Phineas and Ferb: Season 5 Review (Part 3 and Final Thoughts)

A Spongebob-themed spoiler warning.

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Phineas and Ferb Seasons 1-5.

Disney split up Phineas and Ferb’s fifth season kinda strangely, huh? After we got the entire first half of the season in June, the series took a bit of a break, then premiered two more batches of episodes through the autumn… leaving only three episodes left. Those remaining stories – one of which was double-length – aired a couple of days ago. Having reviewed the rest of the season already (in two parts), I’d be remiss not to finish things off! But Disney… next time, try to schedule things a little more uniformly, eh?

Last time, I spoke about the batch of episodes as a whole, then went over each of them individually. There are only three this time, so we’re going to do things the other way around! I’ll briefly talk about each of the three stories in turn, then I’ll turn my thoughts to the *entirety* of Season 5 as a whole, hopefully wrapping up this review with my final thoughts on the entire thirty-seven stories.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the boys eating ice cream.
Eating an ice cream under a tree is *peak* summer, eh?

As always, my usual caveat applies: everything we’re going to discuss is *subjective, not objective* – so if I criticise an episode you adore, praise an episode you hate, or our views don’t align… that’s okay. There’s plenty of room in the fan community for differences of opinion and respectful disagreement, and there’s no need to get into an argument!

With all of that out of the way, let’s quickly run through these final three episodes.

Elevator Irritator:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Phineas, Ferb, and Candace in a lift.
We call them “lifts” in the UK.

I quite liked this one. It was cool to see Candace getting the chance to drive in a way that wasn’t connected to the main story, it was fun to see the boys and Candace in a totally different setting, and without any of their friends, and I liked how Perry and Doof’s story tied into it, too. Doofenshmirtz’s scheme seemed particularly silly, even by his standards, and I suspect if it had to carry the A-story on its own it would’ve struggled. But as a minor plot device to set up the “stuck in a lift” storyline, it was fine.

The song wasn’t much on its own, but I did enjoy the visual montage that went with it, as the boys made the best of their situation. Candace eventually ended up giving a very emotional speech, which reminded me a lot of Candace Against the Universe – the big twist being that the boys had already left the lift and weren’t there to hear it. This was also the episode where Jeremy – who’s been a little too absent this season, IMHO – said “I love you” to Candace, which was cute to see. I wonder where Season 6 will take Candace and Jeremy’s relationship after that.

Master of Fate:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the title character.
The, uh, title character… I guess.

Master of Fate was kind of forgettable for me, at least on the side of the story with the kids. The Large Hadron Collider being in next door’s garden was maybe a bit too far, and the unexplained Baljeet doppelganger added onto a mystery that the story had no intention of solving. It ended up feeling like a non sequitur, even within the confines of Phineas and Ferb’s very loose worldbuilding, and when no attempt at an explanation was made for where the Master of Fate came from… it just left me scratching my head as much as anything.

The Perry side of the story had a bit more interest, though. I like the idea of Perry potentially having a rival at OWCA, though I wish this Agent O had a bit more screen time. And I like the idea of Doof wanting to team up with Perry for his own selfish pride. Unfortunately, neither of those ideas got enough time in the spotlight to really shine, though. The way the episode ended, with a bit of an explanation of sorts as to why Perry gets so easily trapped was fine, but I don’t think it’s necessarily something that needed to be said aloud. Sometimes acknowledging something – like the contradiction between Perry’s supposed superstar status at the agency and the ease with which Doof can trap him – draws too much attention to it. A nitpick? Yes! But this side of the episode was by far my favourite.

Vendpocalypse: The Musical:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Doof being attacked by vending machines.
He warned it could happen…

To be blunt, I went into this one with *zero* expectations! After a couple of misfires earlier in the season (The Candace Suit and Croquet Y-8), which took throwaway lines from past seasons and spun them out into full-blown stories, I was kind of nervous for a repeat of that. Luckily, however, Vendpocalypse: The Musical was far better than I expected, a great way to bring the show’s fifth season to an end, and surprisingly emotional story to boot. Most of the main characters got something to do, with sub-plots that actually got fleshed out enough to matter. Isabella turning to Candace for advice was sweet, Candace using her driving skills to help save the day was fantastic, and the kids raiding Doof’s old coin collection made for an incredibly fun sequence.

But this episode will be remembered, I have no doubt, for the genuinely emotional story between Norm and Doof. I will caveat this by saying I think it could’ve been set up just a little better; Norm hasn’t been a huge presence this season, and having a couple of moments in earlier episodes which led into this would’ve added a lot. But… I actually teared up. Twice. The relationship between Doof and Norm has always been strained, with Norm viewing Doof as a father figure, but not really having a role in the family dynamic. This episode took that a stage further, with a (Star Trek: First Contact’s Borg Queen-inspired) villain “assimilating” Norm, and Norm having to make the ultimate sacrifice after Doof confessed his feelings. The flashback at the end was adorable, too, and seeing Doof so determined to reconstruct Norm probably means we don’t have to say goodbye to the character. But it was a heck of an ending to the season – explosive in every sense of the word.

(The Final Final) Conclusion:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the kids in the back yard.
The kids at the end of the season.

Phineas and Ferb has been one of my “comfort shows” for a long time. It shouldn’t have been, I guess: this was a show I first encountered when I was way older than its target demographic. But there’s always been something special about it, something unique… something that, even on dark days, I’ve been able to reach for and distract myself with, if nothing else. So I was both anxious and excited when the show’s revival was announced. I was pleased that we were gonna get more episodes… and concerned, based on both Disney’s recent output *and* the quality of a lot of other reboots, sequels, and revivals.

For my money, Phineas and Ferb is a better revival than most of the others I’ve seen. It recaptured the look, sound, tone, and feel of the original show – not always perfectly, but almost always competently. There were a few odd choices across these thirty-seven stories – episodes I’d probably not have chosen to greenlight, were I in charge. But some of the genuinely *different* ideas that the show’s writing team put together worked exceptionally well. The season premiere, which brought the kids together to save their mom, was incredibly tense and engaging, and a story concept the show hasn’t really done before. Baljeet and Irving made a genuinely good pair in their story together. The Star Trek and sci-fi parody of Space Adventure was incredibly good fun. And those are just three examples.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing spaceships.
Space Adventure made for a wonderful Star Trek parody.

In terms of doing what it set out to do, I’d rank Phineas and Ferb Season 5 quite a way ahead of what was probably my most-anticipated revival/sequel of the last few years: Star Trek: Picard. Picard was tonally inconsistent, jumpy, with season-long story arcs that either felt poorly paced or that totally abandoned key characters and storylines. Its creative teams – which changed mid-production – couldn’t decide whether they wanted to make a sequel or a revival, leading to them trying to do both but ending up with a satisfactory version of neither. Phineas and Ferb’s production team knew what they were doing: creating more Phineas and Ferb. And they pulled it off.

