Out to Launch

Hey Ferb! Now that we own a star, we should go check it out.

Lawrence is preoccupied with buying and naming stars online. He buys one for Phineas and Ferb, and also one for Candace. Candace and Isabella are preoccupied with a turn-around dance where the girls ask the boys out. Candace thinks Jeremy will refuse; and Isabella keeps getting interrupted when she asks. Phineas and Ferb build a rocket to visit their star. Doofenshmirtz is also in space, seeking revenge on an adolescent nemesis.

Episode Summary
Phineas and Ferb are resting against the tree in the backyard listening to the radio with their pet, Perry between them. The radio announcer is advertising the Night of the Falling Stars girls' choice dance which is happening that night. It seems Danville is in for a meteor shower and everyone in town has gone "star crazy."Lawrence Fletcher is especially star crazy as he's found out that he can purchase the naming rights to stars online and give them away as gifts. He brings out a certificate he printed online to show the boys that they are now the proud owners of their very own star. Phineas asks if Candace got one too, and being a good father, Lawrence bought her one as well despite the fact that she doesn't seem very interested in those sorts of things. He is enamored by how easy and inexpensive it is to buy stars online, comparing it to the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. Sneaking up on them, Linda tells the boys that it was the corny history references that made her fall for him in the first place. She then explains that she and her friend Vivian are going to their mahjong tournament. As Lawrence rushes back inside to buy more stars, Phineas suggests to Ferb that they go visit their star. He goes on to wax poetic about space travel: "the G-forces, eating dinner out of a tube, and going to the bathroom without going to the bathroom."

Meanwhile, at the Googolplex Mall, Candace visits Jeremy and his friends in the food court to try and ask him out. He turns around and they start laughing at her. Then the earth would be destroyed. At least this is the scenario that Candace is using to explain to Stacy why she can't ask Jeremy to the dance. Stacy, unimpressed, tells Candace that hers is kind of a worst-case scenario and that she can't let fear rule her life. She pushes Candace to call Jeremy as soon as she hangs up the phone. Candace agrees, hangs up, and proceeds to call Stacy right back to tell her she is too cowardly.

In the backyard, the boys are working on their rocket. First, they are going through tests of stamina to make sure they are suited for space travel. Ferb is exercising on a giant hamster wheel and Phineas has Buford spin him around really fast on a merry-go-round. Then, they get to work on the actual rocket. The Fireside Girls help assemble the fuselage, while Phineas and Ferb are trying to work out a formula, specifically the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation. They try several times, but are having difficulties coming on the correct one, with each rocket exploding in a clip of rocket failures. Ferb notices their flaw: the square root of "bomb." Once Phineas changes it to the square root of "smiley face," everything works out. They are finally ready to launch and Phineas gives Isabella and the Fireside Girls a tour of Mission Control. Even though it looks like a tiny shed in the middle of their backyard, it is huge inside since Ferb "really knows how to maximize space." The rest of the girls go inside, but Isabella stays to try and ask Phineas to the dance. Unfortunately, Katie interrupts her by asking Phineas inside to sign some liability waivers. Phineas and Ferb walk out their backdoor wearing their spacesuits. Perry, also wearing a spacesuit, is tucked under Phineas's arm. They are walking slowly and in a mist for dramatic effect until Isabella stops them. The three astronauts board the rocket as Isabella and the Fireside Girls act as Mission Control. Gretchen counts them down, but the rocket stalls out when Isabella pushes the ignition button. Phineas deduces they just need a jump-start.

Candace finally looks out of the window and sees the rocket and Mission Control and heads down to the backyard. Phineas and Ferb are in the driveway with the hood of the family car open, jumper cables in hand. Candace climbs up inside the rocket and heads up the ladder into the cockpit. The boys have connect the jumper cables to the battery and Ferb hits the remote starter to start the car. It immediately launches the rocket into the sky, pulling the car along with it. They head over to Mission Control where Isabella shows them who took off in the rocket. Candace is pressed against a hatch inside and her cheeks are covering her ears because of the G-forces. Phineas tries to communicate with her, but she can't hear him. Phineas realizes they need to go after her in the second rocket they built for Candace to see her star. He doesn't know why she took his and Ferb's. The second rocket is highlighted in pink and has flowers on it. Candace escapes the atmosphere and the car comes loose from the jumper cables. It tumbles and lands on the runway into a space station to the chagrin of a pair of NASA shuttle astronauts. Somehow, the second rocket takes off perfectly and Phineas opens communications with Candace, reassuring her that as long as she doesn't start hitting buttons randomly, the rocket is pre-programmed to take her to their star. It's too late though, as she's already hitting random buttons. Phineas then asks about Perry.

