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Phineas & Ferb: Sidetracked
Reviewed: 03/15/2014
...Due To Faulty Logic & Being In Canada!
Welcome everyone to Season 4 of Phineas & Ferb; via the Mission Marvel DVD. So for today's ranting, we'll be starting with episode #182 (4-06) on the animation paper with a Canadian episode because in Canada, you can still do stereotypes and instead of being outraged; you apologize for it...allegedly. Here's the Phineas Wikia's summary of the episode: Agent P teams up with a former partner, a human agent named Lyla, to stop a hijacked train running along the US/Canadian border. In a past mission, they had a falling out, so Agent P must decide whether or not he can trust Lyla and her unique sense of logic to get them through the mission, defeat Doofenshmirtz and save the train's passengers and Canada's national treasure - a moose named Albert. Just remember something: episodes that are set in Canada are nothing new; and were done way before Fairly Oddparents made a mockery of the country. In fact; I have ranted on an episode with a Canadian setting with Gargoyles; and I think Timon & Pumbaa went to Canada at some point in their show. Let's rant on shall we...?!
Sidetracked is written and storyboarded by Kaz, Kim Roberson, Aliki Theofilopoulos-Grafft and John Mathot. Story is done by Scott Peterson and Dani Vetere. Direction is done by Robert F. Hughes and Sue Perrotto. Dani has only five credits besides Phineas & Ferb: University Place, Robot Boy, 30 Rock, The Marriage Ref and Metalocalypse. Phineas & Ferb is her only DTVA appearance and most recent credit. Sue on the other hand started in 1991 as an animator working for Michael Sporn doing various shorts and television movies including Whitewash. Outside of Mr. Sporn; she started with The Head in 1994 and then Downtown, Sheep In The Big City, Codename: Kids Next Door, Beavis & Butthead, Squirrel Boy, Chowder, Camp Lazlo!, The Mighty B!, Daria, Mega XLR and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy among others. She also did some animation work for several Winnie The Pooh productions in 2002 and 2004. The Replacements is her DTVA debut with Phineas & Ferb as her most recent credit. She has 27 animation credits, six direction credits, three actress credits, three second unit credits, 2 art credits, one visual effects credit and two other credits to her resume. Animation is done by Wang Films.
We begin this one AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) at the Seattle Space Needle and then pan down with the usual rock music in the background; plus some overpasses and a crescent moon. We then go to an alleyway to see a donut delivery truck driving stage left. It stops in front of an abandoned warehouse. A wall explodes creating a hole and out comes two masked fatass robbers and one of them is screwed up because he's wearing his mask on his nose rather than above his nose. We see a thinner masked man driving the donut truck push something and we see a long steel arm pushing up the donut mascot and it turns into a magnet like shape. I discover that it's pinchers to grab the robotic parts which the thieves stole from the warehouse. So it gets pinched and loaded into the back of the truck; the thieves get into the front and they drive way. We pan over to Perry (complete with jingle) as he puts a helmet on to replace his fedora hat and is now driving a motorcycle. What a shock?! So Perry rides and we do the car chase of doom and is noticed by the thin thug; so he invokes the donut pinchers to whack some out of nowhere oil barrels which Perry dodges easily. What was the point of doing a logic break (Who leaves oil barrels on an overpass?) when he was going to dodge that move anyway? Why not just have him dodge the pinchers? Same thing basically. So this motorcycle's backside has yellow colored lasers which shoot the back of the door open where the other two thugs are stationed. One of them uses a crowbar to unhook the garage door to let it drop on Perry; which was pretty smart as a spot; but Perry moved away. And then we chase into the mountains as the backgrounds looks gorgous; almost like Bravely Default actually. So they go through the weakest border crossing ever; which is like a security booth you get at a parking lot. I just realized that despite being Canadian; the mountie doesn't know one French word at all since he yells at both the truck goons and Perry in English. That doesn't surprise me. So there is more unloading and dodging going on as Perry uses the grappling hook gun onto the back and he has won...
...or not. The reason for that is: A another motorcycle comes in next to Perry's motorcycle and flashes her badge which has COWCA on it; meaning it's the Canadian branch of the OWCA. Apparently; Perry is out of his jurisdication; therefore she will take over as the pincher arm is swinging wildy. We get more breakage as the pincher arm comes off and drops to the ground as the female agent who reveals herself with brown hair and a motorcycle suit which after the villains manage to escape this; she is wearing jeans, a black vest and a grey shirt with boots on. YIOW! So Perry is not happy with this and tries to start up his motorcycle again; but then the monitors come up as Monogram orders Perry to stand down because he is in Canadian jurisdication; which means in Karl speak "Our hands are tied"; which Monogram uses the monitor to bump into Karl's monitor circle in order to blow him off. The female agent has the look of like she really did screw up and apologizes to Perry. Perry chitters and teases running Lyla over with the motorcycle; but then turns around and drives away towards the border. So; Lyla Lolliberry is voiced by Samantha Bee and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Bee has been a correspondent for The Daily Show since July 10, 2003.[4] On that program, Bee has demonstrated an ability to coax people into caricaturing themselves—particularly in segments like "Kill Drill", on hunters and fossil fuel executives claiming to be environmentalists;[5] "They So Horny"[6] on the dearth of Asian men in U.S. pornography; "Tropical Repression," on Ed Heeney, a Florida politician running his campaign based on opposition to gay rights;[7] "The Undecided", an over-the-top look at the infamous undecided voters leading up to the 2004 U.S. presidential elections; and "Samantha Bee's So You Want To Bee A..." report series, which humorously caricatures the way in which one can easily obtain a certain job, like becoming a 527 group, and a segment entitled "NILFs" ("News I'd Like to F#@k"), discussing the sexiness of news anchors: "CNN has the wholesome girl-next-door NILFs, the kind you can bring home to meet your mother.