I still stand by what I said last time, and in my review of the first batch of episodes: Phineas and Ferb Season 5 is closer in overall quality to Season 4 than to Seasons 1-3. If you know me, you’ll know that Season 4 was generally my least-favourite part of the show’s original run; I just felt the quality starting to dip as ideas seemed to be running out, new things were being tried, and perhaps a degree of tiredness was setting in for creatives who wanted a new challenge. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t like Season 4 – some of my favourite episodes, like Happy New Year, the Halloween specials, and the Star Wars special – all come from Season 4. There’s a lot to enjoy there – as there is in Season 5, too.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the kids hiding behind a car.
Sneaking into Doof’s building.

Phineas and Ferb is a bit of a tricky thing to review, at least for me. Usually, when I’m reviewing a film or TV programme, I’ve watched it once, then gone back to it a second time to make notes, but after I hit the “publish” button, that’s me done. I may return to it one day if it was especially fantastic, but I don’t generally re-watch the same things over and over again. But Phineas and Ferb is the kind of thing that I return to. Maybe I’ll be having a quiet moment and I’ll watch a couple of episodes to fill the time. Maybe it was an off day and I need a pick-me-up. Or maybe I get into the groove and decide to binge half the series over a few days! But almost every time I watch it, I find something new or different to think about; a background character I hadn’t noticed before, a throwaway line that suddenly seems important, a weird quirk of the animation… it could be anything.

My point is that my opinions on this show – and on this batch of episodes, too – can and will shift. Stories I hated on first viewing can grow on me over time. Songs I didn’t like when I first heard them become perennial favourites. Characters I felt were weak or unexceptional turn into guests I happily welcome back. And sometimes, a story I liked a lot at first seems weaker or less entertaining the fifth or eighth or seventeenth time around!

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Carl and Major Monogram.
Taking notes and applauding… just like me when I was preparing this review!

So unlike most of my reviews… this isn’t definitive! Come back to me in five years’ time, when I’ve incorporated all of these new stories into my regular Phineas and Ferb re-watch sessions, and ask me again. I bet I’ll have changed my mind on some of them. I might even start to like Bread Bowl Hot Tub. I mean, you never know… right?

But for now, what I’ll say is this: roll on Season 6! I hope the creative team can keep the stories flowing, and I hope they can keep finding both new ideas and classic tales for Phineas, Ferb, Candace, Perry, Doof, and the rest of the gang to get stuck into. While I may not have adored every single one of Season 5’s stories, there were more hits than misses, and with really only one or two exceptions, there was *something* to enjoy in basically all of them.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Perry and Doof, trapped in a lift.
Trapped in a lift…

In 2025, I shared my opinions on the first half of Season 5, and then later on the second batch of episodes, so I’ll direct you to those pieces to read more of my thoughts on those episodes in particular. You can find the first part by clicking or tapping here, and the second part by clicking or tapping here. I go into a bit more detail in those pieces on things like the animation style, music, and more, so be sure to check them out if you haven’t already.

At this point in time, I don’t know when Season 6 might premiere – I don’t even know how far into production it is. Season 5 very consciously targeted a summer broadcast date, but I highly doubt Season 6 will be arriving this summer. I’d like to think we’ll see it sometime in 2026 or the first half of 2027, though. And if you missed it, a new film has just been announced, which will presumably follow on from Season 6 sometime in 2027 or 2028. So there’s a lot more Phineas and Ferb coming our way over the next few years – and so long as I’m able to do so, I’ll cover and review all of it!

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Doof rebuilding Norm.
A very touching way to end the season.

I hope this has been interesting. I know that three episodes isn’t much to base a review on, but having already reviewed the rest of the season, it’d feel weird to leave these three un-reviewed! I don’t think these three episodes on their own transformed my view of Season 5 as a whole – but that would’ve been a tough ask! I had fun with them, though, and to my surprise, I must admit, Vendpocalypse: The Musical was a great way to end the season.

Thanks for checking out my review, and be sure to tune in when we get trailers and teasers for Season 6 and/or the upcoming movie, as I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say about that! And when Season 6 arrives, I’ll do my best to review those episodes, too.

Have fun out there!


Phineas and Ferb Seasons 1-5 is available to stream now on Disney+. Episodes also regularly air on the Disney Channel. Phineas and Ferb remains the copyright of Disney Television Animation and the Walt Disney Company. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Phineas and Ferb: Season 5 Review

A spoiler warning graphic.

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Phineas and Ferb, including all of Season 5.

Phineas and Ferb’s fifth season was one of my most-anticipated entertainment experiences of 2025. I’m a pretty big fan of the show, having first encountered it shortly after its original premiere in 2007 or 2008, back when I used to have a satellite TV subscription! When Season 5 premiered on Disney+, I didn’t just binge the entire thing right away; I wanted to take things a bit slower and give each episode a chance to settle. That being said, I still finished the whole season in under a week, so maybe my self-control isn’t as good as I thought!

If you just want the tl;dr, here it comes: Phineas and Ferb Season 5 was wonderful. Some episodes were truly outstanding, reaching the bar set by those earlier stories in the 2000s and 2010s. Others weren’t as spectacular, but even in the ones I found less enjoyable, there were still fun moments, creative storytelling, or jokes that managed to win a chuckle. I think I laughed out loud at least once while watching all eighteen/nineteen episodes (the numbering gets a little bit weird; we’ll cover that as we go), which I think says a lot.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Phineas with a Fireside Girl at school.
Phineas at the beginning of the new season.

I think we should start by getting a handful of negative points out of the way before we talk about all of the good stuff.

First of all, the new season was quite self-referential, calling back to episodes, story beats, jokes, and even internet memes spawned by Phineas and Ferb’s original run. That, in itself, is not a problem, and at least some of these “meta” moments were funny, added something to the story, or just plain worked. But for me, Season 5 came very close to crossing a line that basically no series ever gets right, turning in-jokes and winks to the audience into cringeworthy fan-service. Relying too heavily on the past, even in a revival like this, doesn’t allow new storylines to stand on their own two feet, and while some self-referential “meta” moments in Season 5 were incredibly good fun… others strayed too close to that line for comfort.

Secondly, Season 5 basically ignored Dr Doofenshmirtz’s character arc from the latter part of Phineas and Ferb’s original run. The season premiere saw him – apparently at random – deciding to “turn evil again” after an entire year of being a good guy, and then none of that was ever acknowledged again. Doof was back as we last saw him – which, for me, felt a little hollow. Don’t get me wrong: it was fun to see him back in his element, and to have more wacky adventures with him and Perry. But the way it was handled left something to be desired. I’m not sure how the show could realistically have done a better job here – except, as I mentioned more than once before Season 5 aired, if these new episodes had been set in the same endless summer as before, instead of one year later.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Doofenshmirtz firing one of his inators.
Doof is evil again.

