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Phineas & Ferb: Fly On The Wall/Backyard Hodge Podge
Reviewed: 03/18/2014
Hodge Podge of Flies On Walls!
So we have reached the midway point of Mission Marvel's DVD set and are now focused on the four 11 minute shorts remaining on the set. So we begin with episodes #178 (4-01a) and #185 (4-03b) on the animation paper; as Buford somehow turns Candace into a fly (with her head still human) from one of Phineas' big idea. Sadly; Doofensmirtz is suffering from evil scientists' form of writer's block. From there we see Phineas & Ferb creating an invention from past invention which causes Linda to see Phineas's big idea because she is delluisonal from baking way too many pies, which seems to be her Flanderized gimmick now. Meanwhile; Doofensmirtz realizes that one of his inators was used for good; so he creates another one to get the royality payments out of the first one. Okay; that is a unique way to get your money without suing the poor bugger. Let's rant on shall we...?!
Fly On The Wall is written and storyboarded by Akili Theofilopoulos-Grafft and John Mathot. The story is done by Jim Bernstein. Backyard Hodge Podge is written and storyboarded by the same storyboarders and writers as Fly On The Wall. The story is done by Dani Vetere. Animation is done by Wang Films.
Fly On The Wall: We begin this one with the STOCK FOOTAGE OF DOOM and then head inside Candace's room with Candace brushing her hair in front of the mirror while on her cellphone talking to Stacey. Now THAT is a run-on sentence! So we talk about Jeremy going on a date with Candace as Stacey is on her bed stomach down talking as they talk about what to wear again. We see a old rugged teddy bear and feather earrings (which are so last Tuesday according to Stacey) as we cut to the backyard with Buford, Baljeet, Isabella, Phineas, Ferb and Perry sitting down in front of the tree. Phineas points out that there is no hope for getting the parts for the zombie-robot pool table. Wait; no ninja or pirates involved? That's a really sloppy use of tropes there Phineas! Phineas takes suggestions and Buford wants to redo the rollercoaster thing again; only make it a Super Duper Rollercoaster. The rollercoaster: In this world, it's like Ernie the giant chicken in Family Guy. It's fun the first three times; but now it's stale. Unless they did what I wanted them to do which was use it to justify Peter/Ernie again with Ernie being the one running Brian over with the car. Of course it didn't happen; because it makes sense; and Seth Macfarlance is Vince Russo; only successful. Isabella suggests a portal to Venus. Sure; why not? It's not like Mars had the common stupid logic break of having air on the planet when it did not. By the way; what makes this logic break even worse: Phineas & Ferb were wearing space suit during their big idea to land on the moon using a space elevator as per the opening sequence! Baljeet blows it off because they don't make sunscreen in SPF 12 million. Oh come on Baljeet! It's not like this show cares about reality anyway. Buford still wants to really do the double-super triple-duper rollercoaster which gets no sold. Phineas proclaims that they shouldn't be making improvements on old invention and simply make a simple new invention. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's hilarious considering the next episode after this rant. Anyhow; Phineas asks about the importance of summer and we segue to Buford swinging on a tire set singing like Teddy Ruxpin.
We get the others except for the main characters singing as they show a sky background with cheese colored letters on it; but Phineas cuts them off. Oh make up your mind writers! Song or talk explanation?! When you do both; you confuse your audience and then they think you are desparate for new ideas. Buford is on the tire swing complaining as Phineas has a brain cramp. HAHA! Then he sees Buford and proclaims that it doesn't get anymore summer than a tire swing; and he knows what they are doing today. Buford then chimes in about hatching mosquitoes; which is blown off nicely. Why not say that it's flies? I mean; you already gave the entire plot away in the episode title; so it's pointless to try to hide the plot now. So Phineas asks where Perry is and we see Perry going downstairs towards the basement door. However; he opens the last stair board and plops in; but he forgets his hat is still outside on the bottom of the staircase. So he has to stop sliding; go back, grab the hat and then plop down in the chair in front of the computer at OWCA headquarters. Major Monogram is on the monitor greeting him as apparently Doofensmirtz is at the shark. Oh come on Major; you seriously think that? Monogram proclaims that he has the heebie-jeebies about it; but Karl comes in to inform us that Doofensmirtz is at the park. When you get something like that messed up badly; it's time to retire, Major! Basically; there is a change of plans; since Doofensmirtz is at the park; Perry has to stop Doof from doing what he does do. Perry is not amused; but salutes him and leaves. Karl asks about the Heebie-Jebbie scale; and apparently Karl is on the scale. At least that makes sense after Where's Perry? so it's not dumb. So we head back to the backyard as we see the kids making a giant ass tire out of rubber and metal parts. Phineas describes the tire as a swing that has the power to squash a small village. Well; that is good to know as Phineas asks Baljeet about the ailerons and leaves. Buford then goes under and takes a part underneath the console on ground level and it shoots a green laser beam somewhere which doesn't hit Buford.
