Happy Birthday, Isabella

I wish for time alone with Phineas.

Phineas and the gang celebrate Isabella's birthday in a big way, but all she really wants is some quiet time with Phineas. Meanwhile, Doofenshmirtz has installed his Bugs Me-Inator onto an evil bug bus and is driving around Danville turning all the things that bug him literally into bugs.

Episode Summary
Candace and Stacy are gathering snacks for their viewing of a horror movie, ''The Grievance. ''Stacy leaves when Candace becomes more focused on what Phineas and Ferb are doing, which is planning a surprise for Isabella's birthday.

After Perry enters his base, Major Monogram informs him of Doofenshmirtz's latest scheme. Doofenshmirtz has been seen driving around in a large truck equipped with a machine that turns objects into bugs. Perry leaves to stop him.

Back in the backyard, everybody continues planning for Isabella's party, just as she walks in and greets Phineas. He doesn't want her to see what is planned, so he has Buford take her away, which he does by putting her in a burlap sack. After he leaves, she explains to herself that all she wants for her birthday is some alone time with Phineas.



Across town, Perry catches up with Doofenshmirtz on his "Bug Bus" but can't get to him due to his "Platypus-proof" bubble around him. He then explains to Perry about some things that bug him, such as portable outhouses and high voltage signs. Due to these aggravations, he created the "Bugs Me-inator". He explains that since he can't stand bugs, he made the bubble. Perry tricks him out of the bubble by showing him that a bug is in there with him. After Doof opens the bubble, Perry punches him, sending Doof swirling around. Doof then tries zapping Perry with his inator, but misses and hits his shoe. He then chases Perry around the top of the bus. He lunges at Perry, misses, and swirls around the bubble again. With no one at the wheel, the bus careens wildly around the town.

The Bus eventually crashes into Stacy's house, where she has been watching the movie. Scared from both the movie and the crash, Stacy notices Perry, and asks why he is wearing a hat.



In Isabella's yard, the birthday celebration continues with the unveiling of a freakishly large red velvet cake, "with a special surprise". Isabella climbs up to the top of the cake, and makes her wish to spend time alone with Phineas. She blows out the candles, which shoots confetti fireworks into the air. Holly notices Candace waiting anxiously on her phone, and wonders what she is doing. Phineas asks if she got her wish, but Buford interjects, sarcastically saying that it was her wish to have her entire yard littered with confetti. Candace tells her that when things dangerous she will call Linda to bust Phineas and Ferb. Holly questions why she didn't call about the confetti, but Candace assures her that it will get worse.

At Stacy's house, she wonders what is going on, and Doofenshmirtz explains to Stacy the basics of their routine. Perry tackles Doofenshmirtz, where Doof notices the cover of The Grievance on the floor. He says he saw it in the theater, and that he still has nightmares about the "greasy little girl who comes out of the basement". Stacy interrupts him, not wanting to know how it ends.

Next in the birthday celebration is a giant piñata which then splits into many smaller piñatas. After the piñatas are done, Phineas initiates the grand finale. The finale is unseen as Candace calls Linda to tell her to come across the street. As the guests awe at the "grand and glorious and potentially bustable gift", Candace runs across the street to grab Linda and take her to Isabella's house.



As Stacy tries to tell Perry and Doofenshmirtz to stop, she falls into the oil that was leaking onto the floor. She stands up, with oiled hair blocking her face. Doofenshmirtz sees Stacy and believes she is the "greasy Grievance girl from the basement" and flees in terror. As she asks Perry if the Flynn-Fletchers know about him fighting Doofenshmirtz, she steps on the Bugs Me-inator's trigger button. After if fires a beam, Perry destroys the -inator. The beam bounces off of a satellite, reflecting it back to Earth.

The beam comes into Isabella's backyard, where it turns the gift into a large amount of butterflies. Isabella is amazed, but Phineas and Ferb are confused as to what happened. Candace comes in and sees the gift is gone, now with butterflies in its place.

Major Monogram, Carl, and several other people pull in front of Stacy's house, disguised as people from Danville Water and Power. Perry takes Stacy outside, and hands her the pamphlet explaining about host families and memory erasure. Not wanting to have Candace or the boys lose Perry, and also not wanting her memory erased due to not wanting to watch the movie again, Stacy exploits a technicality, saying that she is not part of his host family. She asks if it can be their secret. Perry thinks about it, then smiles and tips his fedora, agreeing with Stacy's wishes. To enforce this, Perry has Stacy lie to Monogram about not being home, which he buys. Perry and Stacy give each other a thumb's up.



All of the guests wish Isabella a happy birthday and leave her with Phineas and Ferb in front of her house. Phineas apologizes for the ruined finale, but Isabella consoles him saying that she loved the butterflies. To make it up to her, Phineas offers that if he and Ferb can take her out for some ice cream. As she was about to answer, Ferb lies that he has something that he needs to do, and that they should go. Phineas agrees, and Isabella fist bumps Ferb, thanking him for finally giving her some alone time with Phineas.

At the ice cream shop, Phineas again asks if she got her wish, but then remembers the confetti and streamers, actually believing Buford's comment. As he leaves the table to get more napkins, she watches endearingly, rests her head on her hands and silently says "And butterflies. You always give me butterflies...".

Songs

 * Alone

End Credits
Sometime later, Candace and Stacy are spying on the kids. Candace sees Phineas saying "Where's Perry?" and asks Stacy where she thinks the platypus went. Stacy quickly and nervously responds that she doesn't know anything about where Perry goes every day. Candace agrees, wondering why she asked Stacy in the first place; in her mind, Stacy is glad that no one suspects anything.

I know what we're gonna do today
None.

The "Too Young" Line
None.

Perry's entrance to his lair
None.

Evil Jingle
None.

