Review: Phineas and Ferb ”Act Your Age”

Spoilers Below

Set 10 years in the future, the boys are thinking about their future. Phineas is trying to figure out where to go to college, whereas everyone else is rather figured out at this juncture. Only in America could Candace Flynn become a lawyer, which means she’ll be useful when Phineas files for divorce after the rest of the guys set him up with Isabella. Yep, turns out, even after all these years, the duo never hooked up so Buford, Baljeet, and Ferb decide to get in on the case.

The Fireside Girls are thinking the same thing so they decide to jump in on the getting ”Phineas and Isabella together-train”.  In any case, Phineas decides to run over to Isabella’s job so that he can say good bye. Eventually, Phineas and Isabella end up telling each other how they feel. Phineas opts to go to the same school as Isabella and suffice it to say they will end up happily ever after.

Meanwhile, Perry is off to go stop Doof from his latest scheme. This one doesn’t seem so bad, as it’s really a necklace that makes Doof feel better while he deals with a mid-life crisis. Eventually, Doof goes back to a semi-retired life.

I kinda wish this week’s episode was the 12-minute variety but without the Doof story line as we got the typical cliche stuff that we’ve seen from Phineas and Ferb countless times over. Lots of cartoons have done the mid-life crisis bit and I didn’t think that Doof did anything that great to differentiate from the pile. However…

A love story on Phineas and Ferb? Pretty good. For years, this show has been seen as maybe a kids show. But, given its move to Disney XD and the more grown-up themes presented tonight, some might say that this show is as serious in some ways as other of Disney XD’s shows. Again, TONS of animated shows have set their characters into the future, heck, I can probably compile a decent sized DVD with the number of times The Simpsons have done it. However, this show NEEDED to progress for its own good. We need to put to bed the tired old Phineas and Ferb ideas and in its place give us stuff like this episode or the ‘Save Summers’ or the cross-overs. This show has the tools to be really, really good. Quality beats quantity every day of the week.