Western Animation / Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe

She just needs a little space.

"You know, I used to think the universe was against me, but now I realize... it's me against the universe!"

— Candace

Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe is a Science Fiction Animated Film based on Disney's Phineas and Ferb that was released on Disney+ on August 28, 2020. It is the second film based on the series following Across the 2nd Dimension.

After failing once again to bust her brothers, Candace feels the universe is against her and soon gets abducted by aliens, finding utopia in a far-off planet called Feebla-Oot, free of pesky little brothers. Of course, Phineas, Ferb and their friends set out across the galaxy to rescue Candace, while uncovering dark secrets about the aliens.

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Tropes in the film include:

• Abandoned Catchphrase: Not once does Isabella ever ask Phineas "Whatcha doin'?". Also, no one ever wonders where's Perry, although Phineas does say, "Oh, there you are, Perry". Also, the iconic "Yes. Yes I am" line is conspicuously absent.
• Accidental Misnaming: Candace calls her guard "Mr. Toilet Shower", which is a rather more humiliating name than "Toilet Flower". (Granted, it's still pretty bad)
• Actually Quite Catchy: Stapler Fist is seen smiling and dancing in the background to "This Is Our Battle Song".
• Adults Are Useless:
  • With Doof, this is to be expected, despite his insistence to the contrary. However, he zig zags this trope as he sometimes is useful to the plot, but is also often enough an obstruction. He already built a compatible spaceship for the kids to fly to Feebla-Oot, but he's just about useless when it comes to flying it, and it actually doesn't come with an ion shield, despite the planet that they'll going to being blocked by an ion field. Once on the planet, he tries to lead the group to the fortress that they believe Candace is being held, but gets them all hopelessly lost in the jungle, although he does stumble upon the fortress eventually. He also uses one of his inators to transport himself, Vanessa and Perry back to Earth, but his first attempts have failed due to there already being a chicken on the planet and it was Vanessa that remembered that he had another setting to have them switch places with the furthest chicken. His inator was also responsible for sending the Big Doctor and Mama back to Feebla-Oot to save the day, but it was Candace that ended up using it for this purpose, though Doof instructed her to put the correct settings to get the job done.
  • Played straight with every other adult on the planet Earth. Absolutely no adult was involved in fighting off the alien invasion, as when the aliens first show up, all the adults present were too distracted by the destruction of their statue to even notice. When they do notice, the aliens immediately release their mind controlling spores to brainwash the adults, forcing the kids to wear gas masks. The only exception was Doof, as he managed to get a gas mask while having Candace to use his inator to get rid of the spores for good.
• Aesop Amnesia: Not in the movie itself, but in the meta sense; the story takes place at some point during the same summer as depicted in the show, so we know that Candace will be right back to trying to bust her brothers after this, having forgotten what she learned in this story.
• Affectionate Nickname: Super Super Big Doctor affectionately calls Candace "Candy Cane" after becoming friends. Of course, it’s partially because “Candace” is also the sound that Super Super Big Doctor’s subjects make when they explode.
• Alien Abduction: The main plotline of the film, with both Candace and Vanessa being taken aboard an alien spaceship.
• Aliens Speaking English: Unlike Meap's species, the aliens in this film do not need any sort of translation facial hair to speak. Played with when Super Super Big Doctor gives her name, and later uses alien terms when speaking about her annoying little brothers. As a gag she also says the word roller coaster must be made up.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: Discussed by Major Monogram when he calls Perry while he is on Feebla-Oot, to tell him about an intergalactic treaty. He lists off things Perry should not do as he is doing them.
• Ambiguous Ending: After the “Us against the universe” song Perry’s watch goes off directly in front of the main characters, who notice. The film ends abruptly leaving it unknown if they got their memories wiped or not. It would explain why Candace is trying to bust her brothers again in the final episode of the series. But there have been episodes where they bond only for her to continue trying to bust them in the next episode so it’s not necessarily out of character for Candace (not to mention Stacy was there so she possibly could have gotten Perry out of the situation).
• Animation Bump: The animation from the movie is a HUGE development from the original show, complete with more complex lighting and shades, the characters' lines are thicker, and their movement is much more solid and fluid than the series.
• Anti-Climax: When Phineas and the gang return to Earth, they attempt to fight Super Super Big Doctor using giant mecha robots based on their likenesses. However, Super Super Big Doctor beats them easily with Shoe Monkey's thermal cannon.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Super Super Big Doctor forced the Cowards to build a castle, bring treasure, and make low-quality TV shows.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • Done in-universe, since Space Adventure, the revered canceled TV show, appeared to play fast and loose with how it portrayed physics, and Baljeet's basis in it almost gets the gang killed.
  • Baljeet also says that he read a theory about how going faster than the speed of light will cause reality to break down and things to return to their primal essence, leading to a gag in which the animation breaks down into unfinished storyboards. Relativity actually stipulates that it isn't possible to accelerate any particle to a speed equal to or greater than light at all. The stated speed of twice the speed of light would not be anywhere near enough to cover interstellar distances within a day's timespan regardless.
• Asteroid Thicket: Phineas and company encounter one as they fly towards Feebla-Oot. Thanks to some help from Perry, they're able to make it through unscathed.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Mama grows to a massive size before coming to life, becoming the Final Boss of the movie.
• Automobile Opening: The very first scene of the movie is Candace cheerfully riding her bike.
• Back-to-Back Poster: Candace and Super Super Big Doctor appear above the title on the poster in this fashion.
