The Remains of the Platypus

Craziness has ensued in Danville and no one has any idea what’s going on. The wackiness unfolds when Phineas and Ferb create Cheesetopia, Doofenshmirtz Brainwashed Perry into thinking that he Doof's butler with his Butler-inator, and Carl is trapped by Doof while in a squirrel costume. All is explained, in an episode of Phineas and Ferb that starts at the end and works its way back to the beginning.

Episode Summary

It's evening at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated as Dr. Doofenshmirtz is in his underpants rejoicing that his goal of conquering the Tri-State Area would finally be achieved while Perry the Playtypus as Doof's butler is powering Doof's inator on a hamster wheel in a butler suit willingly. As he celebrates a strange musical/break-dancing group known as Little Saul and the Breakingham Palace Crew arrives in a box-shaped transportation machine and begins to start a party. Linda steps into the lair/apartment to return Perry's fedora (which she has apparently found) to Carl, who is wearing a squirrel costume and trapped in a cage. As soon as the task is finished and Linda is out of the apartment and in the hallway in disbelief at what she had just seen, she gets a phone call from Candace, who claims that the cheese-themed amusement park is still there while the people who had been enjoying it are being chased out by a freakishly swollen man.

Five minutes earlier, Major Monogram has won a cheese-eating contest and his body has swollen immensely from an allergic reaction. People in the cheese-themed amusement park start to run from him in panic while Candace, who is in the midst of trying to convince Linda to come home over the phone, looks onward in puzzlement at what happened to him.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Carl attempts to notify Major Monogram of Perry defecting to Dr. Doofenshmirtz, but in vain, as the Major is occupied enjoying himself in a cheese-themed amusement park. Much to Carl's distress, Major Monogram competes in a cheese-eating contest and begins to swell up rapidly from an allergic reaction as he eats block after block of cheese. His wrist communicator is subsequently snatched away by Doofenshmirtz, who insults him, then reveals a scheme of his involving the use of a heat-ray to vaporize anything and everything in the city he chooses to. He tears off his clothes in celebration (much to Carl's disgust) and has the weapon aimed at the beach, but is puzzled to discover the beach is completely desolate.

Twenty five minutes earlier, scores of people from across Danville come for the unveiling of Phineas and Ferb's latest project; a gargantuan amusement park constructed entirely out of cheese, dubbed "Cheesetopia". Major Monogram himself participates in the festivity and is at awe at the sheer quantity of cheese surrounding him. When Isabella announces that a cheese-eating contest is about to begin, he joins in with excitement, completely ignoring Carl's distress calls.

Twenty minutes prior to that, Carl, in a squirrel suit, is scaling the facade of Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated in the midst of trying to return Perry's fedora and is just behind the balcony when he loses grip of the head ornament. The fedora drifts around the city in the wind before coming to rest at the feet of Linda, who is casually strolling the streets downtown. She examines it, calibrating where it had come from then sets off to return it. Carl puts his loss behind and climbs into Doofenshmirtz' lair/apartment. Shortly thereafter, he is caught and incarcerated in a cage. Noticing Perry serving the evil scientist as a butler, Carl is at disbelief that a devoted agent such as him would defect as easily as he did.

Another twenty-five minutes earlier, Doofenshmirtz is being catered to by Perry as a butler when he finds the platypus' fedora. He scrutinizes it for a moment with a sense of sentimentality of their now-resolved conflict before curtly tossing it out. It is carried to a squirrel convention by the atmospheric current where it is found by Carl, who is at the time speaking with fellow squirrel enthusiasts. Upon finding the hat, Carl contacts Major Monogram, who guesses that Perry is in trouble and instructs Carl to investigate. The Major himself is planning to go to "Cheesetopia" and so is unavailable to take any action.

Just over six hours earlier, that morning, Candace is occupied talking with Stacy over her cellphone about how she misspelled "LOL" as "LOP" when she catches a whiff of cheese. Knowing that only her brothers can be responsible for it, she checks the backyard from her window, immediately seeing them working with a large quantity of cheese. Perry promptly passes her window in his hover car and startles her.

The last delivery of cheese needed arrives at the Flynn-Fletcher house and Phineas assigns the group of Ferb, Baljeet, Buford, Isabella and the Fireside Girls to the respective tasks of building the foundation of the amusement park, continuing to voice various cheese puns, and spreading the news of the amusement park's unveiling.

