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Phineas & Ferb: Greece Lightning/Leave The Busting To Us!
Reviewed: 01/11/2014
Leave The Lightning Bust To Roma Greece!
Now we continue on with episode #26 (17b) and episode #25 (17a) on the animation paper; which is the first time, both numbers were paired in sequence. So today we will see Phineas & Ferb have a chariot race with the kids (aka: the goofy car race in Johnny Test) while Doctor Doofenshmirtz is creating a robot to murder Agent P. Finally! A mission where Perry is totally justified in stopping. Then Candace is fed up with Phineas' antics that she goes on a television reality show that deals with busting troublesome little brothers while Doofenshmirtz wants to channel Recess: School's Out's main villain while recalling his failed magic career. Let's rant on shall we...?!
Greece Lightning is written by Alex Almauger, Bobby Gaylor, Chris Headrick and Martin Olson. Chris Headrick started as a director for Channel Umptee-3 in 1997 (his other direction credit is for the Looney Tunes Show). Nightmare Ned is his DTVA debut and he also did storyboards for 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, and Filmore. Other storyboarding credits include: Angry Beavers, Spongebob Squarepants, Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Dan VS. among others. He has 17 storyboard credits, three writing credits and two direction credits to his resume. Leave The Busting To Us is written by Jon Barry, Bobby Gaylor, Martin Olson, Robert F. Hughes, Sherm Cohen, and Antonie Guilbaud. Antonie started with Rugrats as a storyboarder in 1991. Other credits include Angry Beavers, Catdog, Rocko's Modern Life, Baby Blues, Bionicle 3: Web Of Shadows, Camp Lazlo and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Brandy & Mr. Whiskers is his DTVA debut. That's it. Story editing for both episode are done by Martin Olson. Animation is done by Wang Films.
Greece Lightning: We begin this one at the MUSEUM OF DOOM in Danville (yes; it's Danville, live with it) and then we head inside the museum doing a western pan shot over to Candace, Phineas & Ferb standing in front of various Roman statues. Candace is whining about being dragged here by Phineas & Ferb; but doesn't seem to mind the huncky men in skirts. So we cut to Lawerence being fascinated with a golden chariot with silver plating that he rambles on about some artist's vision of what it looks like. Lawerence calls it the chariot of Asparagus; which tells me that he has been playing Breath of Fire 2 for way too long to be considered a rational thought. And yes; they showed a picture of Asparagus riding the chariot wearing an asparagus suit; so Spar is getting a lot of exposure, if you catch my drift. Apparently; Asparagus defeated the Minotaur with the head of Medusa because he turned the minotaur to stone. So the minotaur was killed by pertification. Never mind the absolute stupidity of the whole angle of "Look into my eyes and you'll turn to stone" would make this weapon way too dangerous to be used. Speaking of bad weapons; Phineas claims that she looks like Candace even though Candace demonstrates otherwise. Ummm; the fact that she doesn't have a snake's body proves my point on this. If it looked like the Medusa from Mystic Quest; then you might be onto something. So Phineas manages to get his big idea while asking where Perry is barely a minute into this thing. We see Perry hiding as someone is whispering to Perry and then we discover that Monogram is inside the statue with the short wearing man throwing the discus. Okay; that is at least different in some way. Monogram informs Perry that Doofenshmirtz is planning to murder Platyapi including Agent P. FINALLY! A mission where Perry is completely justified in stopping. Monogram wants Perry to go to Doofen's new lair in the old abandoned movie house. Perry leaves as Monogram blows off Agent P for looking up his skirt; even though there is nothing up there to look.
So we cut back to Phineas & Ferb doing their model blueprints session with the white pointy stick as the race will start at home and then race all throughout Danville. Why do I get the feeling that this race will be allowed without Phineas & Ferb actually getting permits? They will go through the park and to the Paul Bunyan's Pancake Haus; which has it's own silly jingle. Whatever as it will end on the steps of the museum as we discover that they are on the driveway of their house on the zoom out as Lawerence is wearing a Roman bronze helmet carrying VHS tapes. So Lawerence doesn't seem to mind nor care about their race (what a shock? Farts; I can only give out so much whining before it becomes all ho-hum. There's no heat anymore doing the "immoral" angle anymore considering all the "immoral" things I saw done to Kit and even by Kit.) as he is watching 12 hours of gladitator movies. Lawerence: Get thee a DVD player, STAT! Isabella comes in and likes Lawerence's goofy helmet which Lawerence calls his movie watching helmet. Whatever turns you on Lawerence. So Phineas does the hard sell on the chariot race and informs Isabella to spread the word. Isabella runs around forwards and backwards asking for time, place, and whom which Phineas answers as one hour, here and spread the word. Isabella leaves and we head to the abandoned movie house called "Private Screening" which I guess is Private Tucker's father. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh; and it gets the Doofenshmirtz Evil Jingle of Death! That is cruel and unusual punishment. I'll leave the "on whom" part as an exercise to the reader. So Perry runs into the theatre and into the hallway of one of the screening rooms carrying a bag of popcorn. Wait a second? This is an abandoned cinema house and it still has a popcorn machine? That makes no sense. We see a container of soda spilled onto the hallway floor as Perry sits down in the middle of the chairs and his wrists gets clamped down on the seat. Ah; so we are going to redo "Film Flam" from Darkwing Duck again. Okay; the statue of limitations on that gimmick has expired; so why not? So Doofen arrives to mock Perry and blurt out his evil plan.
