The Big Long “Time-Skip” Episodes Review
Or, “gushing nonstop about the most perfect cartoon everything is beautiful and nothing hurts but can we please just take a moment to really appreciate what all this time-skipping has accomplished.”
This post began as tiny, excited notes following the air of “Tri-Stone Area” (that was a while ago, by the way) and grew into a monster. Georgia is changing her major to Phineas and Ferb, with a minor in ALL THE FEELINGS.
Let’s roll.
I enjoyed reading this review the same way I enjoy reading TVtropes. Being able to analyse AND verbalize your love for a show is something that always impresses me. I was in awe of ‘Tri-stone area’ as well, because they stripped this episode from language (I mean syntactics and semantics of spoken language, not ability to communicate), and it still worked! Plus that was the first time creators actually were shown on screen. That was anothe assumption they made, apart from viewers knowing the show’s formula: that viewers know who producers are. For casual viewer they would be just some random people popping up, probably animators judging from the way they act. But they are so recognizable that it worked as well.
As for ‘Exacaliferb’ it was the sheer number of references that made this episode so great for me. I must admit I’m not a fan of time warp episodes as they don’t change anything for characters nor plot. But thanks to the way it was shown, I had the feeling it’s somehow connected to the main plot, that characters are just actors in a play. Also, why Baljeet as Legolas-style elf seemed so right? Not just that, all character reinterpretations, including all things that were DIFFERENT from normal (Ferb: [The blade of the sword falls off the hilt] “Well, uh, okay. So big deal, the end comes off.”) were all so well-played. I looked at them and thought “I could live with that”.
Now to the episodes I wasn’t so happy with. Althought ‘Doof Dynasty’ lacks any plot-related flaws, I was really dissapointed with one seemingly irrelevant detail: the colours. I know, I know they were going for ink-on-a-scroll look. But it occured to me that the grayish sky and overall muted coloristic clashed with the light-hearted plot. Though it’s probably just me and my warped image of the orient and its vivid colours (I partially blame Mulan).
Now onto “Temple of Juatchadoon”. I openly admit that my opinion on this episode is heavily influenced by the fact that I wasn’t able to see it in HD yet (iTunes, I shake fist at you) and therefore I watched it as crappy rip filmed from TV. I loved new locations, costumes and non-standard characters’ bahaviour, but… the pacing is waaay too fast. There’s just too much action going on for 12-minutes long episode. I really think this scenario would work better in double episode, we would have time to get to know those new Phineas and Ferb incarnations. Adding a song number (HILARIOUS song number) and usual formula points to Indiana Jones-like action adventure plot made the whole thing really, uh, cramped. Maybe it will seem better once I watch it in proper quality.
Gosh, I didn’t mean to write so much. Anyway, I’m looking forward to your next review.
Source: ay-gent-p
