TV Review: Phineas and Ferb, 2025

Still funny after all of these years, using the fantastical to poke fun at the everyday ridiculousness of life.

 

One of the best gifts you can give to parents of young children is kid friendly programming that somehow also manages to include sassy, cynical, funny content aimed at adults. Over the years, there have been a few shows that have done a good job of this combo technique, giving us a break from bland kids content. For years, Phineas and Ferb was such a show, one filled with bright animation, humorously designed characters, and lots of silly songs but, at the same time, highly entertaining for grown-ups due to its funny social commentary tucked into its fantastical premises. It’s been ten years since the last adventures of the two very clever step-brothers and their bossy big sister. But now Disney has revived this gem and brought it back for a new decade of viewers. How does it compare to the original? Weirdly, the transition feels seamless, despite the years that have passed since the last episode aired. Phineas and Ferb is still funny after all of these years, perfectly using the fantastical to poke fun at the everyday ridiculousness we must all face.

The series follows the adventures of small town grade schooler Phineas Flynn, a fearless inventor with genius level engineering skills, and his equally talented, but quieter, British step-brother Ferb Fletcher, as they find outrageous ways to entertain themselves during the “104 days” of summer break from school. The boys’ daily creations are always NASA-level outlandish to the irritation of Phineas’s teenaged sister Candace who is obsessed with revealing her brothers’ antics to her mom. The large cast includes Phineas and Ferb’s grade school classmates: sweet and charming Isabella, nerdy and sarcastic Baljeet, and tough, loud mouthed Buford, all of whom help with the brothers’ inventions. A regular subplot involves their pet platypus Perry who is secretly a highly athletic super-spy who regularly battles the town’s philosophizing and bumbling evil genius Dr. Doofenshmirtz. In addition to these primary characters who appear in almost all episodes, there are minor characters who appear periodically and many of them get a chance to shine in the new season, including Candace’s bestie Stacy; Doofenshmirtz’s cynical teen daughter Vanessa; and the five other girls in Isabella’s campfire scout troop who sometimes assist with the daily inventions. Each episode traditionally follows a repeating structure: 1) the brothers get inspiration for a complicated project to entertain themselves; 2) after starting they passingly notice that Perry has disappeared; 3)Perry gets assigned to thwart Doof’s next plan and 4) Doof has an ill-fated plan to take over the tri-state area; 5) Candace tries in vain to convey her brothers’ antics to her mom; Doof’s and the brothers’ unrelated inventions collide in a way that cancels them out without each inventor realizing why.

At the end of the 2015 season, Doofenshmirtz decides to take a break from being “evil” but in the reborn 2025 season, he decides to go back to his evil ways but on a smaller scale. As a result, Perry returns to duty as his super-spy nemesis. So, despite the storyline shifts in the original series finale, the new season has reset itself back to the plot rhythms of the original show. The 2025 revival continues the theme of using outrageous scientific inventions, along with humor and sarcasm, to discuss small funny elements or relatable irritations in the drudgery of life including topics such as the ridiculously long wait windows for repair or delivery appointments or the annoyance of having a long awaited television episode ruined by a co-worker’s spoiler comment. Another hallmark of the show’s humor is the way it interiorly breaks the fourth wall. The opening song always ends with Candace complaining to her mom that Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence. The boys often reference the scientific improbability of some of their escapades. In episode 3 they create an infinite ice luge track that runs amok in the town. When Candace ends up accidentally covered in clothes from a boutique while chasing her brothers, the store clerk wants to charge her but gives her a break because he notices that she’s in a song sequence. In episode 4, the kids design the world‘s largest zoetrope using the campfire girl scouts as models, and this leads Isabella to note that animation is so easy. And one episode comments on the formulaic elements of the episodes. The revival also has lots of celebrities, including Michael Bublé playing himself and belting out a zoetrope ballad in the zoetrope episode.

In addition to the self-aware humor, the most fun thing about the new season is seeing the stock characters continuing to take on complexities and contradicting their stereotypes, including Isabella becoming a bold leader, Buford engaging in literary analysis, and Baljeet discovering his fierce side. If you have never watched the show, it’s best to flip through a few early episodes from prior seasons to catch the rhythm of the repeated plot set up and the side character arcs. Much of the show is laugh-out-loud funny but not all of the episodes land with the same top level humor and a few are a little slow. And the ongoing gag of Candace trying to convince her mom of the boys’ inventions does start to wear thin as you wonder why there’s never just a photo taken. But, for parents with younger kids or for grown-ups who just need a break, the return of Phineas and Ferb is a much needed respite of humor, sarcasm, and tight social commentary packaged in a range of subtle to over the top humor.

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The Math

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

Highlights:

• Still funny after all these years
• Self-aware commentary and storytelling
• Using the outrageous to tell stories of ordinary life

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction-writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.