Featured TV on DVD Review: Phineas and Ferb: A Very Perry Christmas
October 4, 2010
Phineas and Ferb: A Very Perry Christmas - Buy from Amazon
I know what I'm doing today, reviewing the latest Phineas and Ferb DVD, A Very Perry Christmas. It's the 24th DVD I reviewed this week, and the fourth with a Christmas theme. Wow, I reviewed almost as many Christmas DVDs this week as I did B-movie horror films.
When I first got the chance to review this DVD, I assumed I would be able to write the review without opening the package. After all, I've seen Phineas and Ferb so many times I figured I've seen ever episode here multiple time. (This show and Castle are the only two I go out of my way to watch.) However, there is no list of episodes on the DVD cover. Then when I popped it in, I realized I had only seen the very last episode on the DVD, Perry Laid an Egg, two or three times and hadn't practically memorized it. Oh well, any excuse to watch Phineas and Ferb is a good excuse.
Extras on the DVD include a virtual fireplace, animated, with several characters from the show that jump in from time to time. There's a jukebox with the songs from the Christmas episode, while you can watch the episode in "Perry-Oke" mode. ... Or you could just watch the show with the subtitles on. Letters to Santa has ten characters and their letters to Santa. There is a 12-minute featurette on the creation of the songs for the show.
There's also a bonus episode, The Doof Side of the Moon. Phineas and Ferb decide to build a tourist attraction to help Danville while Candace recruits Albert in her attempts to bust her brothers. Finally, Doofenshmirtz tries to rotate the moon so the dark side of the moon faces the Earth, thereby eliminating full moons, which he believes is causing an increase in the background level of evil one a month... Yeah... it's not a very smart plan.
Finally, there's an Easter Egg that can be found in the main menu. It's a 6-minute featurette showing the staff covering Robert Hughes's office with sticky notes.
Awesome show and the DVD is loaded with extras compared to most similar TV on DVD releases. Phineas and Ferb: A Very Perry Christmas is Pick of the Week material. The only way to make it better would be if it were full season sets.
And if the next DVD isn't a full season set, make it a Vanessa Doofenshmirtz theme DVD. I Scream, You Scream, Hail Doofania!, Vanessassary Roughness, Finding Mary McGuffin, Tree to Get Ready, The Magneficent Few, and Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together. That's enough for a full DVD. But you couldn't put them in that order. You could either start with The Magneficent Few, which introduces Vanessa, or with Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together, which is a two-part episode and therefor easier to sell the DVD with. Yeah, I've been thinking about this for a while.
The Show
Phineas and Ferb continues to be the best show on TV. And I don't mean the best cartoon or the best kids show, I mean the best show on TV, period. When I'm procrastinating, Phineas and Ferb is in the top three things I use to waste time. (World of Warcraft and Archon are the other two.) The show has a pretty strict formula, but the writing is so sharp that they manage to put just enough variations into that formula that it never seems repetitive. That's very hard to do, but they do it each and ever episode.
Normally each episode of Phineas and Ferb is broken up into two shorts; however, this Christmas special is three shorts long. No I don't know why. Three parts doesn't make any sense at all. Two parts is perfectly normal, while four parts would make a perfect hour-long special on TV. But three parts?
This three-part Christmas special starts with Phineas and Ferb getting the entire town to work together and decorate Danville as a thank you to Santa. Meanwhile, Candace tries to trick Jeremy into writing a Christmas card to Santa so she will know exactly what to get him for Christmas. (I'm pretty sure what he really wants is a girlfriend that isn't crazy.) However, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz decides to destroy Christmas after having a run in with some aggressive carolers (I'm on his side) by making it appear everyone in the tri-state area was naughty. When Candace implies this was actually caused by Phineas's scheme, Phineas decides the only sensible thing to do try and save Christmas himself, but he has help, including a couple of Elves from the North Pole.
After Perry does his little chattering sound, Phineas and Ferb decide to make a platypus translator. However, before they can test it, Perry has to go on a mission. Fortunately for them, it seems to work on all animals, and once the animals find out about it, they flock over to Phineas and Ferb's house to speak their mind. Meanwhile, Doofenshmirtz's latest evil plan is to flood Danville and turn the streets into canals. This way people will be forced to use his latest invention, the Buoyancy Operated Aquatic Transport, or Bo-at, as he calls it.
After tripping on Perry in the middle of the night, Candace puts him outside. However, the next day when he's gone, she feels guilty about him getting lost and tries to find him, without admitting she's the reason he's gone. However, she's not the reason he's gone. The fault lies with Dr. Doofenshmirtz. No, it's not one of his evil schemes; in fact, his evil schemes have proven so ineffective that he's been downgraded to minor nuisance and Perry has been reassigned.
Phineas and Ferb decide to create a fancy restaurant, after their trip to one the night before left them less than satisfied with the proportion size. Phineas will be the maître d', while Ferb will be the chef. They also get the rest of their friends to help. Isabella is working as a hostess and Gretchen and the rest of the fireside girls as waitresses. Baljeet is the soda jerk and Buford is working the velvet rope. There are two people trying to have romantic dates at the restaurant, firstly there's Candace and Jeremy, but they don't have a reservation and Buford's not playing favorites. Then there's Doofenshmirtz and his blind date, who also don't have a reservation, but Doofenshmirtz has something more important, his ex-wife's money and a quick bribe gets them in. It's a good thing too, because if this date doesn't go well, he's going to use his latest invention, the De-Lovenator satellite to get rid of the feeling of love in the entire tri-state area.
Love this episode, but couldn't they let Doofenshmirtz win once in the end. The ending here was such a downer.
After attempting to make the sunniest day every, Ferb accidentally knocks an egg out of a nest where it rolls right behind Perry, so naturally Phineas and Ferb think Perry has laid an egg. And when Perry leaves on his mission, they decide to take care of it. Meanwhile, Candace is watching a nature show on TV (the batteries in the remote are dead) and seeing sea turtles eaten by predators is too much to take. So, when she sees Phineas and Ferb taking care of Perry's egg, she jumps in, dons her old Perry costume (last seen in Toy to the World) determined to be the mother this egg needs.
Meanwhile, Doofenshmirtz has taught himself whale song so he can insult a humpback whale because years ago a humpback whale stole his girlfriend. ... It doesn't make any sense within the context of the episode either.
The only episode on this DVD that I couldn't write the summary by memory. I remember most of what happened, but was fuzzy on some of details. Given how weird it is, I'm surprised I didn't remember more of it. The Extras
The Verdict
- Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Video Review