MSNBC has the dirty-over-30 NILFs. Fox has the filthy NILFs who will report anything. They're the Hustler of NILFs."[8] Bee played the title role in a live action production of Sailor Moon at the Canadian National Exhibition[9] and has had guest appearances on several television shows. She had her first starring role in a feature film in 2004 with the Canadian independent film Ham & Cheese, alongside veteran Canadian comics Scott Thompson and Dave Foley. In December 2005, on The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly used a clip of Bee from The Daily Show as an example of "The War on Christmas", presenting it as having aired recently. The satirical clip featured Bee mentioning how Christmas was the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday in the United States, with O'Reilly talking about "Secular Central...excuse me, Comedy Central".[10][11] Jon Stewart discussed this on the air, claiming he could not recall doing that piece. Stewart invited Bee out, and unlike in the clip that aired on Factor, Bee was visibly eight months pregnant. Though the two were coy insofar as explicitly mentioning her pregnancy, Bee joked it was obvious that the footage O'Reilly showed was a year old (it originally aired in 2004) because she had slightly different highlights in her hair, before stating that her water had just broken.[12] Bee was the sole female correspondent on The Daily Show from 2006 until the debut of Kristen Schaal in March 2008. She was The Daily Show's first non-U.S. citizen correspondent. Bee was recognized with a 2005 Canadian Comedy Award for Best Female TV Performance for her work on The Daily Show. In 2009, she appeared in the original cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore.[13] That same year, she had a cameo role in the comedy Whatever Works, written and directed by Woody Allen.
Bee authored the book I Know I Am, But What Are You?,[1] which was published in 2010.[14] She is currently developing a sitcom about a celebrity chef with her husband Jason Jones.[15] In 2012, she appeared in Ken Finkleman's series Good God as Shandy Sommers, a devoutly Christian cable news host, She now plays a role in the cartoon series Bounty Hunter. On January 20, 2008, Bee finished as the highest scoring celebrity in the CBC game show Test The Nation. She had a minor role in Episode 15, Spy Something or Get Out, of Little Mosque on the Prairie. Bee also appeared in the 12th episode of Season 20 of Law & Order ("Blackmail", episode 445), which aired on January 15, 2010. She played a minor role on an episode of the HBO series Bored to Death. Bee appeared as herself on the "Madame President" episode of The Electric Company in which she moderated a debate between two candidates Lisa Heffenbacher and Francine Carruthers running for president of a book club. Later in the show, she appeared as a newscaster announcing the election results finally choosing Lisa to be the winner. Samantha also did a guest voice role of a talk show hostess named Pam in the Season 2 finale of Bob's Burgers as well as providing the voice for Lyla Lolliberry for two episodes in Season 4 of Phineas and Ferb. She started her career as a neighbour in Real Kids, Real Adventures in 2000. Phineas & Ferb is her DTVA debut and only appearance. Deadbeat (Darcy) and Learning How to Drive (Debbie) is her most recent credits. She has 30 acting credits, 16 Self credits to her resume. She also wrote and directed Not This But This in 2008. The Canadian Border Crossing Guard Who Cannot Speak French is voiced by Rino Romano and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!) ; is an Italian-Canadian voice actor who has portrayed Batman in the animated TV series The Batman, Spider-Man in the animated TV series Spider-Man Unlimited, Eduardo Rivera in Extreme Ghostbusters, Luis Sera in Resident Evil 4, and the original Tuxedo Mask in the English dub of the anime series Sailor Moon.
Romano currently provides voice narration for the PBS series Curious George, as well as previews on NBC. He began his career in the short Snow as Lewis in 1983 and then Sing as Blade in 1989; and then a few cameos in live action and cartoons in Canada before appearing in Sailor Moon. Gargoyles: Goliath Chronicles as Gang Leader is his DTVA debut believe it or not. Skylanders: SWAP Force as Scorp is his most recent credit. He has 95 acting credits (75% of them in Canadian productions) and 10 Self credits to his resume. Additional voices were done by Jason Jones. Jason according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): In September 2005, Jones joined the Daily Show cast as a contributor. When his wife left the show in late December for family leave, Jones was promoted to a full-time correspondent. Thereafter, he won a significant following at The Daily Show, thanks to a few pieces on the Denmark cartoons, Carl Monday, and Laguna Beach. Before Rob Corddry left The Daily Show he said, "Jason Jones has raised the bar too high. I just can’t say the things he says to people."[1] His exposé on the real values of Wasilla, Alaska remains one of the most popular pieces on the Daily Show website. Jones and Bee each continue to appear on the show as senior correspondents. In June 2009, Jones was sent to Tehran just prior to the controversial 2009 presidential election.[2][3] Jones' reports in Iran included an interview with Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was arrested after the disputed June 2009 presidential elections. During Bahari's time in prison, his interrogators charged him with espionage and used Jones' interview as evidence against him. It was later clarified by Bahari that the charges were fabricated.[4] Jones has also done various television work with his Canadian sketch comedy troupe The Bobroom, and was the host of Craft Corner Deathmatch on the Style Network in 2005.
He also co-wrote, co-starred in, and co-produced the 2004 film Ham & Cheese, with fellow Bobroom alumnus Mike Beaver; the film was nominated for six Canadian Comedy Awards in 2005. He has also had minor roles in numerous feature films – such as the 2003 Public Domain, also starring Don McKellar, the 2002 Syfy original film, Terminal Invasion and Nicole DeBoer – and appeared in the TV show Queer as Folk.[5] He has also appeared on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother playing "Tony". Jones has appeared twice on the NBC series Law & Order as Len Pewels, host of the fictional Len Pewels' America. Jones is currently working on a CBS sitcom about a celebrity chef (to be played by Jones), with his wife, Samantha Bee.[6] They starred as husband and wife in a movie entitled "Cooper's Camera" (USA "Cooper's Christmas"), in which their Christmas was recorded on a brand new (1985, at the time) camera. Jones did further work in a series of television advertisements, including a series for beer brand Molson, and appearing as Greg Gregger in Budweiser's short films The Best Man and The Company Man, as well as in some 30-second commercials. Jones had a supporting role in the 2009 movie All About Steve. In early 2010, he starred in a sitcom pilot for ABC called How to be a Better American, but it was not picked up as a series. He also made a cameo appearance in the 2012 movie Pitch Perfect. He began his career in Midnight Temptations as Gabriel in 1995. Phineas & Ferb is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Rosewater (Jason Jones) and Hot Tub Machine 2 (Gary Winkle) are his most recent credits. He has 56 acting credits, 10 self credits, eight writing credits (SketchCom, The Itch, The Bobroom, Comedy Now!, Ham & Cheese, The Bobroom 2004 edition, Cooper's Camera and Shotgun Harley), and three other credits to his resume. Yeah; that's all for voices today.
