This article is about Heinz Doofenshmirtz. For 2nd dimension counterpart, see Heinz Doofenshmirtz (2nd Dimension).
- “Curse you, Perry the Platypus!”
- ―Dr. Doofenshmirtz's iconic catchphrase after his schemes are thwarted by Perry the Platypus.
Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is the main antagonist of the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb. He is a mad scientist, who once plotted to rule over the Tri-State Area with the power of his eccentric inventions (referred to as "-Inators"). Doofenshmirtz‘s schemes were consistently foiled by the efforts of his "nemesis" Perry the Platypus, a fedora-wearing secret agent. After numerous failed attempts at domination, Doofenshmirtz eventually retired from villainy and reformed. He later became a recurring character in the animated series Milo Murphy's Law as a resident of the Murphy household and a friend to Vinnie Dakota.
Background[]
Doofenshmirtz is a 47-year-old mad scientist hailing from the village of Gimmelshtump, in the country of Drusselstein. He suffered through a comically exaggerated, neglectful, mentally abusive childhood that left him scarred for the rest of his life. His parents ignored him, briefly disowned him, forced him to wear dresses, and act as a lawn gnome while favoring his brother, Roger Doofenshmirtz. Heinz saw very little support outside of his family, having no friends (apart from a Balloony, and his neighbor Kenny) and facing bullies. Apart from cup stacking and shadow puppetry, he failed at most endeavors - including his romantic ones, such as his divorce from Charlene. His past hardships form the motivation behind many of his evil schemes.
Development[]
When Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire were working on the Nickelodeon animated series Rocko's Modern Life, they always had two things in episodes they worked on: a song or a musical number and an action/chase scene. When they created Phineas and Ferb, they wanted to incorporate this trait into that series too. They used a platypus secret agent to do so due to the animal's interesting appearance and wanted to have a continuous nemesis for him that the viewers could get to know. They choose one named "Dr. Meddleshmirtz;" Meddleshmirtz was a prototype for Doofenshmirtz and carried a majority of his traits. His name eventually was changed to "Doofenshmirtz."
Every main character in the series was designed to incorporate geometric shapes in reminiscence of Tex Avery's graphic style from his Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies as well as the cartoons he worked on at MGM cartoons; Doofenshmirtz himself appearing to use that of an oval. They were as well meant to be drawn very simple so that the child viewers could draw them easily themselves. Each one was designed to be recognizable from a distance or, as Povenmire notes as a reference to Matt Groening and The Simpsons by silhouette.
Voice[]
Co-creator and executive producer Dan Povenmire voices Doofenshmirtz. Doofenshmirtz's voice is of Eastern European descent, most likely Czech, Polish or Sorbian, as he was noted by Lawrence as having a German accent. This became the voice Povenmire used since he was a fifteen-year-old having pillow fights with his sister. During recording sessions, Povenmire is easily able to ad-lib and improvise; the writers are known to change his lines around and add new ones without throwing him off. Povenmire sometimes adds his own lines to mix with the script, as well as being asked to alternate his voice to enunciate his lines. Povenmire is usually asked to perform the voice in interviews and performs the voice for his daughter's friends.
Personality[]
Doofenshmirtz is portrayed as a scientific genius but an utterly, incompetent schemer. He is a self-proclaimed, evil mad scientist who despises almost everything around him, including pelicans, ear hair and such obscure things such as musical instruments starting with the letter "B", and otherwise taking unnecessarily large amounts of effort to accomplish menial tasks, finding the simpler ways to be too much of a bother, as he once tried to take Big Ben instead of just go out and buy a wall clock. Doofenshmirtz treats his nemesis Perry the Platypus as his best friend, and is often concerned for Perry when he does not arrive at the scene of his next scheme, hesitating to execute his plans and fearing for where Perry has gone - though he notes that he "hopes something terrible has happened to him." Doofenshmirtz's relationship with Perry has also been used to his advantage, as he once replaced Perry as his nemesis with a secret agent panda bear to cause depression in Perry, causing a distraction from his actual plot to freeze agents to use as a giant chess set. When Perry is re-assigned by the Agency to a higher-leveled threat, The Regurgitator, leaving Doofenshmirtz classified as a low-level threat who would be dealt with by a secret agent snail, Doofenshmirtz himself took up an internship with the new villain to assist him in ultimately defeating the new threat and keeping Perry as his nemesis. He is currently the 2nd fastest cup stacker in the world (only to Candace Flynn who inadvertently breaks his record during one of her attempts to bust her brothers). He is also always beaten by a baking soda volcano in science fairs.