Buford bangs on the console for a while; and then manages to put the part back in and whistle as Phineas returns. Buford proclaims that he did nothing at all; which is the usual heel stuff I rarely see from Buford. Anyhow; Buford asks the question about removing one part in particular. Phineas smiles and claims that this is a good question; so Ferb comes in with the complex blueprints of doom. After some complex speaking that makes me laugh and give Michael Eisner headaches, Phineas deduces that removing the part Buford removed would make the device shoot a laser beam and turn a human into a fly. Apparently; removing a different part turns the machine into a sorbet machine. See; the point of this is that removing one part can have completely unrelated results to what you are doing. Speaking of unrelated results; we head to Candace looking not amused at all wearing a red bow in her hair and then proclaiming that only Stacey can pull it off. Then she looks at her arms and they are the arms of a fly. We zoom out and indeed; she has been turned into a fly. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's pretty much the payoff for Candace being so annoying all these years. Candace is pissed off and the boys are so buzz-ted. HAHA! So Candace somehow has teleportation powers because she already is in the living room yelling for Linda. We see Linda packing up some stuff as Candace buzzes near her left ear; and being annoying, which is Candace's gimmick without the fly gimmick. So Linda ignores her and walks towards her car as Candace is demanding her to bust the boys so she can be turned back to normal before Jeremy shows up; and they are in the car. The car drives out of the driveway; and Candace justs stays there; which means that she hits the back of the window like a bug on my windshield. HAHA! God bless Kenny Blankenship! Really; I do bless thee. So we head to Danville Park which apparently has gained an oriential flavor of gold since I last saw the gate. So we see Doofensmirtz on the grass having a picnic complete with the BASKET OF YOGIS and a fruit salad bowl. He's eating an scrambled egg sandwich too. YUCK!
So Perry runs in and Doofensmirtz greets him right away and Perry walks on the table cloth and falls into a gopher hole which causes the stuff to fly into the air and land perfectly on the ground without any damage whatsoever to the fruit salad bowl. Doofensmirtz mocks him for that one and I do too. You know you are a bad agent when you fall for the obvious gopher hole. Doof laughs so hard he clutches at his heart which he calls his duodenum. That made me laugh. So Doofensmirtz picks up the picnic basket and mocks Perry's indecision to fall into the obvious trap; and asks if he is hungry. It doesn't matter what the answer is because the basket is not for him; it's for Doofensmirtz's real buddies which we do the anime pan shot and see a bunch of pigeons eating corn on the grass. So Doofensmirtz brings out of the picnic basket; the Feed The Pigeons-inator; which is...you guessed it...another laser gun. Only with airplane controls this time. Perry is not amused and Doofensmirtz calls him Snobby The Snobapuss in response. HAHA! See; Doofensmirtz claims that this device is techincally evil because there is a metal sign with red letter saying "Do not feed the pigeons"; therefore it is legally binding and he's breaking the law. I admit that I laughed at this because it's such a petty law; but it does make Doofensmirtz look desparate to win against Agent P. Doofensmirtz then finally admits that he has a case of evil scientist block; which is basically writers block; only it involves an evil scientist. Then Doofensmirtz goes on and on about creating the Good Idea-inator; but that was considered counter productive; but the Bad Idea-inator gave him this. HAHA! Doofensmirtz then starts shooting about this summer going on for four years straight now; so even the writers are acutely aware of the complaints of breaking their own premise. Doofensmirtz pleads for help, man to monotreme; which sounds like a bad move. Perry jumps up and grabs Doofensmirtz's arm and drags him off; as he apparently agreed to the terms. Doofensmirtz sighs because his trap designs are becoming lackluster now. HA!
So we head back to the backyard where we see the giant tire swing set tied to a metal pole that doesn't look all that sturdy. We discover that the kids are inside the tire because this is a mech tire swing and has the usual gyroscopic abilities in several of Phineas' big ideas. Everyone is in their seats with seatbelts on and Phineas pushes the red button on the console and we swing as it works perfectly. Baljeet isn't all that impressed because looking out of the glass, he thinks this is a movie. Bad error there. He should have said: I feel like it's just an amusement park ride. I note that because Phineas proclaims that we are going old school now as he pushes the same red button and the seats all get trap doored and we head below the tire as the trapdoors open and four tires on ropes come out with all the kids swinging out as they squeal with glee. Buford proclaims that he has never been happy to be so sick to his stomach; which has to be the funniest irrational statement I have heard on this show. So we head back to Danville Park with Doofensmirtz not liking the gleam on Agent P's face as he has the Gruffi pose on and the guise of this is that we are going to do exercises to get Doofensmirtz's groove back. Doofensmirtz proclaims that it's time to do this and we scene change to groove back step number one: dancing. Number two: lean back; which Agent P grabs Doofensmirtz's back. Number three: painting and splattering paint all over the canvas and Doofensmirtz's body. Perry does the Gruffi pose and shakes his head because smiley faces in purple suck. Screw off Agent P. So more dancing as there is a piano playing in the background. More painting as Doof's skills have improved as he painted Agent P with a pear in his face. Agent P shakes his head again. Oh come on Agent P! Rene Magritte took 10 years to paint The Son Of Man painting; and Doofensmirtz did it in less than an hour. Screw you! Number four: pushup as Perry eats a sandwich on his back; as I see we are having a picnic.
