Phineas & Ferb Christmas Vacation

This would be the first Christmas special & for the cartoon series Phineas & Ferb along with which I used to love watching it back when it first aired. I don't really watch it now considering I don't watch Disney Channel now, but if there's the occasional episode on when I'm bored, I still enjoy it! This special would also be notable as it's the first Phineas & Ferb episode to not be set during the summer (for very obvious reasons) & ended up becoming a surprise success in the ratings when it first aired! So can Phineas & Ferb bring some of their fun in the winter, or should they have stuck to doing their antics in the summer? Let's find out!


Story: Considering this was their first Christmas special, I must say it's actually really solid! The plot mostly involves Phineas & Ferb wanting to decorate the whole of Danville for Santa's arrival with the help of their friends Isabella, Buford & Baljeet while Dr Doofenshmirtz sets off a Naughty-inator ray on a whim after being annoyed by carolers wanting figgy pudding despite not hating Christmas, causing Santa to not come to Danville & the others being left to find a way to convince him that Danville is actually nice. This is actually a pretty solid plot thanks to the characters' personalities & Phineas' determination to save Christmas & leads to a lot of action, comedy & of course, heartwarming moments!There's another subplot involving Candace desperately wanting to know what to get for her boyfriend Jeremy despite the setbacks in Danville, but it gets resolved in a sweet way (AKA the Gift of the Magi route). It's not really as strong as the other plots & doesn't really contribute much to the main story, but like I said, it's still nice & it does give Candace to do something other than help her brothers save Christmas! Another part I absolutely love in this special is the humour, in particular with using callbacks to scenes from earlier, cutaway gags & mentioning cliches (i.e evil people hating Christmas & the ominous foreshadowing clouds in Danville), all of which made me laugh so much! But thankfully, the best part is the heart of the special by the third act along with the smart writing, which makes this a joy to watch along with the nostalgia of watchinng Phineas & Ferb reminding me how much I used to love it!

Animation: Despite it being a cartoon, I have to say that the animation is pretty good! It's obviously the same quality as the show, but it looks nice given, well, it's set during Christmas! The character designs remain their same cartoony selves & it does translate well to the new characters & Santa in particular, along with the character animation being pretty solid (well, obviously not theatrical quality, but still good nonetheless!) The backgrounds all look really nice since it's set during Christmas with all the lights, snow (and the rest stop Phineas & Ferb made also looks pretty cool!) & the North Pole also looks pretty nice even if we only see it briefly! The Naughty-inator Doofenschmirtz is also pretty creative & considering it is a special, they also take the opportunity of the situation in Danville, especially with some great flying scenes in Santa's sleigh! But the best part of the animation has to be during the musical numbers, with a Broadway-ish feeling to them (especially during Dooftenschmirtz's song) with the set-ups for them in the animation being pretty good! The only critique I can really find is the inconsistency of the lighting & shadowing, but that's just nitpicking coming from me! I can't really find much else to say about the animation, but let's just say it's really really good for a Phineas & Ferb cartoon!

Characters: Surprisingly, each character in this is given their own development despite the special being 30 minutes! Phineas & Ferb are determined to convince Santa that Danville is a nice place with nice people are they want to be just like him, Candace is obsessed with getting the perfect present for her boyfriend Jeremy (which does lead to some hilarious moments thanks to Ashley Tisdale's acting) & Perry has to find a way to stop Dr Dooftenschmitrz after Major Manogram tells him to just because of the cliche that evil people hate Christmas. Dr Doofenschmirtz is also very funny as always as it's revealed he doesn't hate Christmas despite the cliche evil people hate it (they even bring this up) & the fact he only turns the machine on on a whim makes it even more hilarious when the conflict involving the carolers is very easily resolved! Buford is also surprisingly sweet as it's revealed his Christmas wish is while it turns out to be seen as nice by everyone else, along with Baljeet's Christmas wish is to get a kiss under the mistletoe with a pretty girl (which he deservedly gets by the end) & Isabella being Jewish is just fine given that Hannukah is obviously still celebrated while Christmas is in trouble for the others. The only ones who don't really appear that much are Linda & Lawrence (still voiced by Caroline Rhea & Richard O'Brien), but they still keep their funny personalities. As for the new characters (of which there's few) there's Clewen't & Blayn't (voiced by Mathew Horne AKA Gavin from Gavin & Stacey), who are pretty funny at times, but not really as memorable & Santa Claus himself is surprisignly funny by the end as it turns out he loved Phineas' rest stop on the roof that everyone mistook for a club house! It's nice to see all the characters I know & love being given some development in this special while keeping the same memorable & fun personalities with some pretty funny voice acting!

Songs: Like any good Phineas & Ferb episode, this is filled with fun & memorable songs & I love all of them! The first one is a wintery version of the main theme song obviously to fit with the Christmas theme sung by Bowling For Soup which is fun & catchy of course, I Really Don't Hate Christmas is hilarious & also catchy as Doofenschmirtz reveals he doesn't hate Christmas as expected as well as pretty catchy with funny visuals like a Broadway number, Christmas Feeling by Big Voodoo Daddy (who contributed to the soundtrack for this) is very nice & Christmas-y during the montage when Danville sets up the decorations for their thank you note to Santa & I admit, I like listening to it now. Where Did We Go Wrong is probably the weakest as it's the cliched sad song, but it's still pretty good & the singing from the actors surprised me (especially Alyson Stoner as Isabella) & it is pretty funny considering Buford's theory over how to get on the nice list! Danville is Very Nice is like the typical cheesy yet sweet Christmas song & Christmas Is Starting Now by Big Voodoo Daddy is very very catchy & fun as a big band Christmas song & I still love to listen to that now along with Christmas Feeling as I mentioned earlier! And finally, there's Thank You Santa Claus (sung by Jeremy's voice actor Mitchell Musso), which plays over the credits & it's a very nice little pop song to end the episode. I love every single song in this special & they reminded me just how good the music was in Phineas & Ferb given how popular they all are!

Overall, Phineas & Ferb Christmas Vacation is a very enjoyable addition to the series with great humour, a heartwarming story, funny & well developed characters, nice animation & a great soundtrack! This is a must watch for Phineas & Ferb fans & even those who haven't really seen it can still enjoy it despite some of the in-jokes only the biggest of fans will know about!
Story: 9/10
Animation: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Songs: 10/10
Overall: 9/10