So it's a blue sky and two months later in red letters; but this show screws up because it should have a hyperactive narrator instead of none since the joke is supposed to be a rib on Spongebob Squarepants time elapsed narration sequences which use a weird sounding deadpan narrator. No matter how crappy the new Spongebob Squarepants gets; the deadpan narrator is a cheap laugh; cost them nothing and at least assures that I as an adult will laugh at the episode for once. So we head to the STOCK FOOTAGE OF DOOM and then to Phinea's bedroom as Perry is set down on his feet on the floor as Phineas greets Perry and Ferb sezs good morning to him as well. Perry walks down the stairs as we overhear Candace proclaiming that she would clean the bathroom if she fails to bust the boys today with Linda countering that she is supposed to do that anyway. So Candace wants to shake hands on the deal. Perry ignores it and walks outside to the backyard as we hear Buford and Baljeet talking about how socialism works in roundabout terms as they talk about mixed ecomonies and roles played by both private and government. In other words; Canada. I like this. I should point out that the camera is positioned and pans in a way that we never see the humans' face; just their bodies. Isabella comes in and does her "What'ca doing?" catchphrase on Perry as Perry walks out of the backyard and then hides. He becomes Agent P and finds the nearest tree which contains a hidden trapdoor inside the trunk. Tiiiimmmmmmbbbbeeeerrr~! The trees crushes into the conveniently placed blue car which gets destroyed and the alarms go off. Agent P cringes before hopping into the tree trunk; and closes the hatch. So we head to OWCA headquarters as Perry plops down from the ceiling into his chair in front of the computer. Just seven more episodes left before I won't have to write that sentence again. Major Monogram is on the monitor as he informs us that Doctor Doofensmirtz is boarding a train which is carrying precious Albert The Moose as we get a graphic of it on-screen from Karl.
Yes folks; he is considered in this world, Canada's prized animal. I thought it was Benny The Beaver who was Canada's prized animal? Never mind; let's moo-ve on. See what I did there? I don't know if I had the talk before about this. However; Canadian stereotypes do not get me all hot and bothered because the only ones complaining about it are intentionally trying to get offended just to get attention that they never earned. Considering all the offensive stereotypes used by the media in the past and present (and probably future at this rate) and their history; Canadian stereotypes are awfully low on the offensive scale. So low that there is a risk of acting like jerk just for merely pointing them out. My point is that false equivalence rules that Canadian stereotypes are not even in the same universe of offense as stereotyping women, gays, blacks, Jews, Japanese, Chinese etc. So getting your panties in a wad over it is pointless and anyone trying to should just man up and save themselves the trouble. If Vancouver 2010 can laugh at Canadian stereotypes; then not doing so makes you look like a whiner. Anyhow; Monogram wants Perry to prevent Doofensmirtz from trying to kidnap Albert the moose because if he does; Canada Day celebrations are ruined and the country will go into civil war. Riiiigggghtttttt Monogram. Karl has screwed up the background to make it as if you are wearing moose antlers. I cannot take anything you say seriously. This reasoning sucks! I mean; if you are going for a Canadian stereotype, why not have Doofensmirtz's team from the old country vs. Team Canada in a hockey game at the World Championships. If Canada loses; then the country devolves into civil war. Considering how Vancouver reacted to the Stanley Cup finals in 2011; that would make more sense as a heelish thing for Doofensmirtz to do. No one in Canada gives two craps about Albert The Moose; not even those in Alberta. See what I did there?
Anyhow; the stereotype of Canadians having a civil conversation of secession occurs. Which is usually Alberta, Quebec and the Cape Breton portion of Nova Scotia. Monogram blows off Karl for the antlers' joke as Karl apologizes and we grey screen fully for Monogram as he tells Perry that the train is running between the Canadian/American border; and I betcha $10 that it is running parallel with the train literally split in half between the American side of the train and the Canadian side of the train. Anyhow; Perry must remain on the American side of the train because they are out of jurisdication otherwise which makes no sense in itself since they have been out of that for years on this show without problems. How is Canada any different? The only reason you are doing it so you can give the excuse to have Agent P be forced to have a partner for his assistance which so happens to be Lyla which we see beside a maple syrup tree which is tapped for maple syrup. Monogram also informs us about the sting operation two months ago and expects Agent P to be professional and put it all behind him. Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah; Bad Tidings from Darkwing Duck. So Perry has a chair unicycle and wheels over to the white rocket plane and he gets in and flies away. We cut back to Monogram telling Karl to put the antlers back on and Karl does that. Monogram then squeals with glee over this after blowing off Karl earlier on. So we head to the border of Canada/USA and the train of doom as Perry's rocket plane makes it on the right side of the train as he swings like Tarzan from the rocket plane; and then that is screwed up as Lyla swings at the same time and they get tangled up; but still land on the train perfectly. Lyla greets Perry by squeezes his cheek like a lame aunt and Perry slaps her hands away. Lyla invokes the lesson of "working alone doesn't work and you need backup" speech which Perry gleefully ignores and uses a blowtorch to cut open a hole in the ceiling and he jumps down on this own. He lands in the diner section of the train right in the table where Doofensmirtz is eating fries and a club sandwich while wearing a white/blue train conductor hat. Pfft!
Perry tries to get onto the table; but Doofensmirtz proclaims that he is trapped...by the social contract of being in a fancy restaurant. HAHA! Wow; OWCA agents are bound by laws and actually obeys them. The FBI must be laughing at them by now. I'm sure some of them have cartoon Smiley Whiplash porno mustaches to twirl around too. So down comes Lyla beside him and she realizes that she cannot do anything because of the social contract. So Doofensmirtz taunts Perry for hating the fact that he has to do an international team up; because he is a loner see. Lyla half embraces Perry claiming that Perry is warming up to the idea; which Perry is not amused by and Doofensmirtz looks like he's figured out that this is not the case at all. So Lyla asks about why he is here in Canada and Doofensmirtz explains that he is part of an U.S./Canada evil scheme exchange programme because he's evil or something. Doofensmirtz explains that he gives a scheme to someone in Canada and the Canadian does Doofensmirtz's scheme; while Doofensmirtz does the Canadian's scheme. Sounds easy enough to follow as Lyla tries to steal Doofensmirtz's fries like a heel; but Doofensmirtz smacks the hand away. So Doofensmirtz has a math quiz for us. Lovely! And here's the math quiz Doofensmirtz has for our "heroes"...
Doofensmirtz: If a train carrying Precious Albert the Moose left British Columbia at eight o'clock in the morning, going eighty mile per hour, what time would it arrive at the Canada Day celebration? Answer? Never! Because I've tied up the conductor, and taken control of the train using my remote control Train-Operator-inator! Right now we are all headed to my scheme exchange partner's secret fortress.