More painting and Doofensmirtz paints an inator which is a laser weapon against a purple background. Which Perry gives the thumbs up. Geez; even this scene is too much even for me. This ends with them holding hands and walking on a dirt path in a field towards the inator; and that is that. So we head on the road with Linda driving her car still; as we go to the passenger side shot of Linda driving and Candace buzzing in like the annoyance that she is. So Linda notices it and opens up the window telling it to go back to it's family and calls it little. Candace is so offended that she forgets that the wind velocity is much higher when driving and she gets tumbled out of the car which starts the next TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM which is the Fly On The Wall. Does a television episode count under the Shaft rule? Can someone on the Agonybooth rule on this? So yes; it's a lot of Candace flying and dodging random objects in order to avoid getting squashed, eaten and other various stuff that can kill flies. We also get the usual jackhammer background spot; only with white pocket watches against a blue background. Apparently; flies flap their wings 12,000 times a minute which is correct since a fly flaps 200 times per second. So we get #2 menu in the trash with the apple core and Candace spits acid on it. Then we go into a house which I discover a blad haired man with black rimmed glasses, a black sweater and grey pant putting on a white wig. This is actually, for rant purposes, the debut of Bobbi Fabulous who was making his tenth appearance on this show. Don't worry; we'll deal with him soon enough. Mistake: The calender goes back one month; but it should be May, not July. So the song ends with Candace flying into a bedroom which looks like a typical teenage boy's room as Candace is now a fly on the wall as we look from her perspective that Jeremy is sitting at his desk in front of the computer on his cellphone. So we hear Jeremy on the cellphone talking to Coltrane (who is the Corbin Bleu look-a-like in this world); and we discover that the secret date is going to take place at a rodeo. Candace proclaims that she likes it; but then questions herself since she is a damn fly. HA!
So then Jeremy turns around and sees the fly buzzing on the wall and apparently; when it comes to flies, Jeremy is a vile fly hater. He uses the newspaper and Candace dodges it; and then teleports right onto the street dodging a jar with a cover and then gets chased by the Fireside Girls. Geez; that was weird. Anyhow; since a number of child actors from previous seasons have puberty issues: Holly in this season is voiced by Diamond White and she has the following credits: Transformers Rescue Bots (Francine Greene), The Big Bang Theory (Girl 2), Haunted Highways (Sophie), was a writer for I Rock My Tutu and was herself in X-Factor and in the digital experience version of X-Factor. Ummm; yeah. Phineas & Ferb is her DTVA debut and is also Princess Ruby in Sofia The First. Ginger in this season is voiced by Michaela Zee and as mentioned in a previous rant: This show and Sofia The First are the only appearances she has made. She is the Alan Roberts of Phineas & Ferb voice acting. The remaining two are Gretchen and Milly who retain their voices for season four. Candace buzzes away as Holly proclaims that they lost the lizard feeding patch. Candace lands on the side of a drain pipe; and she asks if this can get any weirder, and here is an old white haired human head attached to a fly; who is voiced by Martin Olsen the story editor. I'm guessing that this is an inside joke and the human head is a knockoff version of Martin Olsen himself. We discover that he got hit by the Human Head-inator which makes his "I was always a fly" thing sound suspect to me. Candace swears in dubbed anime style and they talk about the problems with head issues while being flies before Candace talks about her freakish long neck and buzzes off stage right. So we head back to the backyard as the kids all get out of the landed giant tire swing and none of them do the punch drunk spot. Isabella calls this the best fun ever and who would argue that point? Ummm; ME! So in comes Candace and it lands in Phineas' hand after Phineas wants Buford to restock the snack bar and start again. Phineas uses a jewel eye lens and discovers that Candace is a fly.
