Animation Monday: Phineas and Ferb Platypus Day 2013 Episodes

By Nathan Young on March 4, 2013

This year for Platypus Day; Disney Channel and Disney XD aired two special episodes of Phineas and Ferb that were focusing on the life of Perry the Platypus. In the first episode titled “Sidetracked”, Agent P goes to Canada and teams up with a former partner, a human agent named Lyla, to stop a hijacked train running along the US/Canadian border.

Perry was in Seattle chasing three criminals on his Platy-bike, that was a cool bike! Soon the chase enters Canada and Perry has to abort the mission because Perry does not have jurisdiction in Canada. C.O.W.C.A. agent Lyla Lolliberry takes over the chase but she detaches the metal arm the hook is attached to, allowing the criminals to escape. During the episode, we see the Danville human characters but their faces are not shown. Perry uses a tree to enter his lair while crushing a car at the same time.

His assignment is he must protect Albert the Moose, Canada’s national symbol, in order to preserve the upcoming Canada Day ceremonies. However, Albert is riding a train on the U.S.-Canada border, and Perry only has jurisdiction on one side of the train, so Perry will be teaming up with Lyla again. Remember; Perry has some bad blood over Lyla.

Perry and Lyla arrive at the train at the same time, and they drop into a fine dining car, sharing a booth with Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Doofenshmirtz points out that they are currently trapped by societal convention – you can’t make a scene in a fine dining establishment – and that he’s participating in a U.S.-Canada evil exchange program, where he and a Canadian villain will trade evil schemes for a day. Doofenshmirtz promptly reveals his scheme: he has tied up the conductor and hijacked the train using his remote control Train Operator-inator, where he will hand over Albert to his exchange partner, ruining the Canada Day celebration.

Lyla and Perry foils Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s societal convention and a chase in and on top of the train begins. Somehow Doofenshmirtz escapes and Lyla and Perry falls off the train. Lyla immediately notices a handcar next to the track, but Perry tries to operate it himself, slowing them down. Lyla teaches Perry how to operate it, and as they travel down the tracks, she metaphorically equates the handcar to teamwork: she and Perry have to work together to stop Doofenshmirtz. The song “On A Handcar” was very good!

Lyla and Perry catches up to the train while passengers are recording them on their phones. Doofenshmirtz’s cell phone alerts him to the trending video, and he starts watching it just as Perry kicks him in the face. During another chase on top of the train, Dr. Doof smashes the remote when the train enters the tunnel. Now the train is out of control. Back inside the train, Lyla immediately realizes there’s an emergency break in the engine car, and Doofenshmirtz decides to join the two agents in their attempt to stop the train.

The passengers are ordered to the back of the train and the caboose is separated from the runaway train. Then a large claw grabs the caboose and lifts it into the air. Lyla and Perry rapple their way into the chopper, Doofenshmirtz climbing up behind them. Bannister reveals that he’s not actually Canadian: he’s from Greenland. His goal is to remedy the lack of Greenlandic national pride by causing Canadians to forget their national identity, allowing him to annex Canada for Greenland and institute his own pride-producing changes to his homeland, such as a new national anthem. Then we get to see a great fight scene with a song in the background. Dr. Doof doesn’t care about the fight, he’s playing cards with the other criminals.

Perry and Lyla trick the bad robots into magnetically attracting each other through the chopper roof, defeating them. Bannister, realizing he’s lost, throws his Greenland flag on the two agents and parachutes away, but is immediately captured by Peter the Panda in an O.W.C.A. plane. Lyla brings the caboose-carrying chopper to the Canada Day celebration and the Canadians can celebrate!

We then get to see a very weird scene when Lyla, Perry, Major Monogram, Carl, Dr. Doof, and Peter watch Niagara Falls. I thought Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee was a good voice for Lyla. And I enjoyed the action in the episode!

In the other episode titled “Primal Perry”, Perry comes face to face with an Australian platypus hunter named Liam set out on destroying him. Perry gets his mission when Major Monogram and Carl briefs him in the house vents. Perry gets handcuffed to Dr. Doof and Liam begins the hunt! Perry almost gets killed by Liam but some older people stops Liam because he destroyed the Danville Community Gardens. I liked how Dr. Doof breaks the fourth wall when him and Perry were falling down the waterfall. You knew a commercial break was coming!

In the other part of the episode; Baljeet is having an existential emergency and finds himself incapable of making decisions, so Phineas and Ferb create an infinite probability generator that will allow Baljeet to make as many choices as he pleases without being affected by the consequences. This results in many Baljeets who almost destroys Buford. I will not go into much detail in this episode because it aired on Disney XD and will air on Disney Channel later this month. But I thought the episode was good!

Before this post wraps up; I participated in an online chat with Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh last Friday. Some episodes coming up in season four includes the Marvel Crossover where Phineas and Ferb helps to bring back the superheroes powers! I can’t wait for that to air this Summer!

Some other episodes includes Isabella’s Birthday, two Halloween special episodes this October, a return to the 2nd dimension, and a special song about Isabella that will come out in 2014. There are many people who loves the Phineas and Isabella relationship. The creators know this and loves to play around with that! We still have plenty of Phineas and Ferb to see in the future! This is one of those animated series that is not going anywhere soon!

All images copyright from Disney