Yeap; it's another remote control joystick device because Doofensmirtz is too lazy to control the train himself. I guess he wants to be discreet about it. So Layla tries to steal his fries again; and Doofensmirtz smacks her hand away and blows her off; telling her that he'll get the waiter to let her order some for yourself. Lyla demands to know who this exchange partner's name is as I realize that there is Canadian maple leaves decorated on Doofensmirtz's side so they are in Canadian jurisdication now. Wonder how that will come into play? Doofensmirtz proclaims that it's either Sir Railing or Dr. Stairway depending on what mood Doofensmirtz was in when he first made contact with his exchange partner. Lyla realizes that it's Professor Bannister who we discover is Lyla's arch-foe in COWCA. So yes folks; in the COWCA, they hire humans while in OWCA, they hire animals. So the implication is that OWCA is too cheap to hire humans. Boy; my opinion of Major Monogram just went down about two notches with this revealation. Lyla asks for gravy on the fries and Doofensmirtz blows her off and wants her to leave his lunch alone. Yeah; get thee your own lunch Lyla! Even super villains need to eat you know. So basically; he's stealing the moose for Mr. Bannister to ruin Canada Day, blah, blah, blah. He calls it crazy and Lyla disagrees as she successfully steals a french fry and eats it. Doofensmirtz is not happy about this as he points out the obvious thievery of these two agents pretending to be babyfaces doing a heelish thing; and he is going to lose it. So Perry joins in on the act. Okay; I get the joke here, but it's not all that funny. So Perry smashes the fries which never lose their shape at all as Doofensmirtz yells at them to stop this stupidity; and then he gets up, bangs on the table and screams at them to get their own damn lunch.
Everyone in the train just stops and looks at Doofensmirtz in a stunned manner as a female stands up and has had enough; and wants to break up with her boyfriend in a very loud manner! So everyone starts yelling at each other as the waiter is yelling as well claiming that he cannot take being a waiter. Geez; Kefka was a lot more elegant about that joke. Doofensmirtz blows off the two agents for breaking out of the trap as I finally realize this was the punchline of the social contract joke. That's entrapment by the way and an abuse of authority by these two agents. So Doofensmirtz runs off as Lyla wants that inator; which Doofensmirtz "corrects" her; because he has a Eastern European accent. So Doofensmirtz runs into the next car and yes; the conductor is tied up in the background in a seat as Doofensmirtz trips and falls on his face. At first; I thought this was a screwup because I thought that Doofensmirtz tripped on nothing and was yelling at the conductor for sticking out his legs; despite the fact that his legs were inside the seat and thus couldn't have made contact with Doofensmirtz in anyway. However; this was clearly intentional and Doofensmirtz was blaming his own ability to be clumsey on the conductor. HAHA! So Lyla and Perry are in and proclaim that this is the end of the line for Doofensmirtz. Doofensmirtz apparently hates train metaphors and then gets whacked by Perry as the device goes flying and Perry grabs it. So Lyla is like the little child who wants big brother to share with him; but big brother refuses to yield to him, so the device pops out of their hands and Doofensmirtz gets the device back with ease. D'OH! Doofensmirtz proclaims that he thinks Perry doesn't want to team up with Lyla; but Perry smacks him down to the ground in response anyway; which Lyla claims that he's warming up to it. Riiiiiigggghhhhttttt Lyla! I got a bridge in Porters Lake I would like to sell to you.
So then we get a really stupid spot here because it's completely screwed up: Perry is about to go for the kill; but Lyla wants him to stop because Perry is about to punch Doofensmirtz in the face while in Canadian jurisdication. Here's the obvious problem: Doofensmirtz's body is clearly in American jurisdication, so even if his upper body and head is in Canada; Doofensmirtz can still get punched in the midsection -- which is more legal in a children's cartoon than in the face -- and still follow proper protocol. Oh come on guys! The proper joke would be for Perry to hit him in the gut. But no; Perry looks around for a bit and then pushes Doofensmirtz's body (which is still in American jurisdication) to the right so Doofensmirtz's head is in American jurisdication and punches him in the face. Look; I'm glad that BS&P has lighten up on shots to the head, but that is still lame. So Doofensmirtz gets back to the middle as Lyla comes in and tries to punch Doofensmirtz in the face; but Doofensmirtz dodges the shot to the right and then dodges one from Perry. Rinse, Lather, Repeat. This has to end with Doofensmirtz being in the middle and getting punched in both sides of the face. That symbolism has to be there; otherwise the writers have lost their minds. But no; Doofensmirtz stops at America and gets punched in the face by Perry. Doofensmirtz is pissed and we have the FCC FRIENDLY CLOUDDUST FIGHT OF DEATH. On a train. With the conductor tied up and gagged. Lyla and Doofensmirtz are rolling around as Lyla punches him for revenge with William Hull and the War of 1812. Wait a minute?! I thought Canada WON the War Of 1812?! Second; William Hull ran like a scalded dog when he tried to invade Canada; so, what was the point of Lyla wanting revenge? She even tells the kids to look it up breaking the fourth wall. I hope the kids don't; because I would be sad if they turned on Lyla for lying to them about The War of 1812; because Lyla made it sound like the Americans won when they didn't. Then we go off-screen for a while as Lyla wants Perry to handcuff Doofensmirtz and somehow they end up in the same seat with the tied up conductor as Doofensmirtz bails into the unisex bathroom which the sign has the male and female wearing hockey gear. Pfft; whatever.
So Lyla demands that Doofensmirtz come out and surrender; but it's occupied so Lyla apologizes. Geez; what a shock that is? Doofensmirtz comments how the bars of soap make his hands look big and then the sign is changed to vacant and the door is opened. Doofensmirtz is gone as Perry goes to the window while Lyla complains that Doofensmirtz left the toilet seat up. I don't recall this joke being exclusively Canadian; so what was the point of that? So we see Doofensmirtz on the roof of the train and taunts Perry as he climbs up. Lyla climbs up after Agent P and somehow when they are chasing Doofensmirtz; Perry is suddenly way behind Lyla. Either Agent P is getting out of shape, or that is a huge gaping logic break. So we go to the train track fork which the train takes the right side (so I'm guessing that it's in Canadian jurisdication fully now) as it sways Lyla over the edge and she's hanging on for dear life. She calls for Agent P for help as Perry extends his arm and Lyla grabs it; which causes Perry to be thrusted over the edge and they fall. They tumble onto the ground next to the train tracks somewhere in a wheat field; so they are somewhere outside of Moosejaw. See what I did there? Lyla does what Canadian stereotypes do is apologize in the most non-apologetic way (my bad); and then notices the conveniently placed old hand car which is not on the train tracks. She has a Krackpotkin plan and we scene change to the hand car already on the tracks. Ummm; yeah. So we have the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM as we spend over two minutes of Perry acting like a complete fool; and I just realized that Lyla is singing and it sounds just like a Teddy Ruxpin song. So we do the handcar spot for a while and then when it goes down the hill; it turns into a Phineas & Ferb type song as Perry actually smiles for the first time in a long time. Handstands, tunnels, bridges and pumping the handcar. Not much to say about that one. I kind of liked it better if she stayed in the Teddy Ruxpin singing style; because that is a great soundout to the Teddy Ruxpin cartoon series which was produced in Canada.