Which is to kill Agent P more or less; and then he gets annoyed by what appears to be a Chris Griffin reject (with a green backwards baseball cap, green shirt and green shorts. Sorry guys; he doesn't even look like Kit, so you failed to insult me.) sipping soda. Doof demands answers to this outrage; so the Chris Griffin reject shows his ticket to Doof. That sounded vulgar. Doof tells someone to roll the film and we roll the film which is in B&W. So we are asked who is the enemy of the platypuses, platypii, platypeople. Yeah; this is a dumb running gag joke. If they wanted to go for the payoff; then it should be Platypodes since this is supposed to be about Greek mythology. To be fair; this gag makes sense since there is no universal agreement on the plural of platypus anyway. So we find out that this movie is a documentary which the Chris Griffin reject likes anyway. BOR-ING! So we find out that platypodes are becoming extinct and their enemies are poisonous swamp vipers as shown wrestling a dead platypus, eaten by a snaggle-toothed badger (We don't need no stinkin badgers!), and copying stunt seen on television as the platypus is dead from flying off his skateboard. However; the most evil of enemies of the platypus is.....wait for it....suburbia. POW! OUCH! Wait a second? Suburbia is created by...wait for it...MAN! What a misguided punch to the kisser that was? Doofen loves this skull and crossbones moment and brings out his out of nowhere remote control and pushes the button. I should note that apparently; Doofen tried to kill Perry with the automatic tennis ball machine which he wasn't thinking at the time. HAHA! So the screen rises and we get the new enemy of the platypus which is a Family Guy-equse voiced robot who was clearly the goofy looking man ripped off from the movie. He addresses himself as Norm the Family Guy announcer. I didn't make the last part up; but he didn't say it on television. Norm is voiced by John Viener and he started his career as a writer for Trackers in 1999 and began his acting career with R2PC: Road To Park City as John in 2000. He is most known for being a voice actor and part of the production crew for Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, American Dad! and was Alix in the Ted movie. Phineas & Ferb is his DTVA debut and his only appearance. Dads as Josh is his most recent credit. He has 32 acting credits, two production credits, 12 writing credits (The Support Group, Comedy Central Roasts and the 85th Academy Awards) and two direction credits (Lighten Up) to his resume.
So he uses the periscope shot to target Perry as he calls the enemy of platypodes to be THE MAN~! Doofenshmirtz crackles. Zzzzzzzzzz. Chris Griffin reject is wearing sandals by the way. Perry does a backflip the moment Norm does his cross chop at him on the seat; and Perry manages to get free of the shackles. Chris Griffin reject acts like Chris Griffin reject on cue as Perry runs out of the movie house. Norm crashes through the door asking for forgiveness and wants to settle stuff over a chat and a cup of coffee. I should note that this robot uses the same neon green flashes in his mouth that would be copied by Principal Fishington in the post Stickler era in Fish Hooks (although I do have the series finale's last five minutes which shows that he does make one cameo which is to be the whoopie cushion of Principal Fishington). So we head back to the starting line of the "Chariot Race" (their words, not mine) which is made of pillars and columns containing a huge torch on the top. And some vases and urns. So we see the kids heading to the starting line; and then we cut to Phineas & Ferb in armor and helmets in front of their chariot as they introduce the groups who will be racing today. Phineas & Ferb is the one to the far left, Isabella, Holly and Katie (Bar The Door) for the Fireside Girls. Katie is the blond haired one of the trope. The other ones are Buford and Baljeet together in the biggest chariot which means Baljeet will be the horse in this one. Prove me wrong writers of the world! Candace can race too; but she is nowhere to be found as Phineas gives everyone a map and tells them that the museum is the finish line. Phineas asks for any question and Baljeet asks about the rules of engagement and Buford has a dragon winged helmet on which indicates that he has played Breath of Fire too much with Lawerence! Buford blows him off because there are NO HOLDS BARRED in a chariot race. Which means none of the racers will cheat to win; thus killing off whatever reason is there to watch said race.
Isabella doesn't seem to mind as Buford proclaims that Baljeet is going down. Baljeet points out the obvious flaw to this; so Buford states that he's going down with him. Ooookkkkkaaaayyyyyy Buford; it was alright to self-hurt youself; but leave Baljeet out of this. I'm tired of Baljeet being the puppet of jokes here. We discover that all the chariots are pulled by wooden horses with levers on them as Ferb had them all rigged with lawnmover parts. I told you Ferb is the ultimate male human Gadget in this show as Candace finally storms in and demands answers to this outage. Phineas is so happy to see her and shows her the helmet that he made which has bronze plated snakes on it. HAHA! Phineas also shows the chariot which is basically the uglist Medusa head on wheels. Candace blows him off for that; although she was outraged at the fact that it had wheels; but didn't seem all that angry over the actual Medusa head. It also doesn't help that Candace's facial expressions are the same as Medusa too. So we head inside as Lawerence is watching his movies on the couch as the chariot race on television seems to be over. Candace comes in wanting dad to see what Phineas is doing; but Lawerence is more into the chariot race which he claims is just beginning. Wait; what? So he's playing the tape backwards; only the sound is forward? FACKING BULLSHEET! Candace calls for dad again as the boys are calling for Candace. Lawerence offers her a bowl of popcorn in response and Candace blows it off proclaiming that she'll stop this race by herself. Geez; I wonder how many writers from WB, Nickelodeon and others are going to look at this episode and think "MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH". Sorry folks; this idea has never been a great idea, and without a big rethink of it, it will never be great. So we see the rope being tugged on opposite sides by two kids. I couldn't tell who; the only one I knew was Django doing the countdown of the race because he's wearing sandals.
