Phineas and Ferb: a Disney show I highly recommend
Bookworm on Feb 03 2012 at 9:22 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of the Disney Channel. Parents think the teen-oriented shows are innocuous, because they are free of references to sex and drugs. That’s true, but what they have in bushel-loads is attitude, bad attitude. Whether you’re watching Hannah Montana (mercifully out of production), the Suite Life of Zach and Cody (or the Suite Life on Deck, its sequel), or Pair of Kings, or the Wizards of Waverly Place (another show that is defunct), you be assured of a few things: inept, absent parents; humor that’s premised on one-liner insults; appallingly bad acting, with the teen stars pausing after every woodenly delivered one-liner to give the laugh track a chance to kick in; plots and camera work that cater to one-minute attention spans; and relentless Disney product promotion, since the shows are really just extended commercials for the teen stars Disney grinds out at its studios.
Put more succinctly, the shows are frenzied in pace and mean-spirited in tone. If your tween or young teen is giving you attitude, you don’t have to look further than the Disney channel (or its evil twin, Nickelodeon) to figure out where your child learned those techniques. It’s small wonder that so many former Disney stars have crossed to the dark side. Aside from living in the artificial, sycophantic world of Hollywood, stars such as Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and Demi Lovato, all of whom have had drug or mental health issues, have also been carefully taught on the Disney lot that adults are idiots, that the only people who matter are their peers, and that morality is defined by feelings, with every person’s own navel being the ultimate moral arbiter.
Even Selena Gomez, who has just slipped free of the Disney studio, seems to be moving towards the dark side, as her costumes become sleazier and sleazier. Sleazy costumes were pretty much the canary in the coal mine for other troubled Disney stars. In other words, breast- and thigh-baring were the first outward manifestations of the actress’s imminent physical or moral collapse.
And yet, in this darkness, there is a little bit of light: Phineas and Ferb. The only thing that Phineas and Ferb has in common with the other Disney shows is that the parents are absent and clueless. I forgive the show, though, for that conceit, because it allows the main characters’ lights to shine so brilliantly. In a TV world defined by jaded, sarcastic, bored, trouble-making youth characters, Phineas, Ferb, and their friends are distinguished by boundless enthusiasm for and interest in the world around them, and a complete absence of cynicism.
The premise is simple. Phineas and Ferb are stepbrothers who have the perfect bond in their shared genius and their intellectual curiosity. Their friends admire their brilliance, and enthusiastically participate in their ideas. The ineffectual counterweight to their manic genius is their shrill older sister Candace, who talks on the phone endlessly with her best friend, and spends most of her energy trying to attract Jeremy, the laid-back teen dude who is unselfconscious, kind, and clueless about Candace’s crush. In every episode, Candace tries desperately, and without success, to make her parents aware of Phineas’ and Ferb’s escapades. The show also has a subplot with an evil genius and a platypus, but I pretty much ignore that part, which is just silly.
The show’s introductory song pretty much sets the tone. It describes an exciting world, with endless interesting things to see, do and learn. It urges children to participate wholeheartedly in life:
That theme song reminds me of another nice thing about Phineas and Ferb, which is the music. Every show has a song. Musically, the songs range from tolerably bland to surprisingly sophisticated. Take for example the song from “Ferb Latin.” Although the lyrics are nonsensical, it is a remarkably sophisticated example of counterpoint, a technique that takes two apparently incompatible songs and weaves them together into a single, successful melody:
It’s been done before, of course (see here and here for nice examples), but one really doesn’t expect it, even a minute and thirty seconds of it, in a half hour Disney children’s show.
So if you should ever find yourself in a room with a kid who is watching Phineas and Ferb, don’t change the channel or leave the room. Sit down, instead, and get a very rare glimpse of delightful children’s programming.
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9 Responses to “Phineas and Ferb: a Disney show I highly recommend”
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We love Phineas & Ferb so much that we play the soundtrack in the car. My son wants to be a scientist or an inventor so the show is a fabulous inspiration. My son also loves dropping in the show’s (refreshingly non-snarky) catch phrases into conversation, such as the sing-song “Whatcha doin’?”, “(Mom), I know hat we’re gonna do today!”, and “Yes, yes I am.” This is the only Disney show worth watching.
Awwww, seriously? You don’t like Perry the Platypus and Dr. Dufenschmirtz? C’mon, where’s your silly bone?
We love the show. The only thing that gets on my nerves sometimes is the Bust-my-brothers sub-plot. But that’s probably as much due to the lack of proper levels of caffeine that morning as anything else.
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Sorry DL Sly. I tolerate those characters, but I don’t love them the way I do the boys!
Libby: You’re right about the catch phrases. They’re sweet and upbeat, not mean and demeaning.
Phineas and Ferb rock! Oh dang, I’m going to regret admitting that aren’t I? I’m also not a fan of the Perry and Dr. Doof subplot. Evil scientists should be the bad guys and not sympathetic goofs. The songs are the best!
A1stS: I can promise you that no one will hear this admission from me. My lips (and finger tips?) are sealed.
I have no idea what you folks are going on about. Somebody hit me with a clue bat. Where’s Sly?
The one thing I’m constantly surprised by in anime is how often parents have an off hands role in anime, yet they are portrayed as wise, loving, and perceptive, not clueless. It’s more like the parents are treating the teenagers as adults, responsible for their own thing. This is helped by the fact that the Japanese teens either avoid or know better than to throw American frat type parties at their house. They instead pay for a party to be held in one of the numerous red light or commercial districts, such as karoake clubs. Or they carve out a little fort somewhere and construct it themselves.
The Japanese conception of mad scientists really got me interested in that topic. The cartoon mad scientists are often one dimensional. Too flat for my interests. But the Japanese rendition of mad scientists is both humane and inhuman. Mad scientists pursue science and the advance of human progress much like that Nazi doctor who experimented on Jews. Prioritizing research results over common human suffering. So the Japanese make no apologies about this aspect of mad scientists, but at the same time they also don’t cover up the fact that the benefits of such pure research arrive due to the genius of that madness. It’s a very ambiguous or conflicting portrayal that makes for much more interesting characters. Some are to be admired. Some are villains who later turn to be allies. Some are just plain crazy, but all are interesting and none of them were one dimensional in detail.
This ethical dilemma has been asked here before, about whether one would use evil scientific research methods to save lives in the now. My answer was to break down the paradigm and ask whether it was really necessary to use such results to save lives. If it is really necessary, then use it. If it is, then pay for more humane research to be conducted and use that instead. It’s far safer that way really.
“Where’s Sly?”
Sly is watching Phineas and Ferb on Disney channel! As much as you like anime, Ymar, I suggest you give it a few minutes of your time. I think you’d enjoy it.
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But that would make me do work… I want someone else to do the work and hit me with enlightenment and knowledge. Like all those people who said they found what I wrote interesting but wanted me to reduce the length so that their brains wouldn’t bore themselves having to read more words than they can handle.
Hit me with the Knowledge of the Universe so I can sit around and ABSORB!!!