He tends not to be evil in the traditional sense, but rather overly dramatic, stupid, eccentric, and generally clueless. This cluelessness is showed particularly in "Bullseye!", when he is seen with Rodney discussing Lawrence's first performance, with Rodney stating "I thought no one was more clueless at evil than you", and Heinz saying, "I know." His usual lair is an office building that he apparently owns, though he's worked from other locations when necessary for his plans. Dr. Doofenshmirtz seems to quite enjoy musical numbers, and has performed songs about "impressing his professor" and how he hates his brother among other subjects. Though his plans are frequently clueless at best and his doctorate was purchased off the internet, some of his inventions (almost always suffixed with "-inator") have been fairly impressive.
Despite his ambitions, his daughter, Vanesse points out he is not evil at heart and his evil schemes are more out of an obligation to his backstories than himself.
Physical appearance[]
Doofenshmirtz is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and very slender, but he slouches, which causes him to appear shorter. As a youth he was considerably short for his age. His limbs and fingers are bony and gangly. His legs are usually bent when he stands and walks, and he has a noticeable hunchback.
Heinz's usual apparel is a sleeveless black turtleneck shirt, under a long, thin white lab coat. With that he wears long gray or dark green slacks, and black shoes, and more recently, his shoes seem to have a small heel.
He has a tattoo of the word evil in purple ink with a pointed tail coming from the L on his left bicep. When hit with the beam for his Ugly-inator, a device with makes anything the beam hits horribly ugly, he remains the same. He and his 2nd dimension self-consider themselves handsome.
When Doofenshmirtz drank the cutonium, his height dropped down to around 2 feet, with larger, bluish-purple sparkling eyes, rounder face, normal nose, and shorter hair with a pair of smaller feet pajama-like pants with smaller black shirt and white lab coat with a pinkish-purple aura emitting from him, while also having a higher and slightly squeakier voice like a baby, as to looking much like a baby. Heinz resembles a monster called Der Kinderlumper, as they both have a broom-like nose and a crooked neck.
Appearances[]
Phineas and Ferb[]
Doofenshmirtz's goal in life is to "take over the entire tri-state area" and attempts to do so with obscure contraptions and inventions that tend to have "-inator" as the suffix (as a child, he invented a machine simply called the "Inator").
In nearly every episode of the series, Doofenshmirtz has an evil scheme or invention that he explains about through the means of a "back story" from his youth. Despite the true dedication to this mission nearly all of his plans have been thwarted by his nemesis Perry the Platypus. Throughout the series, the back stories explore his mentally abusive and shunned childhood growing up in the fictional village Gimmelshtump, Druelselstein. Doofenshmirtz usually monologs and displays acts of "cartoonish" physical violence towards his frenemy Perry, a skilled anthropomorphic platypus secret agent who disguises himself as the mindless pet of the series main characters. Doofenshmirtz appears in several merchandise pieces based on the series, particularly the book series and the video games.
Though Doofenshmirtz usually fails on almost all of his schemes throughout the series (due to either his incompetence or Perry's intervention), there were a few times when he actually succeeded without Perry trying to stop him. For instance, when trying to put a good party for Vanessa's 16th birthday, since he always failed on giving her a good birthday party all her life, he used this as another attempt to kill Perry by launching him with a giant firecracker during the ceremonies. Though Doofenshmirtz fails to defeat Perry while getting himself tied up to the launching firecracker (though he survives), the launch left a great impression for all of Vanessa's arriving friends, who find the party to be extremely cool. Touched by this, Vanessa happily thanks her father of getting one party right for her. After, Doofenshmirtz thanks Perry for helping him out.
In spite of Doofenshmirtz's reputation as a villain, he will tend to play as the hero whenever it either benefits him the most or if he doesn't have a choice, such as being good for his daughter or adopting stray cats.
In "Last Day of Summer", upon learning that Vanessa is hoping to have an internship at O.W.C.A, he is also told by her that he is terrible at being evil, and that the only thing motivating him are what happened in the past and not what comes from the heart. Convinced that he can be better at doing good, he decides to give up his evil ways to save the world from the effects of the Do-Over-Inator, and to allow Vanessa to go for O.W.C.A's job opening.
In "The O.W.C.A Files", he was able to become an agent for O.W.C.A because he is considered to be an ocelot after being raised by a family of ocelots. A notable contribution he did for the agency was aiding Perry and the rookie agents stopping Professor Parenthesis from taking full control of the agency and the rest of the agents, and conquering the world in a revenge on Major Francis Monogram.
In "Act Your Age", he is shown to be a good friend of Major Monogram, Perry, Carl, and the rest of O.W.C.A, although Perry will still come to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated whenever he accidentally sets off the evil alarm.