So we get ready, steady, GO~! AND WE ARE OFF....to give Johnny Test a plotline that they would recycle once every five or six episodes or so. On the other hand; Johnny Test doing a race is a better idea than 12 straight minutes of the babyfaces trying to get the other babyface to say "uncle". Seriously; in one of those JT shorts; that is exactly what happened! Candace then bumps into the entire starting line for absolutely no rhyme nor reason as everything topples. Candace steps on the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE and then her chariot somehow starts and she is off. I hope she wins this; but seeing enough JT shorts indicates that Phineas/Ferb will win; or they do the ultra lame draw finish, only with four chariots instead of two. Candace bumps into the back of her chariot and screams. Phineas thinks Candace is looking good; which shows how ultra stupid he is. I thought kids were supposed to be witty and smart in this era? So we do the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM for a while as it's a neck and neck between three of the four chariots. Take one guess who is behind those three. The song is pretty good mainly because the singers here are trained professionals and not teenybopper kids trying to act cool. We get the Brady Bunch Square Picture of Babyfaces spot as somehow during this Isabella went from leading the race to back in third place. First kill reference of the series dead ahead at 7:30! So Buford's wheels have the spikes and Buford finally bounces into Phineas's chariot on the right side. Problem is; there are no rules, so we cannot boo Buford for this (and it doesn't help that his partner is the guy whom he bullies). Why not have Baljeet drive the chariot and have Buford threaten him to do the spike into the wheels spot? At least then Buford gets some heel heat on himself. Phineas asks why they put spikes on Buford's chariot. What a bunch of goofballs?! I am watching a Vince Russo race; which is not a good thing at all.
So we continue on as Candace is ringing off criminal acts which would have been more convincing if actual cars and people WERE in danger other than the racers! Candace brings out the cellphone; but Buford uses a mini catapult containing a bowling ball and it sails past Phineas and smacks into Candace's cellphone; and despite a 20 pound bowling ball sailing 50 MPH toward's Candace's hand, not only did the hand not get cut off; she never sold any pain whatsoever. Phineas complains about that as Ferb pushes a button and shows off cup holders with soda containers; which Phineas likes. Whatever. Baljeet points out that the Fireside Girls are gaining on them; and failure is not an option. Geez; I wonder why Baljeet? Buford threatens him and demands him to use his head. Baljeet then gets inspired; so Buford holds onto Baljeet's ankles and Baljeet uses his helmet onto the pavement to create sparks to fly at the other babyfaces and make it sounds like fingers scrapping off the chalkboard. Sadly; most stupid reviewers have moved onto bad metaphors like "torches placed in my ears". So Perry is running in the alleyway from Norm who continues to talk nonsense. Then we get a really funny sequence of events: Isabella gets the grappling hook rope of doom and the girls do the star formation which is not a real star actually. Isabella is on the far right with the grappling hook and wraps one end of it around a lamp post and then hooks the hook onto Buford and Baljeet's chariot and the chariot goes flying backwards into the lamp post. Isabella then apologizes for that because there is NO HOLDS BARRED~! HAHA! Okay; this makes sense; although I wish Baljeet wasn't willing to do things for Buford without being bullied as Buford uses the spot again to cut the rope and cause more sparks. Candace bumps off her chariot and somehow lands in Buford's arms. Buford blows her off and throws her back into her own chariot causing Candace to scream again. Ashley's voice is going to die at age 30, I swear to god.
More singing as we head to the park and Buford uses Baljeet and his helmet as an axe to cut down trees which the trees almost squash Candace; but miss by seven or eight feet apiece. Then we get the baby in a carriage in the middle of the road with a mother spot (because we have to insult adults otherwise; kids will change the channel. Isn't this the sort of stuff that anti-violent critics point out to say that their point is proved?). Thankfully; all the chariots split up into two directions like a fork. Phineas & Ferb look at the map for the Paul Bunyan's Pancake House of doom and there's your pay off as we see Paul Bunyan statue making the deal with the bull statue in front of the pancake house. Perry is running towards the house as Norm is talking about thin slacks and Perry runs in the house and then out and to the left as Norm bumps into the minotaur statue and the head comes off and lands on his head while Norm lies on his ass. Norm asks for keys as Candace goes through the car wash of course because since The Wuzzles in 1985; when you are doing a race, there must be a carwash spot. Did TaleSpin ever do this spot? I'll have to check my notes to make sure. All done in slow motion while some girl in a green dress is eating an ice cream cone. Candace at least is making an effort to sell this as we continue on; Phineas sees Perry in the middle of the road and grabs him. Phineas asks what happened and then turns to see Norm with the bull head and they panic because it's Norm The Minotaur; and he wants Ferb to step on it. Candace does the crash into the fruit market spot (as seen in A Bad Reflection On You Part One) as Candace channels Baloo The Fruit Salad Lady from various episodes. Then we get a really dumb spot as Candace heads beside the fish market. Now; Candace is in the middle of the road; while all the objects Candace bumps into are on the sidewalk; but she hits ALL of them and oversells them. WHAT?!