• Bad Samaritan: Super Super Big Doctor, the leader of the aliens who abduct Candace and Vanessa, seems to be a kind and benevolent ruler who bonds with Candace and praises her as "The Chosen One". She's actually a tyrant who's exploiting the fact humans exhale carbon dioxide to revitalize the mind-controlling plant she uses to maintain her grip on most of her subjects. She even tries to conquer Earth so she'll have both more servants and plenty of carbon dioxide for her plant.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Super Super Big Doctor says that she will take care of the gang when Candace doesn't want to leave, the guard leads them to a nice room, causing the group to think that they will be treated well. It's actually a trap. After standing on a trap door, they are thrown into a prison truck.
  • Also, at the end, Stacy encourages Candace to finally bust the boys once and for all, but once Candace gets to Mom, her wicked witch theme plays forebodingly, before telling her mom to get some pizza for dinner.
• Batman Gambit: The gang approaches Super Super Big Doctor's fortress while singing about how they're a mere diversion, with the main bulk of their forces coming from another direction. The aliens actually believe this and check for the (actually nonexistent) main force... which is exactly what the heroes had been counting on.
• Big Bad: Super Super Big Doctor.
• Big Damn Heroes: Vanessa tames an alien dragon and uses it to rescue Doofenshmirtz and Perry from a fall, then again to save the others from Mama.
• Big Sister Bully: Super Super Big Doctor had her younger brothers locked in the dungeon just because everyone thought they were more special then she was. She also destroyed a ball that they made just to keep them from having fun.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Super Super Big Doctor comes off as someone who relates to what Candace is going through with her brothers, stating that she used to be the same way. However, it is revealed that she is a petty, childish overlord who enslaved the planet and only wanted Candace so she could restore her brainwashing plant to life.
• Bizarre Alien Biology:
  • The aliens breathe and exhale oxygen, making carbon dioxide a rare commodity for them. They also explode into goo from the waist up when excited, which sounds exactly like someone shouting the name "Candace", but regenerate from it in less than a day.
  • The Cowards have things on their backs that expand into shells making them hide like turtles.
• Black Comedy Burst:
  • The alien guards that Perry beats up land in a pool. One of them declares that they're okay, until a monster rises from the water and swallows them. As the monster slowly resubmerges, the guard is heard remarking in a deadpan voice that they're definitely not okay. Particularly notable for being one of the few times in Phineas and Ferb that death is strongly implied onscreen.
  • Doofenshmirtz, Vanessa, and Perry have trouble returning to Earth using the Chicken-Replace-inator at first, as Doofenshmirtz had introduced a chicken to Feebla-Oot with his earlier use of the inator, causing them to swap places with it instead of with a chicken on Earth. Doofenshmirtz considers solving this problem by killing the chicken on Feebla-Oot, but Vanessa quickly objects.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Once again, Candace says Phineas' catchphrase "I know what we're gonna do today!".
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Among the list of things that the Cowards are frightened of are spiders, clowns, and spiders that look like clowns.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • In the song "We're Back," Phineas mentions Disney+ by name and the fact that they can stream this film. The version that plays during the credits omits this verse.
  • Baljeet says building a portal will take at least a montage. It ended up only taking a scene flip.
  • When Perry peers from the bushes, he actually shushes his backup singers who do in fact sing it quieter.
  • When Super Super Big Doctor's ship speeds up to Warp 2, reality breaks down to its bare essentials, with the film breaking down to a colorless animatic, then to a storyboard with temporary voices, then to Dan and Swampy pitching the storyboard to the audience.
  • The song "Silhouettes", which plays over the credits, describes the format of the Creative Closing Credits. They also provide a lead-in to The Stinger.
  • In the finale song, "Us Against The Universe", Isabella takes a verse to thank all the folks who worked on all the animation.
• Brick Joke:
  • Among the long list of things the Cowards are afraid of are spiders and people who look like spiders. A spider cut-out is used to stop them from following Super Super Big Doctor and her troops later.
  • At the end of the movie, the elephant creature that went into orbit around Feebla-Oot ends up coming down on top of Mama.
  • The portal that originally took the kids to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated ends up being inadvertently burned down by Lawrence just before Linda gets home.
• Brig Ball Bouncing: Vanessa does this while in the space pod with Candace.
• Buffy Speak: Super Super Big Doctor's castle is referred to by Candace and Phineas as an "alien fortress-y thing." Later, Super Super Big Doctor says she has to do some "boring leader-y stuff".
• The Bus Came Back: Several bit characters return for cameo appearances, such as Clive Addison from "Nerds of a Feather", Paul the Delivery Guy from "Delivery of Destiny", the recurring henpecked farmer and his wife, and the "My watermelon!" lady from AT2D.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Candace is told by the aliens that she radiates a special element called "Remarkalonium" which is going to save their planet making her the Chosen One. It is eventually revealed that Remarkalonium is actually carbon dioxide, which every creature on Earth breathes out.
• Call-Back:
  • "Such a Beautiful Day" is filled with various past inventions, with screenshots of the relevant adventures.
  • Phineas recalls the time that Candace's face was sculpted into Mt. Rushmore from "Candace Loses Her Head".
  • Baljeet's fandom of the Space Adventure franchise (first introduced in "Not Phineas and Ferb" and reappeared in "Nerds of a Feather") is brought up. Baljeet even sings the theme song, "Space Adventure! It's an adventure in space!"
  • Phineas's gift for Candace is filled with clips from episodes where she was actually having fun with her brothers instead of being annoyed by them.
• Call-Forward: The Chicken-Replace-inator was first introduced in "What a Croc!", and also appeared in an episode of Milo Murphy's Law.
• The Cameo:
  • Tiffany Haddish as "The Sound Someone Makes When They Explode From The Waist Up". Amusingly, this role actually gets her into the Video Credits, an honor not extended to Olivia Olson as Vanessa.
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic, the star of P&F's sister show Milo Murphy's Law, as the wielder of the T-shirt cannon.