So we go back inside the train as we head into the passenger part of the train to see a dark skinned man with black hair in a grey suit, red tie, grey pants and black shoes noticing the conductor's hat of Doofensmirtz and asks about the fact that the train hasn't stopped at any stations as of yet. Doofensmirtz props his elbow against the top of the seat and asks if that is a fact. Ummm; yip. He addresses him as Straphanger which would have made more sense if there are a strap hanging around for him to grab. Doofensmirtz asks where the next stop is and Straphanger claims that it's the next one. Doofensmirtz then asks him to come to the door; which requires a scene changer for no reason. So we are at the door as Doofensmirtz asks about the wife cooking tonight and Straphanger claims that they are having asparagus tips; which Doofensmirtz calls classy; and then asks about the entree which is Nova Scotia salmon. And yes folks; there is such a thing; it even has an activist group in Nova Scotia. So the door opens and Doofensmirtz proclaims that this is his stop; so he kicks Straphanger's ass and he tumbles down the hill (loses his briefcase with papers in it to boot); then breaks a wooden fence, tumbles up the slide and then down the tube spiral slide; and then tumbles and rolls into the house which he flips up and lands perfectly into his seat at the finished dinner table as a blond haired female wearing a white shirt and green skirt arrives with bread cubes. At least that is what I thought I saw. The wife asks about him being early and the dark skinned man claims that the conductor said hi to her. Ooookkkkaaayyyy. So we return to the train from the outside side shot as a blond haired man with glasses on starts the Superman "It's a bird! It's a plane!" promo only it involves the handcar with Perry and Lyla. They bring out their cellphones to take pictures of it.
So we head further into an empty passenger car of the train which looks like something out of a Japanese train (which actually explains why the engine has no rear wheels and thus it is floating); and Doofensmirtz is walking and we hear the jingle in a more muffled voice as it came from his cellphone. So he brings out his cellphone which looks like a mobile phone from Samsung and looks at it as there is a reminder of a platypus video that is trending on Coub; I guess. And we see Perry/Lyla using the mancar which shocks Doofensmirtz as Perry jumps in; grabs onto the strap hanger and nails Doofensmirtz in the face with a kick. HAHA! Even funnier is that Doofensmirtz literally breakdances on his head. Doofensmirtz gets up and mocks the agents for not doing that; which he learned from the 1980's. Which I guess was the Plunder and Lightning comic book #1. So Doofensmirtz backs up under a conveniently placed opening in the roof; and uses his remote control device to create a piston to allow him to go up to the roof to the observation deck; which so happens to be flimsey red director chairs nailed to the roof. There is an old man who looks like the same guy who works in the same company I do using his binoculars. No sir; Chelsea Clinton is not here. Get over yourself and get order #4524 done for me now please! The old man blows him off because Doofensmirtz is blocking his view of Saskatchewan. Wow; I was much closer with that Moosejaw joke than I originally thought. Doofensmirtz blows him off because it's in the wrong direction. Sorry Doof; Chelsea isn't over there either. So Lyla and Perry climb up the side of the train and get in front of Doofensmirtz as Lyla orders Doofensmirtz to surrender. So Doofensmirtz holds up the remote control device and proclaims that it's the Train-Operator-inator and without it the train would be....and just as he sezs that, they go through a tunnel that is about six inches too short for Doofensmirtz and the remote control device and the remote control device smashes up and is destroyed. We go to pitch black with white eyes as he ends by saying that it's out of control. Then we head back to the backyard with the white message "Meanwhile; back in Danville..." with the same camera shot as in the beginning of the episode and this looks like an unfinished storyboard which is funny in hindsight since it only happens for 10 seconds; unlike the 22 minute episode of "An Elephant Never Suspects" in Rescue Rangers. Anyhow; we see Ferb with a wrench, Phineas with blueprints as Phineas asks where Perry is and we end the segment almost 13 and 1/4 minutes in. This is a fun episode so far; but it is really sloppier than the Gargoyles episode.
After the commercial break; we head back in the tunnel with Doofensmirtz's eyes as he talks about being afraid of the dark and would be afraid of runaway trains; but never gave them much thought. So Lyla's eyes come up from behind and she spooks Doofensmirtz as the train comes out of the tunnel and Lyla tells everyone to stay focused. So Lyla states that there must be an emergency brake in the engine car and it's time to run on the roof of the train again. Doofensmirtz is confused; but he runs with them for a while and then stops because his shoelace got untied for some reason. And unlike all those other times; Doofensmirtz's shoe lace is legit untied. Doofensmirtz pleads for Perry to wait up and they stop as Agent P has the Gruffi pose on. So we get a sequence of Doofensmirtz tying and double typing his shoes while ducking various low hanging object; but once he is ready; he falls into the conveniently opened out of nowhere hole in the roof and apparently; this is where the restroom Doofensmirtz was in and he fell right into the toilet feet first as he is grossed out and blows off the joker (Read: himself in psychological projection like a good heel would) who left the seat up. He pleas for paper towels and such to clean himself up; but Lyla and Perry simply run stage right. So Doofensmirtz pops up and takes all this as a no as we see the agents make it to the engine room of the train and they kick in the side door and enter inside. So Lyla checks underneath the controls and notices that the emergency brake is toast and thus she has to jury rig the controls; kind of like the jury rigged radio Don Karnage has in TaleSpin. Come on Lyla; you know you want to turn heel and bring your inner Karnage out in full bloom. So Doofensmirtz does the goofy secret agent entrance which did make me laugh. Doofensmirtz shuts the down and proclaims that if there wasn't a runaway train crisis; he would really read him the riot act for leaving him in the toilet bowl. So Lyla comes out after attaching the red wire and proclaims that she got it fixed....the red safety lights on the front of the train. See; the brakes are way far beyond gone now; which doesn't explain how they got toast in the first place. So Red Green of you Lyla.