Phineas then turns around and gives that mad look on Buford as Buford does the lamest excuse I have ever heard: the O.J. Simpson promo after he was found not guilty of a double murder. Phineas is not amused; so Buford then gives up and goes to the console as he takes the part out and the console laser beam (Yes; I'm ignoring the fact that having a console with a laser beam makes no sense to the creation of a tire swing set. This show has earned enough of my respect to forgive such silliness) fires; and we get Candace turning into an alligator (PAYBACK!), a crying baby (PAYBACK!), a squirrel, the giant floating baby head (PAYBACK TIMES INFINITY~!), then the YETI~ (Damn; I was hoping it was the mummy; just to make the WCW joke complete), a praying mantis, then human Candace, then a block of red cheese, then a traffic cone. Phineas then yells at Buford to go back two and we go back two as the 12th beam hits Candace and she's back to normal. Should have went back three more times; just to make me laugh for real. Candace thanks Phineas about three times and creates a thank you; but you are so busted sandwich before exiting stage left. So that is that as Buford goes over to the console and notices that there is a big red button that sezs fly. Buford pushes it and instead of a laser beam; it creates a rocket and flies into the air with the metal pole as Buford realizes that there are two different contexts to the word fly. Yeah; he's so not educated right. So we get a pointless in space moment as the space shuttle notices the giant tire swing set's pedstal because the giant tire breaks off during the launch into space and the male astronaut calls it weirder than the space program ending years ago while they are still in space. Whatever turns you on sir. So we return to Doofensmirtz with Perry and I'm guessing that this is the Human Head-inator; because otherwise, Martin Olsen's appearance makes no sense at all. I almost forget: After the giant tire swing launches; Isabella proclaims that the fun is over; but Phineas thinks otherwise; as he goes over to the console; pushes another button and it turns into a DIY sorbet machine. Yip! Yip!
So back to Doofensmirtz proclaims that this inator is so great and then points out to Perry that there is no self-destruct button on this one. Do my ears decieve me? Doofensmirtz actually subverted his stupidity for once? Doofensmirtz proclaims that nothing can stop him from taking over the Tri-State area....wait for it....the giant tire lands on the inator and destroys it. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! See; that is why he always built a self-destruct button on the inators. Because Doofensmirtz knows that not doing so causes THIS to happen. Doofensmirtz talks about a saying from his Uncle Boris which is mighty prophetic for someone his family thought was crazy. That was a really good finish to an otherwise just there episode. So we go into the backyard with the kids eating sorbet as Buford asks why they call it sorbet as Phineas is the only one having red sorbet; the rest are having yellow, including Ferb. I would love to know why this is the case. Ferb proclaims that the difference between sorbet and ice cream is that ice cream is made of diary cream; while sorbet is made from fancy people which surprises people. Sadly; this was just an excuse for Ferb to do the "too young" promo. Sorbet is basically ice crushed with frozen fruit mixed with liquid. So Jeremy arrives wearing a black tuxedo with black pants and a lime green tie asking for Candace and then we see Candace comes out wearing the most redneck cowboy outfit I have ever seen and she even does the Texas accent I have heard out of Sandy Sweetcheeks. I thought Carol Lawerence took over for Candace there; but she has never been on DTVA before. She is also wearing a banana yellow bandana around her neck like a complete Gedo-meister and she screws up the punchline because she was suppose to say "A little fly told me" instead of "A little birdie told me". Anyhow; since Jeremy is in a suit, we know that the ending is that she is not going to the rodeo; but the restaurant known as Rodayo which is a genric restuarant. So Candace is dumb once again as she sulks at her table as Jeremy apologizes to the Maitre'D for the error and the Maitre'D takes the orders as Candace asks if there isn't a "dress up as a cowboy" night; and we discover that there is..on Tuesdays. Yeah; Candace gets screwed twice over within 30 seconds. Lovely! That ends the episode at 10:54. This was just there with some funny moments; but they just screw up Candace even more so than usual. ** 1/2 (50%). The ED is from My Sweet Ride and it's basically a song about cars and Linda rollerskating in the streets. For no reason. This ED was better than the entire episode actually. Since it goes with another episode; I won't spoil it. I'm no longer spoiling stuff like this anymore; because I get confused.
Backyard Hodge Podge: We begin this one with a sky shot and one cloud in the sky. We then pan down to a far shot of the Flynn-Fletcher residence behind the garage as there are about 500 pieces of junk strung all across the concrete driveway in the back. We see Phineas & Ferb outside and then when we go to the closeup; they are in the garage digging out stuff for them to play with. We see Buford and Baljeet come in as Buford wants them to settle an arguement; which Buford would like in HIS favor. Buford's argument is this: if a vegetarian becomes a zombie; would they start eating people. I would say yes because being a vegetarian is not a genetic thing and thus is mutable; like religion is even though there are some studies indicating that it might be a genetic thing with religion. Baljeet claims that the vegans would still eat veggies which means I am for Buford on this one. Phineas claims that vegans would eat heads of lettuce, ears of corn, eye of potato, leg of carrot. Baljeet looks at him funny and Buford does the Gruffi pose asking where does Baljeets' parents shop at. Okay; that was funny as Phineas is holding a light bulb during this while Ferb has an old diver's helmet. So Isabella runs in and she does her always amusing catchphrase. You know which one; you know. Phineas proclaims that he's solving the world's problems. Baljeet is confused by this because he thinks Phineas is talking about zombie vegans; which Phineas is clearly not. See; Phineas has all the junk out because he wants to do some recycling, and he wonders what to do with all these spare parts left over from past inventions. I hope the spare parts are the parts that didn't get involved in the mix when they all disappear after each episode because that would make no sense. So Buford does the Gruffi pose and proclaims that his parents simply mix the leftovers together and make a casserole; because you eat first and ask questions later. That prompts Baljeet to rub his tummy on cue. Who said there were no non-verbal cues in the modern era? Phineas proclaims that this is it and they are going to make an invention casserole. Phineas proclaims that he knows what they are going to do today.
