Review: Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel

Review: Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel

I won't lie, when I first heard about this, I was very nervous. I had images of Super Hero Squad playing in my mind, fulling fearful. As time went on, I went back and forth being interested and feeling dread about this. When it comes to cross-overs, I'm iffy about them, as in my experience, while some are good (Mega Man/Sonic the Hedgehog), others are just awful (Doctor Who/Star Trek). This one, well, I'd have to say...

It was okay. To me, yes, it did have some shortcomings, but it did have some beautifully done moments.

Starting off with the superheroes line-up, I was really disappointed by the selection. I do know that Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh were allowed only a selective few characters to use. They and the staff did a wonderful job with what they had access to, using their knowledge of the Marvel universe, as well as input from Marvel higher-ups and putting it all together so that it gels smoothly.

As much as I like the characters of Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Spider-Man, I wish at least two had been swapped out for others. I wish characters like Ms. Marvel, one member of the Fantastic 4, one of the main X-Men, Doctor Strange, or other, lesser known characters could have been used in place of two of the ones used. On a side note, I like the Avengers, they're an awesome group of characters. However, there's been a lot of Avengers related stuff over the past couple of years. The movies, the series “Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes”, and the new one “Avengers: Assemble” and even in “Ultimate Spider-Man” the younger heroes have been described as the next generation of Avengers, and they work for S.H.I.E.L.D. And on that note, there is the series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” coming this fall, that that too is connected to the Avengers. As much as I like this group, I feel that there's been an overindulgence of them and out of an entire universe of characters I wish a few different ones had been used. It could've been a chance for a showcase of Marvel all-stars, members from various other teams, so this really hurts it in my opinion. Here, it feels like just another show in a line of the same Marvel characters from shows already airing on Disney.

In regards to the villains, I wish that guys like Juggernaut, Rhino, or Dormammu could have been used. It's just that, I've never liked M.O.D.O.K. (in fact I hate that character, always have and always will) and I think one of these guys would've been a better pick. But I did like seeing Red Skull leading them, not someone like Dr. Doom.

Character designs, they were remarkable. Over the years, the Marvel characters have been redesigned and re-interpreted and here, the Phineas and Ferb staff did an excellent job rendering them in their style. Perry's superhero outfit was cool looking but I think it would've been better without the cape. And as for his eyes, I wish the staff went with more of a mask with eyes like Spider-Man's or something else.

And at points, they did use discussions of the Marvel characters and incorporated that into the story. Story-wise, it does fit the mold of a typical Marvel adventure (granted Spider-Man made a deal with Satan once), but I had to think, if the heroes were powerless, wouldn't it have technically meant Hulk would've reverted back to being Bruce Banner? I know a couple have said that Hulk's from is more of a disease, but I refer to parts of the Fantastic 4. There've been times when Ben Grimm has lost his power and returned to his human form, as well as other Marvel characters with inhuman appearances related to their power that when said powers are lost, they go to a “normal” human look. And the same thought occurred to me concerning Iron Man, how is his armor his “power”? But given the inator was meant to strip Roger Doofenshmirtz of his mayoral powers, I can overlook that.

Concerning the humor, it had some high, but mostly low points for me. I loved Candace's reaction to seeing the superheroes, that was a part I was looking forward to. The exchange between Major Monogram and Nick Fury, to me, wasn't all that funny, since there's been a lot of humor already of the acronyms of the O.W.C.A. and S.H.I.E.L.D. in Phineas and Ferb and several Marvel properties respectively. Thor's bit about juice boxes, it reminded me of one of my least favorite jokes from the 2011 movie.  And Baljeet going Hulk, the less I say about that, the better. But I did love the part with the heroes get their powers swapped, especially the stuff between Iron Man and Thor, which was inspired by an actual conversation between the Phineas and Ferb staff and Marvel executives. And the joke of Doofenshmirtz not knowing Perry when he's not in his fedora, that joke stopped being funny a long time ago.

I really did enjoy the subplot of Candace and Isabella, and I actually found myself enjoying that plotline more than the main one with the boys and heroes. I did like Candace being a comic book fan, but I felt a better fit would've been her being a Ms. Marvel fan. Going back to what I was saying about how I wished Ms. Marvel had been used, I think the idea of Candace wanting to be like Ms. Marvel would've been cool. However, I did enjoy the story arc of Candace trying to help out, but keeps slipping up, which eventually angers Phineas to the point he sends her away. (I'm sorry, but Phineas was a little jerk at those parts, but at least his apology at the end is touching.) Then with Isabella being left out because of the “danger” and she and Candace have what I feel is the best song in the special. And in the end, Candace and Isabella do save the day.

Stan Lee's cameo, while not my favorite (that honor goes to his in The Amazing Spider-Man), was nicely done and humorous.

The songs, again I have mixed opinions. Out of all of them I really did like Candace and Isabella's duet the best.

The action sequences were nicely executed. The scene in park was my favorite out them. Just the image of Hulk on a child's bike, Doofensmirtz's waffle cannon thing as I call it, did provide a few laughs for me.

So, there were some flaws, the selective few characters the staff was allowed to use, the lackluster moments of humor, but the staff made great use of what they had access to and used their knowledge of the Marvel universe and discussions of it to make this. The nods to other Marvel properties, they were hit and miss to me as well. Everything does pretty balance out for me in the end. I didn't like it as much as “Summer Belongs to You”, but I certainly enjoyed it more than “Where's Perry?” While “Mission Marvel” isn't a favorite of mine, I think it's a decent episode and can see that a lot of hard work did go into it.

Overall Score: 5.5 out of 10

So, your thoughts?

*Just to say, the line-ups of Marvel characters I wish could have been used:

Heroes:
-Ms. Marvel
-Thing/Ben Grimm
-Dr. Strange
-Spider-Man

Villains:
-Red Skull
-Juggernaut
-Enchantress
-Venom