• Character Focus: Candace gets more time to shine this time around.
• Chekhov's Boomerang:
  • The Chicken-Replace-inator ends up coming in handy three times: Doofenshmirtz uses it to save everyone from an alien dragon; he later uses it to return himself, Vanessa and Perry back to Earth by switching their places with the furthest chicken; and Candace uses it in the end to send Mama back to Feebla-Oot.
  • Buford's canoe is used to MacGyver a plane while the gang is falling back to Earth, and again as a weapon to distract the aliens while Phineas and Ferb sneak onto their spaceship.
• Chekhov's Gun: The aliens of Feebla-Oot explode from the waist up when they get excited, especially when they receive free stuff. Candace uses this to disable all the alien guards during the climax, by shooting free T-shirts at them.
• The Chosen One: Why Candace was taken. She is the one who will save the alien world, as it turns out she's filled with "Remarkalonium". Except Remarkalonium is what Super Super Big Doctor's species call carbon dioxide, which every human being breathes out. As soon as Candace reveals that to her, she sets course to Earth.
• Closet Geek: The film reveals Jeremy's secret passion for cosplay and LARPing, and gets teased by Stacy for it.
• Comically Missing the Point: Vanessa assures Candace that the universe isn't against her. Candace is convinced that it is her brothers' fault.
• Continuity Cavalcade:
  • In the song "Such a Beautiful Day," Candace makes a list of all the Big Ideas her brothers made and never got busted for, including those she didn't try to bust them for and also those she never witnessed in the first place.
    As long as they don't...
    Build a giant rollercoaster, robot versions of themselves,
    Or strand me in a video game
    You know what I mean if you had seen
    The cattle drive, the time machine,
    The giant Paper Pelican Plane!
    They built motorized chariots, an escalator to the moon,
    The tallest building, treehouse robots, other nonsense coming soon
    A shrinking sub, a waterfall
    A robot dog, a Trojan horse
    A growth elixir, Perrytronic,
    Pyramid-related sports!
  • The billboards in the stadium include many references to past episodes, including the Inexplicable Giant Floating Baby Head.
• Cosmic Plaything: This is essentially Candace's viewpoint, and it's actually deconstructed. Throughout the film, she believes that the universe is against her and leaves her feeling dejected for most of the movie. She does changes her attitude later as she realizes it's her against the universe.
• Crazy-Prepared: Doofenshmirtz and Buford give off this vibe when the group is preparing to travel to Feebla-Oot:
  Doofenshmirtz: Let's just say that I'd rather have a device that makes things switch places with the nearest chicken and not need it than need one and not have it.
  Buford: (carrying a canoe) I'm with him on that.
• Creative Closing Credits: Major scenes of the movie are rendered in silhouette form, with credits for the voice cast appearing next to their characters. The song accompanying this is a major Lampshade Hanging.
• Creator Cameo: Dan and Swampy had a special live-action cameo during the faster-than-light travel sequence in which they are seen pitching the story board sequence of the scene that they're currently in.
• Crowd Song: "Us Against the Universe" begins as a song sung by just the main characters, but they are soon joined by practically every character who appeared on the series.
• Darker and Edgier: Not to the extent of the previous movie, but this movie is still this compared to the main series. Not only the cast faces mortal peril more than once and death has been implied onscreen, but Candace seriously suffers a problem due to her failures to the point of rejecting Phineas and Ferb.
• Deadpan Snarker: Linda has completely entered this territory as shown when she comes home for Candace to try and show her the robotic clown, outright refusing to turn around and rant on and on about her tattletale self.
• Debate and Switch: Candace decides to stay on Feebla-Oot because she actually gets treated with the respect and attention she believes she really deserves as The Chosen One, unlike on Earth where she's an eternal Butt-Monkey. However, it turns out she was only transported there because the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Evil Overlord needs her special energy to feed a plant that produces mind-control spores which she uses to subjugate the local populace. Candace is of course appalled by this but is imprisoned and forced to feed the plant and ends up brought back to Earth anyway. Phineas and Ferb do at least cheer her up with their gift afterwards however.
• Delayed Reaction: Candace is at first relieved that she is doing something environmentally friendly, but then realizes that Super Super Big Doctor said, "Mind-controlling spores".
• Delicious Distraction: Candace just can't seem to stop making herself a smoothie even when trying to escape from an alien spacecraft.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Not that he had much of a role on the series, but Norm the Robot only has one line and is never seen again.
  • Linda and Lawrence also get this treatment, with Linda only appearing at the beginning, the ending and the credits scene, and Lawrence only appearing during the credits (yet still gets special mention in the end credits).
• Description Cut: After Candace explains that Vanessa was put in an escape pod and should be back on Earth, Doofenshmirtz says he's relieved that she's out of danger. It then cuts to Vanessa still on the alien planet being face-to-face by a giant dragon-like creature.
• Deus Exit Machina: Doofenshmirtz, Perry, and Vanessa are left behind on Feebla-Oot while the others hitch a ride back to Earth, preventing them from joining the ensuing fight against the aliens. They do figure out a way to return after the battle is over, just in time so help the others escape from Mama.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • As Heinz Doofenshmirtz finds out the hard way, building a rocket ship in your apartment complex is not a good idea as the force from the thrusters needed to enter orbit will spew out a lot of flames that will ignite your apartment and quite a lot of other space around it.
  • When Vanessa's lifepod launches, she expects it to take her back to Earth. Real world life boats, upon which lifepods are based, are short range craft and, as such, Vanessa is only able to crash-land on the planet they were above when she bailed out and has to make alternate plans for returning to Earth. Even if it was guided it makes sense that it would go to the crew's home, not hers.
