14th Mar 202529th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

The Suite Life Movie (2011)

BACKGROUND

Surprisingly, in 2011, Disney Channel aired three Disney Channel Original Movies all based on Disney Channel television series.

This isn’t anything new for Disney Channel as they’ve made DCOMs based on their series since the 2000s, with The Even Stevens Movie (2003) being one of the first, and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009) being the most recent one before 2011.

Disney Channel’s first DCOM of 2011 was The Suite Life Movie, in a year that saw six other brand new DCOMs being released on the channel, including the High School Musical spin-off Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure; Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension; and Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas!

The Suite Life franchise was a popular and successful commodity for Disney Channel, having first premiered as The Suite Life of Zack & Cody in 2005. The never-ending, always extreme, antics of two twin boys running around a posh hotel, where they lived thanks to the fact their mother happened to be the hotel’s singer, kept viewers interested, to the point that Zack and Cody earned themselves a spin-off series, The Suite Life on Deck, which premiered in 2008, pretty much straight after the original show ended. This time, their craziness was moved to a cruise ship where the twins would be attending “school at sea”.

I really liked The Suite Life of Zack & Cody when it first came to Disney Channel. It was not my absolute favourite series but I think I watched every episode of the original show. It was always on and the mid-2000s was prime Disney Channel viewing time for me. However, when The Suite Life on Deck came about, I just didn’t like it. Maybe it was the fact all the original characters weren’t there, or because I’m not a fan of cruise ships. Something just wasn’t right, so I only watched a few episodes of that series, normally if I was bored and there was nothing else on. I can’t remember much of it at all.

Because of this lack of interest in The Suite Life on Deck, plus by 2011, I was starting to move away from Disney Channel as my favourite series ended and stars departed, I never even knew The Suite Life Movie existed. After watching it for the first time this week, I am pleased to say… I didn’t miss out on anything.

The whole premise of The Suite Life Movie is just odd, with a science-fiction theme and a weird evil scientist plot that the twins get mixed up in. I did not enjoy watching it and its only redeeming factors were: 1) Mr. Moseby was still there, even if only for a few scenes but on top form as usual; 2) the fact one of the actors had been in Sabrina the Teenage Witch; and 3) it was less than 90 minutes long.

PLOT

The Suite Life Movie opens on board the SS Tipton, where Zack and Cody have been living and going to school for the past couple of years. Cody is busy preparing a special dinner for his girlfriend Bailey on one of the cruise ship’s decks. He clearly has something important to say to her, because he has written her a letter.

But as usual, Cody’s twin brother Zack shows up, with their friend, Woody, to mess with Cody’s plan. It turns out Cody needs to tell Bailey that he’s going to be doing an internship at a biology centre over spring break, something he hopes will lead to a scholarship to Yale University. Zack says he’ll break the news to Bailey in exchange for Cody giving him the car that Cody was given by their parents for college. Cody refuses and the two fight over the letter for Bailey. It is dropped, seemingly into the ocean. Unbeknownst to the boys though, the letter is caught by the wind and lands underneath a chair on deck.

That evening, Cody waits for the right time to tell Bailey about his internship, however, she continues to talk about all the plans and places they’ll go together over spring break, this being their last spring break before college. Just as Cody finds a moment to tell Bailey, Zack shows up, dangling alongside them in a life ring. Zack then proceeds to bluntly tell Bailey that Cody won’t be around for spring break because of his internship. Bailey is furious with Cody for ditching her wonderful spring break plans for work. She storms off before Cody can explain that he has to do this to get into Yale.

The next day, Mr. Moseby takes Cody to the Biology Reserve so he can begin his internship and meet his supervisor. However, Zack also tags along, as does London Tipton, the ditzy hotel heiress whose father owns the cruise ship. London mostly just wants to look at the dolphins, which she believes are fish, not mammals, because “they don’t have any humps”. This is a recurring joke throughout the movie… The important thing to notice here is that London eats some of the food meant for the dolphins and freaks out, leaving the area.

Moseby, Cody, and Zack go inside the centre where they meet Dr. Donald Spaulding. Dr. Spaulding shows them to his lab where he talks to Cody. He says that he was very impressed with Cody’s essay on twins, saying he has a twin brother too. Dr. Spaulding then tells Cody about his current research. Spaulding believes that, using a rare fruit, telepathy will be possible between dolphins and humans, something that Cody finds fascinating. Mr. Moseby realises that Zack is missing and goes to look for him. It turns out Zack has followed a pretty lab technician, Nellie, through an unauthorised area, where he proceeds to tell her that he is incredibly smart and can mostly definitely pilot that submersible nearby. Zack gets inside the submersible and descends into the dolphin tank.

Since Cody and Dr. Spaulding are looking right into that tank from the lab, they soon spot Zack messing about in there, but instead of waiting for security or one of the scientists to get Zack out of the submersible, Cody decides to get into the other submersible and follow him through the tank, shouting at him for ruining his first day on the internship. The two fight in their boats as Cody tries to get Zack to return to the surface but in doing so, one of their boats breaks the glass of the seawall. Both eject from the boats before they are sucked out into the ocean. Needless to say, this incident causes Cody to be fired from his internship. It also looks like this wasn’t an accident; a janitor and Nellie seem to have planned this…

Back on the cruise ship, Cody wallows in self-pity, since he’s lost his internship and Bailey still won’t talk to him. Luckily, Zack brings Dr. Spaulding to him, who tells Cody that he won’t be working for him anymore but that Dr. Olsen would love to have Cody’s assistance on a new project, something called the Gemini Project, which is all about twins. But that does mean that both Zack and Cody will have to attend. They both agree to go.

The twins later arrive at the Gemini Project, a facility located by a lake, where an old sawmill sits abandoned opposite. The facility is full of twins wandering about the area, looking happy. Zack and Cody are met by Dr. Olsen who takes them to his basement lab. Here, he tells them that he plans to use the same rare fruit that Dr. Spaulding is using on his dolphin research on twins instead, believing that it can grow empathy within humans, meaning that there will be less conflict in the world. They are then shown the Mind Transference Facilitator, which is where Zack and Cody will have their first tests. Zack is strapped to the machine and told to look at the screen. Different names of colours come up on the screen, but the words may be in a different colour. Zack must correctly identify the word, not the colour of it – we all know this game, right? Zack, not being as smart as Cody, plus the fact Cody keeps giving him an electric shock every time he gets the answer wrong, fails this test, and the two fight, proving that Dr. Olsen has two perfect research subjects.

Meanwhile, Bailey is walking around the city with London and Woody, debating how she should deal with the “Cody situation”. Should she call him? Should she ignore his calls? In the end, Cody stops calling her – because his phone was taken from him at the Gemini Project because radiation affects the delicate machinery – so Bailey deletes his number. London is also exhibiting some strange behaviour, seemingly being able to hear what different marine creatures are “saying”. She talks to a dolphin about her outfit, and then hears the escape plan of a crate of crabs in the market, for example. Weird.

Back at the Gemini Project, Zack and Cody eat lunch with some other twins on the project, including Nellie, that “assistant” from Dr. Spaulding’s lab, and her twin sister Kellie. The girls explain how all twins must get along and be nice and kind to each other because that’s just the way it should be, which is completely at odds with Zack and Cody’s dynamic, where they fight about everything and anything! At lunch, they are fed this rare fruit for the first time and then led out to take part in some sports tasks. This involves a high ropes course, complete with nets, bridges, and zip wires. Cody is already nervous since he isn’t the most athletic of people, but the two soon notice that all the twins are moving perfectly in sync. That’s not exactly the case for Zack and Cody, although they do soon notice that each of them is feeling the same physical pain that the other is feeling, a sign that the fruit is working on them. Dr. Olsen gets them to do the colour-word test again and sure enough, when Zack is shocked, Cody feels it too. Dr. Olsen is delighted with their progress.

Zack starts to think this place is too weird and wants to leave. Cody gets angry at him for ruining things for him yet again. Zack then talks to Nellie who convinces Zack to stay, saying that “The Merge” will fix everything. Zack doesn’t know what that means but agrees to stay at the Gemini Project anyway. Just as Cody is about to be removed from the project by Dr. Olsen, as one twin is no use to him, Zack returns and the two are moved onto Stage 2. They are given the fruit to eat again and soon start to experience the other one’s feelings. This leads to a heart-to-heart between the boys as they learn something new about each other, like how Cody feels like Zack has messed up his chances of going to Yale, and how Zack wants Cody’s car so he can go and find himself whilst everyone else is at college. But then, they overhear Dr. Olsen talking about “The Merge” and how they must enact it soon, even though it will mean that Cody “loses his brain”. Cody and Zack are horrified by this, with Zack wanting to leave, but Cody wanting to save all the other twins.

The two sneak into Dr. Olsen’s lab where they manage to access his computer. On it, they discover the full programme of the Gemini Project. Stage 1 involves matching physical sensations; Stage 2 is about emotional feelings; and Stage 3 is The Merge, which sees the twins literally merge to become one person. The twins then discover a Stage 4, which will allow the merged twins to be controlled. Dr. Olsen discovers Zack and Cody in his lab and know his grand scheme has been uncovered. But he also sees that, because Zack continued to eat the fruit, the two have begun a “half-merge”, where Zack finishes Cody’s sentences and the two have a level of telepathy between them. Dr. Olsen unveils a beacon which begins to control the other twins and he orders them to capture Zack and Cody. Zack and Cody try everything to get away from them, even going on a zip wire across the lake to the abandoned sawmill, but they are chased every step of the way. Just when they think they’ve gotten away, by jumping into the lake, they find themselves surrounded….

Back on the cruise ship, Mr. Moseby has discovered Cody’s letter to Bailey on deck and gives it to her. Bailey reads it and learns that Cody’s internship was important to him because it would give him the chance to go to Yale. He was torn between getting into the “school of his dreams” and spending time with the “girl of his dreams”. Bailey is touched by this and realises she’s been selfish about spring break – uh, no duh. Bailey has to fix things with Cody. However, when Bailey, London, and Woody speak to Dr. Spaulding, he says that Cody was fired from the project and banned from the site. He hasn’t seen them since. London then speaks to a dolphin who says to her that the twins are about fifty miles from here. Dr. Spaulding thinks the boys are in trouble. Bailey calls Mr. Moseby to tell him Zack and Cody are in danger, and the group set off to the Gemini Project site.

When they arrive, they find they are too late. Zack and Cody are strapped to a machine with a forcefield protecting them from outside interference. Dr. Spaulding confronts Dr. Olsen, who is revealed to be Dr. Spaulding’s twin, Ronald – gasp! He’s been wearing a mask this whole time! And he was the one to invite the boys to the Gemini Project, not Dr. Donald Spaulding! Ronald had been spying on the boys as he knew they were vital to his research. Ronald then turns on the machine and The Merge begins. The twins’ souls are released; however, the souls fight each other. Bailey realises this is causing The Merge to fail so encourages them to fight more. This fighting creates a power surge and when Cody taunts Zack about their parents’ car, Zack’s reaction causes the machine to explode. The Gemini Project is over once and for all, freeing the other twins from Ronald’s control. Cody then has an idea to stop Ronald from restarting the project. He hands both Donald and Ronald some of the fruit. After eating it, they both begin to realise how the other has felt their whole life and discover that they were both jealous of each other. But there’s no time for reconciliation because Moseby is here with the police who promptly arrest Ronald / Dr. Olsen. Zack and Cody realise that they actually make a great team – if they work together.

Back on the ship, Bailey and Cody are back together and have had a great spring break. It’s also revealed that Cody did give Zack the car to use, however, as he parks it in the shipping area as he returns to the ship, the car is crushed by a huge crate. Zack looks round in horror to see that the car he so desperately wanted is destroyed. London is happy though; that crate is full of her summer clothes!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Cody Martin has always been the studious, responsible twin, and that is still the case in The Suite Life Movie. Cody is making decisions about college, his dream college being Yale. Cody believes that doing the internship at Dr. Spaulding’s lab will help him get a scholarship to go there, but that doesn’t work out. When Cody gets another opportunity to complete an internship, this time with Dr. Olsen, he is eager to get going, wanting to be part of a major scientific breakthrough, and since he is a twin and not a dolphin, he’ll actually be an integral part of the research there. Cody is completely dedicated to the Gemini Project, but when it is revealed that this project is a ruse for an evil scheme, instead of just leaving, he wants to help save the other twins. To do that, he needs that twin brother who he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with, but who has always been beside him, to help.

Cody Martin was played by Cole Sprouse throughout The Suite Life franchise. Alongside his twin brother, the two both played Julian McGrath in the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy (1999). During their time on Disney Channel, the two also appeared in the movie A Modern Twain Story: The Prince and the Pauper (2007) where Cole played Eddie Tudor. Since the end of The Suite Life, Cole Sprouse was part of the cast of Riverdale (2017-23), where he played Forsythe “Jughead” Jones III throughout the show’s run, and starred as Walt in the HBO Max movie Moonshot (2022) alongside Lana Condor.

Zack Martin is the chaotic, disorganised twin, usually the one who is the cause of all the problems that the twins get themselves in. Zack isn’t looking at going to college, so he is still feeling quite carefree about life, not stressing himself about internships and good grades. However, we do learn that Zack is feeling quite uncertain about his future, not knowing what he wants to do, or who he wants to be. Even at the Gemini Project, Zack is more bothered about girls than scientific research, soon wanting to quit but he knows he can’t because if he does leave, then he has ruined two internships for Cody in just a few days! When things go wrong for them at the facility, Zack and Cody end up working together to stop Dr. Olsen’s evil plan, finding that they can be a good team, despite their different personalities.

Zack Martin was played by Dylan Sprouse throughout The Suite Life franchise. Alongside his twin brother, Cole, Dylan played the part of Tom Canty in A Modern Twain Story: The Prince and the Pauper. Since Disney, Dylan has been cast in movies such as After We Collided (2020), the second instalment in the After film series, where he played Trevor; and Beautiful Disaster (2023), where he was cast as Travis Maddox. He reprised this role in the film’s sequel Beautiful Wedding (2024).

The Gemini Project is run by Dr. Olsen, who is actually Dr. Spaulding’s twin, Ronald. Dr. Olsen covers his identity with a mask through much of the movie, only revealing his true self at the very end. Dr. Olsen initially seems dedicated to his research and he gets on with Cody as they bond over their love of science. Nothing seems to be strange about Dr. Olsen until the boys overhear him talking about wanting to “merge” the twins. Then they know something is up, but nothing could have prepared them for getting mixed up in an evil plan to control the whole world! It turns out Dr. Olsen only wanted to do this because of childhood jealous that he felt towards his brother. Once they work that out, thanks to the weird fruit, Dr. Olsen happily goes off to jail…

Dr. Olsen – perhaps named after two of the most famous twins in the world, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen – was played by Matthew Glave. Glave appeared in the recurring role of Dr. Dale Edson on ER (1994-2009) in its earlier seasons. More recently, Glave portrayed Chuck Yeager in the movie First Man (2018). He was also cast as Coach Tommy Bowden in the Disney+ film Safety (2020) and has appeared as Oscar Hutchinson in the ABC series The Rookie (2018-present).

Dr. Spaulding is a scientist like his brother, and he came up with the initial research of using this rare fruit to create a telepathic connection, except in Dr. Spaulding’s case, he wants to use this to allow dolphins to communicate with humans. Dr. Olsen stole this research to use on twins with seemingly decent results, however, Dr. Spaulding had not reached a breakthrough with his, until London Tipton shows up, being able to speak to dolphins, thanks to that tiny piece of fruit she mistakenly ate! After this revelation from the dolphin of where the twins are, Dr. Spaulding seems to instantly know that his twin is working on some evil scheme and using Zack and Cody to implement it. Dr. Spaulding locates him and manages to briefly reconcile with his estranged brother before he is arrested.

John Ducey was cast as Dr. Donald Spaulding – and Dr. Ronald Spaulding, when Dr. Olsen lifts his mask. Ducey already had some history with Disney Channel prior to The Suite Life Movie as he was cast as Tom Lucas, the father in Jonas (2009-10), which, obviously, starred the Jonas Brothers. For any fans of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003), you should also recognise Ducey from Season 7 of the programme, as he played Leonard, one of Sabrina’s work colleagues at Scorch magazine. I always loved Leonard; he was my favourite of the characters introduced in that season. Recently, Ducey also wrote and starred in the 2022 festive film I Believe in Santa, playing Tom.

In my opinion, these four characters make up the main plot of The Suite Life Movie, which is a shame, as there are four other characters who were hugely important to The Suite Life on Deck series, but were not used well in the movie.

One of these is London Tipton, the ditzy hotel heiress who came with Zack, Cody, and Mr. Moseby on board the SS Tipton for school. During The Suite Life Movie, London’s main roles are to be a sounding board to Bailey’s complaints about Cody, as well as to be the “missing link” of Dr. Spaulding’s research, showing that this fruit can produce telepathic communication between humans and animals. It’s an important part of the fictional science project, but isn’t particularly useful in the movie, apart from the fact London learns from a dolphin about where Zack and Cody are being held captive. It’s a real pity that London couldn’t have had a better side plot as she was always a brilliant character in the series.

London Tipton was played by Brenda Song, who was no stranger to Disney Channel even before her casting in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Song has actually been in five separate Disney Channel Original Movies: The Ultimate Christmas Present (2000) as Samantha; Get a Clue (2002) as Jennifer; Stuck in the Suburbs (2004) as Natasha; Wendy Wu in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006), and of course, London in The Suite Life Movie. Song managed to break out of Disney with her casting as Christy in The Social Network (2010). In recent years, Song has also been the voice of Princess Akemi in Blue Eye Samurai (2023-present) and was cast as Mary-Anne in The Last Showgirl (2024). In 2025, Song was also cast as Ali Lee in the Netflix series Running Point (2025-present).

Mr. Moseby is another fan-favourite character from the original series. Mr. Moseby was the hotel manager of the Tipton Hotel and is now the manager of the SS Tipton. He also seems to be the guardian of London, and Zack and Cody, whilst onboard the ship, which would explain why he takes Cody to his internship at the research centre. Outside of the chaos that ensues there, we don’t really see Mr. Moseby until the end, when he is relieved to find Zack and Cody safe, having brought the police to the facility to arrest Dr. Olsen.

