This article is about the Phineas and Ferb episode. For other episodes under the same title, see Out to Launch.
"Out to Launch" is the 24th episode of Phineas and Ferb, originally broadcast on the Disney Channel on December 5, 2008.
Plot[]
Phineas and Ferb are resting against the tree in the backyard listening to the radio with their pet, Perry between them. The radio announcer is advertising the Night of the Falling Stars girls' choice dance which is happening that night. It seems Danville is in for a meteor shower and everyone in town has gone "star crazy." Lawrence Fletcher is especially star crazy as he's found out that he can purchase the naming rights to stars online and give them away as gifts. He brings out a certificate he printed online to show the boys that they are now the proud owners of their very own star.
Phineas asks if Candace got one too, and being a good father, Lawrence bought her one as well despite the fact that she doesn't seem very interested in those sorts of things. He is enamored by how easy and inexpensive it is to buy stars online, comparing it to the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. Sneaking up on them, Linda tells the boys that it was the corny history references that made her fall for him in the first place. She then explains that she and her friend Vivian are going to their mahjong tournament. As Lawrence rushes back inside to buy more stars, Phineas suggests to Ferb that they go visit their star. He goes on to wax poetic about space travel: "the G-forces, eating dinner out of a tube, and going to the bathroom without going to the bathroom."
Meanwhile, at the Googolplex Mall, Candace visits Jeremy and his friends in the food court to try and ask him out. He turns around and they start laughing at her. Then the earth would be destroyed. At least this is the scenario that Candace is using to explain to Stacy why she can't ask Jeremy to the dance. Stacy, unimpressed, tells Candace that hers is kind of a worst-case scenario and that she can't let fear rule her life. She pushes Candace to call Jeremy as soon as she hangs up the phone. Candace agrees, hangs up, and proceeds to call Stacy right back to tell her she is too afraid to do it.
In the backyard, the boys are working on their rocket. First, they are going through tests of stamina to make sure they are suited for space travel. Ferb is exercising on a giant hamster wheel and Phineas has Buford spin him around really fast on a merry-go-round. Then, they get to work on the actual rocket. The Fireside Girls help assemble the fuselage, while Phineas and Ferb are trying to work out a formula, specifically the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation. They try several times, but are having difficulties coming on the correct one, with each rocket exploding in a clip of rocket failures. Ferb notices their flaw: the square root of "bomb." Once Phineas changes it to the square root of "smiley face," everything works out.
They are finally ready to launch and Phineas gives Isabella and the Fireside Girls a tour of Mission Control. Even though it looks like a tiny shed in the middle of their backyard, it is huge inside since Ferb "really knows how to maximize space." The rest of the girls go inside, but Isabella stays to try and ask Phineas to the dance. Unfortunately, Katie interrupts her by asking Phineas inside to sign some liability waivers. Phineas and Ferb walk out their backdoor wearing their spacesuits. Perry, also wearing a spacesuit, is tucked under Phineas' arm. They are walking slowly and in a mist for dramatic effect until Isabella stops them. The three astronauts aboard the rocket as Isabella and the Fireside Girls act as Mission Control. Gretchen counts them down, but the rocket stalls out when Isabella pushes the ignition button. Phineas deduces they just need a jump-start.
Candace finally looks out of the window and sees the rocket and Mission Control and heads down to the backyard. Phineas and Ferb are in the driveway with the hood of the family car open, jumper cables in hand. Candace climbs up inside the rocket and heads up the ladder into the cockpit. The boys have connected the jumper cables to the battery and Ferb hits the remote starter to start the car. It immediately launches the rocket into the sky, pulling the car along with it. They head over to Mission Control where Isabella shows them who took off in the rocket.
Candace is pressed against a hatch inside and her cheeks are covering her ears because of the G-forces. Phineas tries to communicate with her, but she can't hear him. Phineas realizes they need to go after her in the second rocket they built for Candace to see her star. He doesn't know why she took his and Ferb's. The second rocket is highlighted in pink and has flowers on it. Candace escapes the atmosphere and the car comes loose from the jumper cables. It tumbles and lands on the runway into a space station to the chagrin of a pair of NASA shuttle astronauts.
Somehow, the second rocket takes off perfectly and Phineas opens communications with Candace, reassuring her that as long as she doesn't start hitting buttons randomly, the rocket is pre-programmed to take her to their star. It's too late though, as she's already hitting random buttons. Phineas then asks about Perry.
