| "Mazes should be big and fun and exciting!" — Phineas[src] |
The Giant Maze is a labyrinth built by Phineas and Ferb as a way of having fun and difficult challenges to solve.
History[]
Phineas is bummed about the lack of a challenge in cereal puzzles. To make it up for that, he and Ferb decide to create their own exciting maze. They soon have it ready for a run, captivating Baljeet and Buford, who show up at that moment. Before the boys enter the structure, Isabella comes by with a Lil' Spark named Melissa, and Candace confronts her brothers about their plans for the day, accidentally falling back and activating the elevator to the maze.
Inside, Phineas explains the labyrinth's inner workings to the group, subsequently running off with the other boys. As the girls prepare to take on the challenge, Melissa recognizes Candace from a previous endeavor, causing the latter to forcibly take the lead in an attempt to impress the youngling. Everyone starts to go through the maze, facing diverse obstacles to continue progressing.
Amidst their path, the boys have a brain teaser solved by Buford in an unorthodox manner. Meanwhile, the girls traverse through a tightrope, with Melissa nearly falling off due to Candace's recklessness. Afterwards, the three come across a pit, in which Candace ends up throwing their way of crossing. Desperate, she concedes Isabella's skills, and lets the scouts use her roller-skates to hit a lever, opening the exit for them. In the end, the maze rolls out before Linda can see it, landing the boy team next to a cliff ("We Call it Maze").
Design[]
The Giant Maze is a structure with three circular yellow floors with a multicolored question mark pattern, sustained by a grey cylindrical base. Its exterior contains multiple slides and tubes, linking the stories with one another. Its interior is comprised of several randomly generated rooms interconnected by regular maze sections.
Mechanics[]
The Giant Maze functions on a computer system that takes a list of puzzles and brain teasers as its input, randomly shuffling and loading them into the rooms so that the course is unpredictable. Challenges include finding the key in a ballpit, jumping through springs, blowing a toy boat to hit a target, playing chess, dunking a basketball, safely grabbing a treasure key, putting together a jigsaw door, rolling a ball into a bullseye ring, piecing a sliding lock puzzle, solving a counting problem, walking along a tightrope, and crossing a pit.
Background Information[]
- The inspiration for the Giant Maze comes from a cereal called Korny the Cornflake, a parody of typical brands. Its name is a play on its base ingredient and its boring nature.
- According to Phineas, the reason for the elevator being unidirectional is to force the players to go through the maze instead of taking the easy way out.
- As the competition begins, Phineas says, "first one out is the smartest rat in the lab". This is a variation of the idiom "last one there is a rotten egg!".
- While navigating with the girls, Candace misnames the Fireside Girls twice, first as "Forest Fire Girls" and later as "Firefighter Girl".
- A running gag within the maze is Candace taking one direction in a bifurcation, only to return to the same point from the opposite side.
- When the treasure key has to be switched with a bag of sand, the scenario is reminiscent to that of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with Ferb further adding to that by wearing a Indiana Jones outfit.
- A second Indiana Jones reference is present during the girls' swinging moment, wherein the background music is based on "The Raiders March".
- The boys have to tackle a "How many jellybeans in the jar?" question in their path.
- While working out the math, Phineas states that he uses the radius in inches and pi as 22/7, the latter being a common rational approximation of the number.
- Not wanting to wait for calculations, Buford eats all of the jellybeans and types "0", successfully answering the quiz. To that, Baljeet comments on how the work is not shown, referring to the requirement in math exams. Buford then says that he will show it in twenty minutes, alluding to the process of digestion.
- Based on Candace's experiment, it takes three seconds for the rope to fall to the ground, meaning that the pit is about 44.13 meters (144.78 feet) deep going by the falling height equation. This is the same depth of the cliff in which the maze falls off of at the end, as it takes the same amount of time to reach the bottom.
- The Giant Maze is seen in the montage of clips used by Buford in his video dedicated to Phineas ("Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama!").
Appearances[]
- "We Call it Maze" (First appearance)
- "Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama!"
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