• Disney Acid Sequence: In the film, "The Universe is Against Me" is a very brief version of this, since Candace and Vanessa are both suddenly in a cosmic void, and Vanessa is suddenly playing guitar. When it goes back to reality, Vanessa still somehow has the guitar, which she tosses off-screen.
• The Dog Bites Back: Phineas convinces the Cowards to rebel against Super Super Big Doctor.
• Easily Forgiven: Phineas and Ferb show no ill feelings towards Candace after she more or less disowns them out of thinking they were making her life miserable, despite them being clearly hurt by it. Even before finding out Super Super Big Doctor was just using her. Then again, this is Phineas and Ferb we're talking about. Although this is deconstructed when Candace breaks down upon seeing how her brothers are willing to forgive her after the awful things she did.
• Easing into the Adventure: The movie begins like a typical episode of the series, with Candace trying to bust her brothers and with Doofenshmirtz trying to take over the Tri-State area with Perry foiling him. The boys' project disappears and a few minutes later, Candace is abducted leading to the movie's main plot.
• Eat the Camera: Inverted in the opening title, with the red planet dissolving into Candace's waggling uvula as the camera zooms out of her screaming mouth.
• Embarrassing Hobby: Stacy discovers that Jeremy is a part-time LARPer.
  "Please don't tell Candace."
• Embarrassing Old Photo: The file photo for Candace is of her getting pinched by a crab on the beach.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Super Super Big Doctor is appalled at the Cowards' army for lying to her in song, which she considers to be wrong because music is an art form that's supposed to connect people through sincerity of emotion.
• Everybody Cries: The crowd at the baseball stadium breaks down crying after the alien spaceship destroys a priceless statue of the Tri-State Area's founder and his beaver companion.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Super Super Big Doctor is confused when Candace is horrified by her locking up her brothers, and then trying to do the same to Phineas, Ferb and the others.
• Evil Counterpart: Super Super Big Doctor is essentially a worse version of Candace. She feels just as overshadowed by her own brothers and she too relates with Candace on the universe being against her, but the way she responds and resolves are much more radical and downright insensitive: locking up her brothers in a cell and forcing them to not have fun, and taking over a completely different planet by using mind control spores just to feel appreciated. She's even talked down by Candace using the same questions Vanessa used on her.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: Candace has large bags under her eyes as a result of exhaustion from running on the treadmill for several hours, to generate carbon dioxide to power Mama.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Candace has a moment where she gloats about how Remarkalonium is carbon dioxide exhaled by everyone on Earth. Not only does it then dawn on her that she gave Super Super Big Doctor the idea to conquer the planet, but also that she's not as special as Feebla-Oot treated her to be.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The whole movie is set over the course of one day.
• Fantastically Indifferent: Linda's reaction to Canadace attempt to bust Phineas and Ferb in the beginning is pretty much this. Although she has never seen any of the things the boys get involved in, she has clearly gotten tired of hearing about it from Candace after going through this for almost every single day of this Summer.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: See Medium-Shift Gag below.
• File Photo Gag: One of Candace getting pinched by a crab on the beach.
• Foreign Ruling Class: Super Super Big Doctor and her species are this over the Cowards, the native inhabitants of Feebla-Oot, which she controls via Mass Hypnosis.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the midst of the opening number, Stacy reminds Candace of the big [baseball] game that starts later. This baseball game is where Super Super Big Doctor's spaceship lands and where the penultimate battle takes place before Mama becomes a giant Man-Eating Plant.
  • Relating to the above, Candace is often seen with funnels over her head when with Super Super Big Doctor. These are collecting carbon dioxide in order to fuel Mama.
  • Before leaving to do some boring leader-y stuff, Super Super Big Doctor tells Candace "don't forget to breathe... a lot."
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Some of the other settings on the Chicken-Replace-inator are "Beverly Hills" and "Beverly Hills adjacent".
  • During the photo montage in "Girls Day Out", you can see Stapler-Fist with his torso growing back.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In the end, almost all the destruction from the madness from earlier is guaranteed a successful bust for Candace since there's absolutely no way it can disappear since Mom has come...but then she decides against it and tells Mom to get pizza on the other side of town instead, preventing her from seeing it.
• Funny Background Event:
  • As Candace and Super Super Big Doctor attempt to start a power ballad, a band appears. Three of the band members are dressed like Love Händel.
  • When leaving Candace with Toilet Flower, since Super Super Big Doctor is female and has no mustache to twirl, she twirls the giant mustache of one of her guards.
  • Also, Stapler-Fist seemingly enjoying "This Is Our Battle Song".
• Green Aesop: When Super Super Big Doctor tells Candace that she will help Mama grow and emit mind-controlling spores, Candace is at first relieved that she is doing something good for the environment, but then realizes that Super Super Big Doctor mentioned the spores.
• Hammerspace: Where exactly did all the main characters get those gas masks? And, for that matter, how did Jeremy, Vanessa, Doof and Agent P know to wear gas masks?
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Done In-Universe. After the alien ship breaks light speed and the character's reality is broken down into the film's storyboard session, Dan Povenmire literally says "Buford says something funny here" as a filler line.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Super Super Big Doctor during the final battle. Candace manages to talk her down by having her realize that her entire evil plot was just her way of seeking validation and realizes that she doesn't need to take over planets to feel special. She is about to change her ways and set everyone free when her mind-controlling plant grows to monstrous side, becomes sentient, swallows Super Super Big Doctor whole and goes on a rampage. She does survive, but is arrested when she is returned to Feebla-Oot, having never been able to get her redemption.
• Heel Realization: Candace finally gets one, when she sees how Super Super Big Doctor treats her brothers, and how she plans to use her to take over Earth. When she sees her brothers again, she couldn't help but run off in tears, realizing just how ungrateful she was towards her brothers' inventing talents and thinking that she's ruining everyone's summer.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Super Super Big Doctor's mother was named Mama and she named her brainwashing plant after her.
