramps, had some really good art that I still like today. And he didn't take that kind of turn in Oddparents or Phantom. But lo and behold, Bob Boyle was the art director for both shows, and he created the extremely flat and sharp edged shows, Wow Wow Wubzy and Yin Yang Yo, both shows that I dislike.

Aside from the art, it wasn't all that funny or actiony. It was supposed to be a comedy-action, and it was mediocre on both parts IMO.
 
I agree with you. The show isn't that great when I watch it usually on Sunday morning, but the characters and the humor they bring to the show can make it pretty fun to watch for the heck of it.

As for Danny Phantom, I really loved the series and it was one of Nick's best recent shows, but I don't think that it was underrated by any means of the word. It had, and still does, have a strong fan base. It isn't extremely high enough to be overrated, in my opinion, but it isn't at a low enough level for it the be underrated. I agree that measuring a series' popularity based on message boards isn't a good idea considering some shows that don't do well at all have a huge number of fans online.
 
"Barnyard" is underrated. "Catscratch" is underrated. "All Grown Up" is underrated.

"Danny Phantom" is not. If the writers scaled back the ham-handed attempts at humor, it would, very nearly, earn the status of classic.
 
I wasn`t, I was setting a minor example, hence the usage of the word "only". Sorry if I implored otherwise (I have a bad habit of wording my sentence structures wrong), but I`m well aware of your statement. Either way, my opinion stands the same as everyone`s, the series definitely isn`t underrrated. Just to clarify.
 
I think the action-comedy aspect worked in the shows favor. Danny Phantom wasn't really that original. You could clearly see the "inspirations". If the show would have been too serious people would have accused it of being a rip-off. So, by including comedy it made the show tongue n cheek.
 
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