Heavenly music ensues as Phineas asks where Perry is and in a shock to all shocks; we hear a male voice and out comes a brown haired male with a black shirt, gray pants and shoes welding a spiral black and white electric guitar who appears out of nowhere. We discover from Phineas that this is internet sensation Parry Gripp; which shows that Nickeledeon doesn't have a complete monopoly in bringing in Youtube guys who don't know that they will be screwed the instant they become famous. Although to be fair; Parry has been around for almost ten years now and has already garnered some work with the major studios. Parry Gripp voices himself and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): As a songwriter, Gripp is best known for fake jingles, as in his 2005 solo album For Those About to Shop, We Salute You - a 51-track concept album mimicking various musical styles as product commercials. While it does not have one single concept, it goes through many various concept suites, such as trucks, beer, and insomnia. He also maintains a song-of-the-week website and a YouTube channel on which he creates soundtracks to internet memes[2] as well as music videos for his own novelty songs, with titles including "Do You Like Waffles?", "Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom", "Last Train to Awesometown", "Spaghetti Cat (I weep for you)", "Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)", "I Am A Banana" and "Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On A Pig)". Gripp also performs the Being Ian, Super Hero Squad Show, and Ben 10: Omniverse theme songs. Gripp also joined forces with MC Lars to perform some of the vocals, including the chorus, to "Guitar Hero Hero (Beating Guitar Hero Doesn't Make You Slash)" a song commenting on the notion that video games like Guitar Hero take kids away from playing in bands and actually learning their instruments. Along with faux jingles, Gripp also creates some real advertising music, such as Beatles-inspired tunes promoting the Wawa Food Markets' Breakfast Hoagiefest,[3] and songs for the Hallmark Cards e-characters hoops&yoyo.
On July 9, 2009 Parry Gripp debuted a new song called "The Girl at the Video Game Store" for the 1000th episode of the G4 TV program Attack of the Show! The video features the show's hosts Olivia Munn as the titular character and Kevin Pereira on drums.[4] In July 2012, the National Geographic Kids website uploaded his latest video, "Spooky Spider." Aside from his music, Gripp is the co-owner (with his sister) of the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, which was founded by his father.[5][6] In April 2013, Parry Gripp recorded the song "Backyard Hodge Podge" for the episode of the same name for the TV kids' show Phineas and Ferb. He also appeared in the episode in animated form. So yeah; blame him for Being Ian's song sucking at least. Nothing much to say about him as he will be composing the new Disney show 7D in 2014 which is his most recent credit. So Parry and Phineas meet and greet; and Phineas tells him that they are looking for Perry the platypus. Parry apologizes and walks away waving to them. Phineas then does the final introduction directly at the hard camera; then asks where our Perry is. So we head to the kitchen as Perry is standing there looking bloated with cherry sauce on his mouth; as he is being fed burnt pies from Linda. I swear to god this is happening right now! That pissed me off. So this goes on well past the expiry date as Lawrence comes in with a paper vocalizing himself; which annoys Linda. Lawerence has a speech to do for the Danville Museum; and Linda wants him to do it in front of Candace instead because she has a Live & Let Pet chairty to do and she doing a quota on baked pies and we get a jackhammered background in red for the event; which is like a WWE live event promo in Canada. Real cheap guys! Linda is clearly tired and her baking area is a mess as Lawerence walks off because teenagers love speeches. I think Lawerence is confusing the word "love" and "loathe" here for some reason. Anyhow; more smoke in the oven and it opens; and we have another burned pie. Thankfully; when Linda turns around, Perry is gone. But Parry shows up behind the conveniently placed window; apologizes and then leaves. Geez; why don't you just invite HIM in Linda? He looks like he could need a few burnt pies to tone down his internet career if you catch my drift.
