The Squee Spot

I sometimes pine for the days of old, when Saturday mornings meant something. To be exact, they meant cartoons. Lots of great cartoons. I tend to think that kids of today don’t have it as good as we did when I was a kid. Our cartoon characters had to fight crime uphill, in evil-scientist created monsoons, in brightly colored tights and capes…both ways. And we liked it like that.

Luckily for me, a wise beyond his years three year old (my nephew) introduced me to the joy that is Phineas & Ferb. It airs on the Disney channel and the animation is charming and fresh; the pop culture references are witty; and the stories are funny and just odd enough to appeal to viewers of any age (seriously; my Dad, who is many, many years beyond the age of consent, watches P&F. If you don’t believe me, just ask him. But I digress…) The basic story revolves around the antics and Phineas and Ferb, stepbrothers, and their older sister, Candace. The sub stories feature hilarious, absurb spy-foils-evil-nemesis stories about the constant attempts by Dr. Doofenshmirtz to control the Tri-State area, and Perry the Platypus’ daring-do foiling of said plans.

The truly inspired element of this show, though, is the music. Bowling for Soup (very gifted, tongue-in-your-cheek musicians) does the theme song, Today is Gonna be a Great Day. The creators of the show have gotten two Emmy nods for the music, to date. This show also brings several different media geek gods and demi-gods together to do voices and music. Of cult geek note, Richard O’Brien, who created The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and starred as Riff Raff lends his voice to the kids’ father. Gitchee Gitchee Goo is the song that cemented songs as a key element in the show. It was first heard in season 1, in the episode Flop Starz; an extended version is in a later episode, the Musical Cliptastic Countdown, wherein Gitchee Gitchee Goo was voted the number one song of the series. As the story goes, the PtB (that’s Powers that Be) at Disney were so enamored of the song, they wanted at least one song/musical number in every episode that followed.

So, for my own Saturday morning enjoyment, and hopefully your’s, too, here are a few of my fave musical numbers. If you fall in Gitchee Gitchee Goo with the music, too, you can even pick up the soundtrack and sing along whenever the urge to do it all hits you.

Gitchee Gitchee Goo – the song that really got them rolling

When You’re Small – for those that don’t know me personally, just know that this song has a special place in my heart…yes, I’m short.

Music Makes Us Better – I think you can see why I picked this one for todays squee.

Possibly my all time favorite P&F song….Evil Love… maniacally laugh along with me…