So Candace is on her ass in the chariot as everyone meets; and Candace takes the lead, which Phineas loves to see. HAHA! Candace pleads for help which Phineas takes as she liking it. Yeah; they stole that from Cactus Jack/Mikey Whipwreck in ECW. Norm The Blood Freak reject follows them and they ride the chariots up the stairs and into the museum as the kids are watching from the finish line. Django declares that Candace has won the damn race as they head into the animal room and we get the off-screen crash of death as everyone is splattered in one pieces across various displays and statues. Phineas calls this the greatest race ever! No; this is the most stolen plotline in the modern cartoon era ever! Candace manages to get herself popped out of the lion statue's mouth which she blows off. She threatens to bust them for vandalism (which she does have some justification to do so in spite of being in on the thing unintentionally); as Norm walks behind Candace. Candace turns around and screams; just as Perry comes down via a rope and opens the back of Norm and just simply flicks the switch off. Okay; that is fine, at least it isn't a self-destruct switch this time. Norm dies and all the kids see Candace with the Medusa helmet on (out of nowhere) and panic because Norm the Bull get turned to stone and think Candace is Medusa. HAHA! Make the joke and then pay it off. Everyone leaves except for the siblings of Flynn-Fletcher as Candace blows off Phineas and storms off stage left. Phineas and Ferb follow her as Doofenshmirtz arrives shocked that Norm was defeated; but then notices the switch is off; so he switches Norm on again. Norm sees the display of the Platypus and has his sensors set to kill; then turns around. Now; before this, Perry slams a platypus hat on Doofen's head as Norm is turned around; and you can guess what happens next here. Norm chases Doof out of the room as Norm has the same issue as Miss Lips pre-couple with Baldwin era.
So we head outside as Candace is pissed off; Phineas & Ferb thank her for turning Norm to stone (which she failed) and Candace blows him off; and then turns around and sees a stone statue of a human. She screams and sees another one and then screams and runs right out of the museum's front yard which I'm guessing is the back door because the front door didn't contain a garden like maze like in Balooest of Bluebloods. Ferb covers his eyes and refuses to look because he has taken no chances in this. Phineas notices Perry hissing; but Ferb refuses to look and that ends the episode at 12:00 approx. Why yes; this had a one minute OVER RUN! So far; this is the worst episode of season one; but it was fine enough with some funny spots, but I was expecting a lot more than a mess of logic breaks and blown spots. At least they paid off two major angles; although it could have been three if Buford could actually threaten Baljeet like a heel should be doing. ** 1/4 (45%).
Leave The Busting To Us: We begin this one with a tight closeup shot of Candace yelling for mom because Phineas and Ferb did it to her again! What again? Does it matter? Ummmmm...nope. Linda walks in because she has to put the food in as we see a giant ass Ferris Wheel in the backyard! You're going to bust your brothers over THAT Candace? Really? So Isabella, Holly and the bunch of space suited men are thankful for the ride; as well as two yellow one eyed aliens which we saw in It's A Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud world. Pfft; whatever guys. So Candace runs out of the backyward as some ship shoots the ferris wheel and it rolls away doing absoluetly no damage whatsoever to anything even though there are at least three or four objects to bump into and cause damage. I hate logic like that. Linda sees nothing at all but Phineas, Ferb and Perry sitting in front of the tree. Candace mouths off "would you like some snacks?" and "There you are Perry" as Linda repeats everything she and he said. So the kids go inside as Ferb actually points out that the galidators were Roman and not Greek. See; the whole Greek angle was meant as a long term joke. They KNEW this was an error. Who else has done this sort of thing? Ummm...The Wuzzles and TaleSpin perchance? Candace blows off this insane routine of stupidity and heads to the living room claiming that her life is like a bad sitcom. So we hear a man's voice on the television asking if she lives in the Danville Area and wants to bust them brothers; so call now and Candace can be on the next episode of the new reality television show: Bust'em. Okay; it's not the most vile, reckless, dangerous, stupidest reality television show in history. At least it's not American Idol. Candace likes this and then we HIT THE TEDDY RUXPIN MONTAGE SONG OF DEATH~! It's basically showing smiling brothers drawing crap on the wall, putting football through the walls and other stuff. I should note that the girl they use is the same white female brown haired girl wearing all blue gear with pony tails and ribbons, while the brothers they use are various rainbow color boys in various clothes. Yeah.
I should also note that when the song talks about swearing or cussing; they put a censored sign on the girl's mouth. UGH! Talk about making your prime audience look like morons and sexists there pal! So the point of this is that you call this number and they'll do the busting for her as the black boy goes to prison. Double UGH! So Candace goes to the phone and calls them; because she has something for them. So we head outside with a sky shot and then a shot inside the backyard as Phineas is checking the weather be wetting his finger and testing the wind. He claims that it's going to be a hot one today and has a big idea as we see Candace talking to Linda inside the car as Linda is going to her cooking class again. She tells the kids to keep cool and then drives away. So a truck arrives in the driveway as Candace is not amused and then a white van featuring the lame logo of Bust'em; and then recoils and tells the two to keep doing what they want to do. Phineas calls this out of character which means that he has enough sense to notice that Candace is acting odd. But he still doesn't follow up because he wants to know where Perry is. So we head into the bathroom as Perry walks in; puts his hat on and hops into the tub; which is the classic one with the showerhead pole. So Perry takes a shower and the place fogs up; and when we see Perry wiping his ass on the towel; he's in OWCA headquarters. I don't get why people are offended by Perry wiping his ass with the towel. Baloo did that before, Louie did that before, hell, Baloo grabbed onto Broadcast Sally's ass in Time Bandit! Perry cleans himself as he plops onto the chair in front of the screen as we see Major Monogram explain that it's a beautiful day for Doofen to get a little verklempt. That means "choked with emotion" in German I do believe.