The one year time jump wasn’t mentioned a lot, and didn’t really do much for most of the characters. Though nominally “older,” the only kid character whose age was even mentioned was Candace, and that was just a throwaway line. Everyone just kind of… reverted to type, if that makes sense. And for a show whose main characters are children, I’m not sure that feels right if you step back and think about it. When you’re a kid, one year is a massive amount of time, and none of us were the same at age ten as we were at nine, or at sixteen as we were at fifteen. While I’m not saying I wanted to see whole character arcs for the kids or big personality changes, what I am saying, again, is that the time jump doesn’t seem to have achieved very much. I’m left wondering why it was included at all.

We saw Candace finally achieve one of her biggest goals – something she’d been pushing for going all the way back to the beginning of Season 1: getting her driver’s license. And the episode was funny – we’ll touch on that in a moment when we look at each episode in turn. But… after getting her driver’s license, Candace literally didn’t use it again for the entire rest of the season. In the very next episode, we even see her riding her bike.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Candace on her bicycle.
This was literally the episode after Candace passed her driver’s test.

As with Doofenshmirtz above, this kind of speaks to a bigger issue for me. Candace has grown as a character over the course of an entire year, and finally scored one of her biggest accomplishments – something even her brothers don’t have. This happened early in the season, and there were fifteen more stories in which Candace could’ve driven a car, even just in the background of a scene, not necessarily as a major plot point. But it didn’t happen. I love episodic television, and a big part of Phineas and Ferb is that it’s an episodic show where things “reset” from one episode to the next. But for something so important and meaningful for a character to be completely sidelined… it doesn’t feel right, somehow. And it all adds to that same feeling I was talking about with the time-jump: was it really necessary?

There were eighteen individual stories in Season 5 – the opening pair of episodes form a single story, and the Meap episode was also feature-length. Across those episodes, we spent at least some time with most of what I’d consider to be the show’s recurring characters… but by no means all. There were some noteworthy absences, as well as several characters whose roles were very minor. The likes of Jeremy and Norm got very few lines, Roger Doofenshmirtz was seen but didn’t really interact with the plot in a big way, Love Handel only appeared in the background to sing a song, and Irving – who’d climbed the ranks to become an honourary member of the friend group by Season 4 – was entirely absent aside from a couple of background cameos.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Irving looking sad.
Irving was notably absent in these new episodes.

There were also a few character groups or pairings that didn’t appear in Season 5. The relationship between Dr Doofenshmirtz and Vanessa was barely touched upon, as they hardly spent any time together. The Flynn-Fletcher family didn’t actually do anything all together, either; no family vacation, no road trip, not even sitting down for a meal. With Roger and Norm effectively absent, Doofenshmirtz didn’t have either of them as character foils, and there was no Charlene, either. Major Monogram only had Carl. And Candace spent very little time with Stacy, Jeremy, or any of her other friends.

As above, there wouldn’t have been time for every conceivable duo or group to get an outing, and there’s still Season 6 to come. The first four seasons took time to even introduce some of these characters, let alone build up relationships between them, and I’m not really trying to demand everyone everywhere all at once! But… I felt some of these absences. Doof and Vanessa not getting any time together was particularly noteworthy given how the show’s original run ended and how important Vanessa is to Doof’s arc. Norm’s absence was similarly felt. Then for the kids, Irving disappearing and Jeremy getting basically a single scene all season long kept things focused on the principal characters, sure, but it also limited their potential interactions outside of their core friendship group. None of it is egregiously awful, and if you just watch a single episode, you wouldn’t even notice anything was amiss. But taking the entire season as a whole… it felt odd to reach the end with the absences and lack of interactions we’ve discussed.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Mayor Roger Doofenshmirtz.
Roger didn’t get much screen time – or any scenes with his brother.

I guess the positive spin I could put on all of that would be that this is a revival, and the writers and producers may have wanted to take their time re-establishing the show’s core formulae and character dynamics before adding in too many secondary characters and side characters. That’s a reasonable argument in some ways, as Phineas and Ferb Season 5 is also intended to bring in new viewers alongside returning fans.

Okay, okay. That’s probably enough negativity for now. Phineas and Ferb doesn’t need to be nitpicked to death. So let’s move on and talk about the things I enjoyed. Thankfully, that’s pretty much everything else.

If you read my pre-season “wishlist,” you might remember me saying that what I wanted out of this revival was, in a word, more Phineas and Ferb. And that’s pretty much what I got: the show has returned to its classic formula, with two-and-a-half storylines that intersect, plenty of wacky inventions, fun musical numbers, and a good-natured sense of humour. Not every episode was perfect, but I’d happily watch all of them again… and again. No season of television is going to be filled with five-star episodes, but there were several in Phineas and Ferb Season 5. Even when the new season was at its worst, there were still laugh-out-loud moments, emotional scenes, enjoyable songs, beautiful animation, and other things to enjoy. No episode this time was irredeemably awful, and I’d say that the new season’s overall quality was about where I expected it to be. Perhaps it’s closer in tone and quality to Season 4 of the original run than to Seasons 1-3 – and if you know me you’ll know I felt Season 4 wasn’t quite reaching the bar of those earlier seasons. But it was still good – and so is Season 5.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. building.
You can just hear this image, right?

When I reviewed Candace Against The Universe a few years ago, I said that one of the best things the film did in its opening moments was re-establish the world and characters of Phineas and Ferb, making it feel like nothing had changed and that everyone we remembered was still there, living their lives in the Tri-State Area. And once we got over the new season’s opening sequence, which was set at the kids’ school, I think the rest of Season 5 nailed that feeling again. Most of the main storylines felt like they could’ve been lifted from the show’s original run, and with the exception of the season premiere and its obvious time-jump, narratively the rest of the episodes blend in with the rest of the show. In a few years’ time – and regardless of whether more Phineas and Ferb is produced after Season 6 – it probably won’t even be noticeable to play some of these episodes in a random order, mixed in with others from the show’s original run.

One of the biggest differences – and where Season 5 might actually be noticeably different from Season 1-4 – is in the animation. Some character outlines felt softer and less blocky, colours tended to be flatter, with less differentiation, and there’s something about a lot of the characters’ eyes – particularly background and secondary characters – that just felt a little… off. I don’t know how else to put it. I will say that, despite some pre-season fears, this was something I got used to. And I think the animation lines up with Season 4 and Candace Against The Universe more than it does with Seasons 1-3. It wasn’t bad per se, but maybe there’s been a change in Disney’s animation software or a different animation studio… and I think it’s worth mentioning, at least.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing minor characters in a crowd scene.
A selection of background and secondary characters.

The songs were all top-class, and I enjoyed all of them. I would note that it was a bit strange how not every episode got its own original song this time around; the episodes More Than An Intern and Agent T (For Teen) got versions of songs from the original run of the show rather than their own compositions. They were fine, though.

