How The Phineas And Ferb Showrunners Tried To Create A Perry The Platypus Replacement

Published Dec 26, 2024

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Phineas and Ferb is a beloved Disney Channel cartoon that, for many, is impossible to replace — yet the showrunners themselves attempted that with at least one of the fan-favorite characters. The adventures of the tech-savvy stepbrothers, creating one impossible invention after another while their teenage sister desperately tries to show their mother what they have done, are amazingly clever and engaging despite its straightforward premise and formulaic plot. Even more bizarre is the B plot of the series, which follows their pet platypus fighting an incompetent evil scientist.

Perry the Platypus (whose "platypus sounds" are provided by Dee Bradley Baker) is doubtlessly one of the Phineas and Ferb season 5, which will revive the show. While they wait out the final stretch of a 10-year hiatus, fans might check out another animated show created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh — in which Perry appears alongside his own intended replacement.

Diogee Is The Beloved Pet In The Phineas And Ferb Spinoff Milo Murphy's Law

Diogee Is Milo Murphy's Adorable Pet Dog Who Follows Him Everywhere

Diogee Zack and Milo in Milo Muprhy's Law

Shortly after the presumed conclusion of Phineas and Ferb, the TV creative duo came back with Milo Murphy's Law, a similarly toned show set in the same universe as Phineas and Ferb. The show follows middle-school-aged Milo Murphy, voiced by Weird Al Yankovic, who, as his name suggests, suffers from anything and everything going wrong around him. Milo's beloved pet is a quirky dog called Diogee (whose sound effects are also provided by Baker), who manages to follow Milo and his friends wherever they are. Which, due to Murphy's law, includes an underground cavern, a remote island, and school — while they are off an alien invasion.

Diogee's name is derived from the phonetics of spelling out "dog," pronounced "Dee-oh-gee."

The gimmick is usually Diogee shows up, and Milo tells him to go home, and then shakes his head and says: "Silly dog. He’s not supposed to be [place]." It is repetitive, but so is everything Phineas, Ferb, Candance, and Doofenshmirtz all say. However, Diogee occasionally saves the day because of his uncanny ability to be wherever Milo is. For instance, the fact that he is able to make it out to the island where Milo and his classmates are stranded is a solution in and of itself, because if Diogee can get out there, the kids can get home.

How Milo Murphy's Law's Diogee Is Like (& Not Like) Phineas And Ferb's Perry

While Perry Seemingly Has Greater Sentience, Both He & Diogee Are Capable Animal Sidekicks

The cast of Phineas and Ferb has a major crossover episode with Milo Murphy’s Law, after which Perry and Doofenshmirtz hang around as recurring characters. Perry and Diogee share a few storylines, characterized by friendly interactions and occasionally collaboration on Perry's missions. Both Perry and Diogee are helpful in a crisis — in weirder ways in the latter's case, as Diogee actually saves the day in one episode by peeing on a genetically enhanced pistachio plant that will become sentient and take over the world in the future. Both pets seem to be smarter than other animals in this world.

However, the biggest difference between Diogee and Perry is that the recurring bit of Diogee's character is that he always involves himself in what the main characters are doing.

However, Perry appears to have more sentience than Diogee, although Diogee still understands a conversation that he overhears about a storm that will derail the kids' planned maritime excursion, then navigates several kinds of transportation before parachuting his way to the island where Milo is. However, the biggest difference between Diogee and Perry is that the recurring bit of Diogee's character is that he always involves himself in what the main characters are doing. Perry's arc is intrinsically separate from Phineas and Ferb, which contributes to the overall humor of Phineas and Ferb from another angle.

Diogee Has Some Surprising Traits That Help Him Live Up To Perry The Platypus

Diogee Is A Quirky & Understated Character Who Matches Perry In Surprising Ways

Like how Milo Murphy's Law will never really live up to Phineas and Ferb, Diogee isn't likely to ever match the level of fan adoration Perry has amassed. However, Diogee as the beloved pet character is one of the spinoff show's strengths, and he has several surprising traits that make him a worthy successor to Perry the Platypus. He arguably has a better design than Perry, or at least a cuter one, appearing as an unrealistic, but funky and very welcoming dog. His somewhat obvious phonetic name is just part of his brilliant full name, which Milo's sister reveals is Diogee Ex Machina Murphy.

The Phineas And Ferb Revival Can't Ignore The Fact That Stacy Knows Perry's Big Secret

Stacy finds out that Perry is a secret agent in Phineas and Ferb season 4, and now the revival needs to acknowledge that she is keeping his secret.

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The sequences where audiences see what Diogee does on his own time are hilarious, mainly due to the way they juxtapose Diogee acting much more like a real animal than Perry with him still competently tracking Milo or fighting aliens. His combination of believable and unbelievable traits, the way he complements Milo, and how he contrasts with Perry through a milder characterization make Diogee a strangely satisfying, subtly intriguing cartoon character. Being the show to come after Phineas and Ferb couldn't have been easy — but Diogee gives it his best shot at coming after Perry.