Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension

At age 50, and too cheap for cable, I have almost no knowledge of today's animated kids' shows. It wasn't all that long ago, though, that I was still watching cartoons on network TV on Saturday morning (of course, I watch cartoons on Sunday evenings on Fox, but that's a totally different matter since those should not be seen by children). Still, I had never seen "Phineas and Ferb" before this movie and knew next to nothing about them.

Still, this movie has enough intelligent writing to make it tolerable for adults, enjoyable characters, and a fun plot involving an alternate dimension. The main villain is enough of a bumbling idiot to be appealing, though his alternate-universe counterpart was plenty scary.

The music was certainly not my taste for the most part, but I don't think it was supposed to be. Actually, like many of the cartoons of my childhood, this movie's music doesn't seem particularly contemporary (Slash was popular 20 years ago, for example), but it's plenty loud.

The kids from our universe are geniuses, and we can be sure that no matter how bad things get, they'll figure out a solution. This sis good for kids to see because maybe it will make them want to study.

I do question the TV-G rating, given the amount of violence. ABC has a tendency to put a TV-PG on squeaky-clean content, so it's nice that they're recognizing this is a clean movie. But this movie has only the cartoon kind of violence, though, and most of it is against robots, and not really enough to justify a TV-PG rating when TV-PG can be given to content that is much worse.

I especially liked the nonsensical but humorous lines given to one of the robots. I don't recall him being given a name, but Irving's voice was Jack McBrayer of "30 Rock", so that was probably him.

It's certainly worth seeing if you're a kid.

I first saw this movie when it first premiered in Disney Channel Asia. I was a 10 year old kid who was so excited to see it. Back then, I was a huge Phineas and Ferb fan, I was annoyed (but unaware why) when they aired too many replays of past episodes, I had a huge crush on Isabella and I was excited that Doofenshmirtz will finally meet Phineas and Ferb. To the 10 year old me, this movie exceeded my expectations. This movie was perfect. From the beginning, set up, songs, plot, Isabella kissing Phineas and, of course, the best third act for a Phineas and Ferb fan.

Now, I can safely say that, except for the crush on Isabella part, I still feel the same toward the series and "Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension". Sure, it's no longer as exciting as I remember due to the fact that I am now a young adult but still, this movie delivers. P&F fans are rewarded especially towards the end while newcomers will surely want to watch the entire series. Thankgoodness we got a sequel episode in the series' season 4 and a second movie 9 years later.

I loved this movie. I am a huge fan of the TV show and this movie takes everything that the show does well and runs with it. Phineas, Ferb, Candice, and all the rest are wonderfully characterized. The musical numbers are fun and there are just the right number of them.

I liked the story as well and I thought it made good material for a movie-length episode.

I highly recommend this one.

Albeit not being a real fan of the TV-Show, I must admit that I watch it (like many other adults, I presume) occasionally for the sole reason of Heinz Doofenshmirtz, who is targeted to older audiences and always manages to get a chuckle out of me.

Keeping in mind, that it is the film-feature based on a kids TV-show (with your mandatory song per episode), I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The animation is slightly above that of the show, it is cleverly written and the tone more 'serious' than that of the show itself. Because of that it is enjoyable for children as well as their parents.

I can recommend this movie for all fans of the show and assure any parent, that it is a much better rental/buy than many Direct-To-DVD Disney movies.

Addendum: Watching the show prior to the movie is not required, but being familiar with some of the shows themes, might improve your experience of the movie. Due to the nature of the show it is not necessary to watch more than one or two episodes, since the plot is always roughly the same.

To be honest, I dislike most of the modern Disney Channel's shows. Especially the live-action shows. I never liked shows as "Hannah Montana", "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" or "Wizards of Waverly Place".

However, "Phineas and Ferb" was an honorable exception to this, being one of the very few modern cartoons that I actually like. While at first "Phineas and Ferb" seemed like a predictable show (Having the same basic premise played in most of the episodes) I was surprised of how good that show turned out to be, being witty and clever, with lots of likable characters and catchy songs.

So, when this movie was announced, I had very big expectations about it. And I wasn't disappointed. In some ways, "Across the 2nd Dimension" it's like a extended episode of the series, but that's a good thing: Despite the fact that the story is somewhat darker than the original show, this movie still has all the charm and fun of the original series, something that (Just to give an example) "The Simpsons" movie lacked, managing to keep the best elements from "Phineas and Ferb" (The humor, the good music, the interesting and hilarious relationships of the characters) "Across the 2nd Dimension" is a solid TV film, that delivers exactly what it promised and it never disappoints, being quite enjoyable without having to see the original series first. But I would recommend to watch the series too, because it is quite good.