Ten minutes earlier, the kids are laughing at Buford's cheese pun jokes when they notice that Perry is gone. Perry, now in his secret agent phase, is in his hideout where Major Monogram, who is being forced to use basic filming methods due to Carl's absence informs him that Dr. Doofenshmirtz had recently purchased a silver tray, a small tuxedo, and a pair of white gloves. The platypus promptly sets off to foil his nemesis before Major Monogram notices the smell of cheese.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Phineas accepts Buford's idea of using cheese as his building material and praises his cheese puns. At the same time, Isabella wonders what had happened to their previous invention.

Five minutes earlier, Candace leads Linda into the backyard where a box-shaped rocket transportation device in which "Little Saul and the Breakingham Palace crew" allegedly are. As she knocks on the box, it lifts off the ground and flies off before Linda can see it. Shortly thereafter, Phineas arrives, explaining to his friends that he and Ferb had built a "celebration-seeking rocket" containing a musical/break-dancing group to add life to all parties to which it is guided. As he nears where it had been standing, he notices that it's gone and wonders where it went, prompting Candace to remark on how he's feeling right now being comparable to the disappointment and regret she herself would feel at the end of every day.

Back to the time of day during which the episode started, Doofenshmirtz orders his new butler Perry to hand out drinks to the growing party. When he gets to Carl the intern hands him his fedora (which Linda had returned to him not long earlier) in a vain effort trying to remind him of his devotion to his career, inadvertently spilling a glass of grape juice on his tuxedo in the process. The butler ignores Carl's pleas with no recollection of his past life and heads to the bathroom to clean off his uniform.

As he tries to clean the stain off his uniform in the bathroom, he notices writing on his chest, in the mirror, reading "I fight evil". Upon noticing it he instantly remembers his past life and for what reason he was here.

Earlier in the day Doofenshmirtz had subdued him and prepared to enslave the platypus as his butler using his "Butler-Inator". The machine worked as planned and did as it was intended to do, however, the platypus managed to write the mirrored phrase into his chest with a pen before the machine was finished with him.

The realization made, he retains his fedora from Carl and attacks Doofenshmirtz, taking the evil scientist by shock at how he managed to redeem himself. He pushes Doofenshmirtz into the activation button for the "Vaporizer-Inator" heat ray he'd been intending to use to dominate the Tri-State Area, causing it to fire a bright ray in the direction of Cheesetopia.

Candace ushers Linda into the backyard to see the cheese-themed amusement park, but fails to expose it, as the entire park is vaporized by the ray before her mother can see it.

Perry destroys the Vaporizer-Inator by hitting it with a chair. The joy level in the party subsequently drops and Little Saul and the Breakingham palace departs quickly in their box-shaped rocket-transport vehicle. With the spirit of the party gone, the guests desert the lair and Doofenshmirtz is left alone with nothing to do but to curse at his nemesis and Carl.

Phineas is puzzled at how an immensely swollen man alone was able to drive everyone in Cheesetopia away and leave the amusement park completely empty. Further to his bewilderment, he realizes the cheese-themed amusement park has vanished completely. Buford remarks this as "Swiss-picious", thus achieving a pre-set goal of managing 100 cheese-related puns in a day.

Transcript

Read the transcript of The Remains of the Platypus.

Songs

• "Cheesetopia"
• "Perry's Hat"
• "My Wettest Friend" (Instrumental)

End Credits

First verse of "Cheesetopia".

Gallery

View the image gallery for "The Remains of the Platypus".

Running Gags

The "Too Young" Line

None.

Ferb's Line

He also audibly laughs when Buford was saying his cheese-puns.

What'cha doin'?

None

Hey, where's Perry?

Oh, there you are, Perry

Perry's entrance to his lair

None.

Evil Jingle

Doofenshmirtz in his underwear!

Memorable Quotes

Background Information

• If one listens closely, Ferb's laugh can actually be heard.

Production Information

• Clips from the episode were first shown on an episode of Disney 365. Some images of this episode were seen in a Spanish promo from January 2012.
• This is the second-longest an episode (along with "Escape from Phineas Tower") that has had its segments aired separately.
• This is the first and only episode Zac Moncrief directed in Season 3, and the third one he wrote and storyboarded. ("Gaming the System", Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension).
• This is the last episode directed by Zac Moncrief.
• This episode was aired on Disney Channel on Demand on February 17, 2012.