So the television monitor breaks up as he talks about sky weather Doofenshmirtz; and then he tells Perry to use the land line. Now the problem with this is: He sezs it in a complete sentence while the monitor fizzled out; so he could have just told him that Doofen was making a weather machine. Of course; it's a dumb joke because when Perry gets on the land line; he basically sezs the same thing. These are the kind of jokes that annoy me because the payoff would be that Monogram to say: Sky Weather Machine Made Doofenshmirtz Verklempt. That makes sense and it's a funny joke that is paid off. All this is is the same setup to a joke. I don't get why writers think that random humor doesn't have a payoff. All comedy has to have a payoff to the joke; otherwise, it's not a joke. It's just dialogue strung together in the hope that the timing will take over. Problem with that is; most writers and voice talent aren't good enough at it to overwhelm the lack of payoff. There's no excuse in the case of this show because it's clear this show CAN and DOES pay off their joke setups. This is something Nickelodeon would do. Anyhow; let's head back with Candace looking directly at the hard camera in front of the house. She is asked if she is Candace, Candace sezs yes and some female voice tells her to get in. By the way; Disney Captions has it like this: Are you Candace? Get in!; Yes. In other words; Candace would say yes AFTER she is told to get in instead of BEFORE. I'm almost glad that they stopped doing captions for the new DVD sets. Almost. So Candace gets in and we see an adult female with orange earrings and a purple dress; glasses and brown hair. She is from the television show and her name is Lulu Jones. There is a lighter brown haired female holding a camera and wearing pink shorts with a white shirt. Lulu addresses her as Fifi. So we meet and greet as Candace asks about busting and Fifi does the most shrill laughing ever. Probably hates life too as Lulu shows her business card and yes folks; busting is her legit middle name. Lulu Busting Jones. That sounds like a Mega Man Legends character.
Lulu is voiced by Vicki Lewis and according to IMDB: Starred on Broadway as Velma Kelly in "Chicago", The Tony nominated "Damn Yankees", "The Crucible", performed as a soloist with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, "Pal Joey" (with Peter Gallagher and Patti Lupone.) Her voice can be heard in scores of animated television and films, most notably, "Finding Nemo", "Wonder Woman", Justice League", "Ben 10", "Phineas and Ferb", "Alpha And Omega",and the upcoming "Batman". She starred as Beth in NBC's "Newsradio" and "Three Sisters"( also for NBC). She has appeared in countless television and film roles most notably "The Ugly Truth", "Mousehunt", "Pushing Tin", "Breakfast Of Champions", "Godzilla", "I'll Do Anything", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "The Middle", "Grey's Anatomy", "Dirt", "Caroline In The City", "Murphy Brown", "The Norm Show", "Grace Under Fire", "Home Improvement". Her solo album "East Of Midnight" was released in 2010. She began her career on the CBS Schoolbreak Special as Diane Kaplan in 1985. Hercules The Animated Series as Arachne is her DTVA debut. Finding Dory (Deb/Flo) is her most recent credit. She has 57 acting credits and 10 Self credits to her resume. Fifi is voiced by Gwendline Yeo and according to IMDB: Gwendoline Yeo moved to the U.S. from Singapore to San Francico as a teenager and then graduated from UCLA. She won national titles of Miss Asian America and Miss Chinatown USA. She then went on to an acting career. Her breakthrough role was her arc on Desperate Housewives in Seasons 2 and 3 cracking people up playing Eva Longoria's naughty maid, XiaoMei.
She's also recurred on 24, General Hospital& Grounded for Life and guest starred on NYPD Blue, JAG and The OC. Her Feature credits include AMC's hit western "Broken Trail" starring alongside Robert Duvall, Hallmark's The Magic of Ordinary Days and Robin Swicord's "the Jane Austen Book Club." She lends her voice on several cartoon series including Cartoon Network's Zatch Belle, Disney's Safety Patrol, Nickalodean's Superscout and the new X-Men. Video gamers best know her as "Paine" from Final Fantasy x-2. With her full lips, accented features and smooth cheekbones you could ski off, Gwendoline Yeo's sultry looks are equal to those of current Asian American 'It' girl, Lucy Liu. A talented Singapore girl on the fast track to stardom, Gwendoline Yeo moved from Singapore to San Francisco with her family. Gwendoline managed to get her foot in the door in Hollywood after she won the 1996 Miss Asia America and 1998 Miss Chinatown USA titles. She began her career as Linda in Grounded For Life in 2001. Kim Possible is her DTVA debut as Hoodie and Stich! as Gramma Obaa. Infinity Blade 3 (Lelindre), Deadpool (Domino) and Fuse (Meilin Mao) are her most recent credits. She has 87 acting credits and two Self credits to her resume. So we exchanges notes on the situation as Lulu plays knuckle letters and does some wrestling with her hands and she struggles with the fact that she cannot tell a lie if her life depended on it; which is not good for her because "them" always win. Ummm; no, "Us" always wins in the real world; but in this world, yeah. Lulu claims that she feels her pain and has cameras set all around the backyard to catch them breaking plates or scratching records. Candace points out that they don't do such stuff; but boy, they do really serious crap. Lulu notices that all the television camera are fizzled out and Fifi proclaims that camera #8 is working fine.
Now; Lulu said that if a squirrel breaks wind, then they'll have it on tape. So what happens on camera eight? A squrriel is shown farting. There's the first official fart joke of the series; and it took eight episodes to do it. Unlike Fanboy & Chum Chum where the toilet humor can go on for eight straight minutes (Pick A Nose; I'm looking at you). So Candace asks about the show's popularity and Lulu claims that it's on the rocks and they need something special or the station manager is going to pull the plug. When a station manager in this world can do a better job in business than TNA in the real world; you know TNA really, really sucks. So Lulu asks about Phineas and Candace claims that it's something different every day; and offers to show them. So we head to the backyard as Lulu is in awe, Fifi looks up and faints on her back, while Candace is not amused by this. Lulu then sees the most outrageous, out of his world, purple waterslide ever; complete with showers on decks which is where Phineas & Ferb are standing. Lulu calls this their special episode that they needed and finally; we have a chance for a threat to Phineas & Ferb's future of creativity. I should note that this episode was started just BEFORE Disney announced a second season. So we head to Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc as Perry swings in like Tarzan on a rope which shouldn't be possible with that building and splatters into the window and slides down like a bird after hitting it. HAHA! See; the back turned Doof is just a painting as the real Doof opens the window next to it wearing a magician hat as he rips off the picture as it's a fake window. I don't think it matters; until Perry crashes into Doofenshmirtz's face and we get the off-screen crash. Wait, what? So Doof gets up and goes to the window as we zoom down to ground level and notice that Agent P was using a puppet robot like version of himself. That still doesn't explain how Agent P was able to swing like Tarzan to that window because there's no place to loop the rope to.
So Doof gives props to Perry and goes over to the white board and marks another one for Perry; who is outsmarting Doofenshmirtz 300-3. Wow; even Don Karnage doesn't lose THAT badly. So Doof talks about the magic hat and shows a magic kit of stuff because you see; since the 7th Grade, he wanted to be a magician. It was a tough road for him as we HIT THE FLASHBACK to a theatre as a young Doofenshmirtz (who looks kind of normal here) on stage in a two tone scene. I betcha that the spot is from Rocky & Bullwinkle where Bullwinkle is trying to pull a rabbit out of the magician's hat; but pulls up tigers, rhinos, lions and even Rocky at one point. Damn; I'm good as he pulls up a skunk and it sprays in Doof's face which the crowd laughs at him. Next up is magic cards which he blindfolds himself and offers the girl on stage to hold the cards. Doof pulls up what is supposed to be a card; but it's the skunk again. Okay; that was funny at least. Then it ends with Doof hanging upside down to an empty arena (Memo to writers: If they laugh at him; they aren't going to not show up again) in a straight jacket (Oh lord; I wish I didn't see that) as he pleads for help. So the skunk comes in and sprays stink in his face again. This skunk's a bigger asshole than Pepi LePew. See what I did there? That is a segueway back to reality (no, not really) as the dream fade away into sepia tones somewhere along the way. So then Doof does the shoelaces are untied spot Kit used on Dumptruck in I Only Have Ice For You. And of course Perry falls for it because even babyfaces have to be stupid. Oh COME ON! (As Doof would say) And it wouldn't have mattered because a yellow metal box encases Agent P anyway. Don't these writers realize that this is dumb crap that heels are supposed to be doing. And Kit's trick was required to escape from the dungeon, not get into one!
Doof mocks Perry and then goes to the out of nowhere white cloth and reveals the Gloominator 3000-inator. Okay; this -nator stuff is seriously overplayed and it's time for Doof to come up with some new material. I would call it the Gloomination of 3000 Skies. Sure; no kid will get it; but no adult will either, but we'll still laugh at it just the same. So there is rattling going on inside the metal box as Doof takes that as Morse code for "that evil gadget looks so manly and threatening. What on Earth does it do?". Ummm; no, but thanks for admitting that toxic manliness is real and threatening Doof. At least Doof is a heel; so it works fine. Doof blows him off and we get the 411 on the device of the day which is one which launches weather pellets into the atomsphere; which will cause ice and snow to render the Tri-State area into a new ice age. In other words; Doofenshmirtz is responsible for the Polar Vortex then! I knew the Junior Woodchucks were framed! So then Doof puts a cloth over the box and proclaims that he will make Perry disappear; and then he uses the magic wand to tap the box; and then pulls up the cloth. Perry and the box are gone as Doof proclaims that he has won and then walks away stage left thinking that he should have stayed in the magic business. Sadly; I think Perry would still have busted his acts; because he's a witch hunter. I think. Anyhow; we head back to the backyard with Phineas, Ferb, Buford, Baljeet, and Isabella sitting in a yellow raft on ground level as they ask Candace if she would like to go on the maiden voyage. And yes; they are wearing lifejackets and there is a personal floatation device just in case BS&P decides to prevent Buford from using Candace AS one. Candace blows it off; but Lulu comes in and puts on a camera helmet on her head and shoves her into the raft.