So Lyla wonders how they are going to keep everyone in one place so that they can save them; including Albert The Moose, which we have yet to see outside of the graphics Monogram showed us at five minutes into this episode. Perry chitters and Lyla understands him to say that they should go in the caboose. So Lyla and Perry run off stage left as Doofensmirtz blows them off and friendship because they abandon you just when you make them; they find someone else. Such is a fickle life in reality. So we see Lyla at the transmitter switchboard which is neon green with switches and stuff as she takes the transmitter and tells the passengers not to panic; and then we see them running into the back of the train panicking like crazy. Opposite day in Canada? I'm guessing every passenger in this train watched the opposite sketches on You Can't Do That On Television. Perry shrugs his shoulders as we head to the back car of the train (the caboose) as we see a old aging male butler in his Jeeves suit and white gloves with a plate containing a tea kettle. The caboose section is rather stylish in terms of the walls and ceiling; but it's rather empty. We also get the Canadian National Anthem in the background as we finally have Albert The Moose standing there with cufflinks on his legs; and yes, he is a moose who looks like he is not amused to be on a train. Did I mention that Albert drinks tea from a cup? Did I mention that Albert licks the tea straight from the cup? Did I mention that when the crowd noise in the background is heard; Albert sprays the tea in the butler's face and somehow spits about as much liquid out of it as Fanboy in Brain Freeze? Did I mention that the butler is completely clean after this tea spraying? Yeah; that's all you need to know about this as the train passengers all run into the back with the moose as we see Lyla and Perry come in at the door (with Doofensmirtz in the back hiding) as Lyla speaks like a Canadian stereotype, eh. So Lyla explains the situation and Perry pulls up the spike from the back of the train and that separates the caboose from the rest of the train; and the caboose stops within three seconds. I am damn certain it takes more than that to stop a caboose.
Everyone in the train cheers including Doofensmirtz; and then we see protuding swords grab the sides of the caboose in which Perry gives Doofensmirtz eye contact violence. Doofensmirtz claims that it wasn't him as we cut to a far shot outside as we see a white helicopter using the cable with the JAWS OF HALF LIFE to grab the caboose and rise it into the air. So we see Perry and Lyla go to the open door and look up to see the undercarriage has the name in red letters with a white background: "Bannister Evil Enterprises". Lyla realizes who it is right away and she and Perry climb up onto the roof of the caboose and bring out the grappling hook guns and fire them right at the side of the helicopter. They climb up the ropes as Doofensmirtz follows them; but then realizes that he forgot his grappling hook gun which we do a Billy Van-equse jump cut to his dresser which has the grappling hook gun right on it. Why not just climb up the cable Doofensmirtz? Which is probably how he gets up there. So we see Perry and Lyla climb into the side door of the helicopter and then we hear a squeaky Canadian voice as we see a brown haired male with glasses on who wearing a white coat, black pants, black boots and a red bat-like tie with red gloves. Truly the colors of being Canadian, eh?! His hair looks like a rib on Carrot Top by the way; only it's broccoli. I wish it was asparagus stylized, if only to pay off the Nova Scotia salmon joke earlier. Apparently; Lyla's last name is Lolliberry and I don't get why this is a sex joke or anything. It is no more unfortunately named than Gregory Weagle. Lyla blows him off since she comes from a long alliterative line of Lolliberries. Yeah; and that was all informative. I just realized that this is Professor Bannister and I just realized that he has the same voice actor as Doctor Frog aka Deranged Kermit from Fish Hooks. So this is Deranged Canuak~! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm....Bannister calls Perry a beaver and lo and behold; Doofensmirtz has climbed up into the helicopter correcting him on that. Doofensmirtz approaches Bannister who has the Gruffi pose on; which I cannot take seriously with that haircut of his. He also has purple fuzzy dice in the front of the helicopter. I don't think that is a Canadian stereotype either. So Doofensmirtz embraces Bannister and asks how he managed to pull it off so quickly; since Doofensmirtz's plans last all day. So Bannister pushes Doofensmirtz's arm off and decides to tell him anyway. Well; if you are a Canadian stereotype, I guess you have to be considerate about it...
So we HIT THE FLASHBACK~! We head to the lookoff of Doofensmirtz Evil Inc. as Bannister is already at yet another laser device with a neon green on/off switch. Bannister flicks the switch and then walks away. We return to reality (no, not really) and that's the best flashback ever! Or maybe not as Doofensmirtz asks about monologing; and Lyla cuts him off because she has had enough of backstories. Geez; what a rude Canadian this Lyla is? Don't you know a Canadian stereotype is supposed to have the personality of Teddy Ruxpin? Anyhow; Doofensmirtz stammers a bit and then tries to explain the difference between a backstory and a expositional flashback which he somehow doesn't screw up. So Doofensmirtz informs him that he was productive too; and has taken care of his moose problem. Well; not exactly since Bannister was the one who grabbed the caboose; but it doesn't matter because Bannister is squealing with glee about no moose and no more Canada Day; which Lyla responds with Gruffi pose...
Lyla: And you can yourself a Canadian?! [You certainly showed him up Lyla you smugass Canadian stereotype. Sadly; Bannister is much, much more awesome than you...]
Banister: Do I? You think that just because I'm polite, smell like pine needles, and over emphasize me T's, I'm Canadian? Well, you'd be wrong! Because I'm from Greenland! (Bannister tears down the coveniently placed Canadian flag hanging on the left wall, revealing the flag of Greenland. Wow. This guy is insane. I mean; why would Greenland care about him. I betcha his hairstyle is a captial offense punishable by writing op-ed's about how Carrot Top is the spawn of Satan or something like that. Cue dramatic music as Lyla and Doofenshmirtz gasp.)
Doofenshmirtz: Cool flag. (HAHA! I love this twist in the plot because country jealousy is a national past time that many people in countries do.)
Bannister: Thanks. Wait! No it's not! And that's the problem! We have no national pride! I mean listen to this: (He plays a song which sounds fine to me.) Greenland's National Anthem. Seriously! Does that inspire you to do anything other than icefish? But Canada? Oh they've got it all. The maple syrup. The national parks. The medal winning curling team. (BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I love it when the writers don't automatically go to the obvious ice hockey joke for Olympic championships. It also makes sense since this aired after Vancouver. Although it makes even MORE sense now since Sochi has ended.) And the Moose. The moose! The symbol of Canada's National Pride! Precious Albert the Moose! (Wait; I always thought that the symbol of Canadian pride was excessive apologies and bowing down as the 51st state?) What if he were to disappear? (Then he would get the job being the mascot for the Halifax Mooseheads you idiot!)
