Of all the Disney channel animated shows that came out around the late 2000s, Phineas and Ferb was arguably one of the strangest. Though Disney is no stranger to weird ideas for their cartoons, the show, which started in 2007 and ran for an impressive run over eight years, was one that a lot of people gravitated towards with its stabilizing formula, colorful designs, memorable songs and a large number of surrealistic situations. For something as popular as this, Disney couldn’t help but release a straight to TV movie in 2011 based around the famous inventor brothers. Thankfully, the gamble seemed to pay off for both avid fans and critics alike. Step-brothers Phineas and Ferb (voiced by Vincent Martella and Thomas Brodie-Sangster) make the most of their summer vacation days with their pet platypus, Perry, by making crazy invention after crazy invention. On one of these days, the boys wind up unknowingly helping out a friendly evil scientist named Heinz Doofenshmirtz (voiced by Dan Povenmire) who Perry, secretly a secret agent, is a nemesis too. The boys help him create an alternate reality portal which takes them to a world where Doofenshmirtz rules the world. The evil Doof of the new dimension forces Perry to blow his cover to the bewildered brothers, leaving the three stranded in this new reality. Meeting up with the alter egos of their friends, family and even themselves, the brothers, Perry and their older sister Candace (voiced by Ashley Tisdale) have to work together to get back to their own reality and save it from the evil Doof before it’s too late. The movie seems to encapsulate everything that people love about the show and deliver it in a smart and funny way. A novice can warm up to it remarkably quick with how simple the characteristics are but can also be blown off balance by the off-the-wall ideas and humor shown as well.

The show, for those who watched it, was one that had a very standardised yet brilliant formula; Phineas and Ferb would always make an overly-extreme invention, Candace would always try to bust them but would ultimately fail every time, Perry would always go and fight Dr Doof and no one would ever suspect his true identity, and then rinse and repeat with variety sprinkled in-between. With a simple but highly attractive premise, it’s a world that fits easily into a movie. The show isn’t one that’s short on ideas for bigger obstacles and gives the audience something that may seem strange to some, but perfectly normal for fans. The movie takes a different direction from the usual episode, but not too drastically so that it feels alien, everything fits right into a typical Phineas and Ferb formula without it feeling stale. Since it’s a movie, its allowed to go further than its series and more important can up the stakes a bit more, which this movie seems to do with Perry being revealed to the family or the climax featuring almost every invention they’ve ever made, little elements that won’t mean much to newcomers but mean a great deal to fans goes a long way to how this movie works. It balances that great line of concocting a premise and atmosphere familiar enough that old viewers will enjoy, and also features enough set-up, wild ideas and images, and an overall timeless charm that anyone can get behind. Though the idea of alternate dimensions and doppelgangers is nothing new, the team behind the show seem to be able to take the strangest and funniest elements out of these concepts to make them not feel repeated and old.

The characters aren’t the most complex bunch, but they are at least definable. Since the show relied heavily on its humor and its strange visuals and concepts, it allowed the characters to be simple but still work in the overall picture and each would have a definable trait; Phineas is optimistically oblivious, Ferb is intelligent but soft-spoken, Candace is the typical teenage girl obsessed with busting her brothers, Perry is secretly an agent platypus that never talks, and Dr Doof makes a ton of evil machines which never seem to work out for him. These characters work great in this kind of world as its shown to be liveable but clearly has a more insane edge than real life, allowing for a lapse in reality and logic in exchange for humorous scenarios. The characters are both emotionally connectable and entertaining to watch, but even when the alternate versions of themselves are shown, they are different enough that the two never blend together on-screen. The designs of each character is a very interesting idea, trying to mold each character into the shape of the first letter of their names; while clearly odd and lacking any real purpose, it allows for each character to have a drastically memorable appearance. The voice cast are all very good, especially since most of them are doing dual roles and both have to come off as convincing and real, which each one of them does great, especially Ashley Tisdale as both Candace’s, who probably are the most different and are both given decent amounts of time on-screen.

The animation may at first not look that movie quality. Already taking into account their font-like designs that already makes them look pretty flat, the animation at first is a little too limited on motion; they seem to not move very much and when they do, it feels a bit more faster pace than usual, it doesn’t quite work as normally as it should. While the colors are vibrant and the backgrounds and designs get pretty creative and detailed, that’s nothing out of the ordinary for other Disney channel shows that have better more three-dimensional character models. But things really pick themselves up in the third act, where not only do the characters get far more expressive and fluid, but the animation overall seems to overwrite that motion problem instantly with the climax. The climax of this movie is incredible; the amount of stuff on-screen during a gigantic battle for the city between a horde of flying robots and the citizens controlling the brother’s inventions is massive, yet the animation gets so fast and clean that it’s easy to keep up with everything. The action is big but also creative, the scale is surprisingly epic but also funny, and to top it all off with a great song number and a lot of call-backs to the show, it’s a great way to end the film. The songs of Phineas and Ferb are remembered fondly, but not for the reasons one would expect. Since each episode of the show would feature at least one song, there was more of an emphasis to make the songs catchier and more memorable rather than for story focus or complexity as a way to get one out that sounded different without getting lazy; they were essentially silly jingles that everyone gets stuck in their head and it worked out great. That’s how it works here; the songs have simple melodies and lyrics but are memorable and work well for the film’s tone, as well as everyone involved having pretty good singing voices (when it’s intentional). The humor has always been one of the biggest grabs for viewers and that seems to be the same for this movie; it has a bunch of weird characters doing weird things in a world where it seems acceptable, which is a world that many people love to watch.

Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension seemed to win over fans and newcomers with a beloved TV show by doing something simple yet rarely done with TV show movies, it gives them what they want while also putting in effort so others can appreciate it as well. The film has a great sense of humor, some interesting visuals, likeable characters, and a unique enough way of telling a run-of-the-mile story. For fans, it will give them exactly what they want and maybe even a bit more, and newcomers will be pleasantly surprised and may even be tempted to check out the show afterwards. It’s weird, its creative, its colorful, it’s entertaining, it’s a pretty good film for a pretty good TV show, and definitely worth checking out for new and old. Summer may not last as long in the real world as it does in theirs, but the show has a certain way of bringing that sense of fun and child-like wonder back to life for just a bit longer.