One of the benefits of having kids is that you have someone to turn you on to new cartoons as they arise. One of our favorites now is Phineas and Ferb, the tales of two boys and their pet platypus, Perry. They’re always doing fwild stuff. The running gag is that their older sister, Candace, always wants to tattle on them, but as soon as Mom will pay attention there is no remaining evidence of their shenanigans. Perry also leads a double life. When he’s not their docile pet he is a secret agent, fighting the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz.
Check out some of their videos. The one where Phineas and Ferb build a beach in their backyard is great.
There must have been a marathon or something this weekend, because my kids seemed to be watching it all day. I happened to catch the backyard beach episode, and I agree, it is a decent show.
I liked the little Perry the Platypus music video at the end.
I love Phineas and Ferb. I actually do passable imitations of Major Monogram and Dr. Doofenshmirtz (both of whom, coincidentially, are voiced by the two creators of the show), and sometimes say things in their voices to amuse myself. The entire voice cast is very good- even the Disney-bred talent such as Ashley Tisdale and Alyson Stoner.
One thing I love about the show is not only how bizarre it is, but also how self-aware it is. (The final line of the title sequence- which made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it- is “MOM! Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence!”) Perhaps the best example of this is one of my favorite episodes, “Hail Doofania!,” which turns the entire formula of Phineas and Ferb shorts (P&F are bored, decide to make something, Candace gets curious and wants to tell Mom, Perry runs off to fight Dr. D, Dr. D’s defeat causes P&F’s project to disappear, thus making Candace look like a fool) on its ear: Perry the Platypus has a protective collar around his neck and can’t get into his secret hideout and Candace and her mom go to the dry cleaners, so Phineas and Ferb do their project without any suspicion, and it’s Dr. Doofenshmirtz- who is disappointed his nemesis didn’t show up- who is being suspected of foul play by his daughter, who tells her mom…with a similar result.
You can tell that the two creators cut their teeth on shows such as The Simpsons, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Family Guy, as it has that same bit of goofy abandon and smart 'n silly humor. Plus, each episode has a catchy original song, topped off by a super-catchy theme song performed by Bowling for Soup. What’s not to love?
And for those who ask, “Aren’t you a little old to be watching Phineas and Ferb?” I respond, “Yes, yes I am.”
This post brought to you by…Doofenshmirtz Evil, Incorporated!
Love Doofenschmirtz. Also like the way Phineas & Ferb seem to love doing nice things for Candice, despite the fact that she’s always trying to get them in trouble.
Great exchange:
“World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Evander Holyfield!! Aren’t you a little old to be a professional boxer?”
Which is in itself a reference to a running gag from the series:
“Aren’t you a little young to [whatever]?”
“Yes. Yes I am.”
(There are also some funny gags in some episodes playing on Isabella’s catchphrase “Whatcha doin’?” Another example of the self-awareness I was talking about.)
“The score is the square root of pi to a crudely-drawn picture of a duck, so it’s still anyone’s game!”
They also do call-backs a lot: Phineas and Ferb become one-hit wonders, and snippets of their song show up as mall Muzak in later episodes. Or Candace helps her favorite girl group write a song, and Doofenshmirtz does aerobics to that song in another show. P and F’s mom takes a cooking class with a lady who later turns out to be Doofenshmirtz’s ex-wife. My son had a homemade Phineas and Ferb cake for his fifth birthday.
Yep, great show. I like that sort of kids show that is at least bearable for an adult. The Backyardigans are actually pretty decent. I was surprised at how good Avatar: The Last Airbender was. I am a tad worried that my 4 year old already knows about Hanna Montana. That is an evil which I must root out right at the start.
I love Phineas and Ferb! After suffering through months of Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob, it’s great to finally find a show that I can watch with my kids without going insane.
I really enjoy the music they have - a lot of the tunes are pretty catchy. Some favorites are “Ain’t Got Rhythm” from the Love Handle episode and S’Winter (although some people call it Wummer).
Dr Doofenshmertz is definitely my favorite character. I love the way they’ve portrayed his relationship with Perry the Platypus - especially the the episode where Doofenshmertz “cheats” on Perry.
It’s not that bad. My kids got into Hannah Montana, then quickly outgrew it (because it’s dumb). Still, they are kids and stuff that amuse them you will not always find amusing or well done. Four is a young age for that, though, mainly because the show starts to seem lame once they get to about 10 or so years old. That could be six miserable years for you.
My kids’ favorite live action (kid) shows are Drake and Josh, iCarly and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Of those, the Disney product is far and away the least bearable. Amanda Cosgrove’s character in Drake and Josh was pretty cool (terrorizing little sister who parents think is an angel); this got her the iCarly show, which has it’s moments but becomes tiresome pretty quickly.
See, this is where I’d disagree- these three shows I think are, besides Phineas, the most humorous and tolerable kids shows on TV right now. SpongeBob has a great mix of unusual humor and old-fashioned gags, The Fairly OddParents has the witty rapid-fire repartee of an old Warner Bros. cartoon (and I still think their TV-movie “Channel Chasers” is the best thing ever to air on television), and iCarly has unusual-yet-clever lines mixed with an amusing avant-guardness which seems to be the hallmark of series creator Dan Schnieder. (I would almost put Sonny With A Chance on here, but hesitate to- although it is far and away more tolerable than most of the Disney pap, subsequent episodes fail to have the same charm and whimsy of the series’ first two episodes, which were written by series creator and former OddParents scribe Steve Marmel.)
I think my dislike of Fairly Odd Parents and Spongbob is due to two things: the annoying voices they have on the show, and the fact that my kids watched them over, and over, and over, and over…
It got to the point that if I heard Spongebob’s laugh, or Timmy’s whine once more, I was going to put my foot through the TV
My daughter is still a little young to get most of the jokes, but I love it when I accidentally come across this show.
I loved the secret agent animals at some secret spy meeting (like I said, I’ve barely watched it) and they mention how they “Lost Agent T last November”.
My daughter is only 3 and she’s been watching all of the above shows for about a year now, thanks to the babysitter’s older children. Drake and Josh, *iCarly, Spongebob, Phineas and Ferb *and *Fairly Oddparents *are watchable (and sometimes clever) shows, as opposed to the wretched *Franklin *or Little Bear. And Dora spends 22 minutes yelling, so that’s a huge strike against her, besides the shitty animation.
The “Channel Chasers” episode of Fairly Oddparents was the one that made me sit up and take notice of it. I actually stopped doing housecleaning and sat down to watch it.