Okay; that would be fine. The problem with this is: Lulu proclaims that she needs secret footage and then when she shoves Candace, she tells them to leave the busting to them. In other word; Lulu blurted the entire evil plan RIGHT IN FRONT of Phineas & Ferb. And she spoke in a normal loud voice during this. So you cannot pretend that Phineas & Ferb didn't hear it; unless you are going to say that P&F are completely retarded; which is even more disgusting then any fart joke in this show. Yeah; and P&F completely ignore it as if nothing had happened despite them questioning Candace's odd behavior earlier in the damn episode! And people complain about the assault of Dale's character on Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers. Screw off! So; Candace gets in and has the out of nowhere life jacket on. Phineas then tells them to fasten their life jackets; and if the boat capsizes; the cushion will double as head stones. Only in Phineas & Ferb would anyone say that unironically. Phineas apparently channels Molly Cunningham and grabs the camera helmet and throws it away which causes Candace to attempt to protest; but the water pillar shoots up the raft and they go down the waterslide as I discover that this is the river raft ride from Universal Studios. I'm fine with that; just not fine with the stupid crap around it. Candace screams; then when they go on a normal quiet patch; Candace almost teases liking this, but then they go down the waterslide and she screams again. This part I liked. They then bounce off the most springy spiked ball...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! They then land on the ground as Candace is panicking about this being over; and Buford laughs. So then their seat cushions spring into the air and we HIT THE TEDDY RUXPIN MONTAGE OF SINGING DOOM~ as they fall into the volcano. Lots of colorful waterslides are involved along with swinging bars; so this is a circus waterslide which is better than Circus Afro~! Why must Candace always get the banana yellow slide? By the way; what is the point of calling a day 86,400 seconds? No one cares. And there is supposed to be two days here.
So more bumping from Candace along with screaming as they do the delta waterskiing spot as they dive into the swimming pool complete with fireworks. The raft with the kids is fine; Candace is all wet as Phineas asks Candace if she wants to go again; and she is about to blow this off. So Lulu runs in and puts a cowboy hat with the camera on as she wants the secret footage and again sezs out loud the plan right in front of Phineas & Ferb. Phineas ignores it as we REPEAT THE SPOTS AGAIN~! Only this time; Phineas doesn't remove the cowboy hat. UGH! Let's cut to Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.'s headquarters as the purple dome opens and out comes an air balloon with a basket containing Doof and his Gloomination Of 3000 Skies. Hey; at least my booking names sounds cool and witty. So he puts two green pellets into the machine and shoots them into the sky as they create a tornado; because this is exactly what this episode needs: more windbags. Doof is happy about the results so he takes a sack of them and stuffs about 500 of them into the machine, creating a neat little pile. Then Perry arrives while Doof's back is turned out of nowhere; and steals Doof's hat. Doof turns around as a bunny shoots out of the hat and lands in Doof's hands. He addresses it as Bobo the rabbit that he was looking for in 7th grade. Wow; Doofenshmirtz and Perry are carrying this episode on their back now. So Perry cocks the hat like a bullet shooting gun which is amazing considering that would have been cut on TaleSpin since they used a real pistol. Then we get bunnies shooting out machine gun style as they swamp the balloon and it falls. Then we come to one of those moments that'll make you wonder if these guys were stealing from Z-grade movies. So we are outside in front of a gravel driveway which is a bunny farm. We see a curly haired female wearing blue farmer's wife gear with shoes blowing off a short male with brown hair (and a mustache wearing glasses) wearing brown overalls and a white shirt with boots; because he invested all his stuff on a bunny farm; but didn't buy bunnies.
So what happens? Two bunnies drop in her hands and then she gets squashed by the balloon basket filled with white bunny rabbits. So the male farmer proclaims that someone owes him an apology and she gots touche. Yeah; she gets squashed to death with bunnies in a basket and her husband is more concerned with an apology then pulling her out of the carnage or getting help. What an monsterous asshole?! So Doofen climbs out of the basket and bails while Perry climbs out and follows him stage left. Then we head to the Bust'em Van as Candace comes in her cowboy hat and asks about getting enough footage; and we see Fifi and Lulu watching footage of the entire thing as I discover that Lulu and Candace have matching cellphones. So Lulu calls her station manager while Candace calls Linda claiming that this will be different. Oh; it will be different Candace; only not in this show and then you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Sadly; I will not be ranting on said episode. So we continue as we head into the street with Doof stealing a bicycle from some male kid and riding it; while Perry chases him on a skateboard and is more over on that for thirty seconds than Kick Buttowski was for most of his career. That's sad folks. The girl comes up as Perry paid her $20 for the skateboard too. Well; how nice; I just hope it's for a new skateboard because I will be sad if it is for a doll. So we cut back to Candace and Lulu outside the van as Lulu proclaims that this will give her a second season for sure. Remember that at this point; Disney was a few days away from announcing a second season of Phineas & Ferb; so nice inside joke by the writers. So Doof and Perry whiz past Candace and Lulu with their backs turned and instead of ignoring them; they turn around and do not see the huge torando Doof made earlier destroy the entire thing. I betcha a million dollars that the whole thing causes no damages whatsoever, and makes even less sense than the Ferris Wheel. And damn it to hell; if I'm not right.