Bannister: Everyone would lapse into a deep malaise. (That is exactly what capitalist have been saying about our socialism health care system. I'm still waiting for the day when this is worse than the American system. And I'm getting impatient on that too.) Forgetting what it means to be Canadian. (Good luck on that fool. You can take the Canadian out of Canada; but you cannot take the Canada our of the Canadian, no matter what anyone sezs. After all; we're just a bunch of Americans who are only 50% + 1 less vile and insane, so really what is this guy's problem?) I will then annex Canada to Greenland! (Why not annex Newfoundland or Cape Breton? I mean Canada is the biggest country in the world. Trying to annex that land mass is going to take many hundreds of years even with Love Muffin) Bring back Precious Albert, and reinvigorate the national pride! (Isn't that admitting that you are just doing this for crap and giggles? Because the heel always never gives back the plot device that the public loves.) And I've written a new national anthem.
Bannister:♪ Oh, Greenland, ♪
♪ Home of
things that aren't so green,♪
♪ Though we call it
Greenland.♪
♪ Shiny Greenland,♪
♪
People are very short there♪
♪ In Greenland.♪
HAHA! I admit that this one is much better than the Canadian one and lookie; no mention of God partiot love; or even "All thy sons command" bullcrap either. Perfect. Why doesn't the government of Canada just call Disney up and use this song...Oh wait; it's for Greenland. Sadly; it would have better if it sounded like the Canadian national anthem. First two lines are perfect; third line would be: "True shiny love"; fourth line would be "... in all our nerds command!" The rest of it I'll leave an exercise to the reader. Doofensmirtz than walks forward and blows off Bannister for committing the sin of breaking Love Muffin law because it is a captial crime to misrepresent your country. Memo to Doofensmirtz: Americans are jealous of us; we have to mispresent our country by not speaking Canadian when we go to America. My god; I'm having a lot more fun with this take on Canada then I ever did in Gargoyles. Doofensmirtz calls Bannister's plan way too complex and ineffective. Yeah; and it's coming from Doofensmirtz. That's a bad sign for Bannister as a heel right there. So Bannister calls this the perfect plan; and then talks to himself and it feels like something HHH did to R-Truth on RAW just to play mind games with the fans. Everyone is confused and then he rips off his coat to reveal a metal chasity belt. I giggled when this happened; but we discover that he has two robots of himself called Me + and Me -. And because of this; he is now at least 300 pounds lighter and basically a skinny nerd stereotype. Here's the obvious problem with this: opposites attract; so under that rule, they would be kissing cousins and not be able to fight the enemies of Bannister since two positives or two negative would repel and thus wouldn't stick together, and be able to fight off the enemies. This is clearly intentional because when Bannister explains how you cannot have two negatives; Doofensmirtz proclaims that you can because Bannister never met his family. HAHA!
So Lyla then notices that the robots have parts that look familiar and we discover that the parts are from...wait for it...the parts from the donut truck who was used by the three masked men that they stole in Seattle. Wow; that was so different...not. Oh; I can even see them in the corner at a round table playing cards as Doofensmirtz was surprised by this since they play cards so quietly. I guess Bannister taught them Stealth Poker. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Lyla then acts like she knew all along and let them come to Bannister which I had the same reaction as Perry had. Bannister doesn't care and orders Me+ and Me- to pounce on the agents as Lyla gets ready for the old fashion tickle...ERRR..I mean helicopter fight. Doofensmirtz instantly bails like a crowd to play cards with the goons because he hates nasty helicopter fights. So we get the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM with lots of martial art zoom ins with eye contact violence; which even Doofensmirtz gets while playing cards. We have a helicopter fight with a lot of bad selves out here. So we start the fight as everyone's shots do not even come close to making contact; like in For A Fuel Dollars More as the song claims that it's not about two helicopters fighting which they think is cool and we get a B&W shot of two anthro helicopters boxing each other with shots that make better contact. I club BS&P! Yeah; that looked better in my head too. I mean; at least make it look like the 1990's rather than the 1960's there sir. So we finally do some spots as Lyla loses her SWANK leather jacket as some of the shots are getting slightly better as Doofensmirtz throws down and wins the card game. Yes; the goofy doctor beats three jacked up thugs. So the fattest thug upends the tea table like Shiggy Miyamoto does all the time even if it's a bad idea and we get punches missing by a mile. Stop it BS&P! You cannot have punches missing when you already had dozens of punches and kicks make contact EARLIER in the episode! If you are doing it for storyline purposes; that's one thing, but this is not about story.
So Perry has the side door open and motions to Lyla (I forgot that Perry trusted Lyla in the handcar spot; so the Bad Tidings angle was aborted early. And probably for the best too.) and we head up on top of the helicopter with Perry dodging Me - and it ends with Me + trying to grab Lyla from the ceiling; but then the obvious fatal error that I called about two minutes ago approaches as Lyla moves out of the way and Me + sticks the ceiling and so does Me - outside because opposites attract of course. So we cut to Bannister sitting down on his steel chair in front of the Greenland flag and a small table with a cloth on it. And on the table is a white vase of flowers; for no reason. So Bannister panics as Lyla and Perry stalks him; and so he tears down the Greenland flag and as I discover; it's a legit flag because it covers Lyla and Perry like a piece of cloth. Bannister proceeds to jump out of the helicopter and his steel chasity belt contains the parachute. He also cuts a promo on Lyla and sezs goodbye in Danish which is one of the language spoken in Greenland. And then we get the stupidest finish I have seen in this show: As Bannister is falling down slowly; he gets plopped into a white rocket plane piloted by Agent Panda (the same guy who went rouge in It's About Time) from OWCA and Bannister jinxs Lyla (his version of the "Curse You Perry!" catchphrase Doofensmirtz's used. That in itself looked cool; but there's one problem: Bannister parachuted over Danville! I thought the Tri-State area was Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado? Because under that rule; there's no possible way that they could be anywhere near Danville since they were heading to Ontario. Idiots! So we see Lyla looking on as Bannister remembers to jinx her twice for added effect and he's gone. Lyla then notices that Perry text messaged Major Monogram to bring in reinforcements. Which would have been fine if (a) they weren't in Danville and (b) cared about the jurisdication angle since they aborted THAT in the first eight minutes of this episode. So Lyla and Perry run over to the helicopter and they fly the caboose which has been on that cable since forever. So we head to a shot of the Snowbird jets flying towards the camera and then down to Paraliment Hill in Ottawa. Canada as the Canadian flags on sticks are flying while the denizens of Canada are looking proud at Albert The Moose standing on stage which has a lot of red and little white. This is actually a really good respresentation of Canada Day celebrations; minus the moose and one of the males in a white shirt with the Canadian flag on it cheering and missing the Constitution Act by three years. I was hoping it was intentional; but no one corrects him, so the writers are stupid. And one of them has no shirt on; but the maple leaf painted on his chest. They bonk heads; and I was hoping that they chop each other just to complete the cycle of Canadian wrestling stereotypes; but it doesn't happen. They get knocked out though and they deserve it. If you headbutt someone like that and not know that Canada was born in 1867; you deserve whatever concussion and dementia you get from it.
