Just watched the P&F episode where Django makes a picture to show his dad. What the fuck? THIS is the “painting a continent” from the opening?

First off, Django is way too normal. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Bufort, and Baljeet all look like cartoon characters. Django looks and sounds like a normal kid. He’s got that Phineas-in-the-pilot not-larger-than-life voice acting. He sounds like a real boy, not a cartoon person.

Second, his problem isn’t high concept enough. Lots of other characters get episodes where Phineas and Ferb help them. Isabella gets the hiccups. Dad forgets his anniversary. Bufort loses his fish. Candace can’t parallel park. All super high concept normal problems that get solved with insane shenanigans. Django’s art isn’t big enough to impress his dad, the famous artist who makes giant objects. That’s an insane problem that Phineas and Ferb solve with a normal idea!

Third, Django is too much of a straight man! We have lots of straight men in P&F. Candace is a straight man to the boys, and Mum is a straight man to her. Perry is a straight man to Doof. But in P&F, we always experience the story from the point of view of the insane person. With Django, his dad is insane and Django is a normal kid, but we get Django’s perspective. It feels boring because Django is boring compared to his dad.

I dunno, am I missing something? Does anyone else get serious Wesley Crusher vibes from Django? I just can’t wrap My head around why this episode is so different.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I didn’t quite remember this character (even after all the times my kids watched this show), so I looked him up, and it turns out the voice actor is one of the creator’s kids. So, he sounded like a “real boy” because he was.

    The character’s entire purpose for existing was to provide some royalty checks to the kid.