TV – Phineas and Pherb

☻☻☻☻☻

(five smiley faces out of five)

Phineas and Pherb is a cartoon aimed at kids aged about five and up that airs on the Disney networks. It stars two smart, inventive stepbrothers who spend their seemingly eternal summer vacation (it’s always summer vacation on Phineas and Pherb) building impossibly incredible gadgets, inventions and mega structures. For some reason, all of this activity irritates Phineas and Pherb’s bossy older sister, Candace, who is always trying to get the boys in trouble with their mother. The only problem is that somehow, the evidence of Phineas and Pherb’s activities always seems to conveniently disappear before their mother can see it.

There’s always a side plot in this show, which involves the boys’ pet platypus, Perry. Perry is a secret agent (his family is unaware of this) whose nemesis is the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz. And yes, Dr. Doofenschmirtz is as doofy and tragically hilarious as his name, because of course, Perry always manages to foil him.

Since the new episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants continue to go downhill (really, people, just let a great cartoon die with dignity), Phineas and Pherb is probably the funniest, most well-written cartoon series specifically aimed at kids that’s currently being produced.

Another stand-out aspect of this show is the music. Generally, I HATE musical interludes in cartoons. Remember the old, old episodes of Scooby Doo? Great show, pointless, crappy songs. And The Archie Show? They had exactly one great song come off of that show: Sugar, Sugar. (You know. "Oh Sugar, do do do do do do, oh, Honey, Honey...) Don’t even get me started on the annoying songs from the Backyardigans.

But somehow, inexplicably, the Phineas and Pherb writers manage to come up with a great song, in a variety of genres, for every single episode. Our family’s favorite is probably Squirrels in my Pants, which is a sort of hip-hop-ish pop-ish ditty, but I swear to you that if the Phineas and Pherb people would get really smart, write a longer version of the song Busted and release it for airplay, it would be top-40 gold.

Phineas and Pherb is so clever and fun that I hope for your sake, your kids like it; because honestly, it’s far better than much of the schlock television written for adults these days.