Perry is sneaking down the rocket, putting on his fedora and answering his communications device. Major Monogram is on the other end informing him that Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz has built a space station, but The Agency can't afford to launch him into space due to budget cuts. Major Monogram gets cut off because Agent P shows Major Monogram that he is already in space. Agent P's mission is to find the Doofenshmirtz space station and stop the evil doctor. Perry opens an airlock and lets go of the communication device sending it out into the blackness of space and disorienting Major Monogram.
Candace has been studying her instruments wondering what all the red flashing things are. Phineas calmly tells her they're asteroids. Candace's rocket soon gets hit by two asteroids knocking out her engines. The boys change course to rescue her.
Perry arrives at Doofenshmirtz's space station. It's shaped like a giant robot with huge hands and nothing below the waist. He gets sucked inside the robot and frozen in an ice cube tray by Doofenshmirtz. Using a crane on a track, Doofenshmirtz shows Perry the Platypus his station while telling him a story from his teen years. It seems Doofenshmirtz was very adept at hand shadows or shadow puppets. He found it great fun for entertaining people and meeting girls (Fräuleins). Unfortunately, Heinz's fun was ruined when a new boy arrived by the name of Huge Hands Hans. His puppetry wasn't very good, but that didn't stop him from taking away the girl that Heinz was trying to win over. He never did a shadow puppet again. Until tonight. His plan is to use a pair of gloves to control the hands of the robotic space station and make hand shadows on the moon.
Candace's situation is getting worse. She's in a decaying orbit and can't escape the gravity of one of the asteroids. According to Phineas, her only option is to put on the space suit and take a spacewalk to their rocket before crashing. She is afraid, but Phineas is trying to talk her out of being afraid, "You can't let fear rule your life." In the meantime, Ferb has already reached her. He takes her hand and together they head back to the pink rocket where Phineas contacts Isabella at Mission Control. After determining everyone is alright, Isabella starts to ask Phineas to the dance again but an alarm sounds inside the rocket. They are running out of fuel. Surprised, Phineas and the gang desperately try to find a fuel source, and then find out that they were getting closer to something bright.
Meanwhile at the space station, Linda's car stays outside, still blocking the Space Shuttle which was scheduled to land.
Phineas finds out that the bright thing was a star, Shooting Star Milk Shake Bar. The boys head inside, after pleading Candace to come, but she refuses. The Milkshake Bar is a rundown place. Phineas introduces himself and Ferb, and the bartender welcomes them, stating them as the new owners. Phineas does not understand this, but Ferb shows them the star certificate their father gave them, and it turns out they have the same matching coordinates. The bartender asks them how they think of the joint. They decide to fix up the place.
We see the Earth again falling to destruction. Isabella tells Candace that that is a worst case scenario. Candace remembers her brothers and goes off to find them. Inside, Candace is told to review a shake, and an alien boy nervously asks her if it's silly to be nervous to ask the girl of your dreams out, like Candace and Jeremy. She gives him advice and he asks her (Silvia, the girl of his dreams) out. Silvia, who is growing out of the back of the alien boy's head gladly, accepts, saying "I mean, even if you asked somebody else out I'd still have to go with you." Phineas gets some fuel and they leave. Unfortunately, the battery dies. Turns out that Candace used the video phone without the engine running.
Meanwhile, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is plotting his evil plan, but Agent P's ice tray begins to melt.
Back with the kids, they find mom's car for another jump start. Since they left the starter remote at home, Candace has her learner's permit and has to do the jump starting. Dr. Doofenshmirtz thinks this is Huge Hands Hans and grabs her. Candace escapes though, and the chase begins. Isabella and the Fireside girls find out that huge robots do not corner well. They take a detour through the asteroid belt, and Doofenshmirtz gets hit. He puts on his space suit to avoid suffocating. Just after, a much larger meteor comes by and crashes into his station.
On Earth, Mr. Fletcher gives a pizza man a tip, his very own star, but the pizza guy is not happy with this ("Uptown, they give Quasars!") The kids go back to earth and Isabella then asks Phineas to the dance and he says yes, but Ferb is coming too. So she's left with a 1.5 date with Phineas and Ferb.
Linda arrives home and Candace greets her. She announces that she won although the Grand Prize was a star, to which Lawrence replies happily. Candace calls Linda to the yard, while she notices that the car is not parked. She proceeds to park it and since it was still connected to the rocket and it launched up to space again. It ends up crashing into Doofenshmirtz's space station, annihilating it.