My favourite songs of the season would have to be When The Tri-State Aurora Comes Around and No Sleepin’ At A Slumber Party, both of which were great fun. The Tri-State aurora sequence – which we’ll talk about more in a moment – was absolutely stunning, and the music elevated it even more. It really was a great sequence. The rest of the songs were good; Submarine Sandwich Submarine and License to Bust felt the most “classic,” like they’d come from the show’s original run. But all were in keeping with the tone of the series, really.

Next, I’ll run through each episode one by one and talk about what I liked (and didn’t like) about each of them. Then at the end, I’ll share my final thoughts on Season 5 as a whole.

Summer Block Buster/Cloudy With A Chance Of Mom:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the main kid characters performing a musical number.
The opening musical number – and a cheeky reference to Hamster and Gretel.

This episode had the difficult task of re-establishing Phineas and Ferb’s world five years after we last saw it. And I think it hit all of the right notes. We got to see the last day of school before summer – and I like the implication that the boys’ “What I Did Last Summer” presentation took the entire year. Doofenshmirtz “turning evil again” was skipped over too quickly, but that says more about the decision to set this new season a year later than anything else. The big musical number at the beginning was a ton of fun, and felt in line with some of the epic songs from special episodes like Summer Belongs To You.

As a season premiere, the second half of the story was kinda risky! It didn’t follow the show’s typical formula; mixing things up by involving Linda directly in the story. But that decision gave real stakes and emotional weight to what the kids had to do, and I think it worked exceptionally well. All in all, a wonderful way to kick off the new series. And yes – I’m counting these two episodes as two halves of one story!

Submarine Sandwich Submarine:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing a very large submarine sandwich with several characters.
The sub under construction.

I liked the callback to Candace’s sandcastle-building award from the previous summer – but this was a storyline where I definitely felt the absence of Jeremy. Even if Stacy or one of Candace’s other friends had been there I think her side of the story could’ve worked just a little bit better. The boys’ side of the story was neat, though, and I liked the visual impact the submarine made. The giant fish was kind of random, but weirdly in keeping with other sea monsters the show has introduced!

Doof and Perry had a classic battle in his lair, one that reminded me a little of their famous hot dog/bratwurst duel, thanks to the abundance of food. Doofenshmirtz’s inator did cover up the boys’ invention – literally, covered it with sand – but was also a bit of a twist on what viewers might’ve been expecting. As noted above, this episode also had a very classic song, and the whole thing had the feel of a Season 2 or 3 episode – which I mean as a compliment.

License To Bust:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Candace and her driving instructor.
Candace taking her driver’s test.

The boys’ gecko gear was cool, and reminded me a little of their rubberisation ray from Night of the Living Pharmacists insofar as it allowed the kids to bounce all over town. This invention wasn’t the main focus of the story, though. As mentioned above, I’m a little disappointed that Candace getting her driver’s license – finally, after more than four seasons! – wasn’t so much as mentioned in subsequent stories, and that puts a little bit of a downer on the ending of her storyline here.

That being said, the driving test sequence was a ton of fun, as was the song. And Doofenshmirtz’s inator – while arguably less destructive than some of his creations – interfered in just the right way to bring everything together. If future episodes do more with the idea of Candace being able to drive, I’ll definitely place License To Bust higher in my rankings! For now, it was fine as a one-off story.

Dry Another Day:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the kids on their luge invention.
Luging through town!

Phineas and Ferb has done the “it’s the hottest day of the year, so let’s do something icy” thing more than once, but the infinitely rolling luge wheel definitely made the concept feel fresh! Candace skiing was a fun visual, and the entire sequence with the song was fantastic, too. The concept reminded me a little of Season 4’s “foam town,” probably because both were big rolling wheels, but the luge idea was definitely original.

We got a glimpse at a Doofenshmirtz backstory! Hooray! Doof told us a little about his childhood as he schemed to store his oil at the swimming pool. That was fun, and the water park was actually a surprisingly detailed and interesting location to visit. The hammerhead shark slide was especially creative. Again, this just felt like a classic, fun Phineas and Ferb episode that I’d happily revisit.

Deconstructing Doof:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Candace and Doofenshmirtz's therapist.
The therapist.

This felt like a pretty “meta” story concept at first, but the way it brought together Doofenshmirtz and Candace – who worked so well together in the Season 4 finale in 2015 – was genuinely fantastic. It makes sense, if you think about it, that someone might be able to piece together the unusual goings-on around Danville, figuring out why these wonderful inventions are always gone by the end of the day. Does that take something away from the “magic” of an animated show? Well… maybe. But I think it worked pretty well.

I wasn’t particularly keen on this episode’s main song; it was fine but just not to my taste, I guess. Not every callback in every episode worked or won a smile, but the therapist’s line about a platypus being a metaphor definitely did! The reference to the Season 2 episode Brain Drain was played deadpan and absolutely perfectly, and it was just a ton of fun. I had to pause the episode for fear of laughing so much I’d miss something good!

Tropey McTropeface:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the "mother mugger" being caught.
The arrest of the “mother mugger.”

I didn’t expect much from this episode when I saw the title, I’ll be honest. But the story was, surprisingly, much more coherent and fun than I’d been expecting. The story of Michael Bublé’s involvement is actually sweet: his son had been a huge fan of the show, and they’d watched it together when he was suffering from a serious illness, with Phineas and Ferb becoming something positive for them both at a difficult time.

There was quite a lot going on in Tropey McTropeface aside from the titular zoetrope; a mugger loose on the streets of Danville, Perry and Candace’s bath appointment, Doof’s plan to rotate city hall… it was a busy episode, but still connected everything together. I don’t think it was the highlight of the season, but a better episode than I expected based on the title.

Biblio-Blast:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Doofenshmirtz gardening.
Doofen-plants!

Perry’s lair entrances were one of Phineas and Ferb’s original elements, but as the series dragged on, they became less prominent. Biblio-Blast has one of the best, though: that pinball sequence was incredibly detailed and great fun. Though a bookcase might not seem like the wildest idea at first, it was another part of the episode that felt like it was harkening back to earlier episodes where the boys’ inventions were sometimes a bit more child-like and grounded. The sequence of the bookcase being built – set to the show’s Quirky Worky Song – was also in that classic vein.

Doof’s story with the evil plant monsters reminded me a little of Night of the Living Pharmacists, and it’s certainly one of the worst backfires of any of his inventions! The design of the plants was quite unsettling, too, meaning they worked well as antagonists on this side of the story. The main song was definitely one aimed at kids – but hey, if it encourages anyone to read more or stick with reading, that can only be a good thing! Oh and the plant-themed reprieve was genuinely cool. Buford also had some great lines in this episode.

A Chip To The Vet:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Buford and Cadace at Mr Slushy Dawg with Jeremy.
Buford, Candace, and Jeremy.

