DVD Review: The Fast and the Phineas
Phineas And Ferb Created By Dan Povenmire And Jeff "Swampy" Marsh
Aug 11, 2008
Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh have an interesting idea in Phineas and Ferb, but a lack of creativity in the storylines gets annoying after a while.
What's Phineas and Ferb About?
The show follows the adventures of the titular step-brothers: excitable, creative Phineas (voiced by Vincent Martella) and the laconic-but-equally creative Ferb (Thomas Sangster). In an attempt to fill up their summer days, the brothers develop a bunch of wild-and-wacky schemes, like building the greatest roller coaster, making their own private beach, hot-rodding their mom's car and entering the Swampoil 500 race. They're often aided by their friend Isabella Garcia-Shapiro (Alyson Stoner), who has an ill-concealed crush on Phineas. Isabella leads the Fireside Girls Troop 43261, who join her in helping Phineas and Ferb with their outlandish plans (mainly to earn merit badges).
Naturally, these schemes incur the wrath of Phineas and Ferb's meddling older sister Candace (Ashley Tisdale), who immediately tries to expose them to their Mom (Caroline Rhea). However, events always conspire to wipe away the evidence of Phineas and Ferb's wrongdoing, leaving Candace shocked and humiliated in front of her disbelieving Mom.
Many of these deus ex machina events are accidentally engineered by Perry, Phineas' pet platypus, who is secretly Agent P, a James Bond-style international man of mystery. During the course of each episode, Agent P sneaks off to battle his nemesis, the bumbling Dr. Heinz Doofenschmirtz (Dan Povenmire).
Take the above paragraphs, rinse and repeat, and you pretty much have every episode of Phineas and Ferb. It's not that the concept isn't cool, but the formula gets tedious very quickly. There's no overall story arc to link the episodes together, no character development and no alterations.
Phineas & Ferb would have been stunning when compared to the bad old days of the late 70's and early 1980's, but children's entertainment over the past twenty years has taken a flying leap, as evidenced by shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender or the Wallace and Gromit shorts. Little kids might be comforted by the familiarity of Phineas and Ferb, but anyone of a more discerning palate (ie: anyone over 10 years of age) will get bored.
Extra Features
There's not a lot of extras in the Phineas and Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas DVD. The most interesting extra is the initial pitch by co-creator Dan Povenmire, who did a voice-over on his storyboards for "The Roller Coaster," the show's pilot.
There's also a Phineas & Ferb's Homemade Tree Shade Arcade game, which features "custom-made games and ingenious activities," according to the back of the box. It's good for some fun, but nothing to write home about.
The Final Analysis
If you want to plunk Junior in front of the idiot box for an hour or so while you do other things, then Phineas and Ferb is for you. If, however, you actually want to watch something with your kidling(s), then this show will get really tedious really fast. Phineas and Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas is strictly little kiddie entertainment, which won't age well once its target audience passes the double-digit mark.
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