So we see Perry slowly walking and sitting down in front of the computer at OWCA headquarters. Apparently; Monogram has a surprise for us because he has a birthday hat on. So it's someone's birthday and it's not Karl's and it's not Perry's, it is Monogram's birthday. He is know the same age as Bill. In fact; he almost looks like Bill. I know it's not Bill; because he's lazy and farts a lot. Perry is offered a slice of birthday cake out of nowhere; which is declined. Monogram is not thrilled about that; but the mission is that Doofensmirtz is getting a lot of money into his bank account recently. Perry is to find out what is going on and I assume he has to stop it too. So Karl comes in on screen and it's time to sing a birthday song as all the agents are patched in. And I do mean; all the agents they could fit on the screen at once. See; they couldn't afford the license for the real birthday song; so they improvised and everyone does an animal version which is so hilarious even Monogram cannot help but shed a tear. The irony of all this is that it was companies like Disney who wanted this copyright law in America; and this appears to be just a way to rub it into our noses. This is what happens when you let talentless hacks whose only talent is counting money and finances be the owners of the company. So we head to the living room with Lawerence standing and Candace sitting on the green sofa as Lawerence's speech on the history of the ancient Ornithorhynchan tribe; which I'm certain is a real life tribe. Are there tribes in real life who worship platypuses? Anyhow; Candace gets bored five seconds into this and then checks her watch. She then tells Lawerence that she was wrong about the human pyramid spot being the last thing she wants to do; she hugs Lawerence and informs him that the speech is fine; but a bit dry. She suggests visual aids to spruce it up and then she leaves stage left. Wow; that's the nicest Candace has ever been actually. Lawerence ponders this over and thinks this will work and pumps his arm about six dozen times saying Spruce for no reason. Random humor that's not all that funny that wasted 30 seconds of airtime.
So we head to Doofensmirtz Evil Inc. (with jingle) as Perry arrives via his handglider and he tumbles into the lab; and is caught instantly by the mech hands who put him in a barber's chair with a wire framed robot design on the left side leering at Perry. Doofensmirtz walks in with the usual mock greeting as he almost gives away the zinger before revealing the evil plan and catches himself. He tells Perry to zap it out of his mind like a Mind Zap-inator; or Mind-Zapper-inator. I am as confused as anyone Doof. So Doofensmirtz wants Perry to wonder why he is trapped in an ophthalmologist's chair. See; Doofensmirtz has gotten some good fortune out of this because his technology is being used in eye examination equipment. We get a scene where a doctor is fitting that wire mask (to Perry's left of the chair) onto a little girl's face and then see Doofensmirtz going to the door and seeing various letters written in purple ink. Doofensmirtz reveals that this is all royalty checks written to him for making such a wonderful project; but Doofensmirtz is not happy. No; he doesn't mind getting the money from royalties; he's angry that someone has used his technology to benefit the world. He then brings down from the ceiling; a mini laser device from a mech arm called the dreaded Eye Fog-inator. He wants to use it to blind people for a while (thank goodness someone in these episodes actually mentions that this is not forever) and force them to get their eyes checked; in order to gain more moola from royality checks so he can use the money to fight evil. Wow; an actual heelish scheme that only the MPAA/RIAA could cook up. Good one Doofensmirtz; you are now a really evil heel; instead of a goofball heel that you have been treading water since day one. Perry is of course; his first test subject as he fits the mask on Perry's face and then brings down a arm with a lens on it; as he tries his zinger; and then stops because it's silly. Well of course it is because you already told him that the Eye-Fog-inator is not permenant; idiot! So Perry gets some fog; and then gets zapped by the red laser ray. Yeap; it's yet another laser device. I hope DarthGonzo never watches this show. Seriously; I hope he never does.
So we get Perry's point of view and it's almost white flash. I say this because I can barely see Doofensmirtz as Perry just no sells; or cannot sell it. So Doofensmirtz is not amused by this because he has no idea if it worked or not. So he takes three steps back and fogs/zaps himself with the Eye-Fog-inator. Yeah; I saw that coming a mile away because Doofensmirtz is an idiot. On second thought; he's back to being the lovable goofball. So Perry manages to break free (in spite of the fact that he is fogged so to speak) and tries to kick Doofensmirtz in the face; but he misses by a mile and Doofensmirtz didn't move an inch on that. Yes; Doofensmirtz is blinded by fog too; what a shock? So we head back to the backyard with all the recycled junk as Phineas & Ferb say nice work to Baljeet who is merely sorting the box of junk in front of him. Baljeet's junk is slide rulers from the Calculations exhibit. Isabella runs in with coat hangers from the Leaning Tower of Closet Space; and shows a gray college sweatshirt. And I do mean "college" because it's written on the sweater with a generic coat of arms. Buford comes in with pie plates and a parachute from various events. Phineas brings out two laser guns: The mega-sizer and the micro-sizer so he can make a parachute and a sweatshirt. HAHA! Phineas claims that this will all work out great; but he wishes Perry is here. And then Parry "You Wish You Weren't Being Ian" Gripp returns with some used up guitar string. Phineas is thankful for it; but...Parry admits that it's really Perry he wants, and is about to leave. Phineas wants him to come back anyway because the montage/TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM is right now. So Parry stays and we play guitar and sing as we HIT THE MONTAGE~! Then for no reason, Irving shows up out of nowhere dancing with the kids and Parry. Now we have a hodge podge in basic continuity here. Irving's only excuse to be in this song is to squeal with glee and show his brain wiggling inside of him. The song is all right I guess; but Parry's nothing special or anything. Of course it helps when Disney is BS&P'ing his work, so I guess that's why it isn't painful to listen to.