  Super Super Big Doctor: Weird coincidence. She was also green and very controlling.
• Hope Spot:
  • The aliens easily destroy the weapons that Phineas and Ferb invented to use against them.
  • Super Super Big Doctor is about to pull a Heel–Face Turn thanks to Candace, only for Mama to grow huge, become sentient, and turn out to be carnivorous.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't: When Stacy finds Jeremy preparing a bunch of spears in his food truck, she compliments him for already preparing to fend off the alien invasion. Jeremy responds "There's an alien invasion?"
• Human Sacrifice: Candace's first guess for what her role as The Chosen One is. Super Super Big Doctor is quick to tell her that this is very much not the case. After all, Candace can't create carbon dioxide if she's dead, can she?
• Hypnotic Creature: Super Super Big Doctor's plant, Mama, which releases mind-controlling spores, apparently as a hunting technique as it's carnivorous.
• I Just Want to Be Special:
  • It turns out the reason Candace is so obsessed with "busting" her brothers is because she's jealous. She's just a (relatively) normal girl while her brothers can do and make these amazing things she could never do in a million years. The fact that they keep getting away with it, which is also something she could never do, does not help at all. So when some aliens offer her the chance to be the special one...
  • This is ultimately Super Super Big Doctor's reasoning for trying to take over a planet. See Evil Counterpart for more.
• I Will Find You: Candace and Vanessa get abducted by aliens, leading to the gang and Doofenshmirtz going off into space to try to find them.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Vanessa asks her father if she could keep Vlorkel, to which Doof replies, "You're gonna need a bigger litter box."
• Ignored Epiphany: Vanessa manages to talk Candace through how her obsession with busting her brothers is her lashing out over a perceived inadequacy compared to their capability... then she sees something big and bustable in the front yard and assumes they made it.
• Ignored Raised Hand: Buford decides to start a gang once he and the group get to prison and asks for any volunteers. Baljeet eagerly accepts the position, but Buford ignores him.
• Implied Death Threat:
  • When arguing with Doof, Isabella shows him a patch that she doesn't tell what she earned it for, but the way Phineas calls it an "ominous patch-related threat" seems to be this.
  • Subverted with the Cowards. In the flashback, when a select few of them get out of their hypnosis, they hold up their pickaxes threateningly, but then... run away like frightened toddlers.
  • Also, later, when Doof gets out his Axe-Inator and says "Accidents can happen" to the nearest chicken on Feebla-Oot. This is played straight, as Vanessa bluntly asks her father not to kill the chicken.
• In Medias Res: Once again, we catch Perry and Doof in the middle of a battle that Makes Just as Much Sense in Context, with Doof operating a robot shaped like Agent P.
• Inside Joke: Candace's name being the "sound someone makes when they explode from the waist up" was based on a running joke among the crew of the series.
• Insistent Terminology: Isabella calls Doof out on calling a spaceship "a galactic travel-inator." Doof insists he has to maintain his brand. Vanessa later does the same thing as Isabella.
• Instant Bandages: After going the wrong direction, falling off a cliff, and getting exploded, Doof is covered with these and also limping. Of course, this being a cartoon, these disappear in the next scene.
• Internal Deconstruction: Candace's status as the universe's Cosmic Plaything/Butt-Monkey has left her exhausted and feeling fustrated since she almost always gets the short end of the stick compared to her brothers, especially considering that she's been going through the same busting routine for the entire summer. While this has been shown on occasion in the show itself, it's normally not to the levels this movie shows.
• Just a Kid: Doofenshmirtz's rationale for taking charge of the group of kids as they travel across the alien planet is that he's older and thus knows more than any of them, even though Isabella is clearly the more competent survivalist. It's the entire point of the song "Adulting".
• Knight of Cerebus: Upon growing big and turning sentient, Mama becomes a serious threat, and unlike Super Super Big Doctor, it doesn't have comedic moments. It even eats Super Super Big Doctor.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Super Super Big Doctor and her guards see the Cowards rebelling against them, they decide to flee to their spaceship instead of engaging.
• Leitmotif: In addition to those carried over from the series (Candace's wicked witch theme, the Evil Jingle, Perry's theme, etc.) the "Can-daaaaaaaace A-gaaaaaaaaaaaainst the Un-i-veeeeeeeeeeeerse" heard during the title card serves as the film's action theme.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Ferb's reaction to the Medium-Shift Gag, to which the rest of the gang agree.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to Across the 2nd Dimension. It's still Darker and Edgier compared to the original series, however.
• Long List: The Cowards at one point starts to list off all of the things that they're afraid of, which includes a wide range of fears.
• Ludicrous Speed: When on a spaceship that accelerates to twice the speed of light, reality is unmade for Phineas and the others. This takes the form of being reduced to storyboards, temp dialogue being inserted for Buford, and ultimately, Dan and Swampy pitching the whole sequence.
• Man-Eating Plant: One of the possible dangers Baljeet theorizes they could meet after going through the portal that would supposedly take them to Feebla-Oot. In a sense, it did sorta come to pass after they passed through it, albeit not immediately; it turns out that Super Super Big Doctor's beloved mind control plant will turn into one if it takes in too much carbon dioxide.
• Mass Hypnosis: The MO of Super Super Big Doctor with the help of her plant, Mama, who releases mind controlling spores. She's used it to take control of the planet Feebla-Oot, and eventually attempts to take over Earth.
• Mass Teleportation: The gang attempts to make a teleportation device to take them to the planet Candace was taken to. Instead, it somehow takes them to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated. This is later explained as there being an Ion Field around the planet and it caused the portals to reflect and link to each other.