Phineas walks over and thanks Candace for saving them with her bravery. When she says "You think I'm...brave?" Phineas replies "Are you kidding? Ferb was going on and on about it!" Candace, using her new found courage, hurries away to ask Jeremy to the dance. He says yes, but sees her in her spacesuit, to which Candace says she'll be wearing and asks if Jeremy likes it. Later, at the dance. Jeremy then points out a big shooting star, which turns out to be Doofenshmirtz inside the burning robot space station and falling to the ocean coast of Danville. He resurfaces and curses Perry and Hans.
Cast[]
- Vincent Martella as Phineas
- Ashley Tisdale as Candace
- Thomas Sangster as Ferb
- Caroline Rhea as Mom
- Richard O'Brien as Dad
- Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
- Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
- Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
- Alyson Stoner as Isabella
- Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
- Kelly Hu as Stacy
- Ariel Winter as Gretchen
- Isabella Acres as Katie
- Lara Jill Miller as Silvia
Songs[]
Goofs[]
- Isabella's teeth disappear during her first attempt to ask Phineas to the dance.
- Since the characters can stand and walk in the ship, it can be assumed that there is some sort of artificial gravity in it. However, there are several scenes where Candace and Perry are floating.
- In Candace's fantasy, Jeremy and his friends are sitting behind a table (in front of them), and there is no-one sitting there. However, when zooming out, there are four people sitting at that same table.
Isabella's jacket disappears
- When Isabella talks to Phineas over the monitor and says that he has the dance tonight before the end of the first part, she isn't wearing her mission control jacket.
- The last time Isabella says "Sure, no prob", her bow was much larger than usual.
- The inflated gloves should have made it very difficult for Candace to move her fingers.
- Doofenshmirtz and Perry would not have been able to see the sun rising but would be seeing the earth slowly move because the sun does not move but the earth rotates on its axis.
- When Phineas and Ferb are going into the ship there is no ladder. But after Candace has to climb a ladder.
- This episode shows that Doofenshmirtz can't swim. However, in "Hail Doofania!", Doofenshmirtz can.
Trivia[]
- The title resembles the saying, "out to lunch."
- "Building a rocket..." is a line in the Phineas and Ferb Theme, giving a preview for this. It showed Phineas jumping off the rocket in a Neil Armstrong fashion, as Ferb stays still behind him.
- It is confirmed that Perry is working for the government when Major Monogram says the line, "Now I've contacted the president and...". This was mentioned in the original story pitch, but was deleted from "Rollercoaster" for unknown reasons.
- Doofenshmirtz' hand machine has realistic hand movements, probably indicating that it is computer-animated.
- Isabella says "Sure. No prob." three times in the episode. If one listens closely, the way she says it is recycled for the rest of the episode, and the same music cue plays for the first two.
- "Fräulein" is German for "Miss" or "Young Lady".
- This is the final episode that aired in 2008.
- There are several references to the space epic Star Wars:
- "Just like beggar's canyon back home," is an exact line from Star Wars: A New Hope referring to the treacherous journey along the Death Star trench.
- The giant hand machine Doofenshmirtz uses is possibly a reference to the Death Star in A New Hope.
- Perry being frozen in the ice cube tray is similar to Han Solo being frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back. Perry is even in the very same pose Han was.
- Phineas, Ferb and Candace being chased through the asteroid field is similar to when Han Solo and Chewbacca flew through the asteroid field being chased by TIE Fighters in The Empire Strikes Back. Their spaceship even makes a swing around an asteroid similar to what the Millennium Falcon did.
- The scene where Perry is being pulled into Doof's ship by a tractor beam is similar to part of the opening scene of A New Hope, including the camera angle.
- The astronaut that is trying to park his space shuttle closely resembles Jango Fett from Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.
- The general atmosphere of the Shooting Star Milkshake Bar before the boys fix it up might be a reference to the cantina in Episode IV.
- The rocket building montage contains real-world footage of American efforts to build successful rockets during the early years of the space race in the 1960s. It is likely that the writers had Phineas and Ferb fail several times as an homage to all the hard work these scientists did to fulfill President Kennedy's dream.
- The dramatic, vapor filled walk Phineas and Ferb take while boarding the rocket mimics that of several films, including The Right Stuff, Armageddon, and Apollo 13.
- Phineas comments on Ferb's ability to maximize interior space, a subtle poke at the larger-on-the-inside TARDIS used in Doctor Who. Thomas Sangster, the voice of Ferb, has made an appearance on this series.
- When Candace enters Jeremy's house in the radioactive-suit like space suit, it's a reference to when Marty wears a similar suit to convince his father to ask his mother out in Back to the Future. Candace uses the same raspy voice, too.
Gallery[]
References[]
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