Is Phineas and Ferb just an excuse to write songs?

I've seen several episodes of Phineas and Ferb now and even though I tried to keep an open mind, one thing has become painfully obvious.

It seems this cartoon is specifically engineered to have the lead characters sing a song at the drop of a hat.
While that works for a feature length movie, it's not a good idea to incorporate that into an 11 minute episode!

At a rough guess, you're loosing approximately half the episode because somebody is singing about something or other.
And they're doing it in a music video too.

The only songs I can think of that supported the story were Busted (Candace and Vanessa), I'm Me+Not So Bad A Dad (Vanessa).

The rest of them were just eye candy, something to dazzle the viewer.
You could most likely express the same sentiment in a line of dialogue.
For example, Isabella spends 2 minutes singing about what she'd like as a birthday gift when she could just say it in one line and then the show could continue on.
I think we understand what she wants after she says it once, yet she's said it 20 times over by the time the song is done.

The worst one I've seen is Doofensmirtz's exercise montage, which is just him and Perry doing workout moves to music.
There's absolutely nothing happening in the song that advances the story, it's just a lot of special effects.


Which has now got me wondering, do the creators of the show have the ability to fill an entire episode with story based content if they keep dropping in a song during the show?

Given how heavily they emphasize the musical aspect of this show makes me think it was not intended to be a serious cartoon at all, just a reason to justify writing songs and making music videos.

If I'm not mistaken, Disney asked the creators to put a song in every episode.

Yeah, they put a song in every single episode. I quite like them. They also made an episode that was extended versions of the top 10 songs. I agree some of them are garbage, but most of them are pretty good. I personally like Candace Party, A-G-L-E-T, Backyard Beach, and Gitchy Gitchy Goo Goo.

Like what Dr. Turtle said. The songs are pretty cool and catchy.

The songs are (almost all) fantastic. And usually incredibly wry, witty and amusing (and the meta/fourth wall comments and moments are marvelous). The show is brilliant - or, at least, was phenomenal for the first couple of years (recent episodes haven't been as strong). Also, most of the songs are between 1 and 3 minutes long, ALL further (or describe) the plot... so it's probably a seventh to a fifth of the runtime and all relevant.

"Sweat, baby, sweat" is particularly funny: the action is amusing, subverting the rivalry between Dr. and Agent; parodying exercise videos, etc. Plus the lyrics are hilarious (fish 'n' chips; wring out your hat; take it to the laundromat)...

It's a musical comedy - a musical comedy! The music is not an 'excuse', it's one of several reasons. The show showcases music with its plots, just like Disney films use humour (and music) as structural elements.

The same (odd) argument could be made about most of the 'classic' Disney films - the songs could be lines; could the writers NOT use music, etc.

Why isn't this thread in Movies & TV..?

Also: what is a "serious" cartoon..?!

Watch Avengers : Earth's Mightiest Heroes, that's an example of a serious cartoon.

The songs are my favorite part of the show. I love Disney music. So these quirky little songs are right up my alley. We bought one of the albums and listen to it in the car all the time. I sing "Little Brothers"



to my little brothers all the time. What makes this fact even better is they tower over me at 6'2'' and 6'6'' and in no way "little" any more.

I like Phineas and Ferb's imagination and their creative problem-solving skills. I think they strike a good balance of whimsy and engineering. They take all ideas and solutions very seriously no matter how far-fetched. I like to believe that this is very akin to what the Imagineers do each day. Phineas and Ferb are little Imagineers in the making.

On the note of watching new shows: I also recently started watching Gravity Falls due to a suggestion on these forums and I'm liking it so far. It reminds me of So Weird which I always liked. Also, just watched Sophia the Firsts "The Floating Palace" and thought it was very cute. Although, there are many franchises that I just don't "get" or like and during those times I just have to remember that I am not the target audience. It helps me appreciate other genre's a bit more.

And Scooby Doo had a song in every episode. Your point?

The songs are normally short and catchy. Atleast you don't have to listen to Hannah Montana anymore!