So we go to a sky shot and pan over as we see the thugs in handcuffs hauled into the COWCA truck and we see the officer change from an American police officer outfit to a RCMP Canadian mountie all in a space of ten seconds. So we wrap this case up with Lyla admitting that she planned all of this and put a tracker on the truck; which means she was faking it all along. Agent P don't care and chitters with glee with Lyla on their teamwork skills. So then Major Monogram and Karl arrive as they praise the agents for keeping good relations with the neighbours to the north as Doofensmirtz tries to gain credit for this mission; but no one cares about him. So Doofensmirtz asks if he could at least see Niagara Falls and Monogram doesn't see any harm to this. So we get an AFTER HAPPY HOUR shot of the falls and it looks rather neat in this era actually. The problem is with this is that Perry is not even in the shot; but Agent Panda is for some reason. And then on the close pan shot of the babyfaces; Perry is right beside Lyla and Doofensmirtz watching the falls; played to violin music. We pan over to Monogram eating a purple candycane stick as I see he stopped by one of those candy shops in Halifax. I forget it's name; but I wish he said that he bought it from Halifax, just for me. We get another a dozen scene changers; none of them mean anything which is a Wang Films trademark. I'm amazed Jolly Molly Christmas did only one scene changer for the climax towards the finish with Santa Louie and Molly. So this goes on forever; but Perry apparently shakes Doofensmirtz's hand and leaves with Lyla and Agent Panda. Then we slowly do more scene changers as Monogram and Karl leave Doofensmirtz to his thoughts.
Then after about 20 scene changers; Doofensmirtz finally walks out stage left wondering what happened to the Cloud-Magintizer-inator Bannister was using. I guess we'll never know because we cut to the exact same shot as the beginning of the episode only it's panning west as Perry walks into the backyard, and Linda and Candace are doing the same "you got to see this" spot; which fails miserably of course and Candace stammers while Linda tells her that she has to clean the bathroom. She also has pie ready as we see Phineas & Ferb looking up as Phineas asks how a cloud carried away their big idea of the day. Linda gives Candace the loofa brush as Phineas finally kneels down to camera level; thus killing the continuity of headless shots that they were shooting for as he notices Perry. Phineas grabs Perry and he sits down with Ferb as Ferb gets his contracted line of the episode and pets him. Awww! Phineas agrees with the life of leisure (pronounced differently since Ferb is British) and we finally come to the ED as we see Major Monogram standing behind a grey wall with the Greenland flag on the top right corner. Monogram then goes all Canadian on us apologizing for making fun of Greenland. I thought it was a tribute myself. I mean; none of the "insults" and "jokes" about Greenland were offensive or anything. I mean; how many Greenland jokes can you make? Seriously; I would like to know. He mentions that Thue Christiansen designed the flags in the 1980's; which is true; but there is an exact year to the flag's birth which is 1985. And then the music stops and Monogram yells at Karl to ask if this really happened and Karl can only say "According to the Internet Sir". HAHA! Except that there are citations in the Wikipedia entry that officially confirm this; so Monogram is a stuck up old fart, as he continues on saying that they have national pride and are not short. This was supposed to be comedy and not be taken seriously. GO GREENLAND! Memo to Disney: If you need a disclaimer at the end of the show just to say that you didn't mean it; then you have admitted that it was insulting and should take the verbal beatings and criticism that you deserve. And I'm from Canada. So that ends the episode at 21:32. This was an ultra fun episode for me because while there were a lot of stereotypes of Canada present; they were presented in a twisted sort of different way. It also help when I'm Canadian and this was easy material for me. Sadly; there were a lot of logic breaks and pointless annoying stuff at the end (along with a screwed up finish) and the disclaimer at the ED really hurt the episode because it was pointless and only served to prove that Disney hates Greenland. Don't do a disclaimer spot at the end! You can get away with it at the beginning or during the Greenland spots at the climax; but not at the end when everyone from Greenland was insulted. This was much more fun than the Gargoyles story and I call it **** 1/4 (85%).
THE REVIEW LINE
So we begin Season four with a really fun Canadian episode with some witty Greenland jokes. I think the sloppiness has gotten worse as they screwed up a ton of stuff in this episode; and if the stuff they didn't screw up wasn't uber funny for me, I would have given a much lower rating than presented here. I mean; there were a lot of logic breaks, a lot of sloppy animation, Wang Film's trademark of presenting 20 scene changers in a row without any reason to use them; a dumb logic break at the finish that ruined a cool appearance of Agent Panda, and I didn't like the disclaimer at the end because no one is buying that they didn't mean to poke fun at Greenland. For two reasons: (1) the disclaimer is at the end after all the ribbing and insulting is done; so the damage was already done and (2) How many times does Greenland get the butt of jokes. If they were Newfoundland jokes; then this is more offensive. Bannister did make me laugh and gave me all the material for joke I could muster within his three minute speech on Greenland. The other problems were that the teamwork tension was killed off during the handcar sequence (although that was for the best considering how Bad Tidings went) and they completely aborted the jurisdication stuff the moment Doofensmirtz got punched in the face by Perry; and ignored it for the rest of the episode. Perry/Doof is always great to see and extending it to 22 minutes made it seen like a good idea to spinoff the series; which is always possible with Phineas & Ferb (as seen in the talk show they did); but I don't think the repetition would keep it going for too long. Above all; Perry and Doof get a good half of the original episodes already to tell their story which is probably equal to a Looney Tunes short; so 22 minute versions of it only work in small does. Overall; this was a funny episode and I'm glad the writers at least tried to make a good representation of Canadians and their traditions; but just screwed up on history. So next up is Primal Perry and then Fly On The Wall/Backyard Hodge Podge. Candace turns into a fly! Yippee! So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.