DVD Reviews

Kids’ View Review: Phineas and Ferb: The Perry Files

By Tanner D. Luce (13 Years Old) Jun 7, 2012, 14:28 GMT

While Phineas and Ferb do it all to make every day the best day ever, evil lurks just around the corner! But there is hope for the unsuspecting citizens of Danville. Now, for the very first time, we crack open the top-secret archives of O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) to expose... The Perry Files ! Join Perry the Platypus-a.k.a. Agent P.-on his most exciting adventures as he thwarts his ...more

Phineas and Ferb cartoons are funny because they toy with irony. Each episode is a blast to watch and funny, but this DVD collection seems to be a waste of time and money. The Perry Files collects episodes with Perry the Platypus, but it is nothing new – which $12.99 price tag a lot to ask for since you can get all 90+ episodes of all three seasons on Netflix much cheaper.

The basic plot is that step-brothers Phineas and Ferb build some cool and potentially dangerous device in their backyard, and then their big sister Candace tries to tattle on them. While they do that, their pet platypus runs off and fights an evil scientist who has built an evil CHICKEN SOUP-inator or a MOUSTACHE-inator.

The “inator” then cause’s Phineas and Ferb’s gadget to disappear before Candace can get their mom to see it. The episodes in “The Perry Files” are short of irony and short of Perry the Platypus. The show consist of 3 different interconnecting plotlines: Perry and Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Candace and her friends, and Phineas and Ferb. Most of the episodes tend to focus more on Perry’s view, but some of them barley involved him. The episodes on this disc also had very little laughs.

Candace adopts a pet bunny. That’s the first episode. Candace goes to a spa. That’s the second episode. Candace splits her personality. That’s the third one. Disney should have named this “The Candace Files” having put 3 Candace-focused episodes in a row.  After that was Brain-drain. I laughed at it, but not because of the Perry parts. It was because Phineas and Ferb played a fighting video game that reminded me a lot of Street Fighter, especially the match announcer’s awful voice (BALJEET! VS! FERRRRB!).

The Perry part had Dr. Doofenshmirtz controlling Perry with some kind of MIND-inator. Then it came time for some more Candace-focused content, and then a more rounded episode. After that it was time Phineas and Ferb to build a super-computer, and the only memorable thing was the lyrics to its song.

“Were building a super-computer, and over-explaining it too!”- “Not the least bit ironic, but what you hear is exactly what you see.”“We’re building a super-computer, and singing just what we’re doing!”

The rest of the episodes hardly focused on anything unique involving Perry, or anybody else for that matter. I don’t even consider the last one an episode, it was INTENTIONALLY PLAYED BACKWARDS! You have to watch it at least 3 times to even understand the basic plot. I’m pretty sure the average child won’t even be able to understand that concept.

Do four-year-olds know what “30 minutes earlier”, or “Back to the present” even means? In fact, a lot of the episodes use big words, be prepared to buy a dictionary along with this DVD.

The DVD comes with some nice extras including some including a Perry magnet game, puzzle, cards and stuff like that.

The Perry Files deserves 2 stars. Half of the episodes don’t involve Perry very much, ¼ of them are just plain weird, and the other ¼ were probably just drawn out of a hat.

The review would be way different if this was limited edition or if there were not cheaper and larger alternatives. You can get episodes that haven’t been aired On Demand, or the entire series on Netflix. If you do want a Phineas and Ferb DVD, get “Across the 2nd Dimension” - that’s a full movie that isn’t half bad.  

Visit the DVD database for more information.