Take Two with Phineas and Ferb[]
Heinz is a recurring character in the animated/live-action talk show talking about evil stuff in one episode, but Isabella turned the TV off.
Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension[]
Heinz is a major character in the Disney Channel Original Movie and meets his Alternative self, who he noted that his 2nd dimension self has a large scar on his eye. He is later tied up with Phineas, Ferb, Candace, and Agent P.
Milo Murphy's Law[]
Heinz becomes a supporting character in the second season of the show. In "Fungus Among Us", the predecessor to "The Phineas and Ferb Effect" in the story arc, Heinz is revealed to eventually become "Professor Time", the man who invented time travel. At the end of the episode, Milo, Diogee, Balthazar Cavendish, Vinnie Dakota, and Orton Mahlson enter Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, only to end up in Doofenshmirtz's "pizza delivery guy" trap.
In "The Phineas and Ferb Effect", Heinz helps the group travel back in time to stop the Pistachions, but his incompetence hinders their efforts and the first attempt fails. He ends up stuck on an island with Dakota, Cavendish, and Orton, where he relates to Orton's worries about living up to their future accomplishments. When the group discovers the island is filled with time duplicates of Dakota, and that the soda they produce there is toxic to plants, Doof gets an idea to use the soda as a weapon against the Pistachions. During the battle against the Pistachions, Heinz's future self appears and take Orton back to the past to stop the Pistchion's plan before it starts and causes them to be erased from history. In the aftermath of the battle, Murphy's Law destroys Heinz's building, forcing him to move in with the Murphy's.
Hamster & Gretel[]
In the episode "Strawberry Fest Forever", Doofenshmitz has a brief cameo where he sees Balloony pop once again at the titular event and screams his name.
In the episode "Shush Hour", Doofenshmirtz has another cameo advertising his Sush-inator on the Internet.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode[]
Doof in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode
Doofenshmirtz is a playable character in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, introduced in Update 6.0. Doof is a Mid-line Control role hero. In battlefield Doof summons 3 of his inators to deal damage and apply debuffs to enemies. Doof's inators in use are Slow Motion-Inator, Misbehave-inator, and Re-tire-inator. Doof can apply slow, charm, decay, fatigue, and few other debuffs, alongside with causing knockbacks and stealing energy.
Doof has friendship campaigns with Perry the Platypus and Horned King.
Other appearances[]
Doofenshmirtz has notably appeared in the Random Rings shorts, in which he interacted with the Green family, and also had starring roles in the Broken Karaoke and How NOT to Draw shorts. Strangely, these shorts depict him still being villainous like as though the events of "Last Day of Summer" and his appearances on Milo Murphy's Law never happened.
Inators[]
Phineas and Ferb[]
List of Doofenshmirtz's schemes and inventions
Milo Murphy Law[]
List of Inators and inventions by Heinz Doofenshmirtz
Relationships[]
Disney Parks and Live Appearances[]
Foiling Dr. Doofenshmirtz was the main focus of the Agent P's World Showcase Adventure game at Epcot, with a physical Doofenshmirtz figure being installed at the clock tower at the Germany Pavilion. In 2024, it was teased that Dr. Doofenshmirtz would be joining the villain line-up at the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween event at Disney California Adventure.
A costumed Dr. Doofenshmirtz previously appeared in Disney's Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever!
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the original story pitch, the evil doctor's last name is Meddleshmirtz. While no reason has been given for the change, it may be due to resembling the medical term Mittelshmirtz, meaning "menstrual pain of the mid-cycle" (Literally, "middle pain").
- Doofenshmirtz rarely met or interacted with any of the other main characters of the show.
- The literal translation of his name is "home ruler" (Heinz) "stupids pain" (Doof (stupid) + en (plural) + shmirtz (pain).
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz can speak Spanish with great knowledge, as well as Whale.
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz's catch phrase, "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!", is possibly a reference to the line of Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2 and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, "Curse you, Buzz Lightyear!" or Snoopy from Peanuts comic strips: whenever Snoopy imagines battling the Red Baron, he is always defeated and cries out, "Curse you, Red Baron!"
- He wears a grind guard at night to keep him from grinding his teeth.
- He has a sockpuppet whom he named Mr. Tomato.
- In earlier episodes, Doof's voice was a little lower. This is especially noticeable in "This Is Your Backstory", when Doof starts to retell the lawn gnome story, and then the original narration from the episode is used.
- A running gag on the show is that because he wears a white lab coat, Doofenshmirtz is often mistaken for a pharmacist.
- It is hinted he takes arts and crafts classes.
