Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz

Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz
Phineas and Ferb character
Dr. Doofenshmirtz
First appearance	"Rollercoaster"
Created by	Dan Povenmire Jeff "Swampy" Marsh
Voiced by	Dan Povenmire
Occupation	evil scientist
Family	Roger Doofenshmirtz (brother)
Spouse(s)	Charlene Doofenshmirtz (divorced)
Children	Vanessa Doofenshmirtz
Nationality	Drusselstein

Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz is a fictional character from the television show Phineas and Ferb. He was created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, and is voiced by Povenmire. He first appeared in the pilot episode of the series and has regularly appeared in every episode to date except for "Isabella and the Temple of Sap," and "Ferb TV." He is portrayed as a routinely bumbling, incompetent and forgetful evil scientist intent on taking over the entire tri-state area. He attempts to do so with obscure contraptions and inventions that tend to have "-inator" as the suffix. He speaks with a caricature of a German accent and comes from the fictional European Kingdom-styled country of Drusselstein.

A typical episode features Doofenshmirtz who hatches an evil scheme or invention that he often links to a "back story" from his youth. The back stories explore his mentally abusive and shunned childhood in the fictional village of Gimmelshtump, Drusselstein. His parents often neglect him and favor his brother, Roger. Doofenshmirtz usually monologues and displays acts of "cartoonish" physical violence towards his frenemy Perry the Platypus, a skilled anthropomorphic platypus secret agent who disguises himself as the mindless pet of the series's main characters. Doofenshmirtz appears in several merchandise pieces based on the series, particularly the book series and the video game.

Role in Phineas and Ferb

Doofenshmirtz's most frequent "back story" shows him forced to be a lawn gnome in lieu of an actual one. Dr. Doofenshmirtz's flashback as a lawn gnome as he stand 24 hours a day with no eating, studying, leaving or sleeping and it just like a standing security guard, statue of a person or a military guard in his house.

Doofenshmirtz is portrayed as a bumbling and somewhat incompetent dimwitted evil genius who hates nearly everything (except Christmas & himself, much to his chagrin). He is bent on taking over the "entire tri-state area" and uses peculiar contraptions to do so. Their names tend to end with the suffix "-inator" (except for Shrinkspheria, an invention he stated "I was going to call it a Shrinkinator but I've done the -inator thing before",) and are made up of "strange items [he] purchases off the internet" with his large alimony check from his ex-wife Charlene. Ever since the day they first met, his arch-nemesis has been the secret agent Perry the Platypus. However he has sometimes formed alliances with Perry before or has shown kindness to him and sometimes even reluctance to hurting Perry. In one episode when Doofenshmirtz builds his own country he is disappointed when Perry fails to defeat him (Because of how Perry cannot enter his lair because of his protective collar he must wear for one day), and in another episode Doofenshmirtz gives up evil and joins the agency as an assistant to Perry the Platypus but is fired by agency leader Major Monogram for annoying him.

During every intro, a song is played, with the lyrics "Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated", and on rare occasion it ends up with the song lyrics changed if he is in a different location. Once the sound booth was shown with the band in it. Habitually, Doofenshmirtz's daily encounters with Perry follow a basic chain of events, beginning with Perry being captured, Doofenshmirtz explaining his evil scheme to Perry, Perry escaping from whatever Doofenshmirtz used to trap him, the two engaging in combat with each other, and Perry walking away victorious with the -inator being destroyed with a self-destruct button, leading to Doofenshmirtz yelling his catch phrase in anger, "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!" A running gag of the show is that Dr. Doofenshmirtz only recognizes Perry with his hat on, which Perry uses as an advantage against him (and in one occasion, against one of Doofenshmirtz's -inators). Because he routinely wears a white lab coat, Doofenshmirtz is frequently mistaken for a "pharmacist".

Doofenshmirtz's leitmotifs are various "evil jingles" for his company operation, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, performed by a quartet, sometimes changing as a running gag based on his current location or situation (such as "Doofenshmirtz Quality Bratwurst" when he is shown selling bratwurst, or "Doofenshmirtz Evil is Carpeted" when his building is shown covered with rugs).

Backstories told by Doofenshmirtz often explain the reason for his evil schemes. As explained by his backstories, during his birth in his hometown of Gimmelshtump, Drusselstein, both of his parents neglected to show up, a recurring theme in other events in his life that left him to throw himself his own surprise parties. He was disowned by his parents and forced to live with ocelots, smelling so horrible due to the raw meat they ate, he had no friends and was forced to work in a carnival as the ball thrown at a dunking booth. When he was finally taken back by his parents, they were stricken with poverty and had their lawn gnomes, used to ward off black magic in his village, repossessed. His father, in desperation, forced him to become the new lawn gnome 24 hours all day and night without being allowed to move in the slightest for any reason even to eat, study, leave or sleep and he was just like a standing security, statue of a person or a military guard but he was forced to suffer heat stroke, fever and malnutrition.