• Meaningful Echo: The psychological tactics Vanessa used on Candace are used again by Candace on Super Super Big Doctor.
  Vanessa: Is it possible that your obsession with busting [Phineas and Ferb] is really just a distraction from your real problem...which is how you feel about yourself?
  Candace: You mean like a tiny, meaningless speck in the universe, completely overshadowed by Phineas and Ferb?
  Vanessa: That's good, keep going...

  Candace: Is it possible, just possible that this obsession you have with controlling, controlling the planet, controlling your brothers, is really just a distraction from your real problem...which is how you feel about yourself?
  Super Super Big Doctor: You mean like a tiny, meaningless speck in the universe?
  Candace: That's good, keep going...
• Meaningful Name: The fearful native inhabitants of Feebla-Oot are called the Cowards, which means the exact same thing in their language as it does in English.
• Medium-Shift Gag: The result of the aliens' ship hitting warp speed, starting off with the scene reverting to clean-up animation, then going to rough animation, then animatic, then storyboard, and ending with Dan and Swampy themselves pitching the scene as a storyboard in a studio.
• Mind-Control Eyes: People under the influence of Mama's mind control spores have their eyes turn into gray flat disks.
• Midquel: invokedWord of God confirms that this movie takes place sometime before the Series Finale, and during the same summer of the original series.
• Miracle-Gro Monster: Super Super Big Doctor's mind controlling plant, Mama, needs carbon dioxide to survive and create mind controlling spores. While in Earth's atmosphere, which is rich with carbon dioxide, it grows to the size of a building and tries to eat anything that moves.
• Mood Whiplash: Candace's happy and upbeat song "Such a Beautiful Day" suddenly shifts to a more wicked rock ballad as she complains about her brothers' antics, complete with the background turning red.
• Mundane Made Awesome: During the climax, most of the alien guards are basically defeated by... giving them free T-shirts.
• Musicalis Interruptus: Several examples:
  • "Such a Beautiful Day" ends abruptly when Candace notices the giant robot clown in her backyard.
  • Only a snippet of "The Universe is Against Me" appears in the film proper, before it is interrupted by Vanessa.
  • "Unsung Hero" goes back and forth from outside the ship to inside the ship. Each time the interior of the ship is seen, the song stops for dialogue.
  • Candace and Super Super Big Doctor are about to sing a power ballad on a talk show, when they are interrupted by Phineas and the gang.
• My God, What Have I Done?" Candace reacts badly when realizes that her poor word choice lead to Phineas and Ferb, along with the others, nearly getting tossed into the dungeon and that she was helping a villain.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Candace bragging to Super Super Big Doctor that all humans breathe out carbon dioxide causes her to decide to go conquer Earth so she can feed her mind controlling plant.
• Noodle Incident: Two examples:
  • During "Such a Beautiful Day", Candace mentions the boys building an escalator to the moon, and an image of such is shown. However, while they did ponder building one in "Ready for the Bettys", and built an elevator to the moon in "Traffic Cam Caper", no such invention appeared in the series.
  • Among the images projected from Candace's mug is a clip of Candace, Phineas and Ferb sharing gelatin while milk comes out of Phineas's nose. This is somewhat of an oddball among actual clips from the series.
• Not Me This Time: When Candace sees the alien spaceship, she initially believes it to be yet another one of her brothers' projects. Needless to say, it isn't.
• Not Rare Over There: Super Super Big Doctor's word for a rare element Candace naturally produces is "remarkalonium". Turns out it's just run of the mill carbon dioxide, which is remarkable to them because they both inhale and exhale oxygen. Then Candace tells her practically every lifeform on Earth makes remarkalonium.
• Not So Stoic: Ferb screams in terror with the rest of the kids when they encounter Norm for the first time. He also has the same heartbroken look as Phineas after being told by Candace she may be doing better without them around.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Surprisingly enough, at no point during the movie does Phineas get angry and shout at someone. Instead, we see him with his feelings genuinely hurt after Candace shoos him, Ferb, and the others away once they get to the palace on Feebla-oot.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It is not shown how Vanessa tamed the alien dragon.
• Only One Finds It Fun: As the Cowards make a Long List of what they're afraid of, Doofenshmirtz looks intrigued by it while the rest of the group become extremely bored.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Feebla-oot is home to Dragon-like creatures.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • Before Candace is taken to meet the alien leader, she is greeted with a song and dance number, "Meet Our Leader", which goes on for some time about how Candace is about to meet their leader, and then continues some more. Then when the song ends, the door opens incredibly slow, and then gets stuck.
  • Phineas and the gang (except Buford for some reason) observing the ominous tone emitting from the alien fortress-y thing, which is only heard when they look at it.
  • When one of the cowards escape, offscreen, a guard keeps berating him from taking escape vehicles. This goes on for quite a while.
  • Toilet Flower's difficulty with the remote that controls the treadmill Candace is chained to.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Doofenshmirtz vaguely justifies him taking charge over Isabella with an entire song about the neologism "Adulting", which she keep reiterating isn't a word.
• Planet of Hats: The inhabitants of Feebla-Oot, called the Cowards, are a species of cowards.
• Plot Hole: Three of the Big Ideas Candace brings up in "Such a Beautiful Day" are the pyramid sports from "Thanks But No Thanks," the water sculpture from "Buford Confidential," and the Paper Pelican plane from "De Plane! De Plane!" but she never saw those Big Ideas in said episodes, having missed the first, being at home the whole time in the second, and while she did see the third, she never connected it to the boys. Of course, this being Phineas and Ferb, it is entirely possible that this was intentional.
• Pokémon Speak: This is why Vanessa named her alien dragon "Vlorkel".
