Monday, February 19, 2007

Day 38: Late as Usual, Hooked as Usual




I always get late to big stuff. Maybe that’s due to my allergy to t.v., since I’m not regularly able to watch more than 1 or 2 hours in a row without getting bored, start zapping and end up grabbing a book.

But now I would like to page homage to my latest t.v. addiction: Danny Phantom!

Since Jetix was outcasted by Cablevision, I lost track of the series for a while, until I was able to find it again at Nickelodeon (You can tell I don’t watch the telly by that), and I was lucky enough to catch the movie “The Ultimate Enemy” and get totally hooked.

Now, why should a cartoon without the wonderful animation style I love from anime happen to catch my attention? Because of The Stories. Once I was told by literature coach Pepe Rojo (God bless him) that the best stories are the ones focused on the “realistic methapore”, that is, a normal situation turned or depicted as a fantastic one. In other words, using the fantastic elements to convey and reinforce the message about a daily life situation, and Danny Phantom is full of that.

I perfectly know that the matter of a teenager dealing with supervillians while trying to keep his own life in one piece has been dealt with before, but taking into account the moronic language currently used by many cartoons to refer to the old matters of self-acceptance, peer pressure and school grades, it certainly makes this series a bit refreshing, as long with the simple, non-pretentious design that favors concentration on the story rather than on the flamboyant drawings (as frequently happens with anime).

On the other hand, I must confess that I have some sort of ‘crush’ or ‘fatal attraction’ with heroes that actually have problems (which happened to be one of the main crisis in comic book streams many years ago). Living daily life is troublesome sometimes; dealing with several matters at the same time can get really hectic. Just add up some fantastic action and you’ve got me.

If you are not familiar with the series, you must know that, according to Wikipedia, “Danny Fenton is a nervous, clumsy, and sometimes superficial 14-year-old boy who tries to fit in with his peers. But he is also able to transform into his ghost form (his transformation words are normally "I'm going ghost!"). Upon transformation, his normally black hair turns white, his eyes change from sky blue to ectoplasmic green, his skin changes from light to dark, and his normal attire becomes a black hazmat suit - with white boots, gloves, belt, and starting from the second season, a "D" emblem on his chest, becoming "Danny Phantom".”

Unfortunately, it has been announced that the series is going to be cancelled (if it hasn’t already been by now), which happens to be a pity. We don’t get to see well thought cartoons a lot these days. Sob.

PS: You can notice I'm not good at this posting images stuff. Sorry.

2 comments:

Axel said...

I am going ghost - blogging it at night, no I have never seen this cartoon - sounds good. enjoy !

The Usual Stuff said...

Tnx for stopping by, axel. Indeed it deserves to be watched. It's all the fun of Spiderman with a little less seriousness.