We Call it Maze

Mazes should be big, fun and exciting.

Phineas and Ferb create a life sized maze filled with fun obstacles. Melissa, the leader of the Little Sparks, a younger branch of the Fireside Girls, is immediately captivated when she meets Candace and finds out that she was a Fireside Girl who earned 50 patches in one day. When the girls try out the maze, Candace takes charge, but things don't go as planned. Meanwhile, Dr. Doofenshmirtz reasons that if the Leaning Tower of Pisa can generate souvenir revenue, then surely he can use his latest invention, the "Tilt-inator," to tilt buildings so he can sell souvenir replicas.

Episode Summary
While Phineas and Ferb are eating their cereal, they notice the maze on the back of their box. Phineas believes that mazes need to be more challenging and they decide to build one themselves. Candace clumsily skates by and tells her brothers Jeremy's taking her skating tonight and she needs the practice. Meanwhile, Perry heads to his lair and Major Monogram apologizes for not keeping the entrance clean and hands him a towelette. He tells Agent P that Dr. Doofenshmirtz hasn't been seen anywhere and not even his answering machine has given them any leads. He is asked to find out where he's hiding.

Phineas and Ferb has now finished the maze and are ready to test it out. Baljeet immediately joins in upon hearing "test" and Phineas tells him it's like a rat trying to find cheese in a maze. Buford comes and tags along upon hearing "cheese". Isabella comes into the yard with a Lil' Spark named Melissa, whom she's mentoring right now. She wants to be just like Isabella when she grows up. After introducing Melissa to her friends, she boards the elevator. Candace sees what they're doing and tries to bust them, but accidentally skates onto the elevator and trips the switch, taking it upward, and Phineas tells her there's no way down.

Agent P arrives at Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. and sees a pull string doll in Doof's likeness. Each time he pulls it, it says a line about how he'll be captured and taken up to his space station. After pulling it three times in a row, he gets trapped in a rocket and it flies toward his space station. Back at the maze Phineas and Ferb built, he tells everybody the only way out of the maze is downward, and they split up to find their own ways down. Isabella offers Candace a way out of the maze, but tells her she can find her own way out. Melissa recognizes her and tells her she got 50 patches in one day and wants to know how she did it. She signs the magazine and tells her it wasn't easy, but they needed her, and decides to go with them to get them out of the maze. Everyone goes through the maze that Phineas and Ferb built, playing games, solving puzzles, and disarming traps. Melissa keeps going to Candace for help, making Isabella annoyed and jealous.



The rocket arrives at it's destination, which is basically the Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. Building turned sideways. He tells Perry he took a cross country journey across Europe. At one point, he comes across the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but gets annoyed because it's out of Pizza, due to him thinking it's the "Leaning Tower of Pizza." He then plans to fire a ray at the buildings to make them lean to the side and sell souvenirs. The ray is planned to fire within three minutes and he opens the hatch to get a clear shot, though it'll take a while.

Isabella, Melissa and Candace comes across a tightrope. Candace trips a bit, but manages to make it across. Melissa nearly falls, and Candace asks Isabella to throw her to safety. She does so, and Melissa thanks Candace for telling Isabella to rescue her. Later, they come across a deep chasm in the maze, and Candace throws the rope bundle down. After a thud, she says it's a 3 second drop.

At the space station, with a few seconds left, Perry closes the hatch and the ray fires on the station itself, titling it sideways. It resets to 3 minutes and he struggles to get the hatch open and realign the shot. Back in the maze, the girls need to find a way to the other side. Candace suggests they use the rope bundle until she remembers she threw it down to the bottom. The walkway soon retracts and Candace panics and tries to open the door to go back. Isabella sits calmly, saying she'll find a way across. After all, she did earn 50 patches in one day.

Candace finally confesses she only did it to get into the Paisley Sideburn Brothers concert, and would never have gotten in if it wasn't for Isabella and her brothers, making Melissa gasp in shock. Finally, Isabella tells Candace to hand one of their skates, and she undoes it and gets it around the pipe. She then swings across, but the other walkway quickly retracts. They notice a switch, but neither Isabella or Candace can reach it. However, Melissa can, and she unties her other rollerskate and hangs from it, making her trip the switch to bring the walkway back. They then slide down and escape the maze.