...And those bastards stole the woo-woo part from Ducktales. Shame on you Phineas & Ferb!! So we end the song with a zoom out shot of the big idea which is basically a huge castle that Gadget Hackwrench would be created if she were the queen of the world, I guess. So we return to the lab as Doofensmirtz and Perry circle each other like an MMA fight; and then run at each other; missing each other by a mile as we see Doofensmirtz punch a chair away and it goes flying. Fuzzy cartoon logic strikes again because Doofensmirtz feels his hand and asks Perry if he got himself upholstered. HEE HEE! Answer: No; but he's considering it when the contract for this show expires sometime when Disney decides that it's more profitable to give the fans the middle finger and move on to the next big thing. So we return to the Backyard Hodge Podge as the kids are having fun. Fireside Girls are involved; Buford and Irving are in the giant sized bingo ball tumbler as Irving is having fun; but Buford calls this too tame and wants it cranked to double black diamond. I was going to say it was Ferb; but it wasn't. Some kids go parachuting with the giant sweater and they think it smells funny. HAHA! See; make the joke and then pay it off. Phineas & Ferb slide down and then rumble on the conveyer belt for a while; then the Sonic The Hedgehog corkscrew; which has a wad of bubble gum sticking on the top; so it allows them to be dropped safely on their asses without dropping on their heads. I have no beef with that spot. This thing ends with a giant can of soda (a purple can natch) opening and spilling cola which gives the boys something to ride on instead of falling into the ground below; as they cross the cola bridge and then down the slide and they land perfectly on ground level. Phineas and Ferb are so happy about this ride; but Phineas isn't as happy because Perry isn't here. But Parry slide down and lands right beside them proclaiming that this is so much fun; but he must go on the road tour as he waves goodbye to Phineas. Ferb proclaims that he might not be Perry; but he is a good fellow. He's okay; as a human being and as a singer/songwriter. And really; I couldn't ask for more today.
So we head back to the blind battle of Perry The Platypus VS. Doctor Heniz Doofensmirtz with literal foggy eyes. Unlike Kevin Nash getting beer spilled in his face by Scott Hall. Doofensmirtz is looking at a computer and admitting that he made a big mistake in zapping himself with the inator. No?! Really?! Doofensmirtz then gets a "bright idea" and he'll zap himself again with the ray because he has watched too many "lost memories" episodes and forget to watch Old Man & The Seaduck. Yeah. So Perry apparently has his vision back because he kicks Doofensmirtz three times; including one from behind like a heel. Doofensmirtz protests this outrage; and then calls it irony as he walks stage left off-screen and crashes into some water buckets which Doofensmirtz admits that he randomly stacked at the look off. HAHA! So we cut back to Linda baking pies and looking so tired that she is having delluisons of granduer. Oh; the irony?! So it's another burnt pie as there is a Perry bread look-a-like on the counter; and Linda goes to it thinking that it's Perry. She grabs it and feels the bag; and then throws it back on the counter because it is only a bag of bread. Linda has lost her mind now because according to her point of view; we see the Warner Brothers frog putting on a top hat, shoes and a baton and is dancing on the counter. So much for respecting copyright laws eh Disney? Never mind that the WB frog was done much better in Whistlestop Jackson, Legend. So then the three pies that she somehow didn't burn grow faces, arms and legs. They start singing the short form of the "Pi" song. HAHA! See; make the joke and then pay it off; and all done within two seconds to boot! So she turns around and brings out her cellphone as she cannot believe she is doing this. So she is calling Candace who is in someone's backyard with a bunch of teenagers doing the human pyramid; which Candace is to the bottom far left. Candace's cellphone rings and she answers it as Linda is so tired that she wants Candace to come home and help her make pies because she is seeing things. Candace loves this (because she thinks she can bust the boys this way. I'm calling it now!) and moves away causing the entire pyramid to collapse into a heap of teenagers. HAHA! Candace proclaims that this is partially her fault. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. So we head back to the kitchen as Linda is still under the influence of baking pies for too long when Lawerence appears and...
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What are you staring at?!
