“Phineas and Ferb” is one of the greatest kids TV shows—besides Scooby-Doo of course—and full of creative building ideas that most kids love. The newest release, “Phineas and Ferb: The Movie: Candace Against the Universe,” introduces a new generation to the world of Phineas and Ferb, but does fall short, especially compared to the show and previous movie “Phineas and Ferb: The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension.”

The movie opens with Candance singing about how great her day is going and swiftly shifts once she tries and fails, yet again, to bust her brothers. With the dark cloud of failure hanging over her head, she goes to the yard to find something she believes to be another one of her bothersome brothers’ inventions. While the song wasn’t the best, the opening does a good job of introducing the Phineas and Ferb dynamic to viewers who may have never seen the original show. 

However, it is, in fact, an alien ship, which kidnaps Candance and the ever-iconic Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, and takes them to another planet.  Phineas and Ferb, along with their usual gang of Buford, Baljeet, Isabella, Perry and Dr. Doofenshmirtz travel in a spaceship to rescue Candace and Vanessa. Doofenshmirtz and Isabella end up in an entertaining mentor and mentee dynamic, with Isabella being the mentor and Doof the mentee, obviously. The new dynamic is entertaining and introducing characters who have never really interacted much together provides new content to enjoy. 

While the premise of this movie is definitely a little strange, Disney makes it work decently well. Candace and her relationship with her brothers is the focus of this film, which is different from the usual invention-filled TV show episodes. Also, Candace’s adventure on the alien planet is definitely a hit or miss subplot, which definitely leaned more to the miss side, as it felt rather rushed. 

One of the things that this movie does really well is that viewers don’t have to know anything about Phineas and Ferb to enjoy the movie. The opening is essentially a basic Phineas and Ferb episode, which gives any viewer all the background info needed. To be fair, this is an excellent move on Disney’s part, as the movie is only available on Disney+. New viewers will be introduced to Phineas and Ferb, and more Phineas and Ferb content is available on the streaming platform. The revamp of a childhood TV show also gives older viewers a reason to stay. 

The songs from Phineas and Ferb are one of the things that really enhance the show. However, in this new movie, the songs are average at best. None of them are super catchy or memorable, but they did fit the tone at the time. The plot also fits well but isn’t super memorable, and it does feel like something was missing. I’d suggest more Perry the Platypus screen time.

Overall, this movie is fun to watch and a nice way to bring back childhood memories. It can be watched by anyone and will probably be a big win for Disney, even if it is probably not the studio’s best work. Its predecessor, “Phineas and Ferb: The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension,”  definitely surpasses this iteration, but I am still excited to see what new Phineas and Ferb content Disney will release next.