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: The aliens of Feebla-Oot explode from the waist up when they get excited, which is easy to do, though thankfully they regenerate. This occurs most often when they get free stuff, so naturally birthdays are a bloodbath for them. Whenever they explode, they let out a scream which sounds like Candace's name.
• Priceless Ming Vase: The statue of the founder of the Tri-State Area being unveiled at the baseball game just before the alien invasion, which is of course slowly destroyed by the alien spaceship as it lands, causing the entire crowd to break down in tears.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • A minor one delivered by Linda to Candace near the beginning as she rants about her daughter's busting antics to the point she's so bothered by her that she completely refuses to turn around.
    Linda: Candace, while I treasure your imagination, every day you call and tell me Phineas and Ferb have built some big, unbelievable thing in the backyard, and every day I come home to find nothing there! Doesn't it exhaust you? It exhausts me!
  • Candace gives one to her brothers later on, telling them she doesn't want their rescue since she finally feels like she's where she belongs, without them being in her way.
• Respected by the Respected: Phineas and Ferb, two genius inventors who are Loved by All for using their talents to make everyone's lives better, get Candace out of her depression by telling her how much they view and respect her as their Cool Big Sis.
• Rewatch Bonus: The montage that plays during "Girls Day Out" has Candace unknowingly under a large funnel during most of the day out, which becomes more noticeable after knowing why she's the chosen one.
• Saved by Canon: Because this movie takes place during the show's summer and before the final episode, Phineas, Ferb, Candace, Doofenshmirtz, Perry, Vanessa, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford must all survive the events of it as well as return home safely.
• Say My Name: In a remarkably odd example, Candace uses a t-shirt cannon to make the alien troops explode from excitement — which sounds exactly like her name — in rapid succession.
  Explosions: CANDACE! CANDACE! CANDACE!
  Candace: THAT'S MY NAME!!!
  Ferb: Why does that sound like her name?
  Phineas: I dunno.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When Perry is trying to free the kids and Doofenshmirtz from the prison truck, Monogram calls him to inform him of an intergalactic treaty and that he needs to resolve things peacefully. Perry, however, continues to beat up the guards.
• Secret Handshake: Candace and Super Super Big Doctor have one that they demonstrate on the talk show.
• Shout-Out:
  • The name of the planet is "Feebla-Oot", which is simply a Sdrawkcab Name of "Two all-beef", which is the first part of the ingredients of a Big Mac.
  • At one point, the gang strike a pose similar to the historically inaccurate Emanuel Leutze painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.
  • The music playing during the launch of the Galactic-Travel-Inator includes a snippet of the main theme from Apollo 13.
  • Aside from "Chop Away at My Heart" being played for a second, Trucker Ted and Recurring Raccoon from Milo Murphy's Law make short cameo appearances as well. Milo himself would've appeared as well, but his cameo was cut, as the writers didn't want the viewers to think that Milo was at fault for anything that happened during the movie.
    • Additionally, "Feebla-Oot" was also a term spoken by one of the aliens in the episode "Snow Way Out", as part of his Sdrawkcab Speech.
    • Furthermore, one of the aliens, Toilet Flower, has him talking over on a phone in a similar way to Trucker Ted's running gag in Milo Murphy's Law. It makes sense, given both characters are voiced by Bob Bowen.
  • Pascal's face appears on a pet shop billboard at the baseball stadium.
  • The two statues on both sides of the river leading to the Cowards' village are straight out of a similar image in Lord of the Rings.
  • To get more power out of the engines of Doof’s Galactic-Travel-inator, Isabella suggests he “Bypass the compressor and feed power directly into the impulse drive.” In The Force Awakens, Rey suggests to Han during an electrical failure on the Millennium Falcon to transfer auxiliary power to secondary tank, and ends up fixing the failure by bypassing the compressor.
  • Super Super Big Doctor becomes outraged at the gang and the Cowards for lying to them through song, much like how Homer did with Apu in "Homer and Apu".
• Shaped Like Itself: In the Cowards' own language the name Coward means coward.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Or, in this case, Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Press-Release. The official synopsis make no mention of Vanessa, but the official trailer clearly shows both she and Candace getting abducted. Also, Super Super Big Doctor does not appear in any of the trailers.
• Slave Race: It is revealed that by using Mass Hypnosis, Super Super Big Doctor has turn the Cowards, the native inhabits of Feebla-oot, in to this.
• Social Media Before Reason: Subverted. Ferb snaps a picture of the spaceship taking Candace away, though it turns out he was only doing that to help them track where the spacecraft was headed. Vanessa also posts several pictures throughout the movie, which lets Doofenshmirtz know what's happened to her.
• Special Guest: This has plenty of new and returning guest voices, including:
  • Ali Wong as Super Super Big Doctor
  • Wayne Brady (who previously appeared as the tour guide in "Where's Pinky") as Stapler-Fist, the bulky alien that ends up being the first to explode from the waist up
  • Thomas Middleditch as Garnoz, the elder coward
  • Diedrich Bader (who originally appeared in the series as Albert and Tom Totally) as Borthos, the coward who helps Phineas and the gang hide
  • Thomas Sanders as Throat-Lobster, the alien daytime talk show host
  • Emo Philips as the coward servant who tells Candace to run
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic as the T-shirt cannon guy
  • Tiffany Haddish as The Sound Someone Makes When They Explode From The Waist Up ("CANDACE!")
• The Stinger: A mid-credits scene that involves Lawrence Fletcher and the portal. The singer for "Silhouettes" calls it an "obligatory end-credits scene."
• Sting: Lampshaded during the scene where Phineas and the gang spot a power plant and an ominous humming sound plays whenever they look directly at it.
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream is heard when Buford's canoe plows into one of the aliens.
