Minor supporting characters include neighbor children Isabella (Alyson Stoner), Baljeet (Maulik Pancholy), Buford (Bobby Gaylor), Jeremy (Mitchel Musso), Carl (Tyler Alexander Mann), and Stacy (Kelly Hu). Buford is the school tough, Baljeet is the technological wizard, Isabella has a crush on oblivious Phineas, Stacy is Candace's airhead friend, Jeremy is the dreamboat of Candace, and so on.
How others will see it. Apparently, the film saw theatrical release only in Spain, where it died a quick death. In the U.S., it is a made-for-TV expansion of the Disney half-hour series, that kiddie network's belated answer to Nickolodeon's long-reigning SpongeBob.
It comes as little surprise that the user ratings at imdb.com have an unusually high percentage of voters under 18. Voters under 30 dominate, and give it the highest ratings. Still, those over 30, who presumably have children who favor the series, give it a 7.3.
Adults will find plenty of humor aimed at their generation. In fact, kids won't "get" many of the references. Not only won't they recognize a parody of Simon & Garfunkel, they would consider the latter to be a law firm.
How I felt about it. Not that kids will care. The animation is good, the action is frenetic, and best of all, the writing is first-rate. Actually, this television movie is leagues better than certain Disney theatrical releases of the past, such as Dinosaur and Tarzan.
Little is perfect, though, and we can complain that some of the characters are stereotypes, especially shallow teenager Candace and evil scientist Dr. Doofenshmirtz (Dr. Strangelove was already taken). The soundtrack descends into rock music on more than one occasion, but even this is not all bad, since the lyrics remain fairly clever.
In short, this movie is the missing link between guilty pleasure The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie and the envelope-pushing South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. It is actually good, but in G-rated fashion, no one gets hurt despite the thousands of multi-ton robots that plunge from the sky and wreak havoc.
The political implications of the plot are mildly interesting. The alternate universe is under the tyrannical rule of Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who has an omnipresent robot army and a devoted secret agent slave in the alternate Perry the Platypus. Naturally, the totalitarian government (at least within the tri-state area) has spawned a resistance movement, led by none other than Candace, who has superhero abilities developed principally to protect her surprisingly useless younger brothers. Thus, evil is conquered by family love as well as a toy choo-choo and the heroic efforts of our title characters and their fearless platypus.