Phineas and Ferb: Candace Across the Universe Review

This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the films I watch.

Baby, they're back!! It feels so good to say that and to finally see it for myself!! For those of you who don't know, I absolutely ADORE Phineas and Ferb. It was my absolute favorite TV show growing up, and it has a very special place in my heart. Rewatching some of the episodes recently, it's stuck with me just how charming, well-written, and likable the show still is with great characters, fun contraptions, and a self-aware formula that somehow always manages to keep itself interesting. The show is still genuinely good, but it's still always bothered me how it ended. It started off with "Last Day of Summer," which was the absolute perfect finale to cap off a show that was admittedly starting to lose a bit of its steam. Then, it briefly came back with "The OWCA Files," a standalone special that disappointed and at times even angered me with its lackluster plot points, writing, and character moments compared to the original show. That additional special has always left a kind of bitter taste in my mouth since it aired, despite how perfect the ACTUAL finale of this show was. Then the characters were brought back in the new Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh show Milo Murphy's Law, some even staying on as secondary characters, which I honestly didn't even love that much and didn't really get through the first season. So, yeah, there's always been a part of me that always wanted just a little bit more. Then this movie was announced, and I got a little frightened because I anticipated a Phineas and Ferb movie back in 2013 and it was canned, so I didn't want this to be the same scenario. Then sneak previews released, then trailers, then songs, and I realized this was actually finally happening. Now, after finally getting a Disney+ subscription and finding the time to watch this movie, I can say it is absolutely the second finale I so desperately needed.

Maybe I am rating this higher because I am a long time Phineas and Ferb fan, and this movie absolutely rewards you for being a long time fan. It gives Candace a much bigger spotlight in this movie, actually developing her character in a way that I don't think the show creators have ever really taken the time to develop a character on this show before. The show was never about the in-depth thought processes of the characters anyway, it could get away with developing relationships a little here and gradually changing the attitudes of certain characters there because the characters themselves were already likable enough, it was the subversion of formula and the self-aware writing that was always intriguing. Here, though, Candace actually gets some human explanation and motivation for why she does the things she does, and it leads to emotional moments towards the end of this film that genuinely made me tear up because of how satisfying they were to her character and the legacy of the show as a whole. It was really, really cool. The writing for this show is once again amazing. The self-aware humor and fun premise are still utilized perfectly here, and while we have seen an alien abduction story in the series before, it feels unique enough to stand on its own two feet as a movie.

What's even more amazing to me is the fact that pretty much everyone, is still on the top of their A-game, not just the writers. Pretty much the entire original voice cast has come back -- Vincent Martella, Alyson Stoner, Povenmire and Swampy (of course), Olivia Olson, Dee Bradley Baker (again, of course), Caroline Rhea, Bobby Gaylor, Maulik Pancholy, and of course Ashley Tisdale are all here, along with other secondary characters you all love. It's amazing that even Martella and Stoner are still able to perform and sing in their character's voices five years after the series finale -- everyone is still killing it in their roles. The only notable absence here is Thomas Sangster as Ferb, who is replaced here by David Errigo Jr., a fine replacement for a character who doesn't talk much anyway but still kind of distracting if you've gotten used to Sangster as the character. Regardless, Errigo still does a great job here. There are also some amazing new additions that I sometimes didn't even recognize if they were voice actors I was familiar with -- Ali Wong plays a great new character in the form of an alien leader, Wayne Brady is apparently in this movie although I didn't recognize his voice, hell, there's even a cameo from Thomas Sanders, what an unexpected surprise!! It's not just the voice actors who are back in top form, though -- as I said, the writing is still in top form, but in particular, Danny Jacob's music and the new lyrics at times even top some of the best music from the original show's run. Yeah, I know, it's kind of insane for me to say that, but some of the lyrics of the songs in this movie are absolutely incredible, particularly in the opening song "Such a Beautiful Day," the light fun of "Meet Our Leader," and the self-aware ballad "Unsung Hero." The score and music, in general, are in top-form, much like pretty much everything else you loved about the original show.

This is a movie that's meant for everyone to watch, though. Even people who aren't fans of Phineas and Ferb can still sit down and enjoy this movie, although I think it definitely helps if you are a fan such as myself. In regards to actual issues I have with the movie, the repetitive beats of the alien story can show themselves in retrospect, but again, this movie still feels unique enough to stand on its own two feet. Other problems, though, involve this film's runtime. This is easily the longest Phineas and Ferb property because it's actually an hour and a half long movie, unlike the previous film Across the Second Dimension, which was only an hour and fifteen. I know how well the writers of this show pace their jokes, and so I thought that the pacing of this movie would be just as great as the original show, but I have to be honest, there are times where certain jokes could be cut by, like, fifteen to twenty seconds and they would not only still work, but they also might even be funnier. Moments like that and the song "Adulting," which comes completely out of nowhere, feel like moments that are there simply to elongate the runtime of this movie. Admittedly, it is cool seeing a Doofenshmirtz/Isabella duet, but the film never develops nor earns the conflict that is set up in that song in a way that feels satisfying. On a weirder final note, though, in regards to voice acting, despite the fact that everyone is great here, there are times where either the score or sound mixing drowns out what the characters are singing or saying or some of the actors are maybe having a harder time enunciating their lines in their character's voice than they once did. I also just have to say this -- it's not a game-breaker or anything because he's still great in the few lines he has, but for some reason, Mitchell Musso is the one voice actor who for some reason just doesn't sound quite right here. I don't know, his few lines just didn't sound like Jeremy to me, but that could just be me.

Overall, though, the flaws I just listed are nitpicks in a movie that gets everything else right about its absolutely incredible source material. The pacing lags, what, five minutes out of the movie, maybe? That's really not that much when you have an hour and a half long film that picks up a show that has essentially lied dormant for the last five years and is trying to tell a story the likes of which hasn't been told with these characters before. The voice acting, music, and writing feel just like this movie could have been made five to seven years ago when the show really cemented itself as a Disney classic, and the lyrics are possibly some of the best ever written for the series. The self-aware jokes are always charming, the characters are still just as likable as ever, and the emotional beats that come from this movie are enough to make any long time fan tear up as they see moments of payoff of a thirteen-year-long run they never thought they would see. This is the finale moment that I'm really happy I get to be left on as a Phineas and Ferb fan. If they decide to make another one, great, I'm all for it, but if they finally decide to leave it here, I won't complain, either.

Letter Grade: A