Perry is sneaking down the rocket, putting on his fedora and answering his communications device. Major Monogram is on the other end informing him that Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz has built a space station, but The Agency can't afford to launch him into space due to budget cuts. Major Monogram gets cut off because Agent P shows Major Monogram that he is already in space. Agent P's mission is to find the Doofenshmirtz space station and stop the evil doctor. Perry opens an airlock and lets go of the communication device sending it out into the blackness of space and disorienting Major Monogram.

Candace has been studying her instruments wondering what all the red flashing things are. Phineas calmly tells her they're asteroids. Candace's rocket soon gets hit by two asteroids knocking out her engines. The boys change course to rescue her.

Perry arrives at Doofenshmirtz's space station. It's shaped like a giant robot with huge hands and nothing below the waist. He gets sucked inside the robot and frozen in an ice cube tray by Doofenshmirtz. Using a crane on a track, Doofenshmirtz shows Perry the Platypus his station while telling him a story from his teen years. It seems Doofenshmirtz was very adept at hand shadows, or shadow puppets. He found it great fun for entertaining people and meeting girls (Fräuleins). Unfortunately Heinz's fun was ruined when a new boy arrived by the name of Huge Hands Hans. His puppetry wasn't very good, but that didn't stop him from taking away the girl that Heinz was trying to win over. He never did a shadow puppet again. Until tonight. His plan is to use a pair of gloves to control the hands of the robotic space station and make hand shadows on the moon.

Candace's situation is getting worse. She's in a decaying orbit and can't escape the gravity of one of the asteroids. According to Phineas, her only option is to put on the space suit and take a space walk to their rocket before crashing. She is afraid, but Phineas is trying to talk her out of being afraid, "You can't let fear rule your life." In the meantime, Ferb has already reached her. He takes her hand and together they head back to the pink rocket where Phineas contacts Isabella at Mission Control. After determining everyone is alright, Isabella starts to ask Phineas to the dance again but an alarm sounds inside the rocket. They are running out of fuel. Surprised, Phineas and the gang desperately try to find a fuel source, then find out that they were getting closer to something bright. (Meanwhile at the space station, Linda Flynn's car stays outside, still blocking the Space Shuttle which was scheduled to land.)

Phineas finds out that the bright thing was a star, Shooting Star Milk Shake Bar. The boys head inside, after pleading Candace to come, but she refuses. The Milkshake Bar is a run down place. Phineas introduces himself and Ferb, and the bartender welcomes them, stating them as the new owners. Phineas does not understand this, but Ferb shows them the star certificate their father gave them, and it turns out they have the same matching coordinates. The bartender asks them how they think of the joint. They decide to fix up the place.

We see the Earth again falling to destruction. Isabella tells Candace that that is a worst case scenario. Candace remembers her brothers and goes off to find them. Inside, Candace is told to review a shake, and an alien boy nervously asks her if it's silly to be nervous to ask the girl of your dreams out, like Candace and Jeremy. She gives him advice and he asks her (Silvia, the girl of his dreams) out. Silvia, who is growing out of the back of the alien boy's head gladly accepts, saying "I mean, even if you asked somebody else out I'd still have to go with you." Phineas gets some fuel and they leave. Unfortunately, the battery dies. Turns out that Candace used the video phone without the engine running. Meanwhile, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is plotting his evil plan, but Agent P's ice tray begins to melt.

Back with the kids, they find mom's car for another jump start. Since they left the starter remote at home, Candace has her learner's permit and has to do the jump starting. Dr. Doofenshmirtz thinks this is Huge Hands Hans and grabs her. Candace escapes though, and the chase begins. Isabella and the Fireside girls find out that huge robots do not corner well. They take a detour through the asteroid belt, and Doofenshmirtz gets hit. He puts on his space suit to avoid suffocating. Just after, a much larger meteor comes by and crashes into his station.

