Phineas and Ferb, a popular animated children’s TV show, is known for its use of magical realism, adding magical elements to a realistic world. One of its most notable uses of magical realism is a series of episodes where the characters of the Phineas and Ferb universe are superimposed into other time periods. In episodes titled “Tri-Stone Area” and “Doof Dynasty”, the main characters build inventions and go on adventures, appropriate to their time period. In “Tri-Stone Area”, set in 27,000 BCE, Phineas and Ferb, called “Phinnebug” and “Gerb” in this episode, invent the wheel, called a “wah”, in the local vernacular, and eventually a proto-car (a “canga”). Along with the development of the “wah” and the “canga”, fire (a “foom-fa”) and the English language are also discovered. Interestingly, in the utilization of the Stone Age (admittedly a very broad time period), the creators of “Phineas and Ferb” counteract some very common anthropological tropes.
“The Tri-stone Area” addresses a number of tropes about “the Stone Age”, all in a similar manner. What’s most striking about the episode is that by watching the characters whose personalities and speech affects are already familiar, it becomes evident that their personality traits and intellect are essentially the same as they are in the rest of the show. While the characters living in the Stone Age have slightly different names, speak a different language, wear different clothing, and have not made certain technological developments yet, the characters retain the roles that they occupy throughout the rest of the show. Phineas and Ferb, “Phinnebug” and “Gerb”, are still the genius inventing duo that they are throughout the rest of the series. Isabella, “Isabelok” in the episode, is still the cute, sweet friend who has a crush on Phinnebug. Buford, “Boofgerd”, is still the stocky, gruff “bully” that he has been all along. Language and dress may be changed, but personality and intellect are retained.
While the cultural revolution may have already occurred before 27,000 BCE, there are prominent tropes about human “prehistory” present in anthropology scholarship and textbooks. Wictor Stoczkowski, in Explaining Human Origins, discusses how these tropes depict humans of the prehistoric age as leading “…a difficult existence, exposed to the constant dangers of cold and hunger. Fear was their daily companion, death stalked them.” (Stoczkowski 7) Further, quoting a Soviet schoolbook, Stoczkowski presents the perception that in prehistoric ages, “Man…experienced fear in the face of nature….Unable to understand the causes of natural phenomena, he explained them by the intervention of mysterious, supernatural forces…..” (Stoczkowski 9) These excerpts demonstrate the common understanding of a human living in pre-historic times: paranoid, hunger-driven, and at nature’s mercy. These characterizations of prehistoric human life also imply that because they were so focused on obtaining food and shelter from predators, that they were primitive, unimaginative, and likely depressed. Stoczkowski further highlights the narrative’s wholly adverse relationship between humans and nature. According to the popular telling, while being “persecuted” by nature, humans had an inability to understand it, and thus resorted to cosmological explanations of natural phenomena. By this conception, humans of the prehistoric era were not innovative enough to understand nature’s complexity, and were also naive enough to need to resort to irrational cosmological explanations of the world around them. There is an implicit contrast to modern humans, who are thought to have an extensive understanding of nature, and thus no need to rely on the flimsy ideas of the supernatural.
Given the prevailing tropes about the time period, it seems natural, almost expected, that the creators of ”Phineas and Ferb”, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, would present the characters in a manner similar to how Homer Simpson is portrayed in “The Dawn of the Sandwiches.” He is portrayed as primitive and food-driven, always on the hunt for prey. Homer only speaks in unintelligible grunts, and even the translations of the grunts that appear in the vignette indicate only basic speech capabilities. However, it is evident that in “The Tri-Stone Area”, the Povenmire and Marsh took care to counteract these prevailing narratives. First, while Phinnebug and Gerb and the rest of the characters obviously speak a different language, the words and letters are arranged so that they’re almost completely understood by the audience. Indeed, while watching the episode, it is pretty easy, with some flexibility and filling in the blanks, to understand what the characters are saying. Thus, while they are speaking in “cavetalk”, they are nonetheless speaking something close to what can be understood by an English-speaking audience of today. Stemming from their use of language, it is evident that the characters are not wholly obsessed with hunting for food, which would only require language that purely serves as a rudimentary communication system. In “The Tri-Stone Area,” the characters use language to communicate complex feelings, such as excitement, anger, frustration, and in one special case, the “bad guy”, “Doofengung” (Dr. Doofenshmirtz), tells his classic “tragic backstory” (Tragic backstories are employed frequently by Dr. Doofenshmirtz, the “bad guy”, throughout the show, to explain his motives for his “evil invention”). Not only do humans have an extensive language system, but they think about and express complicated thoughts to others, such as a tragic backstory, which he purposely tells to “Bunka the Bunka Qunk” (Perry the Platypus). This implies that feelings of commiseration and empathy were important, and often employed by humans of “the Stone Age”, much as they are today.
Throughout the episode, it is obvious that the characters, contrary to the tropes presented by Stoczkowski, do not have an antagonistic relationship to nature. For example, at the beginning of the episode, Phinnebug and Gerb are going through ideas for their next invention, and don’t seem satisfied with any ideas depicted on the stone slabs. However, they finally get their inspiration for the “wah” (the wheel), by watching a squirrel roll by on an acorn. Additionally, true to the rest of the show, Phinnebug and Gerb not only coexist with a platypus, but take it in as a pet, with a name (“Bunka”).
There is one instance in the episode where Cantok (“Candace”) is picked up by a vulture, and he flies off with her, but she easily fights him off by hitting him with a symbolic stick she holds. Thus, “Tri-Stone Area”, through its several depictions of animals as inspiration and valuable companions, as well as having their own agency, counteracts the popular idea that humans were constantly at odds with nature. While there are antagonistic interactions between humans and animals, humans are competitive, and are able to overcome animals when attacked. More broadly, while the episode serves as an example of Phineas and Ferb’s adventures, it can also be used to counteract the beliefs that because of a fear of nature, humans were limited, paranoid, and had to turn to the supernatural to make sense of the world. However, it is clear that the environment serves as an inspiration for humans, and that they can use it for not only hunting, but for a home, a hair salon, and a small resort. Essentially, humans in “Tri-Stone Area” have the same relationship with the landscape as humans today.
Bibliography
Stoczkowski, W. (2002). Prehistory and the Conditioned Imagination. In Explaining human origins: Myth, imagination and conjecture (pp. 3-28). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Povenmire, D., & Marsh, J. (Writers). (2012, January 13). Tri-Stone Area [Television series episode]. In Phineas and Ferb. Disney Channel.
Hossain, J. (2020, November 19). Evolution and Homer Origins [Web log post]. Retrieved December 10, 2020, from https://museumofmodernpasts.wordpress.com/2020/11/19/evolution-and-homer-origins/
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