- He has been shown to own a variety of trucks for transporting Inators.
- Despite being weak, Doofenshmirtz is very durable, as shown each time surviving certain doom (usually explosions). Also, he was once able to throw a normal cardboard party hat into a steel pole and it made a hole and got stuck there.
- Only five times has Doofenshmirtz escaped perfectly: In "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!", in "Hail Doofania!", was shown in the flashback where Perry the Platypus falls down in a sandpaper factory, allowing him to escape, in "That Sinking Feeling" Perry is unable to stop him since there is no steering mechanism on the lighthouse, in "Oh, There You Are, Perry" where he lands on the soft pillow after Perry drops him and in Picture This, when Perry teleported his Mimeinator to the Flynn-Fletcher backyard, with Doofenshmirtz merrily saying "Sure, why not. "Also in the episode "Leave the Busting to Us!", he shows a chart that tells how many successful attacks he had made to Perry and vice versa.
- He is lactose intolerant.
- He has said himself that he gets motion sickness.
- Like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, he seems to have a great deal of wealth, is physically weak, and had a difficult childhood.
- He receives a large alimony check every month.
- He wore braces as a teenager, perhaps to solve the grinding of his teeth.
- He often mangles common phrases, such as "Dos vedanya! That's two vedanyas." or "As they say in China, Arrivederci!". Which means that he has a "peculiar humor sense" as seen in "Spot the Diff" when he said, "I changed it from cowabunga to cowaburger". (before changing "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror")
- In "Swiss Family Phineas", one of his shoes is lost, and in the next episode "Hide and Seek", his shoes that he is wearing are slightly different with a small heel instead of being flat like his others, suggesting he had to purchase another pair to make up for the loss.
- The reason he never got a doctorate is because his teacher failed him out of Evil 101, his major.
- Heinz states that neither of his parents showed up at his birth. However, he states that his family was a proud family, suggesting that he was always an outcast in his own family in spite of their pride. This is further evidenced when he claims his parents always liked his brother Roger better than him.
- Heinz may not be able to swim, as evidenced by the water wings that appeared when he removed his lab coat, and gets seasick, possibly because his mother never let him swim in public pools. Though when Perry toppled him in his giant washing machine, he appeared to be swimming without water wings as he was in his undershirt and in boxers.
- Heinz has an "Evil" tattoo on his left upper arm.
- His computer password was "Doofalicious." However, he may have changed it due to the fact that Perry the Platypus was able to figure it out.
- He plays chess and lied (though it was believable) about having a travelers' chess board in his bag.
- He uses a retainer.
- He holds/uses his mouse in his left hand, showing that he is most likely left-handed, but kicks right-footed as seen while playing kickball. He also plays the guitar right-handed, as seen during numerous songs. Given his skill with his hands, it's likely that he's ambidextrous.
- He was the "geek" of his class and marginalized because he liked magic like "Luismi" the character of the Spanish series "Compañeros" (1998-2002).
- He may have to use reading glasses.
- He has been seen arrested once.
- He has to do 200 hours of community service, possibly after being caught in "Vanessassary Roughness".
- He hangs out with other aquatic mammals besides Perry.
- So far he has not made an appearance (nor even a cameo/voice cameo) in only an episode: "Isabella and the Temple of Sap".
- He has a habit of pushing buttons.
- Doof is the German word for "stupid" or "idiot". Major Monogram made fun of it.
- He has often said "Dummkopf", a common German insult that literally translates to "stupid head". The actual meaning is "fool", thus he is scolding himself for acting foolish whenever he says that word.
- Schmerz ( pronounced Shmertz) is a German word which means pain, ache, grief, or sorrow which basically describes Doofenshmirtz's childhood.
- He built the Flat-a-Platinator to get rid of Perry the Platypus.
- In "Crack That Whip", he says that he is unable to grow facial hair, but he is shown with a goatee in "Unfair Science Fair" and beard in "Phineas and Ferb Hawaiian Vacation" but when he became a poet, he had a beard and when he wanted to click a pop-up ad in "Tour de Ferb", he had whiskers.
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz interacted with Phineas and Ferb for first time in a dream (Wizard of Odd).
- Doofenshmirtz interacts with Isabella three times.
- Doofenshmirtz interacts with Buford twice.
- Doofenshmirtz interacts with Candace 4 times.
- Doofenshmirtz keeps a teddy bear in his lab-coat.
- Doofenshmirtz doesn't play and hates golf. Despite this, he has golf clubs.
- Doofenshmirtz plans what he's going to say to Perry before hand.
- If Doofenshmirtz were to be captured and arrested by the O.W.C.A., he would serve 10 to 20 years in prison.