On Earth, Mr. Fletcher gives a pizza man a tip, his very own star. The pizza guy is not happy ("Uptown, they give Quasars!") The kids go back to earth and Linda arrives home and Candace greets her. She announces that she won although the Grand Prize was a star, to which Lawrence replies happily. Candace calls Linda to the yard, while she notices that the car is not parked. She proceeds to park it and since it was still connected to the rocket and it launched up to space again. It ends up crashing into Doofenshmirtz's space station, annihilating it. Phineas then walks over and thanks Candace for saving them with her bravery. When she says "You think I'm...brave?" Phineas replies "Are you kidding? Ferb was going on and on about it!" Candace, using her new found courage, hurries away to ask Jeremy to the dance. Isabella then asks Phineas to the dance and he says yes, but Ferb is coming too. So she's left with a 1.5 date with Phineas and Ferb. Candace has more success, getting Jeremy to go on the Dance.

Songs

 * Let's Take a Rocket Ship to Space
 * Shooting Star Milkshake Bar

End Credits
As the last verse of Let's Take a Rocket Ship to Space plays, Jeremy and Candace dance together in the Night of the Falling Stars girls' choice dance. Jeremy then points out a big shooting star, which turns out to be Doofenshmirtz inside the burning robot space station and falling to the ocean coast of Danville. He resurfaces and curses Perry and Hans. During the end logos, a man says "It's the final frontier, baby."

Whatcha Doin'?
None.

Perry's entrance to his lair
Perry flies into space with Candace on Phineas and Ferb's ship, to realize that he is needed to be in space via videophone, but due to budget cuts can't be sent up there, when he is up there thanks to Phineas and Ferb.

The bird that runs into Phineas and Ferb's invention
A bird hits Phineas and Ferb's ship during the countdown. This is a reference to the famous video clip from Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-114 flight where a turkey vulture flew into the side of the shuttle's fuel tank nosecone just as it was lifting off.

Background Information

 * "Building a rocket..." is a line in the Phineas and Ferb Theme, giving a preview for this. It showed Phineas jumping off the rocket in a Neil Armstrong fashion, as Ferb stays still behind him.
 * It is confirmed that Perry is working for the government when Major Monogram says the line, "Now I've contacted the president and...". This was mentioned in the original story pitch, but was deleted from "Rollercoaster" for unknown reasons.
 * Doofenshmirtz' hand machine has realistic hand movements, probably indicating that it is computer-animated.
 * This is the third time Gretchen talks, the first two being "The Fast and the Phineas" and "The Ballad of Badbeard".
 * Candace is supposed to wear a space suit. She was wearing her normal clothes when she checks on Phineas and Ferb to find gas.
 * Isabella says "Sure. No prob." three times in the episode. If you listen closley, the way she says it is recycled for the rest of the episode, and the same music cue plays for the first two.
 * "Fräulein" is German for "Miss" or "Young Lady".
 * As seen on the episode list on Wikipedia, it was known that there was going to be a Spot the Diff episode parody but said it was unaired.
 * This is the fourth episode to have Live Action shots. The first three were "Rollercoaster", "Candace Loses Her Head" and "Lights, Candace, Action!".

Production Information

 * On the Disney Channel U.S. website, before the episode aired, the website misspelled the episode as "Out to Lunch".
 * This was the final episode before Disney XD premiered and had episodes premiere on that channel first. As of Wizard of Odd, it went back to Disney Channel for the premieres.

Errors

 * Isabella's teeth disappear during her first attempt to ask Phineas to the dance.
 * Since the characters can stand and walk in the ship, it can be assumed that there is some sort of artificial gravity in it. However, there are several scenes where Candace and Perry are floating.
 * In Candace's fantasy, Jeremy and his friends are sitting behind a table (in front of them), and there is no-one sitting there. However, when zooming out, there is four people sitting at that same table.
 * When Isabella talks to Phineas over the monitor and says that he has the dance tonight before the end of the first part, she isn't wearing her mission control jacket.
 * The inflated gloves should have made it very difficult for Candace to move her fingers.

Continuity

 * Second time Phineas and Ferb are in space ("Rollercoaster").
 * The elevator music version of I'm Lindana and I Wanna Have Fun! is playing during the establishing shot of Googolplex Mall ("Flop Starz").
 * Candace asks Stacy "What if while I'm asking him, a satellite falls out of orbit and crashes into the...". This is the same scenario she presents to her mom when asking if she's in charge ("Rollercoaster").
 * A bird hits Phineas and Ferb's rocket and falls ("Rollercoaster").
 * This is the third time one can see Phineas facing straight. At that angle, his head is like a needle ("Get That Bigfoot Outa My Face!").
 * Stacy's room shows a poster of the Bettys on the end of her bed ("Ready For The Bettys").
 * Second time that Doofenshmirtz builds a robot that follows Phineas and Ferb ("Greece Lightning").
 * Perry gets frozen by Doofenshmirtz again ("Bowl-R-Ama Drama").

Allusions

 * The title resembles the saying "Out to lunch."
 * There are several references to the space epic Star Wars:
 * "Just like beggar's canyon back home," is an exact line from Star Wars: A New Hope referring to the treacherous journey along the Death Star.
 * The giant hand machine Doofenshmirtz uses is possibly a reference to the Death Star in A New Hope.
 * Perry being frozen in the ice cube tray is similar to Han Solo being frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back. Perry is even in the very same pose Han was.
 * Phineas, Ferb and Candace being chased through the asteroid field is similar to when Han Solo and Chewbacca flew through the asteroid field being chased by TIE fighters in The Empire Strikes Back. Their spaceship even makes a swing around an asteroid similar to what the Millennium Falcon did.
 * The scene where Perry is being pulled into Doof's ship by a tractor beam is similar to part of the opening scene of A New Hope, including the camera angle.
 * The astronaut that is trying to park his space shuttle closely resembles Jango Fett from Star Wars:Episode II Attack of the Clones.
 * The general atmosphere of the Shooting Star Milkshake Bar before the boys fix it up might be a reference to the cantina in Episode IV.
 * The rocket building montage contains real-world footage of American efforts to build successful rockets during the early years of the space race in the 1960s. It is likely that the writers had Phineas and Ferb fail several times as a homage to all the hard work these scientists did to fulfill President Kennedy's dream.
 * The dramatic, vapor filled walk Phineas and Ferb take while boarding the rocket mimics that of several films including The Right Stuff, Armageddon and Apollo 13.
 * Armageddon, 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Tintin comic "Explorers on the Moon" may also be the influence behind the orange space suits. Space shuttle suits have been orange since 1988, so it seems reasonable that Phineas and Ferb would follow that model when constructing theirs. (Or maybe that's just what the delivery guy dropped off.)
 * "It's the final frontier, baby," the line at the very end in the song, is a reference to the famous "Space; the final frontier" of Star Trek.
 * Star Trek - Isabella's "Sensors indicate..." comes from one of Lieutenant Commander Spock's stock phrases.
 * Phineas comments on Ferb's ability to maximize interior space, a subtle poke at the larger-on-the-inside TARDIS used in Doctor Who. Thomas Sangster, the voice of Ferb, has made an appearance on this series.
 * The rabbit Dr. Doofenshmirtz makes on the moon might be a reference to the "Moon Rabbit".
 * When Candace enters Jeremy's house in the radioactive-suit like space suit, it's a reference to when Marty wears a similar suit to convince his father to ask his mother out in Back to the Future. Candace uses the same raspy voice, too.
 * The milk shake bar is probably a reference to Miliways from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
 * Some of the aliens are drawn in the style of DePatie-Freleng, best known for the Pink Panther cartoons.
 * The Last Legion' - Candace slides down the ladder of one of the rockets in a similar manner as Romulus (played by Thomas Sangster, the voice of Ferb).
 * Phineas and Ferb's turn behind the milkshake bar resembles a similar scene between Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown in the movie Cocktail.
 * Alan Shepard, astronaut - Phineas's line, "Let's light this candle," is from The Right Stuff. In real life, Shepard, strapped into the Mercury capsule, was exasperated at the delays in launching him as the first American into space, so he said, "Why don't you fix your little problem and light this candle."
 * The part where Phineas, Ferb, and Candace enter a bright light is similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * Apollo XIII mission - When Phineas says, "Danville, we have a problem," it is an obvious allusion to the memorable phrase uttered by Commander James Lovell, "Houston, we've had a problem." Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert seems to have mentioned the problem moments before.
 * Budweiser beer commercials - I love you, man comes from a long series of commercials where the manly approach was actually a ploy to get a beer from the man.
 * Airplane II: The Sequel - Phineas and Ferb jump-started their rocket from the car, in Airplane II they did the same thing with the Mayflower 1.
 * Cirque du Freak - Huge Hands Hans has a similar name to Hans Hands, a minor character in the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
 * Kelly Hu as Stacey
 * Ariel Winter as Gretchen
 * Isabella Acres as Katie (uncredited)
 * Lara Jill Miller as Sylvia (credited as "Additional voices")
 * Additional voices: Dee Bradley Baker, Keith Ferguson, Brian George, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Alyson Stoner