I think I’m right in saying that A Chip To The Vet is the only episode in which Jeremy speaks – though with a different voice actor in Season 5. As noted above, I think his absence was felt, and even here, really, he didn’t play a huge role or advance Candace’s story in a big way. The main vet-themed portion of the story was neat, though, and seeing Perry and Doofenshmirtz doing battle in a completely new location was fun. You’d think the OWCA would be equipped to deal with something as common as microchipping – but then again, it is just a cartoon!

Okay, the goat jump-scare? It got me – and it was hilarious. As was Doof listing all the things he could chip before figuring out he could use the chipper on Perry. The kids’ pet wash was fun, too, and as with Doof and Perry it was great to see them do their thing somewhere other than the back yard. We also got a rare “platypuses don’t do much” line right at the end, too!

More Than An Intern:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Carl looking dejected.
Carl.

This story has a message that I think will resonate very strongly with Phineas and Ferb’s returning fans. A lot of folks are working multiple jobs in the “gig economy,” just trying to make ends meet. And while I wouldn’t have expected a critique of this phenomenon from what is nominally still a kids’ show… I think it’s actually a powerful story. Carl – OWCA’s unpaid intern – has to work multiple other jobs just to pay the bills, and even while he loves his work with the agency, he’s forced to take on all of these other jobs. Major Monogram’s obliviousness is also a big part of this story – perhaps a comment on the “boomer” generation and their unawareness of how tough things really are.

As with Candace and her driver’s license above, this is a story that I would’ve wanted to see have genuine repercussions. Even if Carl doesn’t immediately get paid by the agency, having Major Monogram show a little more appreciation in subsequent episodes would’ve been nice. The rest of the episode was fun, don’t get me wrong, and I’m aware we’ve really only commented on the messaging this time. But it really is an important message, and one I was pleasantly surprised to see the series tackle. Carl really was the perfect character for this story, too.

The Aurora Perry-Alis:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the aurora.
The Tri-State Aurora.

This episode was actually pretty mixed for me. I loved the cruise ship setting, the song, and the whole sequence with the aurora. The animation work to bring the aurora to life was genuinely beautiful; among the best parts of a season where environments have all been outstanding. However, I think The Aurora Perry-Alis maybe tried to cram in just one element too many. Between Monogram’s aunt, Vanessa reconnecting with Monty, the kids building their inventions, Candace and Linda at the spa, Perry and Stacy, Doof and Perry getting miniaturised, the disgruntled cruise employee, and Lawrence stuck in a conga line… there wasn’t quite enough time for every character and narrative beat to shine in the way I’d have wanted.

That being said, I really enjoyed the episode when it settled down, particularly near the end. The moment where everyone just stopped to enjoy the aurora was sweet, and it reminded me a little of the calm, relaxed feeling at the end of the New Year’s Eve episode from Season 4. A mixed bag, for sure, but a great song, some stunning animation, and a solid ending manage to hold it together.

Lord of the Firesides:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the Fireside Girls turning against Isabella.
How could a disagreement about cupcakes get so out of hand?!

I’m glad that we got one episode where Isabella was with her Fireside Girls group and separate from the core characters. The conflict between the two groups of girls was pretty basic, and the twist – that it was all caused by one of Doof’s inators – wasn’t exactly concealed! But it was solid enough, and led to plenty of fun moments as the Fireside Girls’ meeting rapidly descended into chaos. The heavy metal-inspired song and red, firey imagery all worked well on this side of the episode.

Doof and Perry’s story – renewing their business licenses – was neat. Having the pair on roughly the same team works well as an occasional change of pace, and a story about bureaucracy is in line with what we saw of Danville in episodes like Season 4’s Where’s Pinky? which was also set at city hall. Definitely a bit of a change from the characters’ usual shenanigans – but one that worked.

The Candace Suit:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Stacy, Buford, and a pile of Candace suits.
So many Candaces…

You know how some episodic shows have a throwaway line, joke, or scene that works in context but just… doesn’t have the legs to be a standalone thing? Yeah. That’s The Candace Suit for me, at least on the side of the story involving Buford and his life-size moulds. When that was brought up in Season 3’s Doofapus, the idea of a random character like Buford making life-size moulds of people was such a non-sequitur that it was funny. For me, The Candace Suit dragged out that idea way too far, killing the joke… but also taking a strangely dark turn that, while arguably in character for someone like Buford, didn’t sit right.

Perhaps because I found the premise stretched too thin, I wasn’t wild about this episode’s song, either. Doofenshmirtz and Perry didn’t have as much time in the spotlight this time – which is fine in theory, but I wish the main storyline had been stronger. I know this all makes it sound like I detested this episode; I really didn’t. I just think it exhausted its core premise pretty quickly, and over-stretched what should’ve been a throwaway one-liner that, in my view, didn’t really have enough in the tank to be a fully-fledged story on its own.

Agent T (For Teen):

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Stacy on Perry's moped.
Stacy gets a turn in the spotlight!

If The Candace Suit took a narrative beat from the show’s original run and overdid it, Agent T (For Teen) is an example of how to do things right. Taking Stacy’s knowledge of Perry’s secret identity from Season 4’s Happy Birthday, Isabella, Agent T (For Teen) picks up that storyline and expands upon it. Stacy’s role here was a lot of fun, and it’s great that another secondary character got a spotlight episode like this. Stacy’s interactions with OWCA – first through the funny instructional video and later when speaking to Major Monogram – were fantastic.

The earlier part of the episode, which saw Stacy and Candace working together at a fancy event, was also funny, but where Agent T (For Teen) really excelled was in those moments with Stacy, Perry, Doof, and the returning Dr Diminutive. I’d wondered if anyone from L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. might appear in these new episodes; I wouldn’t have chosen Dr Diminutive necessarily, as Rodney is by far the more iconic character, but his role was surprisingly fun. Doof’s evil organisation also seems to have gotten a serious upgrade… will that come into play in a future story, perhaps? Oh, and the reworked “Agent P” song? Cute.

The Haberdasher:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the OWCA haberdasher.
The titular character.

This is another episode that just… didn’t wow me, to be honest. The callback to the “I’d have x number of nickels” meme was fun, sure, and guest star Alan Cumming gave a genuinely great vocal performance. But something about the deep dive into OWCA’s hat-making and the character of the Haberdasher himself just… didn’t do it for me. I realise that’s horribly subjective, by the way!

Doof’s evolution into a weird mothman-hybrid was truly disturbing, though, and I’ll definitely give the episode its dues for that particular design! And seeing Buford, Baljeet, and Isabella interacting and building things without Phineas and Ferb was a fun idea – one I wish we’d seen a bit more of, to be honest.

Out Of Character:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Buford holding a film camera.
Buford Van Stomm: film director.