- According to Dan, Doofenshmirtz has always called Perry "Perry the Platypus" and never just "Perry". However he has said only "Perry" a few times in the episode "The Bully Code", where he wrote "SAVE FOR PERRY" on his cast so that Perry would have a spot to sign it. He also called Perry by the name "Perry" without the "the Platypus" suffix in "Are You My Mummy?", twice in "Hide and Seek", once in "At the Car Wash" and once in "Hip Hip Parade".
- Doofenshmirtz knows Perry's name, despite Perry not being capable of human speech. In an episode of "Random Rings", Doofenshmirtz reveals that the first time Perry thwarted him, O.W.C.A. sent him an email explaining everything to him.
- He once sent a humiliating video all around the Tri-State Area. But afterwards he finds out that, because of the video, he cannot go even into his kitchen.
- Apparently, he has a Visigoth called Alaric working for him.
- He is no longer welcome in Albania.
- He has music instincts and he is able to recognize every musical group of the show.
- He has been seen to create effigies resembling Perry the Platypus such as Bobblehead Perry the Platypus and Pretendy the Practicepus.
- He was born with an extra finger in his right foot so he moved it to his left one. (Interview with Dan and Swampy)
- When asking his neighbor to let him into the "D.E.I" building when he left his keys in the other dimension, he mentions he has been her neighbor for 12 years, implying that he got the building 12 years ago, therefore also suggesting that he also divorced Charlene around then, when Vanessa was 4.
- He has a habit of singing in his bathroom.
- He has been doomed by a puppet twice. Once by Dr. Doofenshmirtz (2nd Dimension)'s Puppet. The other time was likely by Planty The Potted Plant.
- He mentioned that he was a boxing champion in middle school back in Gimmelshtump.
- He seems to really like chicken soup.
- He shares many similar personality traits with another Disney Channel villain, Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible.
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz can be compared to Dr. Eggman in a sense, as both are scientists and have their evil schemes thwarted by an animal character (Doofenshmirtz to Perry while Eggman to Sonic). He could be also compared to Dr. Evil, both are evil, have a fun voice and have a goth/grunge descendant.
- His relationship with his archnemesis is vaguely similar to The Joker's relationship with Batman, as both claim that they cannot exist without their nemesis.
- Also, this is the third villain-hero interaction known to be actually more positive than negative, and not bitter, as Wreck It Ralph/ Fix-It Felix Jr. only takes place during game hours, with both respecting mutually as well, and Dr. Calico/Bolt, since only takes place during filming hours.
- In "Quietest Day Ever", it is revealed that Doofenshmirtz is 47 years old. Interestingly, that is almost the same age as his voice actor, Dan Povenmire.
- He runs faster than a panda, but slower than a platypus.
- Although he wants to take over the Tri-State Area, he thinks taking over the world is crazy.
- His girlfriend before ex-wife had convinced Heinz to aim for a smaller goal when he started out.
- He has a pair of Peter the Panda Slippers.
- He is good at making peach cobbler.
- He is a double amputee with two titanium arms, which may explain his amazing hand-eye coordination.
- According to Major Monogram, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is technically considered an ocelot, as he was raised by ocelots in later childhood.
- Counting Disney Channel animated series, Disney animated features, and Disney-Pixar animated features, Heinz is one of the four characters voiced by its series/film director or lead producer. The others being Edna Mode and Ambrister Minion, both voiced by Brad Bird, and Sour Bill, which Rich Moore voiced.
- Heinz is considered one of Disney's funniest villains, the others being Captain Hook, Prince John, Hades, Yzma, and Turbo/King Candy. Out of them all, Heinz is the only one to come from a television series rather than a film. He is also the least evil of these villains.
- He is similar to Cedric the Sorcerer from Sofia the First.
- Both want to take over and rule their own native land with some sort of contraption that enables them to do so (Doof using various -inator devices to try to take over the Tri-State Area, while Cedric desires to snatch the Amulet of Avalor so that he can rule over all of Enchancia).
- However both fail to do so, and usually in silly ways.
- He has the most songs of any Disney villain.
- Heinz was an answer for a Jeopardy answer in the $800 "TV Time" category, which was in a Kid's Week episode on July 31, 2013.
- He doesn't like rice pudding.
- His name means ruler of the home.
- When he is Professor Time on Milo Murphy's Law, that show seems to ignore that he was Vanessa's science teacher and an O.W.C.A. agent prior, as he lives with Milo after DEI is destroyed and appears to have no job at the moment with no explanation as to how he may have been fired from those other jobs.
External links[]
References[]
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