20 offensive things you never noticed on phineas and ferb
Phineas and Ferb is the hippest, nerdiest, unlikeliest hit on TV — và now Disney hopes it can be a SpongeBob-like cash cow.
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Triple Threat: Dan Povenmire, Gary Marsh, and Swampy Marsh make mischief in the Phineas and Ferb offices. | Photograph by: Jason O’DellPhotograph by: Jason O'Dell
What better way for a company lớn say danke schön to its rising-star creatives than hiring Wayne Newton and a bevy of feather-plumed showgirls lớn help express its feelings? Any lingering doubts Dan Povenmire & Jeff “Swampy” Marsh might have had about Disney’s faith in their animated show, Phineas và Ferb, dissolved when Mr. Las Vegas himself started belting out the theme song for the program’s Perry the Platypus character at last June’s 2010 Licensing International Expo in Vegas. As Newton gave his own spin lớn lyrics like “He’s a furry little flatfoot who’ll never flinch from a fray” & dancers and actors, dressed like the show’s characters, circled Newton on stage, Povenmire thought, This has to lớn be the most surreal moment of my life.
The only scenario more unlikely may be the one in which this decidedly quirky cartoon — kiddie MythBusters meets sitcom-sibling hijinks meets classic spy spoof — becomes such a hit for Disney that the company is now trying to lớn turn it into a SpongeBob SquarePants — lượt thích cash machine. Second-season ratings so far have made Phineas and Ferb the đứng top cable animated series among 6- to lớn 14-year-olds, attracting 3.5 million viewers overall.
In addition to being Disney Channel’s first animated hit, it has helped the company connect with boys, an important demographic that had largely eluded Disney, và the show now anchors the spin-off Disney XD network’s tween-boy lineup. It has also shown Disney new ways to create original, humorous animation — a highly lucrative arena where your stars never grow up enough khổng lồ produce a lap-dance video.
But for all of the creative ferment Phineas và Ferb has inspired within Disney, “if there’s an upside to a show, it’s because we’re able to lớn exploit it off TV,” says Gary Marsh (no relation to lớn Swampy), president of entertainment & chief creative officer of Disney Channels Worldwide. That means licensed products. Disney Consumer Products, a $2.4 billion division, typically pushes established brand families such as Disney Princesses or Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. But it is heavily promoting this offbeat show, because the merchandising potential seems huge. “This is completely out of the box,” says Steven Ekstract, advertiser of License! Global.
Is Phineas and Ferb the next SpongeBob? In SpongeBob‘s 11-year run so far, the man from the pineapple under the sea has set a high bar (see box, right), including selling $8 billion in retail merchandise. “We look at where Phineas is in its life cycle compared khổng lồ where SpongeBob was,” admits Gary, who looks to lớn both ratings & off-TV activity as barometers of success. Phineas và Ferb, he says, is “pacing very well compared to the arc that SpongeBob traveled in its evolution.”
Phineas and Ferb takes a simple idea — two high-spirited stepbrothers make the most of their summer vacation by designing và building elaborate creations such as a giant roller coaster, a video game you play from the inside, & a working time machine — & complicates it with two other simultaneous plotlines. One revolves around teen sister Candace’s efforts to bust the two (and woo neighbor Jeremy). The other stars the brothers’ pet platypus who leads a double life as Agent P, an international spy. His archenemy? Inept evildoer Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who is plotting khổng lồ take over the Danville Tri-State Area using a series of sinister inventions tagged with an ominous “-inator” ending. (The Mime-inator, for example, is designed to lớn trap the region’s mimes inside their own invisible boxes. “I know, the irony,” Doof observes.)
All of this happens in 11 minutes that often also contain an original song. The show bubbles with brainy allusions that zing above the heads of the show’s target audience. “There are very few kids’ shows with references lớn the villain’s dating life, or to the fact that he’s funding his schemes with alimony from his wife,” says Gary, adding that adult viewers tài khoản for about a quarter of the total audience — only half of them watching with a kid. “But if we didn’t have a show that appealed to the primary demographic, no degree of ingenuity or smarts for adults would matter.”
Swampy & Povenmire are happy the show was given a chance khổng lồ appeal lớn any demographic. The team first met at The Simpsons in its salad days & developed the concept while working on Nickelodeon’s Rocko’s Modern Life in the 1990s. For almost 10 years post-Rocko, the two worked separately on other animated hits, including King of the Hill, SpongeBob SquarePants, & Family Guy, occasionally dusting off their Phineas pitch for one studio after another. Despite strong interest, Nickelodeon, Fox Kids, và the Cartoon Network all passed. “It was a heartbreaking process,” Povenmire, 47, recalls.
Even Gary had some reservations, though he found the duo’s acted-out version of the pilot’s storyboard outline “laugh-out-loud funny.” “I was amazed they were able to lớn tell three inter-woven story lines in 11 minutes,” he says, comparing the cartoon’s structure khổng lồ that of Curb Your Enthusiasm. “If I had a concern, it was whether they could do it on an ongoing basis.”
Other Disney executives felt the show was outside the company mold. In the grand tradition of wrongheaded suits everywhere, they worried about such things as the radically angular look of the characters: Phineas’s head is a triangle; Ferb’s a rectangle. Some thought the show’s story line and jokes might be too challenging for kids. In other words, too smart for Disney.
Gary green-lighted the show anyway. “It was clear that Dan & Swampy had a vision,” he says. “They knew everything about their characters. That’s what I’m looking for.”