Candace leaves and tries to bust her brothers, and Isabella takes Melissa to the Lil' sparks bus. Dr. Doofenshmirtz manages to get the hatch open, but Perry sticks the snowglobe into the ray, causing the whole thing to spin around and fire the rays wildly. Perry escapes and leaves Doofenshmirtz spinning around in the space station. One of the rays hits the maze and it tilts on its side, rolling out of the yard, and Candace fails to bust them again. The boys are running around on the side and escape through a hole. Phineas notes that the girls got out first, as they see Isabella and Melissa at the bus stop. Buford gets upset there wasn't any cheese in the maze, but hears in his echo of cheese "wombat", wondering if it's broken.

Songs

 * The Maze Song

The "Too Young" Line
None.

Perry's entrance to his lair
He enters through the exhaust in the kitchen, and is covered in soot as he lands in his chair.

Evil Jingle
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!

Background Information

 * This episode reveals that the Fireside Girls has a sub-organization called "Lil' Sparks" that helps young girls to become Fireside Girls, and Isabella was once a Lil' Spark. This is similar to Camp Fire USA's program that trains you to be a Camp Fire Boy/Girl; "Little Stars."
 * A member of the Lil' Sparks makes an appearance and is named Melissa. She has blond hair with pig-tails, and freckles. Her uniform has a red belt, pleats on her skirt, and black shoes.
 * When Ferb hangs up his Indiana Jones outfit, what appears to be a stone figure of Abraham Lincoln can be seen
 * For the first time, Doofenshmirtz shows knowledge of other languages to causes him troubles during his trip around the world a few years ago.
 * It takes about 3 seconds for the rope to fall to the ground, about $$d = -4.9(3)^2$$ equal to -44.1 meters.
 * At the end of the episode, Buford says there was no cheese, though in the maze, there was what looks like cheese on springs.
 * As shown in this episode, Ferb can play chess.
 * When Phineas tells Buford that the cheese is a metaphor, he then makes an analogy.
 * This is the 104th episode ran in the US, matching the number of days Phineas and Ferb have of summer vacation.

Production Information

 * Premiered on Disney Channel on Demand on September 17.
 * This episode first aired on Disney Channel Latin America on July 22, 2010 entitled "El Laberinto" ("The Labyrinth"), also in Disney Channel Taiwan on August 8, 2010, in English in Disney Channel Hong Kong on August 8, 2010 and in Disney Channel Asia on August 22, 2010, and in Disney Channel Brazil on August 20, 2010 entitled "O Nome Disso É Labirinto".
 * On Disney Channel Brazil, this episode was paired with "The Doof Side of the Moon."

International Premieres

 * July 22, 2010 (Disney Channel Latin America)
 * August 8, 2010 (Disney Channel Taiwan)
 * August 20, 2010 (Disney Channel Brazil)
 * August 22, 2010 (Disney Channel Asia)
 * September 6, 2010 (Disney XD Poland)
 * November 5, 2010 (Disney Channel Netherlands/Flanders)
 * November, 14, 2010 (Disney XD France)
 * December 5, 2010 (Disney XD Spain)
 * December 16, 2010 (Disney Channel Spain)
 * February 7, 2011 (Disney XD UK)
 * February 11, 2011 (Disney Channel Scandinavia)