International Premieres

• December 9, 2011 (Disney Channel Australia)
• February 12, 2012 (Disney XD Netherlands)
• March 3, 2012 (Disney XD Canada)
• March 9, 2012 (Family Channel)
• April 7, 2012 (Disney Channel India)
• May 1, 2012 (Disney Channel Portugal and Spain)
• May 12, 2012 (Disney Channel Asia)
• May 18, 2012 (Disney Channel Scandinavia)
• May 26, 2012 (13 Channel Chile)
• August 12, 2012 (Disney Channel Latin American and Brazil)
• December 2, 2012 (Disney XD Latin America)

Errors

• Perry's hat changes sizes throughout the episode. Once it is shown to be the size of a hand, and another part is shown when his hat is larger.
• When Perry fights Doofenshmirtz, the text that he wrote on his chest disappears.
• Phineas refers to his statement "Dump it there like a caged guy in a squirrel costume," as a metaphor, rather than a simile. Though a simile can be considered to be a type of metaphor.
  • The same thing goes for the above when Doofenshmirtz said "Well, it looks like fate has dumped our mysterious guest like an immense pile of assorted cheeses, onto the lawn of my evil lab. It's a strange metaphor, but I stand by it."
• When Carl contacts Major Monogram after finding Agent P's hat, the background behind Monogram changes from the Agency, to triangles, and back again.
• While Agent P was Doofenshmirtz's butler he razors his legs, but when he rips his clothes off, his legs are hairy again.
• When Carl contacts Major Monogram at the cheese eating contest, the view from Carl's wrist communicator is from Monogram's left hand, but when the scene changes to Major Monogram he is not wearing his wrist communicator (on either hand).
• When Major Monogram says that Carl's zipper is totally visible, this is the only time the zipper is visible.
• Technically, a solid object turning into gas is not vaporization, but it is sublimation.
• Before Linda calls Candace, Candace has sleeves.
• At the end when the kids return to the backyard, they are lit like its daytime but when Buford says "And scene" Phineas and Ferb are lit like its dark but not Buford, Baljeet and Isabella.
• Linda should've seen Cheese-topia from the driveway or the front yard.
  • The same can be said for several of the boys' inventions, so perhaps Linda just isn't very observant or she has plausible deniability, since her VA personally felt Linda knew what was going on the whole time.
• From the point where Candace drags Linda to the gate to when Cheese-topia gets vaporized, it appears for Linda to take several seconds for her to get to the gate even if it's only a few feet away from her car, unless she was being dragged to the gate at the same time as Cheese-topia got vaporized or after it got vaporized, but the scenes were shown at different times for obvious reasons.
• When Cheese-topia got vaporized, there should've been a scorch mark on the grass where it stood.

Continuity

• Adyson mentioned that they are giving fliers again. ("The Lemonade Stand")

Allusions

• Seinfeld - This is the same as the famous reverse Seinfeld episode.
• The Remains of the Day - The title is a pun on this Academy Award-nominated 1993 drama. Set in 1950s England, the said film is told in a series of flashbacks to WWII, and features a butler (like Perry in this episode) as the main character.
• Forrest Gump - During "Perry's Hat", as Perry's fedora is drifting around the city in the atmospheric current, Forrest can briefly be seen sitting at a bus stop as an arriving bus pulls into the curb. Also, the song is obviously a reference to the feather scene.
• Star Tours, Star Tours: the Adventures Continues - "Be the Cheese" is a motion simulator much like these two in Disneyland, Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris.
• When Doofenshmirtz rips off his clothes to expose his underwear, he says that "it's going to get hot in here", referencing a song of the same name by R&B/rapper Nelly.
• This is Spinal Tap - Doof says the party has been kicked up to eleven.
• Memento - The back to front nature of the episode, along with the writing on the amnesiac Perry's chest, are both reminiscent of the movie Memento, which is shown in reverse order and features an amnesiac main character with messages tattooed all over himself. In addition, Perry the butler is briefly seen shaving Doofenshmirtz's left leg, referencing the note Leonard leaves himself, telling him to shave his left thigh.
• Super Mario Bros. 3/Super Mario 3D Land - Carl's suit resembles the Tanooki Suit from the Mario series.