• Stylistic Suck: A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows how low budget the Space Adventure series was, when, at one point, the planet Earth is shown dangling from a string.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In stark contrast to the series, where Doofenshmirtz' machines - who practically all have a self-destruct-button and tend to explode once per episode - usually do no harm to their surroundings, the ignition of a rocket ship he starts from within his apartment does set the whole building on fire.
• Swallowed Whole:
  • Three of the alien guards who land in a pond are swallowed up by a beast. In a subversion of I'm Okay!, one of them reports as the creature descends that they are definitely not okay.
  • Super Super Big Doctor by Mama, after the latter is exposed to too much CO₂ and becoming a giant plant monster.
• Swap Teleportation: How the Chicken Replace-inator works to fulfill its function. It can work across interstellar distances with different settings for the proximity of chickens.
• Taught by Television: Twice throughout the film, Baljeet is confident that a problem can be solved by repeating something he's seen in his favorite sci-fi TV Show, Space Adventure. He is disappointed to learn both times that the show is less scientifically accurate than he thought, but also frustrated that when Phineas suggests a solution from the show that it works out.
• Tears of Remorse: Candace breaks down into these after she came close to disowning Phineas and Ferb when they came for her on Feebla-Oot, got them and their friends nearly thrown in jail, unknowingly helped out a dictator, put the whole Earth in jeopardy, and above all, spent the whole summer trying to ruin her brothers' fun by tattling on their mom. And in spite of all that, Phineas and Ferb still came to save her, which only adds to her guilt.
• That Poor Cat: When Vanessa tosses her guitar off-screen. As a bonus, we also hear the "KABONG!" sound from Quick Draw McGraw.
• This Is a Song:
  • "Unsung Hero", the song that plays as Perry is attempting to rescue the main characters from being crushed by asteroids.
    This is the song of the unsung hero,
    But I guess, technically, he's now got a song. ('Cause I'm singin' it.)
  • The song that the Cowards' army sing as they storm the villain's fortress is fittingly called "This Is Our Battle Song".
• Throw the Dog a Bone: An in-universe example: Despite there not being any possible way for the mess left by the alien invasion and Mama to be instantly cleaned up before Linda can see it, Candace is so grateful towards her brothers at the end that when Linda starts to drive up, Candace instead tells Linda that the boys were craving pizza and to head the entirely opposite direction so she wouldn't see the mess.
• Title Drop: Of a sort. Before the Final Battle Candace says that she used to think that the universe is against her, but now she realizes, "It's me against the universe!"
• Tongue Twister: When Phineas has trouble saying the name of the cluster that Feebla-Oot is in (the "Vroblak Cluster"), Phineas challenges him to say it five times fast, which Ferb does without difficulty. Later, Doof challenges both Phineas and Ferb to say it twelve times fast, which Doof finds disturbing. Later, when they find out that Vanessa named her alien dragon Vlorkel, Phineas and Ferb both say it five times fast, which Vanessa also finds disturbing.
• Trailers Always Spoil: In a promotional video talking about her role as The Sound Someone Makes When They Explode From The Waist Up, Tiffany Haddish and the co-creators try to be more vague about it, not going beyond calling it a "cameo" and "sound effect" as moments from the movie where her voice can be heard play throughout.
• Trash the Set: When the gang takes off on Doofenshmirtz's spaceship, its lift-off sets the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated building on fire from its thruster jet, since it's just in a normal room of the building. Although, knowing that this takes place sometime during the summer, it'll most likely be back to normal somehow the next day.
• Triumphant Reprise: The music heard during the Mama/Vlorkel chase is actually the same music heard at the beginning of the film.
• Unfortunate Names:
  • The aliens are a little off-put by Candace's name because it's the exact sound of them exploding from the waist up.
• Unsound Effect: "CANDACE!"
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: After the delicate and expensive statue of John P. Tri-State is completely destroyed, only one guy stands and points out that a spaceship crushed it. Then again, this is Danville we're talking about.
• Unwanted Rescue: It turns out Candace does not want to leave her abduction due to being called the Chosen One and being treated like she was special. She also believes that Phineas and Ferb was responsible for all of her misery on Earth and believes she'd be happier without them. Once she learns that Big Doctor is using her to keep her mind controlling plant alive in order to enslave an entire alien population, she tells Big Doctor that what she's doing is wrong and wants no part of it. At that point, she's treated as an actual prisoner and is not allowed to leave.
• Virtual Assistant Blunder: A gag is made of the alien ship's voice recognition being on par with that of home virtual assistants on Earth, that is to say, not good. The ship's computer mishears Candace's command to launch Vanessa's escape pod to launch all escape pods, thus leaving her behind. When Candace tells the ship to "Stop, stop, stop, stop", the computer mishears it as a command to play "Chop Chop Chop" by the Lumberzacks.
  Candace: Never mind. This is exactly like the one we have at home.
• Was Too Hard on Him: After shooing the boys and their friends away after saying some nasty things, Candace goes into this trope, to which Super Super Big Doctor reassures her she did the right thing.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear what happened to Super Super Big Doctor's brothers once she was captured by the Cowards.
• The Worf Barrage: Upon returning to Earth, the gang build weapons specifically to fight the aliens with, only for the aliens to easily destroy the weapons with a thermal cannon.
• Would Hurt a Child: The alien with the Thermal Cannon was completely fine with trying to blast Isabella, Baljeet and Buford.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Phineas and Ferb tell Candace this when she’s wracked with guilt over her actions in the film by showing her a coffee mug that projects their treasured memories of her, showing her that even if she’s not special in the universe, she’s special to them.
• You Don't Look Like You: For some reason, the Farmer and his Wife are given a new color scheme, despite this supposedly taking place in the same summer as the original series. The wife's hair is now a darker shade of red and the farmer is suddenly going grey.

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