When an episode takes established character traits, or introduces new ones, as part of a storyline, things can work really well. When an episode – with an ironic name – introduces something that doesn’t seem to fit a character for the sake of artificially manufacturing a storyline… well, you get an episode like Out Of Character. I can’t remember if Baljeet has had to act before, I think he must’ve at least once in an earlier episode, though! But even if he hadn’t, surely someone as smart as he is could grasp the concept of acting. As a result of that, I felt the bulk of the kids’ story was built on a bit of a flimsy premise.

However! That didn’t ruin Out Of Character for me, and I loved the return of the Space Adventure fictional franchise. The retro sci-fi, kind of Star Wars or Star Trek-inspired vibe was beautiful, and seeing the kids getting all invested in their roles was an absolute blast. Doof’s inator – turning people’s faces forgettable – was a creative idea, and led to a fun visual effect, too. I also felt a cute little nod and wink to Act Your Age, with Buford taking on a leading role in the filmmaking process. A fun episode – even if the premise was a bit annoying!

Meap Me In St. Louis:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Meap walking away from an exploding car.
Remember this clip?

I’ll level with you: the two Meap episodes weren’t really my favourites from the original run of Phineas and Ferb. I’m not sure why, exactly; I’m a huge sci-fi fan and both episodes had fun moments, backstory, and character interactions. But they didn’t blow me away, so Meap Me In St. Louis wasn’t exactly at the top of my list when I was looking ahead to Season 5! That being said, there were still plenty of fun moments in this feature-length episode. I felt the “checklist” of moments from the trailer was a bit too on-the-nose, and the core story of Big Mitch seeking out a substance he could use to rule the galaxy was a tad repetitive… but other than that, it was a surprising amount of fun.

Meap Me In St. Louis (which I’m pretty sure is supposed to be pronounced “Saint Lew-iss,” but one battle at a time, eh?) gave most of the main characters plenty to do. Meap teaming up with Candace was fun, Perry and Doof working together again was also cute, and while the song was very silly, I actually kind of liked it. Again, some beautiful animation work to bring the outer space and seasonal changing sequences to life, too.

No Slumber Party:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the "Friends" parody.
I loved this.

I already highlighted this episode’s song, which was just fantastic, and really the entire premise was a blast. Doof’s desire to spread evil by spoiling a TV show (a hilarious Friends parody) was absolutely pitch-perfect for his level of evil-doing, and his stay awake-inator was on theme, too. I’m surprised Disney okayed a Friends parody, given that the show is owned by a competitor, but I’m glad the higher-ups were good with it because it was genuinely hilarious.

The kids’ competing slumber parties were cute, too, and it was nice to get at least some interaction between Vanessa and Candace before the season ended! The boys’ invention looked really cozy – exactly the kind of thing I’d want to hang out in and watch movies! And Candace’s attempt to get Linda to see it was one of the best in the season as she dragged her downstairs, with the awake-inator missing her multiple times. A really fun episode that took place at night for a bit of a twist, and that had a fun song to boot.

The Ballad Of Bubba Doof:

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Doofenshmirtz and his cousin in a faded photograph.
Dr Doofenshmirtz with his swamp-dwelling cousin.

I can see a universe in which “Doofenshmirtz has a redneck Cajun cousin” works as a premise. However… I wasn’t wild about this character in this version of the story. Firstly, it felt a bit mean-spirited; too many stories across the world of entertainment look down their noses at rural or small-town America, particularly in the Appalachian and southern regions, and some of the stereotyping just leaned into that in an uncomfortable way. And secondly, I just didn’t find Bubba to be particularly fun or engaging as a character.

There are some positives to this episode, though. I liked Bubba’s inventiveness, and his successful trapping of Perry. Monogram and Carl had some fun scenes together, and it was nice to see them outside of the OWCA headquarters in a completely different environment. The kids’ forced perspective town was fun, leaning into the Western genre in a big way. Not entirely original, perhaps, but still good. All in all, though, I wouldn’t say this was the strongest end to this new season.

In Conclusion…

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing most of the main characters at the end of episode 2.
Most of the main characters in the season premiere.

So we’ve talked about all of the individual stories. While researching for this article, it seems as if there might be four more episodes to come later this summer… so maybe this isn’t the full Season 5 review, after all. I wonder why Disney did that and didn’t drop those remaining stories at the same time as the rest of the season?

Anyway, setting that aside, I had a great time with Phineas and Ferb’s revival. There were some fun stories with the kids, Candace, Perry, and Dr Doofenshmirtz, and after such a long time away, it felt incredible to be back in the Tri-State Area all over again. Phineas and Ferb’s fifth season, while imperfect, is still the best animated series I’ve seen in 2025, and will absolutely be a contender for “TV show of the year” when I do my annual end-of-year awards in December. Check back after Christmas to see if it makes the cut!

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Dr Doofenshmirtz sitting in a chair holding a bowl of popcorn.
I watched (most of) Season 5 with a big grin on my face!

I’ve rambled on for long enough, so it’s time to wrap things up. There were some episodes and storylines that weren’t as strong as others, and there were a few weird quirks with the animation, especially for secondary characters. But despite those glorified nitpicks, I had a wonderful time. I felt genuinely sad when I realised I was coming to the end of the season; I just didn’t want it to be over! For anyone with Disney+ and who enjoyed even one Phineas and Ferb episode in the past, Season 5 is an easy recommendation.

If there are four extra episodes to come in July, be sure to check back because I’ll definitely share my thoughts. And when Season 6 is ready, I hope to be able to review those episodes, too. Until then, if you want to check out ten of my favourite episodes from Seasons 1-4, you can find them by clicking or tapping here. And I wrote a longer piece about the Christmas special back in December to mark its fifteenth anniversary, which you can find by clicking or tapping here. Until next time… and have a wonderful summer!


Phineas and Ferb is available to stream now on Disney+. Season 5 is also being broadcast on the Disney Channel in the United States. Phineas and Ferb – including all episodes mentioned above – is the copyright of Disney Television Animation. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Phineas and Ferb Season 5: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations

A spoiler warning graphic

Spoiler Warning: Beware minor spoilers for Phineas and Ferb, including the Season 5 teasers and trailers.

By the time you read this, the season premiere of Phineas and Ferb’s revival might already have aired! I’m working hard to get this piece out before the full season hits Disney+, though!

I’ve talked about Phineas and Ferb on a few occasions here on the website. The show is unironically one of my all-time favourites, and moreover, it’s something I often turn to when I’m not feeling great or struggling with my mental health. To say Phineas and Ferb is one of my “comfort shows” wouldn’t be wide of the mark.

So I have a few thoughts about its imminent revival!

Two promotional posters for Phineas and Ferb Season 5 (2025).
The revival’s promo posters.

