“Phineas & Ferb” is one of the current favorites in my house. It’s a show I let my kids watch together, and there aren’t many of those that I think are appropriate enough for a preschooler but also hold the attention of a 9 year old episode after episode. A series that is content appropriate and can appeal to a wide range of ages is rare these days. Not only do my kids all like the show, but I do as well. The writing is clever and humorous and there are things that I occasionally need to explain to my kids. “Phineas & Ferb” is perhaps the best cartoon on today.
And so we get The Perry Files, a DVD themed around the brother’s pet platypus. If you’re not familiar with “Phineas & Ferb” then you do need to know they have a pet platypus, and it isn’t brown.
Normally I would decry the practice of random episode selection on a DVD such as this, but it’s sort of difficult to do so when the network is doing a poor job of broadcasting the series. New episodes are broadcast seemingly randomly, and even then we don’t get full episodes. An episode is a half hour, usually consisting of two segments. Disney is airing a segment as if it were an episode. This practice causes confusion in my kids and DVR. When the network can’t seem to get a grip on what it takes to get a consistent season broadcast, it’s difficult to get a consistent home video presentation.
We are presented with seven episodes, mostly from the current season, but some are a couple of years old. There are a couple of standouts, such as “Escape From Phineas Tower” which includes Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s Rude-Inator. “Road Trip” includes some awesome truck stop action and “Bullseye” is so ridiculous it has to be seen.
Altogether we get about two and a half hours of animated action and humor. It’s a good deal, especially considering the quality of the series. A couple of bonus features are presented as well, starting with a recruiting video for the organization Perry (the platypus) works for to take care of the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Then there’s a look inside a Platybus, a vehicular touring thingy promoting the show. Included in the DVD is an activity pack, with stickers, puzzles and more. It’s actually a pretty cool pack-in.
I still want to see “Phineas & Ferb” released in season sets, enabling easier collection of all the episodes. As it is, Disney Channel and Disney XD air the series often enough that you can easily catch up on most episodes. This DVD makes a solid offering for your own summer road trip, or when Disney is broadcasting another marathon of “Good Luck Charlie” or whatever live action sitcom takes their fancy.