Journey to the Center of Candace

Yeah, we're inside Candace's stomach.

Isabella's dog Pinky eats her sash, so the boys build a mini-submarine to retrieve it, but instead they end up inside Candace. Perry is forced to take direct action when Dr. Doofenshmirtz's latest scheme specifically threatens Phineas and Ferb.

Episode Summary
Phineas and Ferb can't make up their minds whether to build a submarine or a shrinking ray. Linda says that the boys have wonderful imaginations. Candace is eating her favorite cereal, when Jeremy calls. He asks if she would like to go for a walk later, causing Candace to spit out her cereal and milk. She accepts and then calls Stacy and Jenny screaming with excitement. Meanwhile, in the backyard, Phineas and Ferb are still trying to decide what to build. Isabella walks into the backyard along with her dog Pinky to show them her sash with all her accomplishment patches. However, when she shows Phineas the sash, Pinky jumps up and eats it. Isabella gets upset because she needs the sash for the Fireside Girls ceremony that afternoon. Ferb shows Phineas their blueprints and they decide to create a shrinking submarine to retrieve Isabella's sash from Pinky's stomach.

As that is going on, Perry slips into his lair. Major Monogram tells Perry that Dr. Doofenshmirtz is hiding out in the old abandoned vacuum cleaner factory and to find out what he's up to.

Back at the house, Phineas explains to Isabella that he and Ferb will shrink down into Pinky's dog food and when he swallows them they will fold up the sash to microscopic size and exit through his drool. Isabella says that Pinky will anything but dog food, though he does like grilled cheese sandwiches. Phineas says that he and Ferb will make the submarine while she makes the sandwich. When she returns with the sandwich, she finds Phineas with the completed sub. She places the sandwich on the ground, Phineas and Ferb activate the shrinking submarine and drop into the sandwich. However, when Isabella places Pinky on the ground, he runs off chasing a cat instead of eating the sandwich. After Isabella leaves to chase after Pinky, Candace comes into the garage to tell the boys to stay out of her way as she goes on her date with Jeremy. She sees the grilled cheese sandwich on the ground and decides to eat it now so she doesn't look like a pig on her date.

Meanwhile, Perry breaks into Doofenshmirtz Abandoned Vacuum Cleaner Factory and Dr. Doofenshmirtz suggests they "mix it up a little" this time. So Doofenshmirtz tells Agent P his plan before he captures him. He shows Agent P the "Make-up-your-mind-inator" he invented to destroy people who can't make up their mind. Then, Perry remembers that at breakfast, Phineas and Ferb said they couldn't make up their minds about what they were going to do that day. Enraged at this, Perry then cuffs Doofenshmirtz to a nearby pipe and calls Major Monogram to send backup to come get Doofenshmirtz.

Phineas and Ferb are sitting in the submarine in Candace's mouth waiting to be swallowed. When Candace hears the doorbell ring, she swallows the submarine and goes to meet Jeremy at the door. As they go down Candace's throat Phineas comments that Pinky's neck is really long. As they search for the sash, he notices tacos similar to the ones their mom made the night before and then Candace's favorite cereal. When he begins to realize what's going on, Phineas gets a call from Isabella, who is wondering where they disappeared to, inadvertently confirming his suspicion. Phineas hangs up and tells Ferb they are in Candace's stomach. Ferb then states, "That's creepy on so many levels."

While they are waiting, Doofenshmirtz tells Perry that there is travel chess set in one of two nearby handbags. Sensing a trap Perry opens the other bag. When he opens it there is a self-attaching belt that sticks itself to any flat surface which traps Perry. Dr. Doofenshmirtz frees himself and shows Perry that there was one in both bags so no matter which one he picked he'd be trapped and unintentionally traps himself.

Inside Candace the boys tap into her eyes and ears through her nervous system to see what she sees. They see that she is on her date with Jeremy and realize that means they're on a date with Jeremy. Phineas calls Candace to tell her and she doesn't believe him. To prove it Ferb uses a feather duster to tickle her. Phineas sees some monkey bars and asks her if she still gets sick when she hangs upside down. Phineas apologizes, but tells her they have to help Isabella as they tap into Candace's arms and legs. They walk her over to the monkey bars and make her hang upside down and they begin to move out of stomach through her, however she gets off the monkey bars and swallows then back down. As Candace and Jeremy arrive at his uncle's sandwich shop, Phineas and Ferb, still inside her throat, tickle her so she will cough them back up. Jeremy goes to get her some water and they get coughed out and return to normal size. Candace quickly calls their mom, who says she's on her way to Jeremy's uncle's restaurant to pick up some sandwiches Lawrence ordered.

Doofenshmirtz, while wearing the belt, begins to roll himself along the wall and out through a window. Perry proceeds to do the same, chasing the doctor up building and up the giant vacuum cleaner that sits on top of it. Doofenshmirtz manages to break his belt off on the switch of the vacuum and falls down into Phineas and Ferb's submarine. Perry also breaks his belt off using the switch and turns the vacuum on. It moves forward and manages to suck up Doofenshmirtz and the submarine, just before Linda arrives.

Linda calls Candace imaginative and walks off as Isabella comes up to Phineas and tells him Pinky threw up and she got her sash back. Jeremy then shows Candace his uncle's menu and tells her he had the grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu named after her because he knows it's her favorite. As Jeremy hands her a grilled cheese sandwich, Doofenshmirtz activates the shrinking submarine and falls into the sandwich. After they went inside to eat, as Jeremy suggested, Candace is about to eat her sandwich, but Pinky jumps up and eats it instead, with Doofenshmirtz inside.

Songs

 * Hemoglobin Highway

End Credits
While Pinky is sleeping, Doofenshmirtz wonders where he is. He learns that he's inside Pinky and plans to pee all over the Tri-State Area and laughs evilly, then pauses, sighs, and wonders, Oh, what am I doing with my life?

Perry's entrance to his lair
He uses a keypad to activate a rotating section of the fence, which flings him through a trap door in the lawn.

Evil Jingle
Doofenshmirtz Abandoned Vacuum cleaner factory!

Background Information

 * Candace is allergic to dairy products ("Candace Loses Her Head", "Oh, There You Are, Perry"), but the severity is not specified. If it is a mild allergy, this may explain why grilled cheese sandwiches are her favorite. Grilled cheese sandwiches typically use processed cheese instead of unprocessed cheese, and this difference may allow her to enjoy the sandwiches with little or no reaction.
 * First episode where Perry shows his affection towards the boys. This is also the first episode where Perry doesn't fight Doofenshmirtz to stop him, simply cuffs him to a pipe after being told the plan.
 * Uncle Joe is probably Jeremy's mom's brother because he looks like her.
 * First episode in which Doofenshmirtz directly interacts with/uses one of Phineas and Ferb's inventions.

Production Information

 * Episode description from the original Phineas and Ferbruary 2008 press release:
 * In "Journey to the Center of Candace," airing Friday, Ferb-ruary 29, Isabella's dog, Pinky, accidentally eats her Fireside Girls badge sash, so Phineas and Ferb devise a plan to build a shrinking submarine so they can go inside Pinky's stomach and retrieve it. Unfortunately they end up inside Candace's stomach, right in the middle of her big date with Jeremy.

Errors

 * Candace tells us she's lactose intolerant but at the beginning of this episode, she is seen eating cereal with milk. However, this may be soy or goat milk.
 * If the tacos had been in Candace's stomach since last night, they wouldn't be recognizable as tacos anymore. In fact, they would already be digested and not in her stomach at all. Also, they appeared to have been swallowed almost whole.
 * The boys should have heard Candace talking to herself before she eats the sandwich. So they should have known it was her stomach they were inside. They also should have heard her voice from inside her stomach. One explanation could be that the submarine is soundproof, though this would have no function if it was.
 * When the submarine connects to Candace's nerves, Phineas says that they are in her stomach. However, there is no way to connect to the nervous system within the stomach.
 * During the song "Hemoglobin Highway", we see a red blood cell split in half as if by mitosis. Red blood cells do not reproduce in this manner. However, this may not count, as there are is much biological inaccuracy in this episode.
 * When the boys are building the submarine it is green however when they are seen inside Candace it is blue. This could be explained as different body fluids adding a tint to the submarine.
 * In Oh There You Are Perry, she says she is allergic to dairy, yet she eats a Grilled Cheese Sandwich in the episode although, it could be some sort of Dairy-free cheese.
 * During the song Hemoglobin Highway, we see Candace's eyeball but there is no way that they can see that.

Continuity

 * When Doofenshmirtz indicates the large snow globe he was going to trap Perry in, a bit of the instrumental of S'Winter plays.
 * Ferb's craving for sub sandwiches is seen again ("Lights, Candace, Action!").

Allusions

 * Journey to the Center of the Earth - The name of this episode is derived from the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.
 * Fantastic Voyage (1966) - The submarine that enters Pinky is a homage to the film Fantastic Voyage.
 * Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984) - Elements of this story may also have been influenced by this text-based computer game. An important part of its plotline involves your character finding himself on a microscopic spaceship which is eaten by a small dog, ending the game. However, if you fed this dog a cheese sandwich earlier in the game, he is preoccupied with the sandwich and ignores the spaceship.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry and Pinky
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella and Jenny
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
 * Kelly Hu as Stacy
 * Additional voices: Dee Bradley Baker, Eileen Galindo, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Dan Povenmire


 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode