Congrats P & F : SIMPin' Ain't Easy!

Last week the 2012 Emmy nominations were announced.  Admittedly I tend to pay little attention past maybe the main 5- 6 categories.  But I, like most Disney fans had special reason to take notice and actually get excited about the awards.

Our boys Phineas & Ferb were nominated for TWO awards this year.  Okay, let's be honest, while Phineas and Ferb are our favorite brothers, the real congratulations go to a couple of other boys, Swampy Marsh and Dan Povenmire.


They're nominated for  Short Format Animated Program and Dan Povenmire is nominated for Voice Over Performance for everybody's favorite (relatively) super villain Dr. Doofenshmirtz! 

If you ask me, Swampy Marsh deserves an individual nomination as well for Best Name . . . "Jeff." 

At the risk of jinxing them, these guys are well-overdue for some shiny tin for their work!  I've been a Phineas & Ferb fan pretty much since season 1.  But I've been a Dan & Swampy fan for nearly 15 years, even though I didn't realize it.  Going back to Rocko's Modern Life which I've loved since I was a kid (meaning my mid-20's.)
From time-to-time I'll still find myself calling out in my best Marsupalian (is that a word?) voice "Heffer!  Heffer!"

But let's face it, Phineas & Ferb might be their masterwork!  It's certainly the one that will likely stand the test of time, cementing it's place in animation inconography (now that's a word!)  Forget that it's been running for 5 years, actually cranking out new episodes every year, and movies like Phineas & Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension and specials like my favorite, Summer Belongs to You! 
Look at how many places you see the boys' faces popping up.  Clothing, lunch boxes, toys (okay, so those Disney Store figures were kinda weak sauce, but eventually they'll crack the code!), and best of all, theme parks!  Whenever an "outside" property becomes so exciting and popular Disney will not only invest in it on their network but give it real estate in their parks, let alone TWO of their parks, it's big!
 

See how I pull it all back to the parks???  Disney's Hollywood Studios features an interactive Phineas & Ferb Meet & Greet, and now at Epcot you can play the interactive game Agent P's World Showcase Adventure.
 

Could we possibly one day see a Phineas & Ferb dark ride at Magic Kingdom for the win?!?

Dan and Swampy's kids are everywhere.  More importantly, their audience has crossed over.  They reside in that rare space where kids like my 5 year-old son love the show, and big kids like my son's 37 year-old father love it.  When I first saw a P&F promo years ago I remember thinking "what weird animation!  I don't want to watch that."
Yeah . . . right.  I can say with zero irony it's one of the greatest things on television still.  And they've never stooped to a Snooki reference!  The writing is whip-smart and clever, and always entertaining and engaging.  No wonder they've pulled in sweet cameos from the likes of Slash, Seth MacFarlane, Clay Aiken (look I can't say I'm a fan but his appearance is awesome), and perhaps the most meaningful to me, another artistic guru & gutsy innovator, Kevin Smith as the great Clive Addison!  Nootch!   
Somehow they've managed to make an emotional connection between these unusually shaped characters and their audience (which, not for nothing, some of us are unusually shaped as well.)

 I tweeted this to the boys but I share it here with no shame that we listen to the Summer Belongs to You soundtrack in the car often.  Every single time, seriously, I listen to the title track and Candace, the boys' long-suffering (though oft self-inflicted sister) sing the lines:


"though I've often thought of you as just a nuisance and a bother
Today I can't imagine having better little brothers!
And you gotta believe in something, so today I believed in you
And you came through, we made it
I've never been so proud (never been so proud!)"
   
I get tears in my eyes.  I swear even now as I looked up the words to make sure I got 'em right, my eyes welled-up.  Am I just cracking up emotionally?  Possibly.  But it's also because the show has been yet another source of connection for my son and I to share, and soon for my little girls as well.  These animated siblings are our family too.  Beyond their fantastical creations and wild adventures, the show is about family.  Even Doof and Perry share this weird, co-dependent relationship where although they're meant to be arch-enemies, they actually dare I say care about each other.

                                                           Excuse me while I go weep!


So yeah, awards don't pay the bills, but this show and these two creators are overdue for some industry recognition.  But for fans like me, they've already won a thousand times over.  Big buckets of win! 

Originally I planned to write this last weekend shortly after the nominations were announced.  I was thinking of all the silly Phineas & Ferb references I could stick throughout the post.  But then last Friday we all woke up to horrific news.  And in the middle of the nightmare, was a movie involving another fantasy hero of mine.
When the initial shock wore off, I began to think a little deeper about heroes.  It became even more evident to me why we need guys like Dan and Swampy.  Yes, you could say "they just make cartoons."  But what they really do is create new mythology.  They have the power to influence the young, the next generations.  And they are doing so in a positive, powerful way especially as their empire grows.  Phineas & Ferb in their own way possess great power, and yet there's not a scrap of malicious intent in any of their actions.  They are completely altruistic, simply wanting to do great things to make everyone's life a little better and a bit more fun!  Even the show's "bully" Buford turns out to be an imposter, as he's actually just a sweetheart.

For that as well, I tip my fedora . . . as should we all.  Bring on the Emmys!