Errors

 * When Melissa shows Candace the photo with her in it when she was a Fireside Girl, the shirt is all white instead of orange and white.
 * During most of the episode, Perry's eyes are blue when they should be brown. The only times they are brown is during his mission briefing and when he is pulling the string on the Doofenshmirtz toy/trap.
 * During The Maze Song, when Phineas, Ferb, and Baljeet are hopping on cheese springs, Buford is not with them
 * When one of the doors Candace, Isabella, and Melissa were trying to get to was seen the first time, it was closed. But when it was seen the second time, it appears to be opened.
 * When Isabella loads Melissa on to the Lil' Sparks bus, her beret isn't on. Instead, her red bow is on her head. This was the exact case in Flop Starz where she didn't wear a beret, but had her red bow on.
 * As Candace, Isabella, and Melissa are swinging on the rope attempting to reach the lever, the middle square of Candace's belt continuously switches colors from maroon to white and back again, and at one point, the white shoelace looks like a rope.
 * When Doofenshmirtz first sets the timer on the Tilt-Inator, it appears to start from 3:15, but when he has to reset it again, the timer seems to start from 3:00.
 * Technically, since Doofenshmirtz and Perry were in space, there should have been no echo, because sound requires air to move (which would be required to make an echo), and there is no air in space. Unfortunately they were in a space station, not out in space, both times the echo gag was used, so this preceding "error" isn't really appropriate. If your point is that a space station does not have air (or gravity - see below) then it applies to the entirety of their time in space. Otherwise this just doesn't belong here. I didn't want to just delete the entry w/o comment, though, so I'm noting it instead. Others can (and should) more properly remove or edit this item back to a more sensible reading.
 * "We're like lab rats going after cheese" is actually a simile, not a metaphor as metaphors don't use the word "like". A metaphor version of that sentence would be "We are lab rats going after cheese."
 * Perry takes out screw driver to close the door, but in space there shouldn't be enough gravity to close the door. Of course they have been walking on the floor in an environment where gravity is clearly present (the space station interior), so there is no reason to suddenly presume this effect to no longer be active. Additionally, the use of a screwdriver in no way presupposes the existence of meaningful gravitational forces (they do use screwdrivers in zero gravity today in space, after all), nor is there any reason to suppose that the door mechanism is not still being powered and not in fact relying upon gravity for its closure. Is there a line in the episode that indicates gravity is responsible? If not, then this entry makes no sense as an "error" and ought to be removed entirely. Somebody probably should do that.

Continuity

 * Candace shows that she can barely skate. ("Crack That Whip")
 * Candace's record of 50 patches was mentioned and seen in a magazine ("Fireside Girl Jamboree").
 * Doofenshmirtz built a spaceship and wore his spacesuit ("Out to Launch").
 * The Giant baby head makes another appearance.
 * Ferb isn't given a chance to speak again ("Get That Bigfoot Outa My Face!", Ready for the Bettys", "Undercover Carl", "Nerds of a Feather").
 * Once again Isabella is jealous, but this time it is not about Phineas ("That Sinking Feeling", "The Chronicles of Meap").
 * Once again, a ball pit is seen. ("Vanessassary Roughness").
 * Candace's line to Melissa about "letting Isabella let her fall" is similar to her line in Traffic Cam Caper, "What, and let you fall?".
 * This is the fifth time Phineas says 'Whatcha doin'?'. The previous ones were ("I Scream, You Scream", "At the Car Wash", "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" and "That Sinking Feeling")
 * Third time Perry goes into space ("Out to Launch", "Undercover Carl").
 * Perry is seen wearing the same space suit from "Undercover Carl".
 * Second time Dr. Doofenshmirtz is in space. "Out to Launch"

Allusions

 * The title is a parody of a famous Mazola Margarine commercial in which a Native American states "You call it corn, we call it maize."
 * Indiana Jones - When Ferb switches the key with a bag of sand, it is similar to the famous scene from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
 * Star Wars - Candace, Isabella, and Melissa swinging from one platform to another is similar to the scene where Luke and Princess Leia swing across a pit in the Death Star.
 * The Legend of Zelda - When Baljeet is talking right before the song starts, the triangle behind him looks very similar to the Triforce in the Legend of Zelda series, which is usually maze/puzzle themed.
 * Seinfeld - Doofenshmirtz claims that the people at the Leaning Tower of Pisa were adamant about saying "No Pizza For You." This is very similar to a line frequently spoken by the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld.
 * Scooby Doo - When Candace, Isabella and Melissa running through maze in a hallway is similar to a Scooby Doo-style chase.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford
 * Meira Blinkoff as Melissa


 * designates a character that did not appear in this episode