Background Information

 * Tenth time a character's birthday is celebrated or mentioned, the first nine being Candace ("Candace Loses Her Head"), Dr. Doofenshmirtz ("Raging Bully"), Linda ("Mom's Birthday"), Vanessa ("Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together"), Hildegard Johnson ("Run, Candace, Run"), Phineas ("Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama!"), Sergei Kushnarov ("Mommy Can You Hear Me?"), Stacy ("Doofapus"), and Major Monogram ("Backyard Hodge Podge").
 * Second time Isabella's name has been part of an episode title. ("Isabella and the Temple of Sap")
 * Third time Isabella tries to go out with Phineas ("Out to Launch", "Canderemy"), and the fourth time she tries to be alone with him ("Phineas and Ferb Summer Belongs to You!").
 * For both, this is the first time she is successful.
 * Fourth time someone discovers Perry's secret who doesn't work with the O.W.C.A. ("The Ballad of Badbeard" - although Candace believed she was under the influence and hallucinating at the time -, "I Was a Middle-Aged Robot", "Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension").
 * Second time Perry's "So You've Found Out Your Pet is a Secret Agent" pamphlet appears. ("Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension")
 * Stacy discovers that Perry is a secret agent, but exploits a loophole in the rules to retain her memory.
 * The Giant Floating Baby Head appears again.
 * Melissa reappears. ("We Call it Maze")
 * Doofenshmirtz is once again mistaken for a pharmacist.
 * It is revealed that Doofenshirtz gets annoyed when people think he is a pharmacist because of wearing a lab coat. He previously vented about this in an interview with D23.com and on Twitter.
 * Third time a character says "O.M.G.". ("Split Personality", "Phineas and Ferb and the Temple of Juatchadoon")
 * Part of the Big Idea is unseen, like the Big Ideas in "Candace Disconnected", "Blackout!" and "Sidetracked" were unseen.
 * We never learn what the Grand Finale is, but we know that it included swans, lasers, and fireballs according to Phineas.
 * Third time every Fireside Girl has a speaking role. ("Isabella and the Temple of Sap", "Bee Story")
 * First episode where Stacy interacts with Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram.
 * On the emotional roulette, Lawrence can be seen holding the cuckoo clock from "What Do It Do?".
 * Fifth (or possibly sixth) time someone keeps trying to tell Phineas something, but continually gets cut off. ("Ready For The Bettys", "Out to Launch", "The Chronicles of Meap", "Canderemy", "Hail Doofania!")
 * Every time except "Ready For The Bettys", Isabella is the one trying to tell Phineas something.
 * The same gag is used in "Fireside Girl Jamboree", except Isabella is trying to tell something to Candace.
 * Second episode to involve Isabella's yard. ("Day of the Living Gelatin")

Production Information

 * Héctor Ireta De Alba (Latin American voice of Baljeet) confirmed this episode on YouTube.
 * Dan Povenmire was later thought to confirm this episode via Twitter; however the scene was actually from "La Candace-Cabra", the episode that this one is paired with.
 * This episode was aired on Disney Channel on Demand and on Time Warner Cable on July 5, 2013.
 * The title was originally announced as "Isabella's Birthday".
 * An advert for both the paired episodes was released on July 5th.

International Premieres

 * August 16, 2013 (Disney Channel Brazil and Latin America)

Errors

 * Isabella was born without eyebrows as revealed in the book Learn to Draw Phineas and Ferb. However, Isabella is drawn with eyebrows throughout the majority of the episode.
 * When Phineas introduces Isabella to her birthday cake, Adyson's headband was the same color as her hair.
 * When Isabella starts saying "Butterflies? I love butterflies!", her mouth isn't moving.
 * When Phineas gathers everyone around the pool for the grand finale, Isabella is wearing her signature bow instead of her striped party hat. Then when the finale raises out of the pool, the hat reappears.
 * When Ferb brings the cake out, the candles are already lit, but then Ferb presses a remote to light them.
 * The stairway to lead Isabella up to the top of the cake suddenly appears from nowhere after the candles were lit.
 * After the candles spray confetti, Holly can be seen next to Adyson, but in the next shot she is next to Candace.
 * When the finale gets turned into butterflies, look closely at Candace in the background; she walks in front of a patio post.

Continuity
None.

Allusions

 * Ring - The "greasy girl who emerges from the basement" in the film The Grievance, as described by Dr. Doofenshmirtz and accidentally imitated by Stacy, resembles Sadako and her emergence from the television.
 * The Grudge - The title of the film Stacy watches, The Grievance, is a synonym for the title of the 2004 horror film.
 * Give It 2 Me - When Isabella sings "I'll take it" in Alone she is imitating Madonna because both say the same thing with the same melody.
 * Slenderman- The way the "grievance girl from the basement" seems to teleport toward the camera and the static as she comes closer hold a likeness to what the player of this videogame series will see right before Slenderman kills them.
 * The Music Box - The classic Laurel and Hardy short is parodied once again with Phineas and Isabella. Only this time, they move a grand piano up the steps instead of an upright piano. (Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension)
 * The song mentions an emotional roulette. The term "emotional roulette" is an idiom for a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants partake in events that could kill them emotionally.
 * ING Direct - Candace's line "I know what INAP means" is a direct parody of the ING commercials where the banking group's logo was explained to a person asking "What's That?" The question was not about ING (which the recipient already knew), but some outrageous background spectacle similar to many of Phineas and Ferb's big ideas.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram, Additional Voices
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford, Additional Voices
 * Tyler Mann as Carl
 * Kelly Hu as Stacy
 * Ariel Winter as Gretchen
 * Madison Pettis as Adyson
 * Diamond White as Holly
 * Isabella Acres as Katie
 * Isabella Murad as Milly


 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode