Kayla Bolton
Dr. Keller
WMST 2010-002
October 2, 2012 Phineas and Ferb Cartoon Analysis I have come to the conclusion that I will do my research on the show Phineas and Ferb. Within this show you will see the many adventures the two boys take and the crazy ideas they come up with. This show comes on Disney Channel. It shows roughly about 3 p.m. daily, but the time of the show varies. Some days it may be at three, whereas other days it may appear at four. This show is animated. The characters appear the same in every episode. As you read, you will see what this show provides for kids and parents.
In the show Phineas and Ferb, the main characters are: Phineas Flynn, Ferb Fletcher, Candace Flynn, Perry the Platypus, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Most of the main characters are males. The characters in the story are Caucasian, except for the some of the minor characters such as, Baljeet who is Indian, Isabella who is Jewish-Mexican, and Candace’s best friend Stacy who seems to appear like someone from the Japanese decent. This show provides many different aspects from the role of gender and race. You can definitely tell who the guys and girls are. As Judith Lorber said in The Social Construction of Gender, “Babies are dressed and adorned in a way that displays the category because parents don’t want to be constantly asked whether their baby is a girl or boy.” The boy characters wear orange and blue, whereas the girls wear pink or a lighter shade of pink. Every individual that watches the show can recognize how the characters are dressed and never wonder what gender the character is. Every characters hair color seems to vary. Phineas has orange hair, Ferb has green hair, Candace’s hair is orange, The Fireside girls (which is a girl-scouts group that Isabella is the leader of) hair color varies from black to blonde, Perry the platypus is blue, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz hair is brown. All of the characters eyes seem to just be black or blue, because they are animated characters. All the characters that are males and females dress as such. There is no cross-dressing or misunderstood gender. The girls in the show tend to wear dresses, uniforms, short-shorts, or tight clothing. The guys clothing is loose shorts to the knees, t-shirts, coats, and pants. Every character has a different outfit they wear and they seem to wear this outfit every episode. Their outfit determines their character. When you watch the show, you can automatically identify the character by the outfit they are wearing. Since Ferb is adopted into the family, he speaks with a British accent and Baljeet, the Indian kid, also seems to speak differently. Each character has a role they play within the show. The characters have different catch phrases. Phineas and Ferb are always scheming up a plan to figure out something crazy to do, that is impossible in real life for boys to do at that age. Their sister Candace is always trying to bust them and get them into trouble with their mom. Candace is torn between trying to get her brothers in trouble and falling head over heels for the guy Jeremy. She adorns Jeremy and talks about him constantly. Perry the Platypus, the boys pet, is an undercover secret agent. He works to defeat the evil crimes of Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who is an evil scientist. This show provides a wide variety of adventures and is a very popular show. The show is mostly about Phineas and Ferb, although the pet platypus has become an icon to the viewing audience. When you talk to kids that watch this show, the first thing you hear is the pet platypus. The most air-time is really split between the boys, Phineas and Ferb, and the platypus. It never fails that whatever the boys seem to work on for the day, always intercedes with Perry’s mission. You can tell the difference in the good guys and bad guys by the dressing of clothes and the language. This show institutionalizes the good and bad guy. As said earlier in chapter two of our reading, “institutionalized means to make something part of a structured and well-established system”. Dr. Doofenshmirtz (the bad guy) talks with a deep voice, has an evil laugh, and tends to wear a lab-coat. Perry the platypus (the good guy) wears his undercover agent hat, never speaks and always wins. This show is structurally set and the viewers or society can see how this portrays good and bad in everyday life. By expressing good and evil in a show like this, many kids look in real life for these characters between bad and good. Many kids think of someone wearing a lab-coat as evil and do not know better until they are told likewise because of what the show portrays.