It goes without saying that all of this is the entirely subjective opinion of just one viewer, so if you hate my take, think I’ve missed something important, or I’m excited about something that sounds awful to you… that’s okay! There should be enough room in the fan community for polite and civil discussion. I think it’s also worth noting, in a piece like this, that I don’t have any “insider information,” and I’m not trying to pretend that anything we’re about to discuss can, will, or must be included in Season 5.

Phew! Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about some of my hopes, fears, and expectations for Phineas and Ferb’s revival.

Original concept art for Phineas and Ferb Season 1.
Early character designs from the show’s original pitch.

This first point is a big one, but it can be kind of difficult to quantify. Too many reboots and revivals feel corporate and forced; soulless, money-grubbing “content” created not with any artistic vision or integrity, but to please shareholders and/or pad out the increasingly meagre lineup of a streaming platform in a fractured marketplace. I remember that, in the mid-2010s, the rumour was that Phineas and Ferb’s creators felt they had ideas for a potential fifth season – so that’s good news. But at the same time, I’m acutely aware that Phineas and Ferb is being revived for business reasons; Disney wants to use the revival to sign up and retain as many Disney+ subscribers as possible.

Corporate executives tend to treat existing brands and IP much more favourably than something new. We can see that in the marketing push Phineas and Ferb’s revival has gotten; comparable recent projects, even from the same creative team, like Milo Murphy’s Law or Hamster and Gretel didn’t get the same love and attention from Disney. And that’s to say nothing of shows like Hailey’s On It, which was cancelled after just one season and seemed to get absolutely no marketing budget whatsoever.

Photograph from the Phineas and Ferb S5 premiere showing Olivia Olson with a Perry the Platypus costumed figure.
Olivia Olson (left) with Perry the Platypus at the Season 5 premiere.
Photo Credit: The Walt Disney Company

In short, will Phineas and Ferb feel… hollow? Will it be noticeably more corporate in its tone, and will that impact the enjoyment of the finished product? Anything Disney is and always has been corporate, but in its original form Phineas and Ferb was at least an original idea. Will this version be noticeably worse for being revived a decade after it went off the air?

Another way to think about this point is like this: are there genuinely good ideas left and new stories to tell with these characters? Or will it be obvious from the first episode that everyone involved just came back to earn a stack of money? There are some reboots and revivals that are so nakedly corporate that they’re painfully unwatchable; think Dexter or Sex and the City, for instance, though those shows are far outside of Phineas and Ferb’s animated comedy genre. I guess I’m just worried that there’s nothing left in the tank; that all of the good episode ideas were made during the show’s original run, and that this revival will not only fail to recapture the magic… but might even taint the original series by being obviously soulless and so much weaker.

Photograph from the Phineas and Ferb S5 premiere showing the co-creators.
Co-creators of Phineas and Ferb Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh at the Season 5 premiere.
Photo Credit: The Walt Disney Company

And I think there’s a valid cause for concern in that regard. I don’t believe it’s an especially “hot take” to say that, outside of a few special feature-length episodes, the quality of Phineas and Ferb seemed to dip during its fourth season. It seemed, even then, that some premises had been done and done again, and that certain characters were more or less played out in terms of how far their arcs could take them. There were still some enjoyable episodes in the mix, but they tended to be ones that flipped the script or tried something different.

This ties into my next point. The revived series is going to be set one year later, meaning everyone will be a bit older. What impact will that have on character dynamics? Will Candace be as high-strung at sixteen as she was at fifteen? Will Phineas and the gang still be together on the same terms as before? The character this matters most for is Dr Doofenshmirtz; after an entire year as a “good guy,” and having had multiple adventures in Milo Murphy’s Law, how will he be different and how will that impact his relationships with Vanessa and Perry?

Promotional image for Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Dr Doofenshmirtz at a therapist's office.
How will the time-skip (and character regression) affect Doofenshmirtz and his relationships?

I can’t help but feel it was a mistake to move the timeline along. It risks undermining the powerful and emotional ending that the show’s original run got in 2015, and for an episodic series… would anyone really notice if the new episodes were set in that same endless summer? We can argue that some characters didn’t really change a lot over the course of the show, but Doofenshmirtz definitely did – and having him “become evil again” after going through everything and promising to change for Vanessa’s sake just… it doesn’t sit right, somehow.

The opposite problem might also arise. If we’re saying the kids are all a year older, it’ll seem strange if they look, dress, and behave exactly the same way, won’t it? I think it’s unlikely that the time-skip will do anything narratively; there won’t be some big off-screen adventure that happened during the school year that will be called back to. So if the time-skip doesn’t do anything for the story, and doesn’t seem to have affected most of the characters either, based on what we’ve glimpsed from trailers and teasers… why do it? Why not set the new episodes in that original summer, before the events of the series finale?

Still frame from the Phineas and Ferb Season 5 trailer showing the kids mid-jump.
If all the kids look and behave the exact same way, why not set the new episodes during the original summer?

The combination of Doofenshmirtz’s arc being potentially regressed or overwritten and the apparent lack of change to any of the other characters has me concerned that the time-skip will be seen as a mistake. I can see the reasoning behind it, and the temptation to give the kids another 104 days to plan all-new adventures. But there are drawbacks to it, too, and I can’t help but feel that these outweigh any potential benefits.

I mentioned that Phineas and Ferb was, in its original incarnation anyway, an episodic series. And one of my biggest hopes for the revival is that it stays that way! I don’t need Phineas and Ferb to become some kind of weird serialised cartoon, with each episode setting up the next and ending on a cliffhanger. There’s more than enough serialised storytelling out there; one of the most appealing things about Phineas and Ferb has always been that each episode is a self-contained adventure.

Still frame from the Phineas and Ferb Season 5 trailer showing Candace and Linda.
Linda and Candace as they appear in the Season 5 trailer.

Many episodic shows from the past are being brought back in a new, serialised form. Just look at the Star Trek franchise as an example, but I’m sure you can think of plenty of others. Episodic storytelling was the order of the day a few years ago, but in the aftermath of successful shows like Lost and Game of Thrones, every media executive seems to be demanding season-long narrative arcs nowadays. I hope that Phineas and Ferb won’t fall victim to this, and that Disney’s producers have recognised that the show’s episodic style is a core part of its identity and one of the biggest reasons why it worked so well.

Two-part episodes, feature-length specials, and the like are all okay, of course! But I don’t want to log in to Disney+ to find that each episode leads directly into the next; that Season 5 is one long narrative arc. It just wouldn’t be right for Phineas and Ferb, and it would almost certainly make it feel much more corporate, bland, and unexceptional in the ways we were discussing above.