"Got Game?" shows that even when his father won a pure breed "spitzen hound" that he named "Only Son" as a displacement of his apparent hatred towards him, a pet that became an award-winning show dog, he still forced Doofenshmirtz to dress as a lawn gnome. One of his only real friends was a balloon he had drawn a vaguely Peter Lorre-like face on, and named "Balloony." A few episodes display his issues with his mother and younger brother, Roger. Thinking that her newborn son was to be a girl, Doofenshmirtz's mom knitted several dresses, though when he turned out a boy she forced Doofenshmirtz to wear them instead for lack of material for a year, effectively emasculating him. His brother was, as Doofenshmirtz describes him, a "goody-two shoes" whom his mother favored. In "Thaddeus and Thor," Doofenshmirtz explains that this was due as well to Roger's skill in kickball, a sport Doofenshmirtz was terrible at.

Throughout his school career, he tried different hobbies, including trying to be a magician, making science fair inventions such as "The Inator" and "The Even-Bigger-Inator" (both of which lost to baking soda volcanoes), poetry (where he curiously also lost a competition to a baking soda volcano), and shadow puppetry—a successful act which got him a girlfriend for a short period, until he was upstaged by a poor puppeteer with large hands. He also tried being a bratwurst vender until the hot dog industry put him out of business. On a date with Linda Flynn before she became famous, a feat Doofenshmirtz sarcastically suggested was not going to work out by saying he was going to rule the world, she suggested that he start small with the Tri-State Area.

As a result of this and his misfortunes as a child, Doofenshmirtz turned to evil and used his skills at inventing to do so. His daughter, Vanessa, notes that he is not actually a doctor and simply purchased a $15 doctorate with his ex-wife's money. He went to "Evil 101" where his teacher, Dr. Gevaarlijk (which means "dangerous", in Dutch), openly displayed her hatred of him and failed him.

In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, a more evil and successful version of him appears as the main antagonist, with the regular Doctor Doofenshmirtz as a supporting character. He and Perry The Platypus are considered to be the show's breakout characters.^{[citation needed]}

Creation and design

Doofenshmirtz is voiced by Phineas and Ferb co-creator Dan Povenmire.

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 chose 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 of the series was designed to incorporate geometric shapes in reminiscence of Tex Avery's graphic style for his Looney Tunes cartoons; Doofenshmirtz himself appearing to use that of an oval. They were as well meant to be drawn very simply, 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. He describes the voice he uses as "vaguely Eastern European" and is one he used at fifteen years old when having pillow fights and such with his five year old sister. To this day, his sister recognizes the voice and asks him to do it frequently. 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 alter 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 an evil scientist who despises almost everything around him, including pelicans, ear hair and obscure things such as musical instruments starting with the letter "B." Throughout the series, this is explained more and more, and is attributed to his broken upbringing with overprotective yet unloving mother and his verbally abusive father. Some may refer to Doofenshmirtz as an idiot, because in the episode "The Doof Side of the Moon" he tried to rotate the moon so it would be a new moon forever, because he noticed that he was more evil than other evil scientists during a new moon. 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." It was also shown in one episode that all his traps were platypus-sized indicating that they have always been arch rivals. 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 (Peter the Panda) 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 O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) 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. It is shown that either he is better than all other evil scientists or Perry goes easy on him, as in the episode Oh There You Are Perry, Perry imprisoned an evil scientist in less than a day's time. He is shown to be devoted to his daughter, Vanessa, trying to impress her every time they meet but always ending up failing. There are times, though, that she shows she likes her father although she is not aware that whatever it is that makes her like him is due to the help of Perry the Platypus. In the episode "Hail, Doofania!" Vanessa acted like Candace trying to bust her father to her mom that he is really pure evil. But this was later altered, and she has now accepted his unusual ways. He also has a robot named Norm whose appearance is based on that of his brother Roger, showing that he may have some love for his brother.

Reception

Despite a negative review of the Phineas and Ferb series on Toon Zone, Maxie Zeus notes that a large bright side of the series is Povenmire's performance as Doofenshmirtz. Zeus states that "Dan Povenmire voices him with such energy, and with such perfect timing, that you'll laugh out loud even at the stuff that isn't even supposed to be funny." Zeus as well says that the Doofenshmirtz subplot would have made a "fine bit of sketch writing" if trimmed down.

In 2009, Josh Jackson, editor-in-chief for Paste Magazine, wrote in a blog that Phineas and Ferb was "the best kids show on TV" and gave Doofenshmirtz a large amount of praise. He calls his inventions "awesomely designated devices of pure evil" and his complex relationship with his nemesis Perry the Platypus as "pitch-perfect."

Doof's Daily Dirt

In January 2013, Doofenshmirtz launched his own YouTube channel and weekly videocast titled Doof's Daily Dirt. He comments on various Internet memes and pop culture trends, usually long after the subject is no longer of interest or relevant. Subjects have included: Internet Acronyms, Lolcatz, Bacon infused products, PSY's "Gangnam Style", One Direction, Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", Honey Boo-Boo, the Kardashians and the Mayan apocalypse. He also started a Twitter account where he posts more frequently. The webisode series had an original run of 13 episodes.

In April, Disney announced that Doofenshmirtz will appear in the season finale for the reality TV series Shark Tank where he would get a chance to pitch his latest invention. The finale broadcasted a clip of his pitch and the full segment was posted online afterwards. More episodes have been planned for the summer. Lauren DeVillier, the Vice President of Disney Channel's digital media, said that "Our team is having a great time with 'Doof's Daily Dirt' so we're thrilled to have it extended," and "We can't wait for even more of Doof's distinctive commentary and completely unexpected insights."

References

Episode references

Other sources

External links

• Doof's Daily Dirt's channel on YouTube