Delightful Thing #1

by Richard Holland

 

I had kids for many reasons, they are wonderful. One of the fringe benefits is that they enable me to spend lots of time rediscovering cartoons I’ve loved in the past and exploring the current crop of offerings. I was always more Warner Brothers than Disney, but Disney has some excellent and at times charmingly subversive offerings. The best of which is today’s delightful thing: Phineas and Ferb. It is a thoroughly entertaining mix silliness, fun, with plenty of allusions and clever asides to keep adults on board. The premise is simple as laid out in the ska-power-pop-punk theme song, Phineas and his half brother Ferb are going to maximize every moment of their summer vacation, usually in the form of building something outrageous, as their disgruntled sister tries and fails to out their mischief to Mom. There is a side plot every episode pitting their pet platypus (in his closeted secret life) against his nemesis Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz. It is pleasantly formulaic and never becomes rote or unimaginative. Bonus in that the line “and giving a monkey a shower” in the theme makes Hank laugh every time without fail.

So, having a lousy day, bored, disgruntled. Here you go, and this episode even has a contemporary art theme: