Let's use mockery to keep him inside!
by RRabbit42
For the Retro Review this time, let's go back to the beginning of Season 2. Just a few days before it was replaced by Disney XD, Toon Disney offered a preview of an episode that featured a rather oddball premise, but repaid that with a catchy and fun song. This was back when Disney was trying to position Disney XD as the new home of Phineas and Ferb, so there was a larger gap between when an episode would also show up on Disney Channel. Three months in this case, but worth the wait.
"Tip of the Day" is an example of how a bit of enthusiasm can transform a story idea from oddball to on the ball. I believe it was Swampy Marsh that heard someone propose the idea of doing an episode about aglets and he really liked it. And because of that, we have an episode with all sorts of treats.
To start off, Linda demonstrates her knowledge of obscure facts and Baljeet demonstrates that there is a market for thirteen volumes of Useless Shoelace Facts. Doofenshmirtz learns that an old video he had forgotten about has come back to haunt him, so he commiserates with Agent P about it, which leads to Agent P offering to help him solve the problem.
Along the way, we see another instance of Candace's desire to become famous, and several examples of why it is important to know what an aglet is. That knowledge is the key to renewed hair growth, a happy marriage, success at work and restoring hearing. But, should you neglect keeping your aglets in good shape, they may trip you up and you'll wind up causing everyone to forget the wrong thing.
So, to recap. Aglets. Don't forget 'em.
Vincent Martella mentioned a while ago that Thomas Sangster does a good impression of Perry. We get to hear to hear that when Phineas and Ferb start doing imitations of Perry at the beginning of "Interview with a Platypus". From there, they decide to build an animal translator to find out what Perry is saying and they soon learn that it works on more than just platypi.
Unfortunately for Candace, a chance to spend some time playing video games with Jeremy is derailed when Suzy's poodle gets involved. She's so aggravated by it that when she gets home, she starts complaining about and insulting all animals. They don't appreciate her remarks since they were made right in front of the translator device and they understood everything she said. The resulting chase through Danville is accompanied by a song that lists all the things Candace could be enjoying if she hadn't been so careless in what she said.
When Agent P confronts Dr. Doofenshmirtz, he learns that Doofenshmirtz has yet another overly-complicated scheme, coupled with an invention that completely misses the point that it's already been done. Later, there's another one of those rare moments of clarity where Heinz sees what he missed before.
Finally, amongst all the animals that Phineas, Ferb and the Fireside Girls are communicating with via the translator, there's Pinky. He doesn't appear very often, but we know he has his own nemesis, Professor Poofenplotz. Maybe that line about "again, forget the idea of little people in [the TV]" is hinting that people are starting to overhear some of his mission briefings, just like what's happened to Perry a couple of times. If so, the OWCA needs to review their security procedures.
That wraps up our Retro Review for this issue. We'll take another look at a couple more episodes in our next newsletter.
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