Cartoon Clash - Edition 2: The Butch Hartman Showdown

Welcome to the second edition of Cartoon Clash where I compare two cartoon shows based on their theme songs. This week I’ll be taking a look at two shows from the early 2000s from Nickelodeon. Just like last time I will be judging them on lyrics, catchiness, memorize ability, and notability.  In this edition I’ll be looking at The Fairy Odd Parents and Danny Phantom. These two cartoon shows have the same creator in Butch Hartman. 

The Fairly Odd Parents - (1998- now)

The Fairly Odd Parents!

Fairy Odd Parents Intro

Catchiness: Start the song and you’re greet with an amazing horn section.  I love the jazz sound the song went for and it is extremely unique. 

The chorus goes for “odd parents fairly odd parents”, chanting the name of the show back at you.  It is very effective device to make you remember the show. The choir towards the end of the song to add harmonies is a nice touch to the chorus.

Lyrics: Explains why Timmy has fairy god parents due to his life pretty being crappy. Those St. Louis Rams football games haven’t helped either.  They explain the fairies will grant his every wish to make his life better.  It all goes into the characters of the show Vicky, Timmy, Timmy’s Parents and introduces the fairies.  So in simple terms this is what happen to Timmy Turner life. 

Karate Chop to the face is what you order.

Memorize:  Timmy Turner speaks very quickly with the wishes in the middle of the song . This is where I found the most difficulty.  A couple of listens you’ll get most of the song. It earns a medium difficultly rating. 

Notability:  The reviews of the theme songs are mixed.  Some people say they couldn’t follow along with what the singers were singing, and the lyrics were confusing during the fast segment of Timmy wishes. Others have praised the theme song for it's jazz style.  Some people have called it one of the most annoying theme songs ever.  You could always blame Dinkleberg for the song.

Note: The ending credits are the same except the lyrics are taken out.

Danny Phantom:  (2004-2007)

Danny Phantom

Catchiness:  Hit play and you hear that bass line. One of the best bass lines I have ever heard for a cartoon theme song. Even if you hate the theme song and cartoon you can’t deny that bass line is awesome. This show is unique by taking a risk with its theme song by using rap music to talk about its show.  The chorus is just “he is gonna catch them all” , “he is the phantom”, and “Danny Phantom” adlibs. It works okay though it does sound like a rip off on the Pokemon’s “Gotta Catch ‘Em All.”

Lyrics: Easy to understand and explains how Danny got his ghost powers. They explain who is Danny Phantom as the show main character and how is going to help the world by defeating ghosts. I got no complaints here. Here is what Danny Phantom does to ghosts invading Earth nicely depicted by Tony Romo.  

Tony Romo - Always a good sport.

Memorize: The rapping is just at the right speed to make the chore a little easier to memorize.  I give it a medium difficulty rating. Press the repeat button a few times on YouTube and listen to the lyrics carefully and you’ll remember the song.

Notability:  If you like hip hop and cartoons then you are probably a fan of this theme song.  

Visuals: I like the dark feel and shadows of Danny here in the opening credits.  It works well with a show about ghosts.

Notes: Danny Phantom originally had this theme song for the show which still includes the awesome bass line.  I like the rap version better to be honest just because the singer voice seems to be out of place on it.  The lyrics don’t seem to be as strong  on the singing version.

The Danny Phantom ending credits adds choir effects to the original song, and adds an awesome guitar work. I wish the guitar was part of the original theme song, but I can’t wish for everything. Hey Cosmo and Wanda mind helping me out?

Enough Musical Analysis: Who won the battle?

I really had a hard time deciding which one was better. Both have great expositions to explain the show, and different musical ideas on the production side of things.  Jazz or rap complements each show very well. After thinking about it for a day or so I decided the winner below.

Fairly Odd Parents: (4/5)

Danny Phantom: (4.5/5)

What decided the battle for me was Timmy Turner fast wish segment.  Even after repeat listens I still couldn’t get all the wishes correct. Sometimes I would even making up words for what the next wish might be.  The lyrics for Timmy Turner rapid wish segment are here.

“Obtuse, rubber goose, green moose, guava juice,
Giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, chocolate shake”

You would think it would be easy with the rhyme scheme which helps, but Timmy speed of saying them makes it difficult. 

I blame you Dinkleberg for our show theme song losing to Danny Phantom.