Photograph from the Phineas and Ferb S5 premiere showing the co-creators on stage.
Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh on stage at the Season 5 premiere.
Photo Credit: The Walt Disney Company

I have one specific casting concern, and I’m not really sure how best to broach this. Richard O’Brien – who voices Lawrence, the boys’ father – is 83 years old at time of writing. And throughout the revival’s marketing campaign, I haven’t so much as glimpsed him. Is O’Brien part of the revival? He’s tentatively credited on IMDB, but only for one episode of Season 5, which feels like a placeholder. I haven’t heard talk of the role of Lawrence being re-cast, but I haven’t seen or heard anything from Richard O’Brien himself or the show’s production team to confirm his involvement.

Phineas and Ferb is no stranger to re-cast roles, of course. Ferb – literally one of the title characters – was re-cast in 2020 for Candace Against the Universe, and I think that passed by inoffensively enough. But it would be a shame to lose Richard O’Brien, or to see the role of Lawrence diminished if he’s not able to voice the character as often or as freely any more. I guess we won’t know for sure until the new season arrives, but O’Brien’s absence and silence have left me a little concerned about a potentially reduced role for one of the core members of the Flynn-Fletcher family. Lawrence may not have always been the centre of attention in the way Linda is with Candace, but he’s often been an important presence in episodes, setting up key storylines or just butting in with a funny one-liner.

Cropped still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 3 showing the boys with their dad.
Lawrence with the boys in Season 3.

I’m not an artist or an animator, so please be aware of that caveat as I make this next point. From the clips and still images I’ve seen so far, something feels “off” about some of the background characters. I’m not sure if it’s something in their eyes, something to do with the colour palette used, or how they’re integrated into scenes, but some of these secondary characters feel floaty and lifeless. It’s like they’re not really there; ghostly, almost transparent presences.

Could that be connected to Disney using a different animation studio, or even just different digital animation software? I’m not sure. I hope it’s not something that’s gonna be too noticeable throughout the revival, though! The main characters – at least from what I’ve seen so far – stay true to their original designs and don’t seem to be impacted by whatever animation changes have been made. That’s positive, for sure, and visual/artistic styles are usually something I can get used to (or get over) given enough time. But from what I’ve seen so far, some of these secondary characters have left me feeling unimpressed.

Still frame from the Phineas and Ferb Season 5 Sneak Peek showing multiple characters during a musical sequence.
I’m not wild about how some of these secondary characters looked in the trailer and sneak peek.

So I think that’s everything I had to say on the negative side of things. Let’s try to be a bit more positive now and look ahead to some of the things I’m most looking forward to!

First of all, to counter some of the negative thoughts I had about the show’s time-skip, I think there’s at least some potential in that idea. It gives the writing team – who are a mix of old hands and newbies – a virgin, unspoiled landscape for telling new stories. There’s no need to worry about how certain character beats or narrative moments might impact stories which are supposedly set further along the show’s timeline, and there’s unlimited room for growth for pretty much all of the characters. In an episodic series – which I’m crossing my fingers and hoping Phineas and Ferb will continue to be – there’s perhaps less of a need for consistent character growth, but the potential is still there.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing the production team.
The team during production on Season 5.
Image Credit: Dan Povenmire

With the kids all being one year older, that could potentially open up new storylines, too. The original run of the show saw various characters develop crushes, but only older characters like Candace and Jeremy got to take things further and develop a full-blown relationship. Could someone like Buford or Ferb get a partner this time? That could be an interesting thing to explore.

And on the teen side, with Jeremy potentially leaving for university and Candace old enough to drive, there could be new storytelling potential. How would Candace react to Jeremy leaving, for example? If she’s able to drive, could that mean more adventures for her and her friends, or her and her brothers, without any adult supervision? That could definitely open up new locations further afield for adventures and building projects!

Promo image for Phineas and Ferb Season 5 showing Candace driving a car.
Is Candace gonna get her driver’s license?

One of my favourite episodes of Phineas and Ferb is the Christmas special from Season 2, and even though it’s June and the show’s usually set in summer… I wonder if we could see another holiday-themed episode either this season or sometime further along in the revival. There were a couple of Halloween episodes during the show’s original run, too, and that’s always a fun holiday to visit! It would be fun to see at least one episode – even if it’s not feature-length – set outside of the summer during one of the holiday events.

And speaking of special episodes – how about another vacation or travel story? Phineas and Ferb took characters to Hawaii, Africa, France, Japan, and my native UK… but there’s huge potential to visit locations all across the United States and around the world. The boys could visit Australia, the Amazon rainforest, or even Antarctica as part of one of their adventures, or maybe Dr Doofenshmirtz will visit a country like Spain or South Africa while pursuing an evil scheme. There’s a huge amount of storytelling potential when characters step outside of their usual environment, and the show used this to great effect last time around.

Still frame from Phineas and Ferb Season 1 showing a depiction of famous British landmarks and buildings.
Phineas and Ferb visited England in Season 1.

So far, I’ve only heard one song from the revived series: Summer Is Starting Right Now which is from the season premiere. The songs in Phineas and Ferb have always been one of the best parts of the show, and at least the first song from the revival seems to keep that trend going in the best possible way! The song feels like it’s right out of the original series, in tone, in terms of vocal performances, and everything. Given that I want to feel like Phineas and Ferb basically picked up where it left off, the revival’s first song definitely hits the right notes for me.

And I think that last point pretty much encapsulates what I want to see from this revival. Sure, there are going to be new stories to tell and new ways for characters to interact and for the two-and-a-half storylines to intersect. But for me, the point of doing a revival of this type is to give fans new stories which stay true to the original formula. That isn’t to say there’s no room for experimentation, but fundamentally, what I want out of a Phineas and Ferb revival is quite simply… Phineas and Ferb.

Still frame from the Phineas and Ferb Season 5 trailer showing the kids on toboggans.
I hope Season 5 is going to be a blast.

I want to see Phineas and the gang inventing and building impossibly awesome and fun projects. And I want to see Dr Doofenshmirtz work on an evil scheme to conquer the Tri-State Area. Candace should be on top form trying to get the boys in trouble, and Perry needs to be pushing Doof’s self-destruct buttons. These storylines should come together at the climax of the plot, with Doofenshmirtz’s inator somehow causing the boys’ mom not to see what they’d built. That’s Phineas and Ferb in a nutshell, and it’s what made the show so enjoyable to watch during its original run. I really hope the revival won’t stray too far from that wonderful formula.

Despite some concerns, I’m genuinely excited to welcome Phineas and Ferb back to our screens after such a long absence. You might remember me talking about the show’s Christmas special back in December; it’s something I revisit with fondness every holiday season. Phineas and Ferb is one of my favourite shows, and I really hope this revival will succeed at recapturing the magic.

Check back some time soon for a review… I’ll be sure to let you know if it achieves that objective!


Phineas and Ferb Season 5 will premiere on the 5th of June 2025 on the Disney Channel in the United States, with all ten episodes being available on Disney+ on the 6th of June 2025 in the United States and “select markets.” The rest of the world will follow later in the year. Phineas and Ferb is the copyright of Disney Television Animation and/or The Walt Disney Company. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.