Trivia

• The title card for this episode is at first shown mirrored before flipping horizontally to reveal the standard format of the title, most likely to represent the back-to-front format of the episode.
• It is revealed that Major Monogram is allergic to cheese, in spite of that he loves eating it. He is the third character shown to be allergic to dairy products. The first two were Candace and Doofenshmirtz ("Candace Loses Her Head" and "I Scream, You Scream").
• Carl apparently goes to squirrel conventions.
• Dr. Doofenshmirtz is one of the few characters to be shown in underwear (Baljeet, Buford, Jeremy, Agent P, Norm, Irving, Phineas, and Ferb).
• This is the first time Major Monogram takes part in one of the boys' activities.
• If all reverse time skips are added up, the total amount of time is 8 hours and 3 minutes.
• First time that Carl has been captured by Doofenshmirtz.
• This is the second time that an episode doesn't start from the beginning. (Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension)
• Second time Doofenshmirtz attempts to evaporate something ("De Plane! De Plane!")
• This is the tenth overall episode we see Doofenshmirtz in his underwear. ("Lights, Candace, Action!", "Tip of the Day", "Bubble Boys", "Phineas and Ferb Hawaiian Vacation", "Nerds of a Feather", "Run, Candace, Run", "My Fair Goalie", "Bullseye!", "Monster from the Id")
• This is the third episode that opens at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated. ("Hail Doofania!", "A Real Boy")
• This is the second episode that uses the Evil Jingle for opening music. ("Hail Doofania!")
• Major Monogram wears normal clothes again. ("Undercover Carl")
• Perry wears clothes again. ("Vanessassary Roughness", "Undercover Carl", "She's the Mayor", "Skiddley Whiffers", "Monster from the Id")
• Agent T (Turkey) is mentioned again. ("Traffic Cam Caper")
• Ninth time Candace isn't seen turning to see that the Big Idea is gone. ("Flop Starz", "I Scream, You Scream", "The Flying Fishmonger", "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!", "Backyard Aquarium", "Thaddeus and Thor", "The Doof Side of the Moon", "Invasion of the Ferb Snatchers")
• Buford is trying to be clever with word play again. ("De Plane! De Plane!", "Gi-Ants")
  • However, this is the first time his word play was funny (no one laughed at the others).
• Third time Phineas and Ferb build something early in the morning. ("Don't Even Blink", "Phineas and Ferb: Summer Belongs to You!")
• Third time Phineas wonders where their creation went. ("Don't Even Blink", "No More Bunny Business")
• This is the second time Dr. Doofenshmirtz tries to make Perry his minion. ("Day of the Living Gelatin")
  • However, unlike the first time, Doofenshmirtz succeeds in making him his minion this time.
• Second time someone says, "And.....scene", breaking the fourth wall. First time is Doofenshmirtz in "The Chronicles of Meap".
• Another fourth wall break occurs when Doofenshmirtz says that he's finally an evil genius, and turns to the camera and says "For realsies this time."
• Third time Carl goes on a mission. ("Swiss Family Phineas", "Undercover Carl")
• The instrumental of My Wettest Friend can be heard during the montage showing Perry acting as Doofenshmirtz's butler.
• Sixth time Doofenshmirtz can recognize Perry without his hat ("I Scream, You Scream", "Get That Bigfoot Outa My Face!", "It's About Time!", "Oil on Candace", "Skiddley Whiffers").
• Third time Perry is dressed as someone else ("Does This Duckbill Make Me Look Fat?","Vanessassary Roughness")
• Candace doesn't interact with Phineas and Ferb when they build Cheese-topia, but she does when they made the celebration seeking rocket for Little Saul and the Breakingham Palace crew.
• Candace's last line in the episode echos a line she said in "Journey to the Center of Candace".
• Isabella provides feedback that Cheese-topia was just here instead of Candace.
• Mathematically, between when Phineas and friends created the Li'l Saul and the Breakingham Palace crew and Doofenshmirtz's magnitude 11 party is roughly 8 hours.
• Fifth time Candace sees Perry as a secret agent in real life ("The Ballad of Badbeard", "Leave the Busting to Us!", "Bowl-R-Ama Drama", "Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension").
  • However, this is the first time Candace sees Agent P without Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
• Third time Candace sees Monogram ("The Ballad of Badbeard", "Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension").

Cast

• Vincent Martella as Phineas
• Ashley Tisdale as Candace
• Thomas Sangster as Ferb
• Caroline Rhea as Mom
• Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
• Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
• Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram, Narrator
• Richard O'Brien as Dad
• Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
• Alyson Stoner as Isabella
• Bobby Gaylor as Buford
• Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet
• Madison Pettis as Adyson
• Isabella Murad as Milly ♣
• Isabella Acres as Katie ♣
• Ariel Winter as Gretchen ♣
• Diamond White as Holly ♣
• Tiffany Espensen as Ginger ♣
• Additional voices: Kevin Michael Richardson, Tom Kenny, Tyler Mann

♣ designates a character that appears but has no lines

• Eric Bauza as Li'l Saul (listed in credits as "Additional Voices")
• Additional voices: April Stewart, Jane Carr, Beth Littleford, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Todd Stashwick, Madison Pettis

References