Phill Lewis was cast as Mr. Moseby. Prior to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Lewis appeared as Principal Tweedy in some episodes of Lizzie McGuire (2001-04). Still on the channel, Lewis was cast as Maurice in the DCOM Dadnapped (2009) and directed many episodes of Disney Channel series, including The Suite Life on Deck; Jessie (2011-15); and Bunk’d (2015-24). Lewis has also directed episodes of the revival series of iCarly (2021-23). Lewis appeared as ‘Crazy’ Hooch in the popular medical sitcom Scrubs (2001-10).

Then there is Bailey Pickett, a character introduced in The Suite Life on Deck. Bailey is Cody’s girlfriend, but all we get to see of her in The Suite Life Movie is her moaning about Cody’s disrespect of her spring break plans, and her debates about whether she should or shouldn’t call him or answer his calls. It’s not a particularly good plotline for the character and it mostly just makes her look selfish and childish. When Bailey is given Cody’s original letter by Mr. Moseby, explaining his reasons for taking the internship, she realises she’s made a mistake and has to find him to make it right. It’s a good thing she does really, otherwise who knows whether Zack and Cody would’ve been saved from The Merge…

Bailey Pickett was played by Debby Ryan. Ryan began her Disney Channel career on The Suite Life on Deck, which led to many more roles for her. One of these was a starring role in the sort-of DCOM 16 Wishes (2010), playing Abby Jensen. After The Suite Life on Deck ended, Ryan continued to feature on Disney Channel by starring in the series Jessie (2011-15). During this time, she was also cast in the leading role of Tara Adams in the DCOM Radio Rebel (2012). Outside of Disney, Ryan’s most famous role is perhaps as Patty Bladell in the controversial Netflix series Insatiable (2018-19). More recently, she voiced the character of Krista in the animated series Velma (2023-24), a spin-off of the Scooby-Doo franchise, and is set to appear in the thriller film Famous, which will star Zac Efron.

Finally, we have Woody Fink, a classmate on the SS Tipton and also Cody’s cabinmate, introduced in The Suite Life on Deck. He’s the complete opposite of Cody, being messy and not very studious, so he gets on better with Zack. Woody is part of the gang of friends that feature Zack, Cody, London, and Bailey. Woody doesn’t have much to do in The Suite Life Movie, much like the other characters I mentioned, just standing next to Zack as he reveals Cody’s internship to Bailey and then standing next to Bailey as she complains about Cody, and then going to find Zack and Cody at the Gemini Project.

Woody Fink was played by Matthew Timmons, who stopped acting in 2013, once The Suite Life on Deck had ended and after making a guest appearance on Debby Ryan’s series Jessie. Timmons has since stated that he was typecast into playing “big characters” with “big personalities” because of his weight and that he had difficulties with his mental health at times because of this. Many of the gags that revolved around Woody on the show focused on his weight and physical appearance so I can see how that would affect your mental state, especially at a young age. Timmons has since come to a place where he feels more comfortable in himself and encourages others via his social media accounts[1].

MUSIC

There aren’t many songs in The Suite Life Movie at all, not even as background noise. There are only two recognisable songs, one for the opening sequence and another for the ending.

During the opening sequence, as Cody is preparing his dinner date for him and Bailey where he plans to tell her about his internship, the song “Uptown, Get Around” is played, performed by Stereo Skyline. I actually quite liked this song; it was just an upbeat pop song. Stereo Skyline was an American pop band, formed in 2006, who stopped making music around 2012, coming back in 2019 to release the single “Runaway’s”.

At the end of the movie, as the End Credits roll, the song “Such a Colorful World”, performed by Max & Simon, written by Mark Rosas, Blake Healy, and Kevin Bard, is used. It would appear that Kevin Bard, the lead vocalist of the band Stereo Skyline, co-created the music project Max & Simon. Again, it was an inoffensive, upbeat song that I didn’t mind.

There is another song that is played briefly as Cody and Zack start their time on the high ropes course. This song was not something I was able to find. The lyrics that I could hear were talking about “turning up the music”, which doesn’t narrow it down much when you’re looking for these background songs in movies… It was not credited either.

The score of The Suite Life Movie was composed by John Van Tongeren, who had previously worked on the music for other DCOMs, including Twitches (2005) and Twitches Too (2007); Princess Protection Program (2009); and Den Brother (2010).

PRODUCTION

The Suite Life Movie could never have existed had it not been for two twins terrorising their mother with their antics in a fancy, upmarket hotel.

The first episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody aired on Disney Channel on 18^th March 2005. This pilot introduced audiences to Zack and Cody, and their reasons for living in the Tipton Hotel in Boston. This is because their mother, Carey, was the hotel’s lounge singer. We were also introduced to other main characters, like London Tipton, the hotel heiress; Maddie, the hotel’s candy counter girl; Esteban, the hotel bellhop; Arwin, the hotel’s janitor; and of course, Mr. Moseby, the hotel manager.

Season 1 of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody ran from 18^th March 2005 to 27^th January 2006. A second season began almost immediately afterwards, on 3^rd February 2006, running until 2^nd June 2007. The third season of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was their last, commencing on 23^rd June 2007 and ending on 1^st September 2008.

The Suite Life of Zack & Cody is still remembered today for specific moments from its episodes. Who can forget that episode from Season 3, “Lip Synchin’ in the Rain”, which saw Disney Channel mess with their own canon, by having Maddie, played by Ashley Tisdale, not get the part of Sharpay Evans in a school production of High School Musical, despite Ashley Tisdale playing the role in real life! Instead, London got the part and Maddie had to lip sync for her. There was also the episode, “Commercial Breaks”, from Season 1 which ended with an all-singing, all-dancing fictional commercial for the Tipton Hotel. And last but not least, London’s driving lesson where she taught us all about “the PRNDL”, something that even Camila Cabello referenced on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Brenda Song said she even had her driving examiner say to her to make sure she put the PRNDL in park at the end of her test[2]! There was also the crossover episode “That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana”.

The reviews for the show were great across all three seasons. The programme received accolades such as winning a Young Artist Award in 2007 for Best Family TV Series (Comedy). Back in 2006, Brenda Song won the Superstar of Tomorrow and Role Model awards at the Young Hollywood Awards for her role as London Tipton. Dylan Sprouse won a Kids’ Choice award for Favorite TV Actor in 2009 too. The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2007 and nominated for Favorite TV Show at the Kids’ Choice Awards in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Technically, in terms of air date, the final episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was “Mr. Tipton Comes to Visit”. The storyline was that Mr. Tipton was coming to the hotel, seemingly to give a huge bonus to one lucky employee. This led to many flashback moments from the series as the team reminisced about the good moments they’d had working in the hotel. However, when Mr. Tipton arrives he is in a bad mood and plans to fire someone. It looks like Carey is going to be fired because of the twins, but instead, the boys bribe Muriel, the now-retired hotel maid, into coming back for Mr. Tipton’s visit. She refuses to clean up a broken vase and is promptly fired – but since she’s retired, it doesn’t matter!

But the actual final episode of the series is really “Let Us Entertain You”. In this episode, the boys and Carey go on the SS Tipton cruise ship for a “vacation”, although Zack and Cody have managed to get them on the ship only if Carey sings as part of the cruise entertainment. Carey refuses to sing, wanting a proper vacation, but when she discovers that her experience on the cruise will be seriously downgraded if she does not, she relents and says she will sing. However, Carey becomes seriously sun burnt after falling asleep in the sun and is now unable to sing. Zack and Cody go on for her instead.

The events from “Let Us Entertain You” set the scene for the spin-off series, The Suite Life on Deck, which premiered on Disney Channel on 26^th September 2008, just a few weeks after The Suite Life of Zack & Cody officially ended. The pilot episode of this new series is “The Suite Life Sets Sail”. Here, Mr. Moseby is revealed to be the cruise ship manager, and London Tipton is coming on board to attend Seven Seas High School, to stop her from skipping classes like she did at regular high school. Zack and Cody are joining her, much to Moseby’s dismay, with Carey not staying on board to look after them. Other characters were introduced during the show, as Zack, Cody, London, and Mr. Moseby were the only main characters to return, such as fellow students of Seven Seas High: Bailey Pickett, Woody Fink, and Marcus Little.

Throughout the lifetime of the show, the characters got to travel all over the world, with one episode focusing on the Bermuda Triangle, and another seeing the group travel over the International Dateline. They also visited Greece, Sweden, Morocco, and Paris. There was also another Disney Channel crossover episode, called “Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana”. Season 1 of The Suite Life of Deck ran from 26^th September 2008 to 17^th July 2009. Season 2 began on 7^th August 2009, running until 18^th June 2010. The third and final season ran from 2^nd July 2010 to 6^th May 2011. The Suite Life on Deck received generally favourable reviews, however, many viewers felt it was not quite as good as the original show. It received a nomination for Favorite TV Show at both the 2010 and 2011 Kids’ Choice Awards, with Dylan Sprouse picking up the award for Favorite TV Actor in 2010.

Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan created both shows, with the concept for The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, of two boys living in a posh hotel, originating back in the mid-1980s, when Kallis and Geoghan were working as writers on the sitcom Silver Spoons (1982-87), about a wealthy man whose son, who he has never met before, moves in to his mansion[3].

The Suite Life Movie began production in September 2010, being referred to as the seventh Disney Channel series to get its own Disney Channel Original Movie – this number seems to include Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2^nd Dimension, and Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas! despite both of these airing months after The Suite Life Movie in 2011. The most recent one prior to The Suite Life Movie to air on Disney Channel was Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009), which had done exceptionally well in terms of viewing figures, securing 11.4 million on its premiere, and ranking as 2009’s No. 1 scripted cable TV telecast.

The Suite Life Movie was directed by Sean McNamara. For Disney Channel, McNamara had previously directed some episodes of The Even Stevens (2000-03) and went on to direct The Even Stevens Movie (2003). McNamara also directed episodes of other Disney series such as That’s So Raven (2003-07) and Zeke and Luther (2009-12). The writers of The Suite Life Movie were Michael Saltzman, who worked on the story of the 2006 The Pink Panther Movie, and Robert Horn, who co-wrote the Broadway musical 13, and wrote the High School Musical spin-off movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (2011)[4].

The Suite Life Movie was filmed in British Columbia, Canada, with many of the locations being in Vancouver. The Vancouver Aquarium was used as the setting of the biology research facility where Cody, Zack, and Mr. Moseby visit Dr. Spaulding early on in the film. The setting of the Gemini Project was reportedly Camp Howdy in Vancouver[5]. Around this area, Dylan and Cole Sprouse were required to film some “stunts” which involved them on a high ropes course, tackling obstacles like nets and zip wires. Because at this point in the movie, Zack and Cody have not been a part of the research group for long, they are not moving in perfect unison on this course like the other sets of twins are, so this meant lots of slamming into nets and struggling on different parts of the course[6]. It all looked very fun to me. What appeared to be less fun was Dylan and Cole’s jump into a freezing cold lake at 9 o’clock at night, for the scene where they are trying to avoid capture by all the twins. The twins said they had wetsuits on and multiple layers of clothing which kept them warm, but it seemed some of the other actors – as the twins are surrounded by others in the lake – didn’t keep quite as warm and struggled with the cold[7].

The Suite Life Movie kept mentioning the fact that the boys and their friends would be graduating from Seven Seas High soon. This meant that one further episode was needed to wrap up The Suite Life on Deck, which is why the finale episode, “Graduation on Deck”, was the very last episode of the franchise to air on Disney Channel on 6^th May 2011, just over a month after the movie had premiered.

In “Graduation on Deck”, the students of Seven Seas High learn that Mr. Tipton is going to dismantle the SS Tipton as they prepare for final exams and graduation. Cody discovers he was rejected from Yale, throwing his college plans into disarray, especially as girlfriend Bailey did get accepted. Zack and Cody’s mother and father both arrive for graduation, where Bailey says that Cody didn’t get into Yale and won’t leave his cabin. Zack is also upset that his girlfriend, Maya, is going off to Chad in Africa for a Peace Core assignment, so neither Zack nor Cody want to attend graduation. The boys then convince the other to go to the ceremony. During the speeches, construction workers begin dismantling parts of the deck. Mr. Moseby calls Mr. Tipton, ordering him to stop the destruction of the ship as he is destroying his daughter’s graduation. Soon, the SS Tipton docks and the students prepare to depart the ship. Mr. Moseby also proposes to the Seven Seas High teacher, Ms. Tutweiller, and she accepts. There are some tearful goodbyes as everyone goes their separate ways. Many felt this was a fitting ending for the show and the franchise as a whole, which is not exactly how they felt about the movie…

RECEPTION

The Suite Life Movie premiered on Disney Channel in the US on 25^th March 2011.

The movie pulled in 5.2 million total viewers on its premiere, making it the top scripted programme of the day across all TV[8]. By the end of 2011, The Suite Life Movie’s viewership was beaten by three other DCOMs: Lemonade Mouth, with 5.7 million; Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas!; with 6.9 million; and Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension with 7.6 million, which was the top viewed DCOM of the year.

Reviews of The Suite Life Movie have been very mixed, with slightly more negative comments than positive. DCOMs generally receive quite mixed reviews, so this was not unusual, however, even fans of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck were quite disappointed with The Suite Life Movie, especially as it followed on from a pretty good series. Many said The Suite Life Movie felt out of place, very unlike the series, and was mostly forgettable. Many also said The Suite Life Movie was not as good as the other science-fiction-based DCOM of 2011 Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2^nd Dimension, which I would agree with. There were others as well who were annoyed that seemingly some of The Suite Life on Deck plot points had been forgotten or ignored in the film, like the fact Zack was in a relationship with a girl called Maya in the series but in the movie, Zack is chasing after Nellie. I just thought that was very much how Zack always was! There was also annoyance that London, Bailey, Woody, and Mr. Moseby didn’t have anything to do in The Suite Life Movie and should’ve had a better side plot written for them. This is something I have already said I agree with.

On the more positive side, some felt the movie was fun and entertaining, with a nice message about empathy and getting on with your siblings. Others enjoyed the “twist” ending too, with the reveal that Dr. Olsen was in fact Dr. Spaulding’s twin brother. I didn’t guess that until a few minutes before it happened, although I’m sure some might’ve guessed it much earlier on in the film, making the “twist” less exciting. It was also thought that The Suite Life Movie might as well be watched because it was quite a short movie, only around 80 minutes long, and if you’d watched both the previous series, you may as well have seen it to be a “completist”. The general consensus seemed to be that viewers either saw The Suite Life Movie as just average, or just bad. I’m afraid I’m in the latter group.

LEGACY

After The Suite Life on Deck had ended in May 2011, there would be no further projects for Zack and Cody on the Disney Channel. The actors were all moving on to new things.

Apparently, Dylan and Cole Sprouse had in fact pitched a fourth season of The Suite Life on Deck. This concept would’ve seen Zack and Cody return to Boston, where they would mentor a young boy living in the hotel, setting up this other character to have their own show. Disney passed on this idea, but later came back to the twins to pitch a similar idea. This time, the new show was going to be set in Miami with Selena Gomez reportedly attached to the project. The Sprouse twins were the ones to pass this time round.

There was also a spin-off that was meant to happen, surrounding hotel engineer Arwin, with Selena Gomez set to play his niece, but this never happened either. I’m going to assume this spin-off would’ve taken place after The Suite Life of Zack & Cody had finished airing or around that time, and not after the whole The Suite Life franchise had ended[9].

But there was one further screen production that did come to be after The Suite Life on Deck: The Suite Life of Karan & Kabir, an Indian adaptation of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, which ran for two seasons on Disney Channel India. The first season ran from 8^th April 2012 to 1^st July 2012, with the second running from 27^th January 2013 to 18^th August 2013.

Now that Disney Channel has made successes of rebooting and reviving some of their old programmes, such as Raven’s Home (2017-23) and Wizards Beyond Waverly Place (2024-present), many have begun speculating about whether there will be a reboot of The Suite Life. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but recently, Dylan Sprouse confirmed his disinterest in being part of a The Suite Life revival, stating that this trend risks removing the nostalgia and magic of the original series, so it is best to just move on with your life and keep those memories untainted. I completely agree with Dylan Sprouse’s take on revivals, however, Dylan did also say you can “never say never”[10]. On the contrary, Brenda Song said that she would reprise her role as London Tipton if ever the opportunity did arise, since she loved playing the character[11]. Regardless of whether a reboot does or does not happen, the actors seem to keep in touch with each other, which is always good to see.

Outside of any screen adaptations, there was one other thing from The Suite Life on Deck which was remembered over ten years later. This was a moment in the Season 1 episode “When In Rome” where Zack and Cody are trying to get a reservation at a fancy Italian restaurant. They are told they can have a reservation – for 16^th November 2023. So, on that date, there were many references to this moment online. Disney Parks even released a short video to their social media where a waitress tells Zack and Cody their table is ready – but obviously they do not show up. This video seems to have been recorded at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World.

Also at the Disney Parks, but this time at Disneyland, there was a small photo op at Disneyland After Dark: Disney Channel Nite in March 2024 featuring a backdrop of one of the corridors of the Tipton Hotel with a luggage trolley that guests could hang on to for a picture. There was also a The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Disney pin being sold a while ago.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Suite Life Movie may not have been my cup of tea, but I can’t really say I’ve ever been a die-hard fan of the series, and I certainly was not a big fan of The Suite Life on Deck, so my criticism of the movie might seem a bit harsh, especially if you were a longtime childhood fan of the series and remember the DCOM fondly. But there were also many fans of the show who were disappointed in The Suite Life Movie for multiple reasons. For me, it was the strange sci-fi plot. It was just too random and not very “Suite Life”.

Despite the message about getting on with your siblings and having empathy for others, even if you are very different people, I didn’t come away from The Suite Life Movie thinking about it much. The concept of someone trying to merge people together and then control them forever, under the guise of creating world peace, was too disturbing that it took away from the overall message.

Some reviews said this movie was forgettable. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it, no matter how hard I try…

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Kayleigh Banks, ‘Woody Fink From The Suite Life On Deck Explained’, ScreenRant.com, 11^th June 2023.

[2] Credit: The Kelly Clarkson Show, ‘Brenda Song Reacts To Camila Cabello ‘PRNDL’ Story’, The Kelly Clarkson Show YouTube Channel, 3^rd March 2025.

[3] Credit: Tierney Bricker, ’15 Secrets About The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Including the “Worst” Kiss With Zac Efron’, EOnline.com, 18^th March 2020.

[4] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Production to Begin on “The Suite Life Movie” for Disney Channel’, TheFutonCritic.com, 20^th September 2010.

[5] Credit: TigerBeat TV, ‘EXCLUSIVE: We’re on The Suite Life Movie Set!’, TigerBeat TV YouTube Channel, 18^th February 2011.

[6] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘DCOM Extra: The Zip Line – The Suite Life Movie – Disney Channel Official’, Disney Channel YouTube Channel, 11^th March 2011.

[7] Credit: Popstar!, ‘DYLAN SPROUSE On Filming the Water Scene in “The Suite Life on Deck” Movie!’, Popstar! YouTube Channel, 22^nd December 2010.

[8] Credit: Scott Collins, ‘‘The Suite Life Movie’ on Disney was Friday’s most-watched scripted TV show’, LATimes.com, 28^th March 2011.

[9] Credit: Tierney Bricker, ’15 Secrets About The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Including the “Worst” Kiss With Zac Efron’, EOnline.com, 18^th March 2020.

[10] Credit: Kristen Maldonado, ‘This Is Why Dylan Sprouse Is Not Interested In A Suite Life Reboot’, Kristen Maldonado YouTube Channel, 12^th February 2024.

[11] Credit: Liz Foster, ‘The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody Revival Addressed By London Tipton Actor: “She’s My Literal Dream Character”’, ScreenRant.com, 28^th February 2025.

22nd Nov 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe (2020)

BACKGROUND

When Phineas and Ferb ended in 2015, after eight years of airing on the Disney Channel across four seasons and one movie, the creators and the fans felt satisfied that this chapter was over, and they could all move on.

Just kidding! This is Disney; if something works, you work it hard, so naturally, the final episode of Phineas and Ferb, “Last Day of Summer”, which premiered on Disney Channel on 12th June 2015, was never really the end, although fans had to wait a few years before anything else happened with these beloved characters.

They would have to wait five years in fact for a second movie to be released. This second movie was called Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, and would not premiere on Disney Channel. Instead, it debuted on Disney+, Disney’s streaming app, which launched in the US on 12^th November 2019.

In that time, the world had changed quite a lot, not only from the point that Phineas and Ferb finished, but also from the time that Candace Against the Universe was in development. This movie debuted in August 2020, so we all know what that means: it debuted over the pandemic, as so many other movies did. Luckily, with Disney+ slowly being released to other countries outside of the US, and with Disney Channel not being quite as popular as it used to be, this meant Candace Against the Universe was going to be able to reach its target audience perfectly, and extend its reach to other Disney+ users who perhaps were not familiar with Phineas and Ferb already, or who might not have been huge fans of it.

To be honest, though, I hadn’t heard of this film until last year when I was compiling a list of Disney Channel Original Movies to review. It had completely missed me, but I wasn’t a big fan of Phineas and Ferb, as I talked about in my review of their first movie, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension (2011), so that might not be a surprise. My sister was the Phineas and Ferb fan, and since I didn’t live with her anymore, I didn’t find out about it from her, and didn’t watch it with her either.

I watched Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe for the first time this week. I’m sorry to all Phineas and Ferb die-hard fans, but I didn’t like it all that much. It’s not that the movie was bad; it’s not that it wasn’t funny; it just seemed to be missing something that Across the 2^nd Dimension did have. Maybe I was disconnected from the series, since I hadn’t watched it in so long, and didn’t have the privilege of watching it with someone who truly loved the series, as I had with Across the 2^nd Dimension.

I don’t know, but the music wasn’t as good as I would’ve expected, and despite being a big fan of Candace, it seemed like making a whole movie about her meant sacrificing a lot of Phineas and Ferb’s screen time, so the usual format was slightly off-balance. But like I said, I didn’t say it was bad, and I still found myself chuckling at certain jokes that are just so Phineas and Ferb.

PLOT

The movie starts with Candace riding her bike home, trying not to think about what crazy things Phineas and Ferb might be doing. Sadly, this resolve doesn’t last long when Candace sees a giant robot clown in her back garden. She calls her mother to quickly come and see it – but at the same time, their pet platypus, Perry, also a secret agent, is battling his nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and stopping his latest invention, the Power-Vacuum-inator, which turns objects into lint and then vacuums it up. As per usual, Candace’s attempt has failed as the Power-Vacuum-inator is accidentally directed at the giant robot clown. It is turned to lint and vacuumed up, like it never even existed. Candace is distraught; she was so close.

Phineas and Ferb, seeing that their sister is upset, decide they should make her a gift, as it turns out she hasn’t been having as great a summer as they have been. Candace later vents her frustrations to Vanessa, Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s daughter, saying how the universe is against her and won’t let her bust her brothers. Vanessa tells Candace that maybe she isn’t actually upset by her brothers’ inventions and instead feels jealous of their success. At this point, Candace sees a new object in their front garden. Assuming it must be a Phineas and Ferb creation, she angrily hits it, but her and Vanessa are sucked in. Phineas and Ferb see this object take off into space and notice Candace is stuck inside it; they have to rescue her. Perry also gets notified by his boss, Major Monogram, that Candace has been abducted by aliens and he must save her – without blowing his cover that he’s an agent to the boys, or that he’s a pet to Dr. Doofenshmirtz. That could be tricky…

Using a photograph taken of this supposed space shuttle by Ferb, they read its license plate and discover it is from the planet Feebla-Oot in the Vroblok Cluster. They know they have to create a portal to this planet, so with help from Baljeet, Isabella, and Buford, their friends, they successfully do this. All of them proceed through the portal but they don’t end up in Feebla-Oot, but at Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters – they haven’t even left Danville! Dr. Doofenshmirtz tells the kids that he is also trying to get to that planet, to save his daughter, Vanessa, who the kids also know. He had built his own portal to the same planet, but neither portal can get there because Feebla-Oot is surrounded by ion barrier so they can’t teleport there. They need a space shuttle.

Luckily, Dr. Doofenshmirtz happens to have a space shuttle, except it is called a Galactic-Travel-inator,– but it is basically the same thing. The group board the spaceship – sorry, Galactic-Travel-inator – with random items they might need, like a canoe and a Chicken-Replace-inator. Perry sneaks in too, just before take-off. The take-off sets Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters on fire, but Candace and Vanessa are more important.

In space, Candace and Vanessa’s shuttle has connected to the mother ship, where they see a map of the area, via the ship’s voice assistant which handily speaks English. The two find that a ladder should lead them down to the escape pods. As they make their descent, the girls are thrown off the ladder by some intense turbulence, falling down into a room full of escape pods, but they’ve been spotted. Candace tells Vanessa to get into a pod and she’ll be right behind her, but the escape pods all launch at once before Candace has the chance to get in. She is captured by the aliens.

The gang on the Galactic-Travel-inator hit an asteroid field on the way to Feebla-Oot and believe they won’t make it out alive. However, Perry goes out in a spacesuit and knocks all the asteroids out of the way, allowing them to get through unharmed. The ship later approaches an ion barrier, but with no shield, again, they think all looks lost. Baljeet is then inspired by an episode of his favourite space travel show, Space Adventure, where they once got through an ion barrier by spinning their ship. Although they get through the ion barrier, the ship spins out of control and crash-lands on Feebla-Oot. At least they got there! Meanwhile, Vanessa’s escape pod has also crash-landed on the planet, being pre-programmed to navigate to its planet. She sees the mothership land by a fortress and Candace being escorted inside by aliens. The gang, on another part of the planet to Vanessa, also notice the alien fortress and head straight for it.

Inside the fortress, Candace is introduced to the alien leader, Super Super Big Doctor. Despite Candace’s name being the same sound that these aliens make when they explode from the waist up – random, right? – Super Super Big Doctor welcomes Candace to her planet, saying she is The Chosen One, as she radiates something called Remarkalonium. Candace is treated like a queen and bonds with Super Super Big Doctor over their annoying brothers and their desire to be special.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz and the kids head towards the fortress, but Doofenshmirtz doesn’t want Isabella in charge as he’s older. They argue who should be the one in charge and Dr. Doofenshmirtz wins even though he doesn’t have a clue where he’s going. But at one point, he does save them from a flying dragon by using, of all things, the Chicken-Replace-inator, which swaps the dragon with the nearest chicken. The nearest chicken was at a farmer’s new theme park, called Dragon Land, which had no dragons. Well, it does now!

Candace and Super Super Big Doctor go on the planet’s daytime talk show. Their appearance is rudely interrupted by Phineas, Ferb, and the gang who have found their way to the fortress, finally. Candace doesn’t want them here as she’s finally found a place where she belongs. Super Super Big Doctor offers to take care of them for her, and she does – by taking them to a nice suite, before dropping them through a trapdoor into the back of a van, headed towards their prison! Inside the van are lots of other aliens, who look really scared.

Perry didn’t fall for this trick and takes control of the van, despite being told by Major Monogram not to harm the creatures of this planet or damage its environment – oops… But the prisoners are free and Phineas, Ferb, and the others are taken to the aliens’ sanctuary, Cowardalia. They learn that Super Super Big Doctor came to Feebla-Oot and enslaved all of them using a special plant that emitted mind-controlling spores. The plant has been dying and has stopped releasing spores, meaning that the aliens are slowly becoming free of her and fleeing. Candace is the one who will help the plant regain its strength.

Back at the fortress, Candace is coming to the realisation that she is being used for something, and comes to a room where this plant is being held. Super Super Big Doctor explains that her evil plant needs Remarkalonian to survive and reveals that this element is called carbon dioxide on Earth. Candace reveals that all humans release carbon dioxide, giving Super Super Big Doctor a new plan. She needs to conquer Earth! Candace is strapped to a treadmill and prepared to load back on the spaceship. She feels betrayed by her new “sister”, who it turns out has also imprisoned her brothers.

Meanwhile, Phineas and the others have managed to convince the aliens of Cowardalia to battle Super Super Big Doctor, despite their cowardly nature. They manage to get into the alien fortress, but see Candace being loaded onto the ship. Super Super Big Doctor and her minions follow suit. Phineas and the gang quickly board too. Dr. Doofenshmirtz decides to stay as he still hasn’t found Vanessa, with her social media profile revealing she never got back to Earth like Candace thought, but is still on this planet.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz searches for Vanessa and almost gets himself killed. Again, Perry is here to save the day, but as both of them are about to fall to their deaths, they are saved by Vanessa who is riding on the back of one of the planet’s dragons. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is pleased to be reunited with Vanessa, however, they have no idea how to get back to Earth. Doofenshmirtz wants to use his Chicken-Replace-inator again, however, the chicken that was teleported to Feebla-Oot earlier is still here so they don’t move far. Doofenshmirtz wants to kill the chicken but Vanessa says they can’t. They think some more.

The gang on the ship try to get the spaceship to stop before it reaches Earth, but they end up falling out of the ship. They use Buford’s canoe and some random debris to build a boat, which also transforms into a glider, getting them home. The spaceship lands in Danville Stadium, destroying a new statue of the Tri-State Area founder, John P. Trystate, upsetting all the on-lookers, but there’s no time for tears as Super Super Big Doctor is about to enslave them all. Phineas, Ferb, and the others try to stop her by using robots of themselves but they are destroyed easily by thermal cannons. Phineas and Ferb get Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet to distract Super Super Big Doctor and her minions, while they get Candace. They find her on the treadmill and manage to free her, but Candace runs away in tears. The brothers follow her, where Candace reveals she feels bad for spending her whole summer trying to bust them. Phineas and Ferb don’t care and finally get a chance to give their gift to her. It’s a mug with World’s Best Sister written on it. But that’s not the best part; it projects holograms of all the fun moments they’ve had all together this summer. Candace is touched but now they have to fight back against Super Super Big Doctor.

Candace sees that they were giving away free t-shirts at Danville Stadium today and grabs the t-shirt cannon. If she can fire it at the aliens, then they’ll become so excited by the freebie, that they’ll explode from the waist up. It works, however, they soon run out of free t-shirts. The plant is now at full strength and begins to emit its spores once again. Phineas and the others put on gas masks to stop themselves being controlled. They are still captured though, leaving only Candace to face Super Super Big Doctor. Candace tells her that perhaps all of desires to control people come from the fact she is jealous of her brothers and has low self-esteem. This gives the leader a breakthrough but before she can mend her ways, the plant eats Super Super Big Doctor…It then goes after the others who run.

They are soon saved by Vanessa, Perry, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz on the flying dragon. They got back to Earth by changing the setting on the Chicken-Replace-inator to be the furthest chicken instead of the nearest. Who knew it had so many settings? The plant then battles with the dragon, but it’s not enough. Candace gets the idea of shooting the plant with the Chicken-Replace-inator, using the furthest setting, and sends it back to Feebla-Oot. On Feebla-Oot, the plant shrivels and dies, spitting out Super Super Big Doctor in the process who is arrested by the cowardly aliens.

Back in Danville, the mind-controlling spores dissipate. Candace then realises her mother is nearby and she could bust her brothers now at last, since all of Danville is in chaos. Candace runs over to her mother, but just as we think she’s about to bust Phineas and Ferb, she instead tells her mother to go out and get pizza, so she doesn’t see any of it. As they celebrate, they hear Perry get a call from Major Monogram, congratulating him on his mission. Perry quickly muffles the call as Phineas, Ferb, and Candace look confused!

In a mid-credits scene, Ferb’s father stumbles upon the portal to Feebla-Oot in the garden. He walks through it and ends up in Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters which is still on fire. He runs back home and the portal self-destructs.

CHARACTERS & CAST

In Candace Against the Universe, Phineas and Ferb are not the main attraction, and spend most of their time working with their friends to save Candace. This movie feels quite different to a typical Phineas and Ferb episode where they are front-and-centre and the whole plot is about them and what they are doing. Still, they have a big role to play in Candace Against the Universe, not just by saving their sister, but also by building up her self-esteem and showing that the brothers love her.

Phineas was voiced by Vincent Martella. Martella is also known for his role as Greg Wuliger in Everybody Hates Chris (2005-09), for which he was nominated for a Teen Choice Award and two Young Artists Awards. Although Thomas Brodie-Sangster voiced Ferb in the main series and in the first movie, he was replaced on this movie, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts. Ferb is instead voiced by David Errigo Jr., who has voiced characters in series such as Ridley Jones (2021-23) and Tiny Toons Looniversity (2023-present) in recent years. Although Ferb sounded a bit different here, I didn’t notice the voice actor had changed; I’d just assumed that the fact it had been five years since the series ended meant some of the actors’ voices were a bit different.

At the start of Candace Against the Universe, Vanessa tries to tell Candace that she might be feeling a bit inferior to her brothers and that just busting them won’t really make her happy in her life because she’s not happy in herself. Candace doesn’t really listen and later relates to Super Super Big Doctor and feels wanted on this planet. Everything is going fine until Candace realises that she is being used to strengthen a mind-controlling plant and that the element she thought was unique to her is actually just carbon dioxide, meaning any human could’ve been The Chosen One, which makes Candace feeling even worse about herself, not to mention the fact she was mean to her brothers when they tried to save her. Thankfully, Phineas and Ferb don’t mind Candace’s outbursts because she’s their sister and they love her, no matter what, and they show her that whenever they can.

Candace was voiced by Ashley Tisdale, best known for her role as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise, at least amongst Disney fans, reprising her role in the movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (2011). Also for Disney, Tisdale starred as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08). In more recent years, she was cast as Kayla in the Netflix series Merry Happy Whatever (2019), and was a panellist on The Masked Dancer (2020-21). Tisdale was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Voice Acting for her role in Candace Against the Universe.

Candace Against the Universe begins quite normally for Perry the platypus, who stops Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s latest scheme and latest invention, the Power-Vacuum-inator. He then takes the rest of the day off, but is interrupted by the alert that Candace has been abducted by aliens and he must save her. Through his clever spy skills, he manages to follow the group undetected to Feebla-Oot and saves them from numerous difficulties without being spotted by Phineas, Ferb, or Candace, keeping his cover safe – unlike in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension. Perry is always there at just the right time, ready to save anyone that needs it. He really is an unsung hero in this movie.

Perry is “voiced” by Dee Bradley Baker, who has had a long career in voice acting. He has voiced characters in series such as Johnny Bravo (1997-2004); Dexter’s Laboratory (1997-2003); The Powerpuff Girls (1999-2005); SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-present); and The Fairly OddParents (2001-17), all non-Disney projects. For Disney, he has voiced the character of Turner for Handy Manny (2006-13), and Tick-Tock the Crocodile in Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011-16), as well as various characters for animated Star Wars series.

Although he doesn’t have quite as much screen-time in Candace Against the Universe as normal, my favourite character continues to be Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Dr. Doofenshmirtz has to forget his plans to conquer the Tri-State Area in this movie, knowing that his daughter is more important than anything else. They’ve had a bit of a difficult relationship since Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Vanessa’s mother divorced, but he cares about Vanessa a lot. His funniest moments in Candace Against the Universe are when he is talking about “adulting”, arguing with Isabella about why he should be leading them all to the alien fortress, solely because of his age and not because of skill or intellect, and when he is using the Chicken-Replace-inator. The Chicken-Replace-inator is quite a typical Dr. Doofenshmirtz invention, so when he decides to take it to Feebla-Oot, that seems like a nice little Phineas and Ferb joke to make you laugh a little. But then it becomes part of the plot and a way of transporting themselves, which is even more random and very Phineas and Ferb! Dr. Doofenshmirtz was voiced by the other creator of Phineas and Ferb, Dan Povenmire.

Outside of these main characters, there are numerous others that appear in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe. These include Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford. Isabella takes much of the leader of their quest to the alien fortress on Feebla-Oot, citing her various Fireside Girls badges as evidence of her experience, and Baljeet uses his knowledge of Space Adventure and physics to make sure their journey to the planet is successful. Buford doesn’t do much, but he brings a canoe! Isabella was voiced by Alyson Stoner, who was cast as Caitlyn in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), after appearing as Max in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and as Sarah Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and its 2005 sequel. Buford was voiced by Bobby Gaylor, who was one of the story writers on the show; and Baljeet was voiced by Maulik Pancholy. Pancholy had previously appeared as Jonathan in the comedy series 30 Rock (2006-13).

Then there is Vanessa, Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s daughter. After failing to appear in the final edit of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, only showing up in two deleted scenes, she makes quite a return in Candace Against the Universe. As well as Candace being abducted by aliens, Vanessa is taken along for the ride. Though she has a slightly easier time of it, not being held captive by the alien leader, she doesn’t avoid all the troubles. She thinks she’s headed back to Earth in an escape pod, only to find she’s just ended up at the same planet she was trying to get away from, and then she finds herself face-to-face with a big, scary dragon. Because Vanessa is calm, cool, and collected, she manages to turn this dragon into a pet of some sorts, and instead of being the “damsel in distress”, she saves both her father and Perry the platypus. She also helps the group finally defeat the mind-controlling plant, with her pet dragon, Vlorkel, as their protector.

Olivia Olson returned to voice Vanessa in this movie. Olson is known for her role as Joanna in the movie, Love Actually (2003), with this character being the love interest of Sam, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, the original voice of Ferb. Around the time of the Phineas and Ferb series, Olson also voiced the character of Marceline the Vampire Queen for the series Adventure Time (2010-18). As well as acting, Olson is also known for her singing talents, having released the album Nowhere Land in 2018. Shortly after, she competed in The X Factor: Celebrity in 2019.

The villain of this movie is Super Super Big Doctor, the alien leader of Feebla-Oot. She came to this planet looking to rule over it and its people, using a mind-controlling plant to do so. Super Super Big Doctor is not as kind and caring as she seems early on, when she is manipulating Candace into believing that she is special and should remain on this planet; it was all a ruse so she could continue to be a dictator. Though Candace and Super Super Big Doctor bonded over their shared experiences having two brothers, Candace would never do the things Super Super Big Doctor is capable of, liking forcing the alien group, the Cowards, to work for her and wait on her; anyone not willing to do that is sent to prison. Super Super Big Doctor almost has an epiphany about her evil ways towards the end of the movie, but she’s eaten by her plant too quickly for the message to fully absorb. I’m sure she’d learnt her lesson by the time she was spat out by her plant and captured!

Stand-up comedian, writer, and actor Ali Wong was cast as Super Super Big Doctor. She wrote and starred in the 2019 movie Always Be My Maybe, and was cast as Doris in American Housewife (2016-21) prior to Candace Against the Universe. She has also voiced characters in other animated movies, such as Betty Bird in The Angry Birds Movie (2016); Felony in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018); and Gore in Onward (2020). Most recently, Wong starred as Amy Lau in the hit Netflix series Beef (2023), winning numerous awards for her role, including a Critics’ Choice Award, a Golden Globe award, and an Emmy award.

Then there are Gamoz and Borthos, two of the Coward aliens. Gamoz was voiced by Thomas Middleditch, who had previously starred in the series Silicon Valley (2014-19) as Richard Hendricks, and went on to star as Drew Dunbar in the sitcom B Positive (2020-22). Diedrich Bader voiced alien Borthos. He was known at the time for his role as Greg Otto in American Housewife (2016-21), but had also voiced characters in Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure (2017-20); and Harley Quinn (2019-present).

Other voice actors credited in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe include Wayne Brady, best known for being a regular cast member on improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1998-present) as Stapler-Fist, one of Super Super Big Doctors’ minions, and Tiffany Haddish is even credited as “The Sound Someone Makes When They Explode from the Waist Up”. Haddish was apparently a fan of the show and happy to be involved in the movie; she just wanted some Phineas and Ferb t-shirts with Perry on them[1]!

A few other characters make their usual appearances in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, however, they do not feature much. Two are Candace’s best friend Stacy, and her boyfriend, Jeremy. They only appear in the movie at Danville Stadium and Stacy discovers that Jeremy is involved in Live Action Role Play, or LARPing, which she finds very funny. Jeremy was voiced by Mitchell Musso, known for his role as Oliver in Hannah Montana (2006-11), and as King Brady in Pair of Kings (2010-13). Stacy was voiced by Kelly Hu. Hu had previously been cast in Martial Law (1998-2000), as Detective Grace Chen, and as China White in Arrow (2012-20). She also voiced the role of Adira in Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure (2017-2020).

Phineas, Ferb, and Candace’s parents also make brief appearances here. Phineas and Candace’s mother, Linda, is voiced by Caroline Rhea, well-known for her role as Hilda Spellman in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003). Richard O’Brien voiced Ferb’s father, Lawrence. O’Brien is best known for writing the musical, The Rocky Horror Show, before starring in the 1975 film adaptation. For UK viewers, he is also known as the original host of the game show The Crystal Maze (1990-2020). Lawrence is only seen in the mid-credits scene, and Linda is seen at the start and end of the film.

PRODUCTION

Phineas and Ferb quickly became one of Disney Channel’s most popular series, gaining millions of viewers in the years since its first broadcast. It was created by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh and Dan Povenmire.

After working on different animated series, Marsh and Povenmire had started working on an idea for a new series together around 1993. The idea for Phineas and Ferb was developed after noticing that kids didn’t seem to go out and do anything anymore, this becoming the whole premise of the show. Disney agreed to move forward with the series around 2006[2]. The series debuted its first episode on 17^th August 2007, with its first season finishing in February 2009. It was then followed immediately after by a second season, which aired from February 2009 to February 2011. A third season began in March 2011, ending in November 2012, with Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension premiering partway through this season in August 2011.

Shortly after the release of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, there was talk about a new Phineas and Ferb movie being developed that would be theatrically released sometime around Summer 2013, however, this movie was quietly removed from Disney’s production schedule[3]. But that’s fine, because Phineas and Ferb Season 4 was still airing. It began in December 2012 and ended with a one-hour finale episode titled “Last Day of Summer” on 12^th June 2015 to wrap up the entire show.

Four years after Phineas and Ferb had finished airing on Disney Channel, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, was announced in 2019. It was not going to be a theatrically released movie though but I’m sure that was not a concern for fans.

However, one thing that many questioned was when would Candace Against the Universe be set amidst the events of the series. Although Phineas and Ferb had four seasons’ worth of episodes, all of those episodes are set in one summer so this made fans question whether this movie would be taking place in that summer, a different summer, or not even during summer at all – though that last one would be unlikely. It was soon confirmed that Candace Against the Universe is set within the same summer of the whole series, meaning it takes place at some point before the Season 4 finale episode.

It was confirmed that Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe was in production during the D23 Expo in 2019 with a premiere date scheduled for some time in 2020. A brief description of the movie was given, with most of the voice cast announced to be reprising their roles from the series. The new voice actor for Ferb was also confirmed at this time[4].

In 2020, it was reported that the movie would premiere on Disney+ on 28^th August 2020. In preparation for the movie’s release, to build excitement and anticipation for fans, Disney XD aired all episodes of the series as well as Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension from 25^th August up to the premiere date[5].

The creators, director of the movie Bob Bowen, Ashley Tisdale, Vincent Martella, Dee Bradley Baker, and Maulik Pancholy, then announced a few behind-the-scenes details about the new movie at their virtual panel for San Diego Comic Con on 25^th July 2020. One of these was that the cast had to finish recording their dialogue and songs at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns in many countries[6]. After five years away, everyone seemed happy to be back in the world of Phineas and Ferb.

Within the movie, as usual for a Phineas and Ferb project, there are plenty of running gags and Easter eggs. The usual gags, like the jingles for Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the platypus, as well as the conversation about where Perry is, remain in Candace Against the Universe. Given this is a science-fiction-themed movie, there are also plenty of space-themed Easter eggs. For example, Space Adventure, the show that Baljeet is a big fan of and gets much of his space travel information from, is a spoof on the popular, long-running franchise Star Trek. There is also a quick reference to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), when Isabella is talking about bypassing the compressor system in Doofenshmirtz’s “Galactic-Travel-inator”; this is something Rey said in that movie. There is also a parody of Amazon Alexa in the alien mothership, which Candace engages with. As we all know, voice assistants are far from perfect when it comes to communication and understanding!

There were other references to modern day elements that did not exist in the Phineas and Ferb series since the world of technology and pop culture moves very fast these days. There is a song about “adulting” for example, a very annoying phrase that took off in the late-2010s by millennials who apparently need praise for doing basic “grown-up” tasks, like managing your finances, doing laundry, and cooking food… I don’t like this term so it was nice to have it poked fun at in Phineas and Ferb! Social media also makes an appearance, with Vanessa’s posts being a way of Dr. Doofenshmirtz figuring out she’s stuck on Feebla-Oot. Again, this is something that is seen all over social media, like “Help, I’m stuck in a terrifying place and don’t know what to do, but here’s a selfie to show just how terrified I really am!”. Not a good use of time if you really are lost or trapped somewhere. Put your phone away and use your brain – or just call someone. Flossing, as in the dance move, not the dental kind, shows up in this movie too.

Another detail that I found very clever is seen when the gang are travelling at twice the speed of light whilst stowed away on the mothership. Baljeet says he read a theory that says if you exceed the speed of light, your whole existence starts to break down. At this point, we see these animated characters turn into line drawings, then storyboards, and then we see Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh explaining this scene, breaking down the whole animation procedure to the audience. I really liked this small part of the movie.

MUSIC

Original music once again features prominently in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, as it did in the Phineas and Ferb series, as well as in their first movie, Across the 2^nd Dimension. The soundtrack for Candace Against the Universe was released on 28^th August 2020 to accompany the movie’s premiere. It consists of eleven original songs.

The opening song in Candace Against the Universe is “Such a Beautiful Day”, performed by Candace as she rides her bike home and tries to forget about what her brothers might be doing with their day, though she has limited success with her thoughts. Although this is the first song to feature in the movie, it was actually the last to be written, to replace an original opening scene of Candace busting her brothers as she normally does. It was felt that this would be too harsh an opening scene for non-fans of the show as the audience would need to be on Candace’s side to appreciate the story that was to come. This song was performed by Ashley Tisdale who said it was her favourite song in the film. “Such a Beautiful Day” was written by Dan Povenmire, co-creator of Phineas and Ferb, and screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick, who was a writer on Disney’s The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and Aardman Animations’ two Chicken Run movies, just to name a few credits.

This song was my favourite in the movie – I liked how it was all happy and positive one moment, and then angry the next – and one of few that I actually remembered the next day, because to be completely honest, I was not a fan of this whole soundtrack. “Such a Beautiful Day” was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song.

Another song I liked was “Unsung Hero”, performed by Olivia Olson. It plays as Perry is pushing all the asteroids away from the group in their spaceship so they don’t die. It was quite funny, particularly when the song refers to the fact Perry isn’t really an unsung hero anymore because he has a song about him that’s being sung right now! This song was written by both creators of Phineas and Ferb, Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh.

Following on from that, I didn’t mind the song “Adulting” because it was making fun of a phrase that I really don’t like. It was performed by Povenmire, as Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and Alyson Stoner, as Isabella, as they argue about who should lead the group to the alien fortress: Doofenshmirtz because he’s older, or Isabella because she has the skills and knowledge. This song was written by Povenmire and longtime Phineas and Ferb songwriters Martin Olson and Michael Culross Jr.

Outside of that, I wasn’t really bothered by the other songs in Candace Against the Universe. They were kind of amusing at the time, but I didn’t remember much of them afterwards. So, let’s start with “Meet Our Leader”, performed by the aliens as Candace arrives at the fortress to meet with Super Super Big Doctor. This was going to be a scary moment for Candace, but then she is greeted with a mini-Broadway-style production and this planet suddenly doesn’t seem so bad anymore! It was performed by Phineas and Ferb songwriter Danny Jacob, and frequent singer on Phineas and Ferb Laura Dickinson. It was written by Povenmire, Olson, and comedian Kate Micucci.

Another song performed with the aliens is “Girls Day Out”, when Candace spends the day with Super Super Big Doctor. It was sung by pop singer Sarah Hudson, and written by Povenmire and songwriter and producer Emanuel Kiriakou, who has collaborated with the likes of Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, and Jason Derulo. Then there is “This is Our Battle Song”, which is a song performed by the cast as they trick Super Super Big Doctor into getting into the fortress to save Candace. It was written by Povenmire and Phineas and Ferb writers Joshua Pruett and Robert F. Hughes.

There are two songs that reference the universe here too, which is quite apt given the title of the movie. The first is “The Universe is Against Me”, which Candace sings briefly in the movie when Vanessa is talking to Candace, as she feels so annoyed that she can’t bust her brothers successfully. It later appears as the second song in the End Credits. It was performed by Tisdale and written by Povenmire. It’s an angry rock song. In contrast, “Us Against the Universe” is the big finale number, as everyone comes together to celebrate their victory against the aliens. It’s an upbeat number and a fitting ending to the movie. It is performed by the whole cast and was written by Povenmire and Marsh.

Finally, there are two other End Credits song. The first is called “Silhouettes” and was performed by Robbie Wyckoff, a regular singer of Phineas and Ferb songs, written by Povenmire and Jacob. It is a rock ‘n’ roll song that didn’t appeal to me, much like how “Kick It Up a Notch” didn’t either in the End Credits of Across the 2^nd Dimension. The third End Credits song is “We’re Back”, which seems to have also been used as the promo song for this movie too. It was quite a fun song, and works very well as a marketing tool. It was performed by Tisdale as Candace, Vincent Martella as Phineas, and Povenmire as Doofenshmirtz and was written by Povenmire and Marsh.

So, that’s it for full songs heard in the movie, however, there are three other songs to mention. The first is the theme song to Baljeet’s favourite show, “Space Adventure”, which is played whenever Baljeet mentions events from the show. It’s a nice little tune, and clearly makes references to other space-set television series. The second is “Chop Away at My Heart”, originally written for Milo Murphy’s Law, and is meant to be a parody of typical boyband songs. It does sound quite like One Direction. In the movie, it is heard when the spaceship’s voice assistant mishears Candace saying “chop” not “stop” and plays the song for her. Both of these songs were performed by Danny Jacob.

Finally, there was one deleted song entitled “Step into the Great Unknown”. It was meant to take place in the movie at the time that Baljeet explains to the others just what scenario might be waiting for them on the other side of their portal to Feebla-Oot. This song was meant to be Phineas’ way of encouraging the others to help him and Ferb save Candace. It was performed by Phineas, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford’s voice actors, written by Povenmire and Olson. I don’t think I needed this song in the movie so I’m glad it was cut.

This song still features on the movie soundtrack though. The soundtrack reached No. 22 on the US Billboard Kids Albums, and No. 18 on US Billboard Soundtrack Albums, which is quite a bit lower than the No. 3 and No. 4 reached on these charts by the soundtrack for Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension.

RECEPTION

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe was released on Disney+ on 28^th August 2020. Being able to release this movie on the streaming platform meant it could reach viewers in multiple countries on the same day for a change. Candace Against the Universe was also the first animated Disney+ Original film.

I’ve used the term Disney+ Original film here, and not Disney Channel Original Movie. This is the factually correct term for Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, however, since its predecessor, Across the 2^nd Dimension was a Disney Channel Original Movie and because Candace Against the Universe was still produced by Disney Channel, and based on a Disney Channel series, it would’ve been unfair to miss it from my list of DCOM reviews. It is part of the same category as other movies such as Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020) which debuted on Disney+ on 25^th September 2020, but later debuted separately on Disney Channel. Candace Against the Universe premiered on Disney Channel much later than its Disney+ premiere, on 8^th April 2023.

Like Across the 2^nd Dimension, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe received 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from official critics’ reviews. Audience reviews were a bit more mixed, however, fans of the series were likely to enjoy it.

Many fans would have been disappointed about the series ending, but having even a standalone movie to recapture the nostalgic feeling of seeing Phineas and Ferb again would have been a welcomed treat for them. The positive reviews also said they liked that it was more adventurous with its sci-fi elements and that it had more an emotional, heartfelt message to it, like Candace realising she’s not been a good sister and her reunion with Phineas and Ferb when they finally save her from the aliens. Yet the same specific humour from the series remained, even with new characters and new storylines.

However, others said that Candace Against the Universe was not as good as Across the 2^nd Dimension, which I do agree with; I definitely laughed less at Candace Against the Universe. Some didn’t like that Phineas and Ferb, as well as Perry the platypus, weren’t in this story as much. If you didn’t like Candace, her being the centre of the movie would’ve made watching the movie less enjoyable. Some also picked up on the fact that the storyline here felt similar to Season 1 episode “Unfair Science Fair Redux (Another Story)” where Candace goes through a portal and ends up on Mars, becoming beloved by the Martians and dubbed their queen. There was a mixed reaction to the music in Candace Against the Universe, with some loving the music and others not. I didn’t find much of the music particularly memorable so it failed in that respect for me.

This movie may also have been a victim of pandemic boredom, where people were watching anything and everything that was new on streaming, whether they normally would’ve watched it or not, and had time to pick apart all the reasons they didn’t like it. There’s not a problem with doing this – everyone is entitled to their opinions – but I do think some movies unnecessarily suffered in their reviews because of these types of behaviours.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe did, however, still win a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Writing Team for a Daytime Animated Program on this movie. It was also nominated at the Kids’ Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie, but lost out to Pixar’s Soul (2020).

LEGACY

Despite having some breaks from being on our screens, Phineas and Ferb refuses to go away completely, having spin-off series and even Disney Parks appearances.

As well as the first movie, Across the 2^nd Dimension, there was also a series called Take Two with Phineas and Ferb, this being a spin-off short-form series which debuted in December 2010, running until November 2011, where Phineas and Ferb interviewed live-action celebrities. This series only lasted for one season. There were also two crossover episodes of the show which as part of Season 4, with these being called “Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel”, airing on 16^th August 2013, and “Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars”, airing on 26^th July 2014. These capitalised on the popularity of Phineas and Ferb, as well as Disney’s 2009 acquisition of Marvel, and their 2012 purchase of Star Wars, which led to a new movie in 2015: Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

After the conclusion of Phineas and Ferb, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh went on to create the series Milo Murphy’s Law (2016-19) for Disney Channel, which saw “Weird Al” Yankovic and Sabrina Carpenter lead the voice cast. Vincent Martella and Alyson Stoner, voices of Phineas and Isabella respectively, also voiced characters in this series, and some of the Phineas and Ferb characters made appearances in this series too in a crossover episode.

Moving away from TV, Phineas and Ferb even had a US live tour, entitled Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever. The original tour took place from August 2011 to April 2012, however, due to its popularity, a second tour began in August 2012, running until April 2013. The live shows featured some of the most loved musical numbers from the show with all the characters from the series, live on stage[7].

At Walt Disney World, there were a few Phineas and Ferb experiences. In Epcot, there used to be Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, which was an interactive game where gamers could complete challenges in many of the World Showcase country’s pavilions. Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure ran from 2012 until 2020. The game was later rethemed to be DuckTales World Showcase Adventure, beginning in December 2022.

For meet-and-greets, there was one at the Once Upon a Toy store in Disney Springs. Phineas and Ferb, and Agent P met guests here from around 2010. This likely closed when a permanent meet-and-greet experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Phineas and Ferb began in May 2011.. This meet-and-greet closed in January 2016 to make way for construction work to build Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Phineas and Ferb were also spotted at Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland; they could be seen during Phineas and Ferb’s Rockin’ Rollin’ Dance Party from 2011 to 2014.

In more recent years, Phineas and Ferb have been seen again, this time at Disney Hollywood Studios’ festive event Jollywood Nights both in its debut year in 2023, and in 2024. Also at Disney World, at Typhoon Lagoon, the two returned to the H20 Glow Nights event in Summer 2024, having been spotted at this after-hours event the year before.

There was also a Phineas and Ferb Dance Party at Disney Channel Nite at Disneyland Resort in March 2024. At Disneyland, but this time at Disney California Adventure Park, Dr. Doofenshmirtz made his debut at the Oogie Boogie Bash, Disneyland’s Halloween event. Dr. Doofenshmirtz was situated on a treat trail in a recreation of his headquarters. He appeared as a face character with lots of prosthetics, which made him look a bit disturbing to be honest…Finally, Phineas and Ferb seemed to have been at a special Passholder Night event at Disneyland Paris in 2024.

The most exciting news for Phineas and Ferb fans came in 2023, when new episodes of Phineas and Ferb were announced, 40 in total, to be split across two seasons. It will take place in a new “104 days of summer vacation”, presumably just the year after the events of Season 4. Further details have since been released throughout 2024. At New York Comic Con in October 2024, the voice cast for this new season was announced. It would consist of the same names as the series, and David Errigo Jr. was confirmed to be the permanent new voice of Ferb. It was also confirmed that it would premiere in 2025 on both Disney+ and Disney Channel, although a specific premiere date is still yet to be disclosed[8].

As Phineas and Ferb will be making a comeback very soon, it is likely these two characters, as well as possibly others from the series, will continue to make appearances at the Disney Parks. Those involved with the show would even like a theme park attraction based on the show to be created[9]. Only time will tell if that comes true.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Because of the popularity of Phineas and Ferb as a series, in 2011 a first feature-length movie was made, to include all the best moments and elements of the show and to give their viewers a whole new story, and even a new dimension to experience.

Thanks to the success of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, the series continued to air for another four years, before ending in 2015. But that was not the end of the story, as Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe came to Disney+ in 2020, giving fans yet another feature-length movie to watch, to see their favourite characters once more, five years after the series had ended. And still, that was not all because in 2024, it was announced that Phineas and Ferb would be returning to our screens in 2025.

For whatever reason, Phineas and Ferb has been a favourite Disney series for many for years, with the love for the show continuing from childhood into adulthood. Judging by the reaction to the revival of the show, it’s quite clear that the mania surrounding this show is not going away any time soon.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Anna Menta, ‘Yes, Tiffany Haddish Voices “The Sounds Someone Makes When They Explode” In the ‘Phineas and Ferb Movie’, Decider.com, 30^th August 2020.

[2] Credit: Stuart Dredge, ‘Phineas and Ferb co-creator: ‘children are much more intelligent than people give them credit for’, The Guardian.com, 4^th July 2013.

[3] Credit: Steven Zeitchik, ‘‘Phineas and Ferb’ gets the ‘Toy Story’ treatment’, LATimes.com, 27^th October 2011.

[4] Credit: Jessica Figueroa, ‘”Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe” Currently In Production for Disney+’, WDWNT.com, 25^th August 2019.

[5] Credit: Michael Schneider, ‘‘Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe’ Lands Premiere Date on Disney Plus’, Variety.com, 2^nd July 2020.

[6] Credit: Alex Reif, ‘Comic-Con@Home: What We Learned from Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe” Panel’, LaughingPlace.com, 25^th July 2020.

[7] Credit: Madeline Roth, ‘Disney’s Phineas And Ferb Live: The Best Live Tour Ever!’ To Adventure To Columbus’, TheLantern.com, 23^rd October 2012.

[8] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Disney’s ‘Phineas and Ferb’ Cast Announced at New York Comic Con’, TheWaltDisneyCompany.com, 17^th October 2024.

[9] Credit: Eva Miller, ‘D23 Reveals Ambitious Plans for ‘Phineas and Ferb’ Theme Park Attraction’, InsidetheMagic.net, 10^th August 2024.

15th Nov 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension (2011)

BACKGROUND

In amongst all the typical comedy series that air on Disney Channel, there are also a number of animated series that have debuted on the channel.

Some of these animated series are directly based on a Disney animated movie, such as Lilo & Stitch: The Series (2003-06), or The Emperor’s New School (2006-08). Other series that premiered on Disney Channel were based on original ideas such as Kim Possible (2002-07) and Phineas and Ferb (2007-15).

I have never been a huge fan of animated television series for some reason. I don’t really understand why as I love animated movies; I think it might have something to do with how silly animated cartoons can be. I liked a few though, don’t get me wrong, especially when I was little. I used to watch Cartoon Network so early in the morning that my parents had to put a parental lock on the TV to stop me waking them up! But as I started watching Disney Channel, the only animated series I enjoyed watching was Recess (1997-2003), which wasn’t a Disney Channel original, choosing instead to watch their live-action shows.

My sister was the one who liked Disney Channel’s animated programming: Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and American Dragon: Jake Long (2005-07). When Phineas and Ferb came out, she loved that show too. If I was being a nice little sister, I’d sit and watch these shows with her without complaining. Though I really didn’t like American Dragon, I was fine watching the other three shows I’ve mentioned.

There were elements of Phineas and Ferb that I liked. I liked Candace, the big sister character, but I think that was purely because she was voiced by Ashley Tisdale, a.k.a. Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise, my favourite character in those films. I also found Dr. Doofenshmirtz very funny, and the songs were pretty good, so it wasn’t too much of a chore to sit through episodes when my sister wanted to watch.

When we found out that Phineas and Ferb’s first movie, Across the 2^nd Dimension, was going to be released, I knew I’d have to let my sister watch it whenever she wanted to, and I did; we watched it together, and although it wasn’t my thing, I did quite like it. There were some moments where I laughed out loud, and again, I quite liked the music.

It’s a good movie, though fans of the show will appreciate it more. Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension was only Disney Channel’s third animated original movie, after Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama (2005) and The Proud Family Movie (2005).

PLOT

Across the 2^nd Dimension begins with a flashforward, as we see Phineas, Ferb, Candace, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz in chains, being led towards a huge, fluffy monster. As Phineas says “everything started out so well this morning”, we go back in time to that morning.

Half-brothers Phineas and Ferb are woken up by the sun and the noise of their pet platypus, Perry. It turns out this day is exactly five years since they both got Perry from a pet store, liking the fact that the cross-eyed platypus could look at both Phineas and Ferb at the same time, with the boys seeing this as some sort of sign! The plan was to call him Barthlomew, but in the end, the platypus was renamed to Perry.

Meanwhile, their sister Candace is figuring out what to do with her day and calls up her boyfriend Jeremy. Jeremy is busy, going with his dad to look at colleges, which reminds Candace that Jeremy is a whole year older than her and will be heading off to college soon. This motivates Candace to get rid of all her childish junk and finally act like a grown-up.

Phineas and Ferb have decided to create a huge game of badminton with their friends, Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet, creating two massive Perry-like catapults that will send a shuttlecock from the boys’ back garden over to the park. As they are about to try it out for the first time, they notice Perry has vanished, a normal occurrence, nothing to worry about.

Perry is actually a secret agent, known as Agent P. He is congratulated on his five years with the boys, as he was never just a normal platypus in a pet store but was assigned to this family. Agent P’s boss, Major Monogram, warns him that should his cover ever be blown, he will have to be reassigned. Agent P loves Phineas and Ferb so tries very hard to keep his secret, whilst also saving the world from the evil scientist, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who has grand schemes but is incapable of achieving them. Agent P is told to stop Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s latest invention, some sort of alternate reality device, and is given gadgets to help him on his mission. He is given a magnetic watch that can communicate with Major Monogram, although he is warned not to contact him between 3:30pm and 4:00pm as that is when he takes his shower… Oh yeah, and this watch can give people instant brain freeze!

Back home, Candace is told to look after the boys as her parents are going to see a movie. This gives Candace the opportunity to act like a grown-up and bust her brothers herself, something she has spent all summer trying to do, but at the moment she goes to show her mother the boys’ creations, they always disappear and the boys are never punished. Candace catches a glimpse of the huge “platypult” in the garden, but by the time she gets out there, the boys have been catapulted into the air on a huge shuttlecock and the platypult has vanished, giving Candace evidence that this “mysterious force” that always takes away the boys’ inventions now sees her as the adult, not just her mother.

Phineas and Ferb, on the shuttlecock, accidentally crash into Agent P in his hovercraft, though they don’t realise, and are knocked off course, crashing into Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s lair and into his “Other-Dimension-inator”, the exact thing Agent P was meant to be stopping. As the boys feel bad for breaking this guy’s machine, and don’t know he’s evil, they decide to help fix it, noticing issues with his wiring and his self-destruct button which would have stopped it from working properly. Agent P then arrives soon after, but quickly reverts back to normal Perry the platypus mode when he sees Phineas and Ferb there. Realising that the boys are making this invention work, Perry tries everything he can to stop them, including peeing on Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s sofa – nice… It doesn’t work though and the machine is used to show another dimension.

Phineas, Ferb, Perry, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz step into this alternate dimension and see that the Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is ruler of this alternate Tri-State Area, something that normal Dr. Doofenshmirtz has always tried to do. Dr. Doofenshmirtz heads over alone to meet his alternate dimension self. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz reveals that he turned the Alternate Agent P into a cyborg, who now works as one of his minions, along with his army of Norm Bots, something Dr. Doofenshmirtz has, but his Norm Bot has never shown much capacity for being evil… The boys soon arrive with Perry. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz instantly recognises Perry as being Agent P, however, Dr. Doofenshmirtz cannot see it, as the platypus isn’t standing on two legs or wearing his secret agent hat. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz shows he’s right by having his platypus cyborg attack the boys. Sure enough, Agent P reveals himself to everyone to save Phineas and Ferb. They are attacked by the Alternate Norm Bots and the cyborg, with Agent P having to get the boys to safety. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz then decides to take over the other Tri-State Area.

Phineas is furious with Perry for his deceit and his double life, struggling to move past it. He uses the remote for the Other-Dimension-inator, which he luckily kept with him, but the portal does not show their dimension. They decide to enlist the help of their alternate selves to get home. But Alternate Phineas and Alternate Ferb are not the creative geniuses they are in the “real world”. Instead, thanks to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s iron-fisted rule, the boys live in a grey world full of fear and anxiety. They aren’t going to be much help… A television announcement then plays telling Agent P to hand himself in to save Phineas and Ferb from any further harm. As he is about to secretly leave, Phineas sees him and accuses him of ditching them. Phineas angrily tells Perry/Agent P to go, and he sadly does.

Phineas then says they need to find Alternate Isabella, who the boys in this dimension have never met, but luckily, she only lives next door. As they head over there, a Norm Bot spots them and tries to attack. Alternate Buford saves them, and takes them over to the Resistance, which consists of alternate versions of all their friends, and is led by none other than Alternate Candace! They are told by Alternate Baljeet to picture dimensions as moving in a clockwise direction, with the remote showing the next dimension along from where they are. It is easier to travel in this direction, although the number of dimensions they would need to get through to get home is unknown. The Resistance can redirect the power to open up the portal to their home, however, it is unsteady. As the boys learn that Perry needs saving from Alternate Doofenshmirtz, who now needs the boys to fix his own version of the “Other-Dimension-inator” in order to conquer their Tri-State area, they decide not to go through. Alternate Baljeet says he’ll try to keep it open but it may not last too long. Suddenly, Candace jumps through into this alternate dimension, causing the portal to close. Candace believed this was the “mysterious force” – it wasn’t…

The Resistance then take Phineas, Ferb, and Candace to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters via mine carts in the underground tunnels so they can save Perry. However, when they arrive there, it is revealed that they have walked into a trap. Using some quick-thinking, Perry/Agent P realises it is between 3:30pm and 4:00pm and uses his watch to call Major Monogram, who, sure enough, is in the shower. This holographic image makes both Dr. Doofenshmirtzs avert their eyes, letting the others escape. They are pursued by Norm Bots. A fire begins on one of the mine carts, slowing down the train. Alternate Candace makes the decision to cut lose Phineas, Ferb, and Candace’s end of the train so she can save her own brothers. They are captured.

Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz orders Phineas to fix the “Other-Dimension-inator”. Phineas refuses, even when faced with a hand puppet, which Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz believes should have managed to convince him! Dr. Doofenshmirtz then remembers what the boys told him back home about the wiring and the self-destruct button. Making some changes, the machine now works. As there is no use for the boys, Candace, Agent P, or Dr. Doofenshmirtz anymore, they are sent to their doom. This “doom” consists of being fed to a huge, fluffy monster, as per the opening sequence. Suddenly, Alternate Candace arrives, flying across the room on a giant gnome statue, throwing Phineas the remote that he left back at Resistance Headquarters. He uses the remote just as the group are about to fall, all chained together, and they disappear into another dimension, with the monster following them – though much of its body doesn’t make it through the small portal so it gets freaked out and runs off! They unlock themselves from their chains, however, some of the Norm Bots have followed them through the portal, whilst others have captured Alternate Candace.

The group, chased by Norm Bots, run through multiple dimensions, finally making it home, however, Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is already here and has sent his Norm Bots to attack their city of Danville, to make the people conform to his new world order. Agent P runs off to save the day, giving Phineas and Ferb his pet collar first. They go off home, believing there is nothing more they can do. Dr. Doofenshmirtz, meanwhile, tries to get into his penthouse where Alternate Doofenshmirtz is enacting his plan.

At home, Phineas and Ferb begin to hear noises coming from the collar. They follow the noises and are led to a tunnel in the wall, which takes them to Agent P’s secret lair. They are instructed to open up the collar’s locket and uses it as a key to the supercomputer. After doing this, they then see that all their inventions from the summer are being 3D-printed. Phineas and Ferb enlist all their friends to use these inventions to fight the Norm Bots. Other animal secrets agents, of which Agent P is just one, also get in on the battle. Candace decides she has to show her mother what is going on, as she knows the “mysterious force” will remove all trace of the battle if she does.

Agent P takes Phineas up to battle Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz and close the portal. Agent P fights the cyborg, and Phineas fights Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz, but nothing seems to be working. The cyborg is electrified and immobilised, but the portal is still open. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz then gets hold of Phineas’ baseball glove invention, and shoots a baseball right at Phineas. Agent P throws him a bat, and Phineas manages to hit the baseball right into the portal, breaking it and closing it. The Norm Bots fall from the sky and Ferb shows up. But Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz has one more trick up his sleeve, revealing a huge robot version of himself, where he controls it…from the sleeve. As Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is about to throw a punch, Dr. Doofenshmirtz comes in and shows Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz a toy train. Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz lost his as a child and this turned him evil. As Dr. Doofenshmirtz hands over his own toy train, Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s backstory is finally resolved. He self-destructs all the Norm Bots and goes back home.

Back in his dimension, Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz is promptly arrested by the Resistance, with Alternate Candace being freed from prison by her brothers and Alternate Jeremy, who she’d never met before. Then, Alternate Candace, Phineas, and Ferb come through to thank everyone for their help, and they also take home the cyborg, who was their pet, and has since reverted back to normal platypus mode. Candace also encourages Alternate Candace to date Alternate Jeremy, something she says she’ll think about.

Major Monogram arrives to say Agent P must be reassigned as his cover was blown today. The boys are devastated over this and wish there was another way. Major Monogram and his assistant, Carl, then remember Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s “Amnesia-inator”, which they can use to wipe their memories of the day. Everything goes back to normal, with only Agent P having fond memories of it, uploading photos of their adventure onto his supercomputer.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Phineas and Ferb are half-brothers who are very close, almost inseparable. They aren’t the type of kids who want to spend their summer staying inside, watching TV, or playing on video games. They want to get outside, be creative, and have some fun. The two are used to creating huge-scale inventions with their friends, but going to an alternate dimension, finding out their pet platypus is a secret agent, and being chased around by weird robots is a little out of even their comfort zone! They tackle this situation with their usual intelligence, loyalty, and quick-thinking and get out of it unharmed, along with all their friends and their favourite sister, Candace. Although Phineas and Ferb are similar in many ways, one big difference between them is the amount that the brothers talk. Ferb rarely says much outside of the occasional clever one-liner, whereas Phineas is the chatty one.

Phineas was voiced by Vincent Martella. Martella is also known for his role as Greg Wuliger in Everybody Hates Chris (2005-09), for which he was nominated for a Teen Choice Award and two Young Artists Awards. Thomas Brodie-Sangster voiced Ferb. As a child actor, Brodie-Sangster was cast as Sam in Love Actually (2003), and then as Simon in Nanny McPhee (2005). In more recent years, he is known for his roles as Rafe Sadler in the BBC series Wolf Hall (2015-present); as Jack Dawkins / Dodger in The Artful Dodger (2023-present); and as Newt in The Maze Runner movie trilogy.

Candace is Phineas and Ferb’s sister whose main aim in life is to bust her brothers and get them in trouble for all the things they do during the summer. This has never worked before, because every time Candace manages to drag her mother away from whatever she’s doing to come and see what the boys are doing, the invention magically disappears and everything seems normal. In Across the 2^nd Dimension, Candace has decided to be an adult, wanting to bust her brothers herself, but when she tries to, she finds that this “mysterious force” that hides all the boys’ creations has taken it away before even she can see it, leading her to believe that she is actually an adult. But because of her obsession with this force, Candace then jumps through the portal into the next dimension and is stuck in the middle of a battle between good and evil with her brothers – not exactly what she expected! But by working with her brothers, instead of against them, they manage to get home and defeat Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Candace was voiced by Ashley Tisdale, best known for her role as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise, at least amongst Disney fans, reprising her role in the movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (2011). Also for Disney, Tisdale starred as Maddie Fitzpatrick in the series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08). In more recent years, she was cast as Kayla in the Netflix series Merry Happy Whatever (2019), and was a panellist on The Masked Dancer (2020-21). Tisdale has been an executive producer on some Disney projects, such as the DCOM Cloud 9 (2014) and the ABC series Young & Hungry (2014-18).

Perry the platypus is Phineas and Ferb’s pet, however, he is actually a secret agent, Agent P, something that the audience already knows, but until this movie, the boys had no idea; they just thought Perry wandered off for a nap every day. What Perry, or Agent P, has actually been doing is stopping Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil schemes to take over the Tri-State Area. If Phineas and Ferb hadn’t accidentally ended up at Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s headquarters, then they wouldn’t have gotten involved in Agent P’s mission and he would never have had to reveal his secret agent status to them in order to save their lives. It’s quite sad how annoyed Phineas is with Perry for the “deceit” and it clearly hurts Perry quite a lot. Agent P does successfully complete his mission, with Phineas and Ferb beside him, and, ironically, one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s inventions actually help them stay together, as it wipes all their memories of that day, so Perry can still be part of the family.

Agent P’s boss is Major Monogram, who is quite formal and serious, but seems to be pleased with Agent P’s work as a secret agent. Major Monogram can make jokes when he wants to, but in Across the 2^nd Dimension, the joke is mostly on him, especially when Agent P uses a hologram of Major Monogram in the shower to distract the two Dr. Doofenshmirtzs despite being told not to call him at that time, as that is his shower time. We also see Major Monogram’s unpaid intern, Carl, here, who tries his best to do a good job for Major Monogram, but he is hard to please! Major Monogram was voiced by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, one of the creators of Phineas and Ferb. Carl was voiced by Tyler Alexander Mann.

Now for the best character in the whole show: Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Dr. Doofenshmirtz has some great ideas for how to conquer the Tri-State Area, but due to his ineptness and incompetence, his inventions and various “-inators” rarely work and even when they do, Agent P is a very efficient secret agent, so he manages to foil all of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s plans before they really get off the ground. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is much too funny and lovable to be an evil ruler anyway, so it’s probably for the best! Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz, however, is the opposite and has managed to rule his Tri-State Area, with big robots and a cyborg platypus, which makes the real Dr. Doofenshmirtz feel a bit lesser. He is mocked by his alternate self for not recognising Agent P unless he has his secret agent hat on, and is found to be quite annoying by his alternate self, which must really destroy your self-confidence… Dr. Doofenshmirtz normally has some of the best lines in Phineas and Ferb, with my favourite one in this film being: “If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?” That line always makes me laugh; it’s just so random! Dr. Doofenshmirtz was voiced by the other creator of Phineas and Ferb, Dan Povenmire, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his voice performance in this movie in 2012.

Outside of these main characters, there are numerous others that appear in Phineas and Ferb and Across the 2^nd Dimension. These include Isabella, who has a crush on Phineas and is the leader of a girl scout troop in the real world, and part of the Resistance in the Alternate Dimension, and Jeremy, who is Candace’s boyfriend in their dimension, and a Resistance leader in the 2^nd Dimension. Isabella was voiced by Alyson Stoner, who was cast as Caitlyn in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), after appearing as Max in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, and as Sarah Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and its 2005 sequel. Jeremy was voiced by Mitchell Musso, known for his role as Oliver in Hannah Montana (2006-11), and as King Brady in Pair of Kings (2010-13).

Two more of Phineas and Ferb’s friends are Baljeet and Buford. Baljeet is intelligent and polite, however this makes him a target for Buford, who is a bit of a bully at times, but sometimes isn’t. Sometimes, he wants to help and be part of the group. In Across the 2^nd Dimension, he is much less of a bully and more of a friend, although Alternate Buford is resisting the Resistance group, so he’s not all that helpful. Alternate Baljeet is though, as he figures out two methods for the boys to get back home. Buford was voiced by Bobby Gaylor, who is one of the story writers on the show; and Baljeet was voiced by Maulik Pancholy. Pancholy had previously appeared as Jonathan in the comedy series 30 Rock (2006-13).

Finally, I just want to briefly mention the voice actors of Phineas, Ferb, and Candace’s parents. Phineas and Candace’s mother, Linda, is voiced by Caroline Rhea, well-known for her role as Hilda Spellman in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003). Richard O’Brien voiced Ferb’s father, Lawrence. O’Brien is best known for writing the musical, The Rocky Horror Show, before starring in the 1975 film adaptation. For UK viewers, he is also known as the original host of the game show The Crystal Maze (1990-2020).

All the voice actors here reprised their roles from the main series, and the Alternate Dimension versions of these characters use the same voice actors. Although there is one big name still to mention who only has a small cameo in Across the 2^nd Dimension. That is Doris Roberts, best known for her role as Marie Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-05). Roberts voiced Mrs. Thompson, Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s elderly neighbour in this movie.

PRODUCTION

The first episode of Phineas and Ferb debuted on 17^th August 2007 on Disney Channel, and a second episode was aired on 28^th September 2007. The full first season then officially premiered on 1^st February 2008, running until February 2009. A second season aired straight after, finishing in February 2011. It was closely followed by a third season which began airing in March 2011, and ended in November 2012.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension premiered on 5^thAugust 2011, partway through Season 3, between Episode 17 “Road Trip” and Episode 18 “Tour de Ferb”. The show does not have a major overarching storyline though, so there is no real need to watch it at this specific point in the season.

Phineas and Ferb quickly became one of Disney Channel’s most popular series, gaining millions of viewers in the years since its first broadcast. Although there was a rumour that spread online a few years ago, saying that the idea behind Phineas and Ferb was based on a true story about a mentally ill girl in Russia, this is not the true story of how Phineas and Ferb came to be.

At the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield in 2013, co-creator of the show, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh spoke about the origins of the animated series. Marsh said that he first got interested in working in animation around his late-20s, becoming a background artist on The Simpsons (1989-present) in the early 1990s. He then went on to work on other series, such as Rocko’s Modern Life (1993-96), moving into writing and directing. This is where Marsh and Dan Povenmire started discussing their plans for a new animated series. Dan Povenmire later worked as a director on Family Guy (1999-present), whilst Marsh moved over to work on King of the Hill (1997-2009).

Around 1993, Marsh and Povenmire had already developed the idea for Phineas and Ferb, after noticing that kids didn’t seem to go out and do anything anymore, this becoming the whole premise of the show. I’m sure the irony of creating a television show for kids, to be watched inside, to encourage them to go outside and do things hasn’t been lost on the creators! The idea was later pitched to numerous networks, including Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Fox Kids, before Disney agreed to move forward with it around 2006[1]. As well as using their experience of working on prior animated series, it has been said that the creators were inspired by British children’s shows such as Danger Mouse (1981-92) and Tiswas (1974-82), as well as American ones, like Sesame Street (1969-present) and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959-64).

As Disney Channel doesn’t have many animated series, unlike other networks such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, it was felt that Phineas and Ferb would be able to compete with them now. The creators wanted the show to be bright and colourful, and created their characters based on geometric shapes, something they learnt from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, to make them easy to draw. They also loved music, so wanted to put their own songs into the show. These have remained popular with viewers, even outside of the show. I still remember many of them and I didn’t even watch the show all that much! It was also decided that the series should not be set in a school, as so many other animated children’s shows have been[2].

Phineas and Ferb successfully managed to attract major stars to come and voice characters in the show, including Selena Gomez, chef Jamie Oliver, presenter Jonathan Ross, and even Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond from Top Gear, who voiced racing commentators in one episode.

The series won a Daytime Emmy in 2010 for Outstanding Writing in Animation, and three Primetime Emmy Awards to Jill Daniels and Brian Woods for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. It has also been nominated for numerous other awards, including for its music and its voice performances.

It has been stated that this movie was first announced by Jeff “Swampy” Marsh in a January 2010 interview, however, I have been unable to find that interview to confirm that this is when Across the 2^nd Dimension was first confirmed to be in development. Regardless, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension was a natural way of extending the reach of the already popular show, something that Disney Channel are used to doing with other DCOMs based on series, and gave more opportunity for the visual gags, music, Easter eggs, and clever writing that the show is loved for.

Some of these are running gags that appear in both the series and the movie. For example, in the film, the usual “Hey, where’s Perry?”, and “Oh, there you are, Perry” lines from Phineas, as well as Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil jingle, will be familiar to fans of the series, along with the inventions used during the battle with the Norm Bots, which appeared in previous episodes of the show. There are references to elements of pop culture too, such as the musical scenes parodying other bands such as The Beatles, and Phineas lifting Perry up like Rafiki does to Simba in The Lion King (1994) in the opening musical song.

MUSIC

Since original music is a unique addition to Phineas and Ferb as a series, it only makes sense for Across the 2^nd Dimension to feature even more original songs. This movie does in fact feature nine original songs, plus one deleted song.

This deleted song is called “Mysterious Force”, sung by Ashley Tisdale as Candace, where she talks about how she has always failed to bust her brothers, supposedly because this force takes all of her brothers’ inventions away at exactly the wrong – or right – moment[3]. No song in this movie is bad, including this one, but it’s not my favourite.

My favourite song is “Brand New Best Friend” which Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz sings alongside his alternate dimension self, talking about all their similarities. It all seems to be going well, but Alternate Doofenshmirtz ends up getting annoyed with Dr. Doofenshmirtz and their friendship goes downhill fairly quickly…It’s a funny song, as it should be, since it features the funniest character in the whole show.

I also like “Summer (Where Do We Begin?)”, which Phineas sings to their alternate selves, as they have never had a summer in this alternate dimension, thanks to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s rule over the Tri-State Area. Phineas and Ferb are telling them all about how great summer is and all the things you can do. They also start singing part of the series’ theme song, “Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day”, during this song. It’s very catchy and parts of it get stuck in my head randomly.

Of the other songs on the soundtrack and in the film, I don’t like them as much but they’re still fine to listen to and add to the story. One of these is “Robot Riot” sung by the in-series rock band Love Händel, but actually by Dan Povenmire and Jaret Reddick from band Bowling for Soup, during the battle against the Norm Bots. Following on from the successful battle and defeat of Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz, just before the End Credits, the song “Takin’ Care of Things” is briefly heard as Agent P uploads his photos from the day. It’s a nice, upbeat song to finish the film. It is performed by Dan Povenmire and Danny Jacob. The End Credits song is “Kick It Up a Notch” sung by Phineas and Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash.

Two more songs in the movie are “Everything’s Better with Perry” and “Brand New Reality”. “Everything’s Better with Perry” is the opening song for the movie, which is performed by Robbie Wyckoff. It plays as Phineas and Ferb look forward to another summer’s day with their best friend Perry. It’s very upbeat and positive, as we should all aim to feel at the start of a new day but rarely manage to! “Brand New Reality” is also performed by Robbie Wyckoff and it plays as the gang race through multiple dimensions to get home as they are chased by Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s Norm Bots.

There are two other songs in this movie that I did like but don’t make it on the soundtrack, probably because they are both only heard briefly. The first is “Baljeet Explanation”, performed by Alternate Baljeet, as he explains how Phineas and Ferb can travel back or forward through dimensions. It’s not a song at all, really, but I still like it – it’s funny and so random. Alternate Baljeet is quite right though – it did need a chorus! The other is “I Walk Away”, performed by Olivia Olson. It’s a sad song to match Perry’s sadness as he hands himself over to Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz after basically being told by Phineas to get lost and leave them alone. It would’ve been nice to have a full version of this song.

Most of the songs in Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension are included in the soundtrack Phineas and Ferb: Across the 1^st and 2^nd Dimensions, alongside songs from the series. This soundtrack was released on 4^th August 2011, a day before the premiere of the movie. “Mysterious Force” is included on the soundtrack, despite being cut from the movie. The soundtrack peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard Soundtrack Albums chart; at No. 3 on the US Billboard Kid Albums; and at No. 57 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

All of the songs here were written by Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, the creators of the series, at least in part. The two were joined by Slash to write “Kick It Up a Notch”, with composer Danny Jacob also credited. Bowling for Soup’s lead vocalist, Jaret Reddick, whose band perform the Phineas and Ferb theme song, is credited as co-writing “Robot Riot” alongside the creators and Martin Olson, comedy writer and composer. Other co-writers of songs within this movie include Aliki Theofilopoulos, who was a storyboard artist and writer on Phineas and Ferb, as well as an animator on Disney movies such as Hercules (1997) and Tarzan (1999), who co-wrote “Everything’s Better with Perry” with Antoine Guilbaub; Jon Colton Barry and Robert Forrest Hughes are credited on “Summer (Where Do We Begin?)”; and James Bernstein on “Brand New Reality”. Many of these songwriters and composers had worked on previous songs for the series.

RECEPTION

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension was promoted in various ways, prior to its premiere date.

One of these was through a promotional tour, which featured Perry the Platy-bus. The tour kicked off in New York City’s Times Square on 11^th July 2011, stopping off at cities on its journey to San Diego Comic Con, which took place from 21^st to 24^th July 2011. At the San Diego Comic Con, the creators and some of the voice cast were on hand to discuss the new movie and even show a sneak preview of it.

The official premiere of Across the 2^nd Dimension took place on 4^th August 2011 at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, with a small parade and characters of Phineas, Ferb, and Agent P being around to have pictures taken with all the cast and other attendees.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension finally premiered on Disney Channel on 5^th August 2011. It then aired a week later on Disney XD, and then on 20^th August on ABC, before the movie was rolled out to other countries between August and November 2011[4]. Apparently, this movie was theatrically released in Spain.

Across the 2^nd Dimension received some very positive reviews, including receiving 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from official critics’ reviews. Fans of the show were pleased to find that this feature-length episode was full of all the elements from the series that they loved, such as songs, spoofs, Easter eggs, and inside jokes and running gags. Others found the movie to be highly quotable – as I do – and liked the vibrant animation. It was seen to be a very funny family-friendly film.

There were a few negative comments about the movie, though nothing major, but some that I agree with in part. One of these was that Phineas was incredibly hostile to Perry at times during the movie, which is quite out of character for the usually calm, upbeat Phineas. It was strange to see Phineas so angry with Perry for hiding his identity. Has this kid not seen spy films? It’s imperative that spies keep their identities hidden, so I would’ve expected Phineas to have understood that, and be surprised to find out his beloved pet was a secret agent, but not have been so hard on him. Another was that the ending was seen to be a “cop out”, as handily, all the characters’ memories of the day could be wiped away in a second, meaning that nothing had to change. It was quite an easy way to end the movie, but I do understand that more of the series was going to be aired afterwards, so they couldn’t do much in terms of altering the events of the series.

Others also said they were disappointed to find that the character of Vanessa, Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s daughter, did not make an appearance in Across the 2^nd Dimension. I always liked Vanessa, so I can see why this would be disappointing. Vanessa was included in two different scenes that were dropped from the final cut of the film. Vanessa was going to be teasing Dr. Doofenshmirtz for “playing with his doll”, when she walks in on him explaining his new plan to a stand-in Perry the platypus “doll”, before going home to her mother. Alternate Vanessa would have also made an appearance in a separate scene, arguing with Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz about how he has banished yet another of her boyfriends, before saying she is also going back home to her mother[5].

I think these parallel scenes would have been an appreciated addition to the movie, but for whatever reason, they were not included. Fun fact for anyone that isn’t already aware: the voice of Vanessa is provided by Olivia Olson, who played Joanna, the girl in Love Actually that Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s character, Sam, has a crush on and runs through Heathrow Airport for. Vanessa and Ferb also become a couple as seen in Season Four episode “Act Your Age”, set ten years in the future. This could be disturbing, given their age gap during the main series’ events, or cute, depending on who you talk to!

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension was watched by 7.6 million viewers on its premiere date, and later became cable’s No.1 movie of 2011. It currently stands at No. 10 in the Top 10 most-watched DCOM premieres ever.

LEGACY

Phineas and Ferb has continued to be relevant in the entertainment and media industry, with spin-offs or sequels from both the movie and the series having been released.

The series Take Two with Phineas and Ferb was a spin-off short-form series which debuted in December 2010, running until November 2011, where Phineas and Ferb interviewed live-action celebrities, with guests including Miss Piggy, David Beckham, Taylor Swift, and Jack Black. This series only lasted for one season.

As well as a video game based on the movie, a further direct spin-off from Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension was created in the form of the Season Four episode “Tales from the Resistance: Back to the 2^nd Dimension”. This episode is set two months after the events of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension. With Alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz in prison, Alternate Candace and the Resistance face a new threat in the city of Danville and must work to stop it.

Two crossover episodes of the show were also aired as part of Season 4, with these being called “Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel”, airing on 16^th August 2013, and “Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars”, airing on 26^th July 2014. These capitalised on the popularity of Phineas and Ferb, as well as Disney’s 2009 acquisition of Marvel, and their 2012 purchase of Star Wars, which led to a new movie in 2015: Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

As mentioned, these were all episodes from Season 4, which aired from December 2012 to June 2015, with this being the show’s final season. The whole series concluded with an hour-long episode entitled “Last Day of Summer” on 12^th June 2015.

Phineas and Ferb has also been one of the few Disney Channel properties to have any references at the Disney Parks, outside of a few pieces of merchandise.

At Walt Disney World, in Epcot, there used to be Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure, which was an interactive game where gamers could complete challenges in many of the World Showcase country’s pavilions to help Agent P, and it used actual mobile phone devices originally. This is because the original name of this game was Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure, and one of the main features of that show was the “Kimmunicator” flip-phone. The 2000s and early 2010s were not exactly high-tech, but I liked holding the phone and having to secretly place it in a box at the end of the mission so that it could be used by another “agent”. Anyway, Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure later became playable on guests’ own smartphones around 2016, and then was played through the official Play Disney Parks app. The Kim Possible-themed game began in 2009 and ran until 2012, when it was replaced with the Agent P theming. Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure ran until 2020. The game was later rethemed to be DuckTales World Showcase Adventure, beginning in December 2022.

At the Once Upon a Toy store in what was then called Downtown Disney but is now called Disney Springs, Phineas and Ferb, and Agent P met guests here from around 2010. This likely closed when a permanent meet-and-greet experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Phineas and Ferb began in May 2011. The premise was that the boys were spending their time at the park filming a movie, so there were props like blow-up guitars and clapper boards that guests could use in their photos with the characters. It was situated behind the Muppet*Vision 3D exit and near to Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano. Agent P was also spotted here in August 2011 to promote Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension. This meet-and-greet closed in January 2016 to make way for construction work to build Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Also, from September to December 2012, there was an augmented reality attraction based on Phineas and Ferb at then-Downtown Disney. It allowed guests to have random short encounters and photographs with some of the Phineas and Ferb characters. It was called Phineas and Ferb and You: A Brand New Reality.

Phineas and Ferb were also spotted at Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort for Mickey and Minnie’s Surprise Celebration in 2019. At Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland, they could be seen during Phineas and Ferb’s Rockin’ Rollin’ Dance Party from 2011 to 2014. This was a short parade and dance party, and was the same parade that was performed at the Across the 2^nd Dimension official movie premiere.

There was even a Phineas and Ferb segment during the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade in 2011, which saw Phineas and Ferb, and the Fireside Girls dance to their song “Gitchee Gitchee Goo”, with Agent P along for the ride too.

In 2011, shortly after the release of Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, there was talk about a new Phineas and Ferb movie being developed that would be theatrically released sometime around Summer 2013. One of the writers of Toy Story 3 (2010), Michael Arndt, was supposedly attached to the film and it was said that the movie would mix live-action and animation[7]. This movie was quietly removed from Disney’s production schedule. It wasn’t until a new movie, Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, was announced in 2019 that it was confirmed that this theatrical film was cancelled. At least announcing a new movie would have softened the blow for fans!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Phineas and Ferb was developed to teach children how to be creative over their summer break, and to make the most of their time away from school. Not by watching television, or playing video games, but by getting outside, making up your own games, and just generally having a great time with friends.

Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension was a success amongst fans of the Phineas and Ferb series, probably because it felt very much like an extended episode of the show, just with a more expansive storyline, taking the gang away from their usual setting of Danville, or just the boys’ backyard, and moving them into a whole other dimension, where they encountered alternate versions of themselves.

Although kids can’t go making themselves portals to go to other dimensions in real-life, the movie showed how getting outside your comfort zone can be a fun experience. With Candace’s journey in the movie, another message was also taught: that you don’t get much time to be a kid, so enjoy it while you can. Don’t be in a hurry to grow up, or you’ll miss out on all the fun.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Stuart Dredge, ‘Phineas and Ferb co-creator: ‘children are much more intelligent than people give them credit for’, The Guardian.com, 4^th July 2013.

[2] Credit: Brian Boone, ‘The Untold Truth Of Phineas and Ferb’, Looper.com, 31^st January 2023.

[3] Credit: Disney, “Phineas and Ferb: Across The 2^nd Dimension 2011 DVD Overview”, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 19^th February 2024.

[4] Credit: Jon Weisman, ‘First look: ‘Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2^nd Dimension’, Variety.com, 6^th June 2011.

[5] Credit: Disney, “Phineas and Ferb: Across The 2^nd Dimension 2011 DVD Overview”, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 19^th February 2024.

[6] Credit: Madeline Roth, ‘Disney’s Phineas And Ferb Live: The Best Live Tour Ever!’ To Adventure To Columbus’, TheLantern.com, 23^rd October 2012.

[7] Credit: Steven Zeitchik, ‘‘Phineas and Ferb’ gets the ‘Toy Story’ treatment’, LATimes.com, 27^th October 2011.

25th Oct 202430th Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009)

BACKGROUND

Being on a long-running television show is said to be steady work to many in the entertainment industry, which can be difficult and fickle at times.

Disney Channel have had their fair share of long-running series, which allow young actors to find their feet and figure out their acting style, ready for when the time comes for them to move on from Disney into more mainstream projects. This is also the same for other children’s networks, such as Nickelodeon or CBBC.

Sometimes, if a television series is popular enough, a television movie, or even a theatrically-released feature film, will be made to extend the reach of the series, push its characters to the brink with a longer, more intricate story, or to wrap up the show after it has ended. I grew up watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003) and re-runs of Saved by the Bell (1989-93) and both of these series had two television movies. Sabrina Spellman went off to Rome and the Great Barrier Reef, and Zack Morris and friends went to Hawaii and Las Vegas. I loved all four of these movies, and enjoyed getting the opportunity to see my favourite characters in a new location, dealing with troubles outside their everyday lives.

Wizards of Waverly Place premiered on Disney Channel in 2007. It followed the life of Alex, a teenager and middle child in a family of three kids. Her and her brothers are wizards-in-training, under the supervision of their father. The Russo family also runs a sandwich shop in New York City. The show ran for four seasons, ending in January 2012.

In 2009, the time came for Disney Channel to extend the reach of Wizards of Waverly Place, a very popular series at the time, by giving it the television movie treatment, and adding it to their never-ending list of official Disney Channel Original Movies.

In this case, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was created to allow the characters to delve further into their magical abilities by making a more complex storyline for them. This feature-length movie also moved the Russos to an exotic location as so many TV series-based movies do. That’s right, the Russos were going on vacation: to the Caribbean.

I watched Wizards of Waverly Place when it first premiered on the channel, but I never finished the whole thing. I think I watched most of Season 1 and parts of Season 2 and 3, but it wasn’t something I avidly followed. Come to think of it, I didn’t “finish” all that many Disney Channel series. I watched Lizzie McGuire (2001-04), That’s So Raven (2003-07) and Sonny with a Chance (2009-11) all the way through, but I think that was it.

So that means I’d never seen Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie before. It was quite interesting to be back with the Russos after so many years, and even though I obviously wasn’t a big time fan of the series, I did still like the movie.

PLOT

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie begins at the Russos’ iconic Sub Station restaurant. Alex has discovered her brother Justin’s bag sitting on a table. She decides to have a sneaky look at what he’s got in there, but soon finds herself being sucked into it. Alex’s parents and Justin come into the restaurant and see Alex in some difficulty. It turns out Justin put a spell on his bag to stop people looking through it when he’s not around. Alex begs him to get her out of the bag, so he does. But Alex reveals the family’s magic wand and the Book of Forbidden Spells in there. She reveals her discovery to her parents. Surprisingly, they aren’t bothered, and that’s because Justin had been given them by their father, to allow for further study, because Justin is the most responsible Russo child. This makes Alex jealous.

Alex’s parents then announce they are going out for the evening. Alex’s friend Harper arrives, giving Alex the opportunity to ask her parents if they go can to a party that night. Her parents say she cannot, and that them allowing Alex to stay with Harper whilst Justin, her parents, and Max, her other brother, go on family vacation means she shouldn’t try to push the subject any further; Alex is told to stay inside.

Well, that works for Alex, because she has magic. Using a spell from the Book of Forbidden Spells, which she did not return to Justin, she enchants the subway cart in their restaurant to go on the actual New York City subway to get to the party, with Harper on board. Harper tells Alex that they are going the wrong way, so she attempts to reverse their direction, but unsurprisingly for Alex, her spell isn’t working out the way she hoped. As they are about to crash with real subway trains, Alex attempts to magic them out of there.

Alex and Harper find themselves back at the restaurant; she did it. Except she didn’t – Justin was the one to return them and the subway car with his own magic. The subway car looks a little worse for wear, and as the parents come back home, the whole thing falls apart. Harper goes home, and Alex is ordered to pack for the family vacation; she’ll be going with them now as her punishment. To make matters worse, Alex’s mother bans all magic from this vacation, telling her kids to leave their wands and spell books at home.

On the way to their vacation in the Caribbean, Alex’s mother bores everyone with her stories about how her and their father met at this exact resort they are going to. When they finally arrive at the hotel, Alex wants nothing more than to escape her family. But she’s not allowed. It’s Forced Family Fun Time! In the day, they spend time at the beach and visit the historic sights, but by night, we learn that Justin brought the Family Wand to the vacation, and Alex still has the Book of Forbidden Spells, breaking the no-magic rule.

The next day, as they are at yet another historic sight, Alex tells her mother how bored and annoyed she is that nobody is asking what she wants to do. Her mother promises her they’ll go windsurfing next like Alex wanted. Alex, Justin, and Max then see a magician attempting tricks in front of a small crowd, but he isn’t very good. Max uses some basic “hand magic” to torment this magician and make him look useless. Their parents discover what they are doing and drag the three away. But the magician follows them. His name is Archie, and he asks if the family are wizards. They won’t reveal anything to him, but Archie says he was a wizard too once, but lost out at the Family Wizard Competition. Each wizard family must do this to decide which person in the family will be the Family Wizard; only one can keep their magic. What a rubbish rule. Archie’s parrot sidekick was also a wizard, named Giselle, who was turned into a parrot for misusing her powers. They plan to get their magic back – by finding the Stone of Dreams, a magical object that grants a wizard’s wish. Justin is intrigued but his father tells him he’s probably a con artist and that no-one knows where the Stone actually is, with tourists being sold fake maps to it all over the place.

Back at the resort, the family finally get to do windsurfing, which pleases Alex as she’s hoping to impress the instructor, Javier, with her mad skills. But she doesn’t have any, and Javier is too busy watching Justin who is a natural at windsurfing. This annoys Alex so she casts a spell on him, hoping to make him fall off. Justin manages to counter her spell using his wand, which makes him look even better. The only problem is he doesn’t know how to stop and he slams into Alex, who falls onto some kids’ sandcastle, destroying it.

Later, Javier invites Alex to a party on the beach. Alex asks her mother’s permission to let her go, but she refuses, saying he’s much too old for her and they don’t even know him. Alex tries to convince her mother using magic, but the spell wears off after only a few seconds. Alex then confronts Justin, knowing he was using the wand during his windsurfing lesson. Justin says he knows Alex still has the spell book. Alex confirms she does and that she needs the wand to cast a six-hour agreement spell on their parents. Justin doesn’t want to hand it over and says he’ll cast it himself, but Alex then reminds him that if he does that and gets caught, he’ll no longer be “the perfect son”. He hands the wand to Alex.

As Alex is about to cast the spell, Alex’s mother walks into her room and discovers that she’s been using magic. The two argue, and her mother walks away, with Alex angrily shouting “I wish you and Dad had never even met” at her departing back. Alex quickly realises something is wrong, and thinks she might have accidentally cast a different spell. Alex runs to find her mother. When she does, her mother thinks she’s the concierge. Alex then runs to Justin, who can’t find their father, and when he does, his father doesn’t have a clue who they are. They learn that Alex has messed up their timelines, so their mother and father haven’t met. They are just Jerry and Theresa now. They see that Jerry has magic, something he gave up when he met Theresa since wizards cannot keep their magic if they marry a mortal. The kids also see that Jerry has the Family Wand and the Book of Forbidden Spells. They try to steal it from him, but he notices. He isn’t angry though and is pleased to see some fellow wizards around. He talks to them about this spell and says that it probably needs to be reversed within 48 hours or the kids will lose their memories and vanish forever.

The next day, Justin and Alex decide they have to talk to Archie, the magician, about the Stone of Dreams as they need the wish to turn everything back to normal. Max is tasked with staying at the resort and ensuring that Jerry and Theresa don’t run off and marry someone else in the meantime. As Justin and Alex sit down with Archie to discuss his original, authentic map to the Stone, Jerry comes over and says he’s got that same map, having bought it from some store. Justin and Alex are about to leave, when Archie shows them an additional unique piece of the map. They head off to the first point.

At the edge of the forest, the map tells them that the path will reveal itself to one whose intentions are pure. Justin takes the lead but no path reveals itself. It does, however, reveal itself for Alex, this time making Justin jealous. They enter the forest along with Archie and Giselle the parrot. Back at the resort, Max tries to get Jerry to talk to Theresa. It works momentarily, and there is an attraction there, but Jerry states that he would never give up magic to be with a mortal. Getting their parents together might be harder than Max thought…

Eventually, Justin and Alex get to the edge of a mountain where the map instructs them to build a bridge of stones to get across to the other side. Justin does so with his wand, however, Alex shows him that his bridge is not as good as it looks, crumbling when she throws a pebble on to it. Alex instead uses a levitation spell with two boulders and Justin’s help to get across. This leaves Archie and Giselle on the other side, but there’s no time to help them; Alex and Justin go on ahead. Archie climbs down the mountain with Giselle.

The next morning, Alex and Justin are spooked by Archie and Giselle finding them. But it now means they can go on together again. Max is starting to get worried about Alex and Justin, and asks Jerry to help him find the Stone of Dreams, as well as Alex and Justin. Theresa overhears this and wants to help too, as she has information they might need to find it; she can also speak and read Spanish, to understand the map, which Max and Jerry can’t. They begrudgingly agree to let her come with them.

Justin, Alex, Archie, and Giselle continue their trek and are then told to find a cave, using “the one who knows the least” to lead the way. Alex attempts to communicate with some local farmers, but they think she’s crazy. Alex then comes across a little girl, who takes her to this cave. Archie lets Justin and Alex proceed into the dark cave alone.

They come to an area with a glowing stone within it. Half the floor of this room is missing. Balancing on breaking beams, with pillars crashing down, Justin makes his way over to the Stone. But it falls down a crack in the floor. Alex climbs down to reach it and manages to get it. Justin pulls her back up. As they are about to leave, the Stone is snatched from their hands by Giselle the parrot. Jerry, Theresa, and Max then arrive, and Alex gets excited thinking the spell has reversed. It hasn’t… Alex tries to tell them that Jerry and Theresa are married, and that she, Max, and Justin are their kids. This comes as a shock to Theresa who can’t wrap her head around it and heads back to their resort.

Jerry sticks around though and tries to help them find another way to reverse the spell. He finds something in his spell book, but it says only a full wizard can enact it. Max then begins to forget his life and is swallowed into a vortex. Jerry calls an emergency Wizard Competition for Alex and Justin. The two must compete to gain the wizard power before the other gets there, using only spells that relate to the four basic elements: water, air, fire, earth. Neither are particularly equipped for this contest and the power keeps flying around this make-shift arena. The two mostly just trip each other up as they fight to get to it first. Eventually, Alex, using a spell that transports her as a flower, gains the power – just as Justin begins to forget his life. Alex tearfully tries to get him to remember her, but he is sucked into a vortex, just like Max. Even with all this power, Alex doesn’t know how to reverse the spell, with all of her attempts not working.

But Theresa comes to save the day. She saw Archie and Giselle, now a human, at the resort. Giselle had the Stone of Dreams around her neck and Theresa confronted her. Archie did too, as Giselle now wants nothing more to do with him. Archie steals the Stone back and makes his wish to turn Giselle back into a parrot and then hands it over to Theresa. Theresa passes the Stone to Alex, so she can make her wish. She wishes for everything to go back to the way it was.

Alex then returns back to her room on that fateful day. Her mother comes in and is surprised to find this sudden outpouring of love from Alex, Max, and Justin, who are happy their parents are back together and that they remember who they are now. Alex also tells Justin that as she wished for everything to go back to the way it was, she no longer has the wizard powers and is not the Family Wizard. They’ll have to wait another day to do the competition for real. The Russos can now continue their family vacation in peace.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Alex Russo is the headstrong teenage daughter of Jerry and Theresa Russo, and the one the main series mostly revolves around. Though Alex loves being a wizard, she isn’t particularly careful or studious around learning magic, so she tends to act before she thinks. This is how her parents end up forgetting all about their children – because Alex was being impulsive and reactive as per usual. Alex also hates the fact Justin is considered to be the “perfect child”, having a good grasp of magic spells and having the motivation to study it properly. Well, if Alex weren’t quite so stubborn and didn’t feel like the whole world was against her, maybe she could’ve been given that title too – but that’s teenagers for you.

Alex Russo was played by Selena Gomez. She has a successful career in both music and acting, going back to her “Disney days”. As a singer, some of her earliest hits were “Love You Like a Love Song” and “Who Says”, with some more recent ones being “Wolves” and “Lose You to Love Me”. Around Gomez’ time acting on Disney Channel, she was cast in the DCOM Princess Protection Program (2009) and was cast in other teen movies such as Monte Carlo (2010), playing the leads of GraceAnn and Cordelia; and Ramona and Beezus (2010) as Beezus. In more recent years, Gomez was chosen to voice the character Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film series and is currently starring as Mabel in the murder-mystery series Only Murders in the Building (2021-present) alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. Gomez was also cast as Jessi Del Monte in the Oscar-tipped Emilia Pérez (2024). A documentary about Gomez detailing her struggles with her mental and physical health, titled Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, was released in 2022.

Justin Russo is the most trusted Russo child. He’s very responsible – perhaps a little too much – and likes to stick to the rules his parents have set, although he will bend the rules slightly when it comes to magic. He wants to be the best, he is determined to become the Family Wizard, so when he’s told this is going to be a “magic-free” vacation, Justin doesn’t listen and takes the Family Wand away with him, whilst Alex does the same but with the Book of Forbidden Spells. If both of them had just listened to their parents, then that spell would never have happened. Just saying.

David Henrie was cast as Justin Russo. Some of his earlier acting roles include Luke Mosby in How I Met Your Mother (2005-14); Larry in That’s So Raven (2003-07); and Wheeze in the DCOM Dadnapped (2009). After Wizards of Waverly Place ended in 2012, Henrie then appeared as Frat Boy Zac in Grown Ups 2 (2013) and as Lane in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015). In more recent years, he directed and starred in the film This Is the Year (2020) as Sebastian; this film also credits Selena Gomez as an executive producer. Henrie was also cast as young Ronald Reagan in the movie Reagan (2024).

Rounding out the three Russo kids is Alex and Justin’s younger brother Max. Naturally, he is the furthest behind his siblings in terms of his magic ability, because of his younger age as well as his short attention span! Actually, in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Max’s magic seems to have improved, and he’s even asked by Justin and Alex to use a levitation spell to try and steal the wand and spell book from their father, Jerry, to find a way of reversing Alex’s spell. Max also uses his magic to mess with the magician that they see entertaining tourists; it’s a bit mean, but it was good magic. However, he is not trusted to go on the journey to find the Stone of Dreams by his brother and sister, instead being given the task of ensuring his parents don’t start flirting with other people…Max definitely got the short end of the stick there.

Jake T. Austin was cast as Max Russo. Prior to Wizards of Waverly Place, Austin voiced the character of Diego in the Dora the Explorer spin-off Go, Diego, Go! (2005-09) and voiced Nicky in The Ant Bully (2006). Around the time of Wizards of Waverly Place, he was cast as Bruce in Hotel for Dogs (2009) and as Chris in the DCOM Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007). Austin went on to voice Fernando in Rio (2011) and its 2014 sequel, and appeared as Jesus Foster in the first two seasons of The Fosters (2013-18). He also played Huckleberry Finn in the live-action adaptation of the Mark Twain novels Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2014). In 2016, Austin competed in Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars.

Jerry and Theresa Russo are the parents of Max, Justin, and Alex. Jerry is a former wizard, having given up his magic to marry Theresa, a mortal, so he has been in charge of his children’s wizard training, as well as managing the family’s sub restaurant. Theresa is a cool mum, but she’s also quite strict, not allowing Alex to run off to parties or hang out with much older boys, in the case of the movie’s events – which might seem harsh but it’s really good parenting. After Alex’s spell goes awry, and Jerry and Theresa have no knowledge of each other or their kids, both of them become quite self-absorbed. They spend their time flirting with other hotel guests, with Jerry being kind of obnoxious as well. Whilst Jerry is willing to talk to the Russo kids as fellow wizards, Theresa doesn’t give the impression that she likes the kids at all initially, finding them a nuisance on her lovely vacation. But when Jerry and Theresa spend time together, influenced by Max, it’s clear that they were always destined to be together.

Jerry was played by David DeLuise, son of comedic actor Dom DeLuise, who voiced Fagin in Disney Animation’s Oliver & Company (1988). Early on in his career, David DeLuise appeared as Tony in an episode of Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993-94). I recently watched this back a few months ago for the first time in about twenty years, probably, as it was shown on Nickelodeon when I was younger, and I instantly recognised him! DeLuise also was cast in the recurring role of Bug Pollone in the sitcom 3^rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) and then as Darren Warner in Season 1 of Jesse (1998-2000).

Maria Canals-Bareera was cast as Theresa Russo. Prior to Wizards of Waverly Place, she had voiced the character of Sunset Boulevardez in Disney’s animated series The Proud Family (2001-05). Now she voices the character in its reboot The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (2022-present). Also for Disney, she voiced the character of Paulina in Danny Phantom (2004-07) and was cast as Connie Torres, Mitchie’s mother, in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). Canals-Bareera won an Imagen Award for her performance as Theresa Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, in the category of Best Supporting Actress/Television.

All five of the Russo family were played by the actors from the Disney Channel series. Other than the family, there are few other characters in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie but two worth mentioning are Archie and Giselle. Archie is the magician who Max torments as he’s just trying to do his job, entertaining tourists to try and get some cash. The trouble is Archie isn’t a very good magician so it was only too easy for Max to mess with him. But this meant that Archie managed to find some real wizards on the island. Archie intends to find the Stone of Dreams to help Giselle turn human again, but he needs wizard help, which is why he tells Alex and Justin he knows how to find it. Archie is not the villain here; he is being motivated by his love for Giselle, but knows that the Stone of Dreams can grant more than one wish. Unfortunately, Giselle has her claws in him so deep – or should that be talons? – that she steals the Stone for herself and turns herself human, before casting Archie aside, having used him to get what she wanted. Archie then does the right thing and gives Theresa the Stone so Alex can save her family – but not before turning Giselle back into a parrot with his own wish. That’s karma for you!

Archie was played by Steve Valentine, who went on to appear in other Disney projects: as Mr. Moore in Avalon High (2010) and as Les Camembert in Teen Beach Movie (2013) in two Disney Channel Original Movies, and as Derek Jupiter in I’m in the Band (2009-11). Valentine also has a history in voice work, having voiced the character of Alistair in the Dragon Age series of games; Minister of Spring in Tinker Bell (2008) and its sequel Secret of the Wings (2012); as well as some characters in Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011-16) and Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017-21). More recently, Valentine played Dracula in Monster High: The Movie (2022) and its 2023 sequel. Human Giselle was played by Jennifer Alden, who played Christina Cleary in the comedy film Wedding Crashers (2005).

Finally, one other character to mention, who only appears at the beginning of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie is Alex Russo’s incredibly bubbly and positive friend, Harper. Reprising her role from the series is Jennifer Stone. Stone went on to star as Harriet in Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (2010) and in Mean Girls 2 (2011) as Abby Hanover. After this, she was cast as The Babysitter in the horror-fantasy series Deadtime Stories (2012-14) for Nickelodeon. Most recently, Stone co-wrote and starred in the movie The In-Between, which premiered at the 2019 Twister Alley Film Festival in Oklahoma.

MUSIC

I was surprised to find there weren’t many songs at all Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, despite Selena Gomez’ singing talents.

It was disappointing, for a start, to not hear the original theme song, “Everything Is Not What It Seems”, at the start of the movie, not even an instrumental version of it.

Instead, as the opening song, we hear a section of “Magic” performed by the band Honor Society; the song was originally performed by the rock band The Cars in 1984. I don’t mind it as a song, but I would’ve preferred to have heard the theme song in some form. Around the time of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, in 2009, Honor Society were performing as an opening act for the Jonas Brothers World Tour.

Next, the song “Magic Carpet Ride” performed by KSM plays during a montage of some of the activities that the Russos do early on their vacation, like sightseeing and snorkelling, as Alex frowns and generally looks annoyed at this attempt at family fun! This song is quite nice; it’s a pop version of the original song “Magic Carpet Ride” by the rock band Steppenwolf in 1968. KSM had been one of the opening acts for The Cheetah Girls – One World Tour in 2008; Demi Lovato: Live in Concert in 2009; and even for Honor Society’s Full Moon Crazy Tour in 2009 around this time.

The End Credits song, “Magic”, is a cover by Selena Gomez of the song “Magic” performed by Scottish band Pilot back in 1974. It makes sense to have a song titled “Magic” be used in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, but as much as I like Selena Gomez and her music, honestly, I prefer the original in this case.

All three of these songs can be found on the Wizards of Waverly Place soundtrack, along with others that featured in the series or were inspired by the series. Other artists on this soundtrack include Raven-Symoné, Mitchel Musso, and Aly & AJ. As expected, all the songs have something to do with magic.

The score for Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was composed by Kenneth Burgomaster, who also composed the music for the Wizards of Waverly Place 2013 TV special The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex. He had previously composed the score for the Disney Channel movie Halloweentown High (2004) and its sequel Return to Halloweentown (2006), and was credited as the composer on the series Jonas (2009-10).

PRODUCTION

The history of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie begins with the series itself, created by Todd J. Greenwald, which began airing on 12^th October 2007, right after the DCOM premiere of Twitches Too (2007).

Disney Channel had released very popular comedy series aimed at children and tweens throughout the 2000s, with shows such as The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08) and Hannah Montana (2006-11) preceding Wizards of Waverly Place.

Disney Channel aired two seasons of Wizards of Waverly Place prior to the movie being released, with two more seasons following on from it. However, there is some discussion about where the events of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie fit within the overall series. Given the Russos are on a family vacation, it is assumed that this takes place during the summer. But within Season 2 of the series, a four-episode storyline, titled “Wizards vs. Vampires”, apparently takes place in autumn, after a new school year has already started; Season 2 finished airing before Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie even premiered. If you want to try and stick as close as possible to chronological events when watching the show back, many suggest watching Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie before finishing Season 2 of the series, aiming to watch the movie before any of the “Wizards vs. Vampires” episodes. It’s not entirely clear or obvious where the movie fits within Season 2 though, so you can just watch the movie in between Seasons 2 and 3, as events from the movie are referenced within Season 3.

The screenwriter for Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was Dan Berendsen, who had written for numerous Disney Channel Original Movies prior to working on this film. His previous writing credits include working on Twitches (2005) and its 2007 sequel; Stuck in the Suburbs (2004); Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003); and Halloweentown High (2004). After working on Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, Berendsen co-wrote for the Disney Channel’s musical sequel Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).

Wizards of Waverly Place the series, despite its title, was not filmed in the Waverly Place area of Greenwich Village in New York City, but was filmed in Toronto, Canada. It is meant to be set in that location though. The early scenes within Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie also were shot in Toronto, as the same set of the sub restaurant is used here.

The rest of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was filmed in Puerto Rico. Princess Protection Program (2009), another DCOM featuring Selena Gomez, along with her Disney bestie at the time, Demi Lovato, was also filmed in Puerto Rico. The hotel scenes were shot at the Caribe Hilton Resort. For some of the more action-filled shots, the emergency Family Wizard competition is held at Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan, with the cave that holds the Stone of Dreams being Cueva Ventana in Arecibo. Puerto Rico was also the filming location for other movies. Another DCOM that used the beaches of Puerto Rico for some of its scenes was Teen Beach Movie (2013), as well as its 2015 sequel. Big blockbuster hits such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022); James Bond: GoldenEye (1995); Fast Five (2011); and 22 Jump Street (2014) were partially filmed there too[1].

Director Lev L. Spiro loved how they had managed to use a lot of the natural environments of Puerto Rico in their movie, using not only the beach and historical locations, but also the rainforests, which worked well to give Alex and Justin’s quest for the Stone of Dreams some grandeur and a sense of adventure. Spiro had previously directed the DCOM Minutemen (2008) and some episodes of the Disney Channel series Jonas (2009-10). More recently, he directed some episodes of UnReal (2015-18) and Insatiable (2018-19).

To add to this quest, special and visual effects were also used. For the levitating stone “bridge” that Alex and Justin use to get across the two cliff edges, Selena Gomez and David Henrie were jumping across two fake boulders on a golf course, with “movie magic” being used later to make it seem like the rocks were actually floating. Walls of fire, vortexes, and bottomless pits were also created to give a real sense of danger to the mission. It’s also worth noting the effects used in the runaway subway car scene that takes place at the start of the movie whilst the Russos are still in New York.

More gentle actions scenes were also shot, including scenes of windsurfing. Justin is supposed to be struggling against the waves during this scene, however, his scenes were shot on the beach and not in the water, so David Henrie had to pretend to be windsurfing whilst someone threw water in his face. Sounds fun… But the actors were also given proper windsurfing lessons so acting clearly isn’t all bad.

Animal actors were also used here, in the form of macaws. Apparently, there were four different parrots used in total, though Ruby was the friendliest one. Steve Valentine, the actor playing Archie, joked that they had to have four because Ruby needed two stand-ins and a stunt parrot. Though Ruby supposedly liked to snuggle into people’s necks, Selena Gomez and Ruby seemingly did not get on as well as Gomez would’ve hoped; she said the bird freaked her out a bit[2].

RECEPTION

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie premiered on 28^th August 2009 on Disney Channel. It did air at a later date on some international channels, but in the US, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie’s summer vacation setting fit well with the US school summer vacation.

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was popular with its target audience and if you already liked the series, the movie was a good extension of it; a feature-length episode set in an exotic location. I liked the fact the Russos went to the Caribbean, instead of just ending up in a European city as so many other American movies do, like going to Paris, or Rome, or Barcelona. Many viewers liked how the movie allowed for some deeper character development. It also allowed for some deeper moments, like when Alex fears she is all alone in the world, without her parents, without her brothers, with no clue how to bring them back; that part actually made me tear up a bit. Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was seen to be superior to Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) which had managed to gain itself a theatrical release in April 2009, just a few months earlier, so some were disappointed that Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie did not get the same treatment.

However, as usual, there were some negative comments. The fact that the movie was seen to be a rip-off of Back to the Future, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones was mentioned frequently. It is unlikely this comment came from the target audience of children and teens who previously liked the series though. I don’t think I would’ve accused anything of being a rip-off of anything when I was “Disney Channel” age; I didn’t have the wealth of film experience or knowledge when I was that young. I see the point here, that the magical elements link back to Harry Potter; the quest feels a bit like Indiana Jones; and making your parents accidentally never meet, threatening your entire existence, is the plot of Back to the Future, but this sort of thing doesn’t bother me. I just think “oh, I see where they got that idea from” and move on with my life.

Continuing with some of the less positive reviews, the visual effects were criticised, despite this being a television movie, and the message about loving your parents was seen to be preachy, which it probably wouldn’t have been if you were the right age when you watched it. Something I did agree with though was that there were few additional characters in the movie, beside the five Russo family members. It was really only Archie the magician who got much screen time. He had enough screen presence to be a really good character, but it might have been nice to see a few other new characters as well, just to liven it up a bit.

Really, I think if you are a fan of the series, you’ll like the movie. I was a half-fan of the series, I guess, when I was younger, so I was happy enough watching the film.

Following on from the premiere and the usual second, third, fourth showings of the film, a “What’s What” Edition, where movie facts are displayed on screen during the movie, was released in October 2009. The Extended Edition DVD was then released in December 2009 in the US. Extended edition DVDs were common for DCOMs around this time, although normally they’d feature an unseen song. In this case, with a non-musical movie, the DVD contained a previously cut scene. It showed Alex, Justin, and Max attempting to use magic to get their parents back together, but the spells go wrong, with Theresa and Jerry magically swapping clothes; Jerry turning into a shark; and them turning into kids. It certainly didn’t add anything to the storyline for me, and seemed like a forced comedic scene.

Around 11.4 million viewers were said to have tuned in to the new DCOM on its premiere date, making it the second-most-viewed DCOM film premiere after High School Musical 2 (2007). Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie went on to win the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2010.

LEGACY

As I’ve previously mentioned, four seasons of Wizards of Waverly Place aired on Disney Channel during its run from 2007 to 2012. Two of these seasons aired before Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, and two afterwards.

Season 4 ended in January 2012, finishing with a two-part finale, which tied up the overall series story of finding out who would become the Family Wizard. The wizard competition that features in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was only held in an emergency situation, so the result of Alex winning did not mean anything for the overall series. She wanted things to go back to how they were, so it was like the whole event had never even happened. So, in “Who Will Be the Family Wizard?”, the real result was revealed to the world. The two-part finale averaged just under 9.8 million viewers[3].

I won’t give spoilers, just in case but also because it’s not relevant here, but me being a half-fan of the series, I had clearly forgotten all about Wizards of Waverly Place at some point in my life and only realised when I was watching the movie that I hadn’t even watched the finale to find out who became the real Family Wizard, so I only watched it this week.

After Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie aired in 2009, a sequel movie was apparently in discussion from 2010, probably because of its amazing viewing figures. It never happened, however, the television special “The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex” premiered on the channel on 15^th March 2013. All of the Russo family actors, except David Henri, as well as the actors who played Harper and Mason, Alex’s boyfriend from Season 3 onwards, returned to reprise their characters. It saw them all go on vacation to Tuscany for a family reunion, with Alex accidentally creating an evil version of herself which runs amok and tries to destroy her family and friends. “Alex vs. Alex” drew in 5.9 million viewers, which was less than the series’ finale and nowhere close to the number that watched Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. It did, however, receive more views than some of the then-new Disney Channel Original Movies, like Girl vs. Monster (2012) with 4.9 million, and Let It Shine with 5.7 million (2012)[4]. “Alex vs. Alex” is not classed as an official DCOM though.

After “Alex vs. Alex”, Wizards of Waverly Place was believed to have fully finished. However, on 18^th January 2024, it was first announced that a pilot episode for a reboot was being filmed. In March 2024, it was confirmed that a full season of the show would be airing. Named Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, it was soon revealed that the plot would follow Alex bringing a young wizard to her brother, Justin, to train her. Justin Russo had been leading a normal mortal life with his family up until this point. Other members of the Russo family will be returning to the series; however, it is unclear how many episodes they will be in[5]. Two episodes are due to premiere on Disney Channel on 29^th October 2024, with two more coming the day after. The first eight episodes will be available on Disney+ on 30^th October[6].

FINAL THOUGHTS

Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie felt both familiar and different to me. As I hadn’t kept up with the series whilst it was on, it was nice to see the Russo family again by watching the movie fifteen years after it had first aired.

It did what movies based on television series should do: it provided fans with a chance to see their favourite characters cope with a new environment whilst dealing with a more perilous, troubling situation than they might normally face in a regular episode. Overall, it was a pretty good movie and I know fans of the show will have liked it.

As Wizards of Waverly Place had been a popular sitcom for Disney, winning Primetime Emmy awards in 2009 and 2012 for Outstanding Children’s Program, amongst other awards including Kids’ Choice Awards and Teen Choice Awards, it makes good business sense for a reboot to be commissioned for Disney+, as a way of bringing new content to the platform, as well as allowing former fans of the series to revisit the Russo family years after the events of the original series. New viewers can also be introduced to it.

Time will tell if this new series is as bewitching as the original.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Discover Puerto Rico, ‘Seeing is Believing: Experience Film Locations in Puerto Rico’, DiscoverPuertoRico.com, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Disney, ‘Wizards of Waverly Place – The Movie: Extended Edition 2009 DVD Overview’, Diamond Boy’s Disney DVD Overviews YouTube Channel, 31^st January 2024.

[3] Credit: Mike Reynolds, ‘‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ Finale Conjures 9.8 Million Viewers’, NextTV.com, 10^th January 2012.

[4] Credit: Nellie Andreeva, ‘Disney Channel’s New ‘Wizards Of Waverly Place’ TV Movie Draws 5.9 Million Viewers’, Deadline.com, 16^th March 2013.

[5] Credit: Briannah Rivera, ‘What We Know About the Wizards of Waverly Place Reboot So Far’, Elle.com, 31^st August 2024.

[6] Credit: Disney, ‘‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ Premieres October 29 on Disney Channel, Next Day on Disney+’. TheWaltDisneyCompany.com, 29^th August 2024.