Povenmire and Swampy immediately mix about further messing with the Disney status quo. The Mouse House has traditionally relied on script-driven animated shows, where a team of writers write an episode, a team of executives obsess over it, và a team of artists animate it. “Dan và Swampy presented a different model we hadn’t done in a long time,” Gary says. They wanted to bởi a storyboard-driven show that begins with a detailed outline, bypasses the traditional script stage, và turns things over khổng lồ a team of storyboard artists to produce a scene-by-scene visual break-down accompanied by key dialogue.
This looser approach, says the pair, encourages more artistic risk taking and funnier, less predictable writing. “It gives us the wonderful insanity of the zebra who calls Candace ‘Kevin’ and the giant floating baby head that’s a recurring in-joke,” says Swampy, 49. “You can’t write that.” In fact, the pair, both of whom have a tendency even in conversation to “improve” one another’s ideas, feel that they had no choice but to work in the storyboard style. Two of the show’s characters — Ferb & Perry the Platypus — don’t really talk, so “writing” for them wouldn’t work.
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A storyboard show means the creatives would be putting in a lot more man-hours up front. The show now has two directors, a storyboard supervisor, four writers, & 12 board artists, almost all of whom contribute both writing and drawing. Much lượt thích Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane, Povenmire và Swampy themselves write, draw, compose songs, và voice characters. “Disney has had lớn really trust us,” Povenmire says.
The Phineas and Ferb pilot aired in August 2007 & the series began its regular run on Disney Channel in February 2008. Although it’s difficult to assess the value of a single show lớn a network, Phineas & Ferb‘s success has clearly helped strengthen Disney’s cable portfolio. XD generates about $325 million a year in revenue, according to lớn David Joyce, a truyền thông media analyst with Miller Tabak in New York.
Phineas và Ferb has also inspired Disney to lớn loosen the reins on other shows in the hope of creating more fresh hits. The new animated series Fish Hooks is a storyboard show, as is the pilot for Gravity Falls, a toon created by a 23-year-old CalArts grad. “Disney always sort of defined itself by its talent,” Gary says. “Maybe there was a bump in the middle there when people got their fingers in the pot too much. For a long time, everyone wanted to lớn make the next SpongeBob. But who can say what part of that show makes it a success? You need khổng lồ hire brilliant people và allow them lớn execute.”
Many independently produced kids’ shows have a licensing plan in place way before the show even airs. Phineas and Ferb, on the other hand, had been on for a year before you could even get a T-shirt. “The merchandise strategy was to lớn launch slow và build,” says Lisa Avent, VP & GM of Disney’s consumer products division.
Phineas và Ferb follows in the grand tradition of animated shows whose anarchic spirit & smart humor works for both adults & children.
1950Looney Tunes
1959Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends
1989The Simpsons
1991The Ren and Stimpy Show
1995Pinky & the Brain
1999SpongeBob SquarePants
2007Phineas and Ferb
Her patience has paid off. To date, retailers have sold more than 1 million Phineas & Ferb T-shirts, & today you can also buy Phineas & Ferb plush dolls, toys, school supplies, stationery, swim trunks, skateboards, Kellogg’s fruit snacks, and a Nintendo DS đoạn phim game that has sold hundreds of thousands of units.
Not only has Phineas và Ferb “filled a trắng space for us” in the 8-to-20 male demographic, Avent says, but Phineas and Ferb‘s audience has helped the consumer products division reach new audiences at retailers such as Hot Topic, whose 681 stores target 12- to lớn 20-year-olds. “Our store associates và customers are very vocal when a new property emerges,” says Betsy McLaughlin, Hot Topic’s CEO. “Our buyers loved the irreverent humor that speaks khổng lồ teens in a way that is reminiscent of the early SpongeBob episodes. That was a fantastic multiyear property for Hot Topic, và it was successful because Nickelodeon was willing to take chances and surprise consumers on a regular basis.” Hot Topic does not break out sales numbers by product, but McLaughlin says Phineas and Ferb apparel is selling well.
Ironically, one advantage Phineas has on the merchandise side is the three-ring-circus complexity that almost kept it off the air. For one thing, the multiple story lines multiply the retail opportunities: T-shirts featuring Perry/Agent p. Are as popular as those featuring the lead characters. And the show’s musical component has not only yielded a top-selling kids album but also makes products like a Phineas and Ferb guitar seem a natural fit. Asked if she’s concerned about oversaturating the market, Avent laughs. “No. We’ve paced ourselves.” Aggressively, that is.
Avent is budgeting for 400% growth for Phineas and Ferb licensed products in 2011. (Disney does not disclose sales figures.) Based on their experience with the show, Avent and her team will also be rethinking some of the conventional wisdom about what boys like: A line of Valentine’s cards was a surprise hit this year.
It’s hard to lớn make exact comparisons with SpongeBob, but certain metrics seem to lớn indicate that Phineas and Ferb is tracking to lớn SpongeBob‘s success. In 2002, the Nickelodeon show’s third full year on the air, SpongeBob generated about $500 million in retail sales with just 75 licensees. At roughly the same point in its run, Phineas và Ferb has nearly twice as many licensees selling product. Disney typically carves out 12% khổng lồ 15% of wholesale receipts for itself.
Disney does not disclose whether Povenmire & Swampy get a percentage of merchandise sales, but that is a common arrangement in the industry. Whatever the case, they seem genuinely thrilled lớn be along for the ride, appearing at Disney stores for character-drawing workshops & working closely with Disney Consumer Products on ideas. “Because the big executives loved & got the show, it was important for them not khổng lồ mess it up,” Swampy says. “I see the toys & other products và think, Wow, somebody listened khổng lồ us!”