So Linda arrives in her car and parks in the driveway. The station manager car arrives as a black man comes out wearing a green suit, brown pants and glasses with a red tie. Lulu is so giddy to show him what happened as they walk into the backyard and of course they all blow it off because it's Phineas & Ferb sitting in front of the tree. Lulu stammers like an idiot as Candace does the "welcome to my world" promo which was lifted from Shego from Kim Possible; and then Lulu actually remembers that they still have the tapes and they can still Bust'em; as they do this secret handshake which involves three fist bumps and saying "bust them!" three times. Linda and the station manager are not amused by this (Welcome to my world sir and madam!) as Lulu and Candace run off. Linda claims this happens almost every day and the SM is not feeling it; but it's coming soon. Fifi, Lulu, Candace run to the sidewalk; and then there is more stammering because the white van is gone. Jeepers; we are screwed up! See what I..you know...So we see that it was Doofen who stole the van because Fifi left the keys in the van like an idiot. So the chase is on and Doofen crosses the intersection with ease. Perry is chasing Doof on the skateboard; but then the lights turn red and Perry stops at the line. Doofen mocks him for being a good law-abidding babyface which is dumb...and then it becomes worth it because then the tornado arrives and it vacuums Doofenshmirtz into the vortex with ease, and he curses Perry despite the fact that Doof was the one who created the tornado in the first place. Now that was a great finish as we head back to a far shot of the front of the house as Linda asks how Phineas & Ferb are doing and Phineas mimics everything Candace mouths off sarcastically (Candace, not Phineas) as Ferb claims that he'll never wear suspenders in public which would have been cute if anyone wore suspenders in this episode. Oh; and Perry somehow has teleported into Phineas' hands despite being at least five blocks away from the house.
So Linda asks if anyone wants some pie and Candace is fine with that as we jump cut to Candace and Lulu sitting on the step as Candace sezs that now you feel my pain; and then offers Lulu some of her pie. Okay so we go to the ED as we cut back to the tornado as we see the white van twirling around in the tornado as Doof proclaims that he's getting dizzy. So he tries to turn into the tornado and that actually shakes it off and the van free falls. Now; remember the wife who got squashed about five minutes ago. Well; in a span of five minutes, the farmer's husband (he is voiced by Corey Burton while the wife you know as Liz Hughes) bought a van rental place which is made of stone next to the bunny farm complete with balloons. Okay; this makes sense that the farmer sold the bunny farm for this, but in FIVE minutes?! If I were the wife; I would complain more about the logic of this then the actual sale of said bunny farm. Then we hear a falling sound as a shadow of a van is over the wife's head (oh lord don't do that!) and she invokes the LEGAL HAND OF GOD and sezs not one word calmly. Then we fade to black and hear a crash which ends the episode at 9:30 approx (and that includes the ED). This episode was rushed like hell and it shows because it was an absolute logical mess with no subtley and it made everyone look stupid including the two main event kids this company is pushing to the moon! The Doof/Perry stuff was actually acceptable with a neat finish; but the farmer's wife/husband shtick is terrible and if this becomes a trend every episode; then they are asking for trouble. Phineas's idea was fine, Doof/Perry was fine; but everything else sucked. ** (40%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Wow; I wasn't expecting this from Phineas & Ferb this early; but they managed. My problem with these episodes is not that the ideas are repeated over and over again. A lot of shows do that and many of them get higher ratings and money than even this show does. I mean Greece Lightning was one of the best racing theme episodes in the modern era; but people loved it way too much and thus every show did them without actually improving the formula and then did multiple episodes of the same thing thinking the kids would never get sick of it. Even kids are going to notice that you conned them into it; so why bother trying to do the same thing or worse? Either improve the plotline; or do something else that makes the same amount of money or even more so. The biggest problems with Greece Lightning wasn't the plot itself or even the chariot race; it was the mistiming of spots (the fish market bumps with Candace), routines that were done to death before (How many times must execs realize that the carwash spot is overplayed that it should be retired?) and several jokes not paid off every well. Doof/Perry was fine as usual; but the Buford/Baljeet thing had funny spots; but no heel heat from Buford since it was a No DQ match anyway. Leave The Busting To Us had a decent idea on paper, a decent project by Phineas which I did like and Candace's plan was a good one to put some heat on Phineas and Ferb. So in that context; good job. The Perry/Doof stuff was funny and the finish was a good one for them; but everyone else was not good. Phineas & Ferb look so dense and dumber as the episode went on (and they are your main eventer babyfaces and they look like idiots); and there were logic breaks. Plus I found the entire wife/husband angle to be offensive and stupid all at the same time. You expect me to believe that you cannot show a female getting squashed by a 10,000 pound car; but you can show her getting squashed by a 10,000 pound of bunny rabbits in a basket? I'm supposed to laugh at her for pointing out how stupid the male farmer was and then the male farmer looks more concerned with the apology then helping her because she got murdered by a basket filled of bunny rabbits?! These two shorts are prime examples of what the critics are talking about when they hate this show: jokes aren't paid off properly, no care is taken to make sure that the main eventers do not look like total idiots and really horrifying sexism on top of it! Look; annoying voices are nothing. Phineas does do more than one emotion. I can relate to him because he's a creative type of guy; not because of emotion. Candace is a trooper, Lawerence is dense but likable so far and Linda's fine. However; Phineas & Ferb looked like idiots in this episode. That's why sometimes; this show sucks. I just hope Unfair Science Fair and it's Redux version blows the roof off this joint next because I felt like I was watching a different show today. So....
Thumbs down for both shorts and I'll see you all next time.