Yes; Lawerence painted himself green with his face in orange and is wearing orange shoes, has orange feather out of his ass, wearing only a painted green loin towel and a raccoon cap sprayed green with feathers on it. Oh my god; that is so hilarious, I cannot contain myself. This is the funniest thing I have seen since Launchpad did the Russian dance in Lost Crown of Geneghis Khan. And he's chanting too. Linda has no idea how to sell it; so she just goes to the door claiming that she needs fresh air. Lawerence wonders what he did wrong and then pumps his arm three times saying "Spurce". Actually; it would have been three; but his right arm screws up in the third one and Lawerence has sprained his elbow. HAHA! I was wrong! This is so not a pointless random joke! I'm loving this episode now! So Linda walks out and she sees the big idea Phineas & Ferb are doing as Phineas waves hello to Linda. It's a backyard hodge podge to being so BUSTED! So we head back to the lab as Doofensmirtz finally finds the Eye-Fog-inator. At least in theory. So here's what happens: Doofensmirtz takes three steps back and turns on the machine. He then trips on something and goes over the rail. He freefall yelling that he stacks more buckets at random again and then curses Perry. The red beam shoots and misses Doofensmirtz by a country mile as Perry is on top of the machine (goodness knows how he managed to find it so easily) and zaps himself with the laser eyes and he's back to normal; which is pointless because it's clear he was no longer blind because the thing wasn't forever away. He smashes the device of course. So Doofensmirtz freefalls and he lands tied to the sign of the giant white sunglasses like being tied to the Tree Of Woe. Out from the eye doctor comes Ballpit Kid aka Balthazar Horowitz who has a deeper voice and glasses on now. Django Marsh went through puberty as well; but somehow they decided to not replace him for some reason. Anyhow; his father is so happy about the inventor responsible for all this good will as Doofensmirtz is not happy about that. The dad tells Balthazar to ignore him as they walk away stage left. Yeah; I'm doing these scenes out of order; but Candace runs into the backyard opening the gate with that evil face of hers; because this is going to be epic. I called it folks; don't be surprised!
So Candace gets shot in the eyes with the red laser as she runs in and Linda is still looking at the big idea. Linda asks Candace what she sees and since Candace has literal foggy eyes; she cannot see anything. So Linda blows it off and decides to go lie down in her room. Candace is stunned as she leaves. So then we go to a stage with a crowd and red curtains as the announcer introduces Lawerence and the curtain opens to reveal Lawerence in his hilarious platypus outfit. He starts his speech as if nothing happened and we cut to the crowd as we see Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire wearing shirts watching on as Jeff asks about the arm in his sling; and Dan responds asking if this is what is bothering him; as if Jeff is ignoring everything else about this scene. So it was Jeff who booked this. I like it. DISCO~! POW! OUCH! Ummmm... (Shellsea: Be thankful I don't charge $150,000 for everytime you steal my disco jackhammer!) So now we go to the ED as it's BEFORE HAPPY HOUR (sunset) and Linda is in the kitchen towards the sink eating a piece of blueberry pie claiming that she feels fresh. She looks out the window and sees Phineas' big idea still there; and then Linda simply turns around and walks away proclaiming that she needs to go back to bed. In other words; Linda saw the big idea and then thought she was still tired. Wow; what a copout ending that was?! That ends the episode at 10:50 approx. A really good episode but not outstanding or anything outside of Lawerence's platypus outfit. **** (80%).
THE REVIEW LINE
So we get a mixed bag of shorts this time around. Fly On The Wall was basically not much to say. The big idea wasn't all that special; Candace turning into a fly was just there, the songs were fine, the finish was just there, the ending basically screwed up Candace. There was nothing good about the episode; there was nothing bad about the special; there was a few laughs to be had. It was basically just there to waste time. It's just not memorable. Backyard Hodge Podge was so much better because Doofensmirtz/Perry fighting blind was amusing. Candace getting screwed twice by Linda only because Candace was blind was a neat twist. The big idea was a backyard hodge podge of solid jokes which were paid off nicely for all the invention they did; which sadly, none of them were ideas that I have seen on DVD. However; Lawerence was awesome in this one and I laughed hard when he wore the platypus outfit because it looked so goofy that it reminded me of Launchpad's Russian dance. Parry's song was decent; if a bit BS&P'ed; and the Jeff/Dan cameo in the end was amusing. It's not the best episode in Phineas & Ferb; or even the best episode of Season 4; but it's still pretty good. Say what you want about the sloppiness; take that away, and you have some really great stuff to watch. So overall; a middling episode and a good episode today. So we are now down to four episodes left: Knot My Problem/Mind Share and Mission Marvel will be done next weekend; and then Phineas & Ferb The Movie: Across The 2nd Dimension will conclude our rant of Phineas & Ferb for at least a couple of years; due to the 25 Years of Spin tour starting in 2015. I am looking forward to Mission Marvel the most because it's the big Phineas & Ferb/Marvel crossover; and I get to finally talk about Spiderman, Iron Man, The Hulk and Thor for the first time along with Stan Lee. So....
Thumbs in the middle for Fly On The Wall; and thumbs up for Backyard Hodge Podge and I'll see you all next time.