“To dream,” began Candace, throwing her hands up dramatically into the air. “To be free of the curse!”
“Beautiful!” Phineas called. “Keep going! Cue the magical girlie dust!” he shouted into his megaphone.
Above the set, Ferb tipped over a box full of glitter. The sparkles began to fall down onto Candace’s head. At first, they drifted down gently.
“Whether ’tis nobler to be loved,” said Candace, enjoying the sparkly effect. Then, suddenly, the whole box came crashing down on her head. “Aaah-choo!” She sneezed.
“Cue wind machine!” Phineas cried.
Ferb lifted a giant lever, and a jet turbine engine was instantly turned on. It swept away every speck of dust — and Candace, practically, too.
“To be… cursed… by love…” she gasped, clinging to the headboard of her bed with all her might to keep from being blown away. “Phineas!” she screamed finally, “make it stop!”
“Cut the wind machine!” he hollered.
Ferb lowered the lever and the gale-force winds stopped. Candace fell to the mattress with an “Oof!” But the scene wasn’t over.
“Okay…” Phineas went on, as the camera kept rolling, “… drop the flower petals!”
“Whether ’tis nobler—” Candace muttered weakly. But before she could finish her lines, a load of plumbing supplies came crashing down from above.
Phineas looked up at Ferb. A full box labeled FLOWER PETALS sat on the rafter next to him. “Wrong prop!” Phineas observed. “What the heck? Let’s keep it! Okay, people. That’s a wrap!”
The filming of The Curse of the Princess Monster was officially finished.
Chapter 5
Later that day in the editing room, Phineas and Ferb were busy turning all the scenes they’d shot into a cinematic masterpiece. The recording was playing on a large computer, and Ferb was meticulously cutting and pasting scenes into order. Candace sat miserably between them, gnawing at her fingers.
She watched scene after scene on the computer. Just as Candace had feared, they were not pretty.
“Here’s your big dramatic scene, Candace,” Phineas said eagerly. She cringed as the bedroom came into view.
“To think… to — to stink… to… to—”
Candace winced as she watched herself lying there, gasping and panting, battered and banged and totally bruised.
“Oh,” she moaned, pounding her head against the table. Tears poured out of her eyes like they were fountains. “This is horrible!” she wailed. “I can’t let anybody see this!”
“That’s what is called a rough cut,” Phineas said cheerily. “Ferb’s going to fix it in editing. Tighten up the dialogue,” he explained as Ferb plugged away on the computer. “Do a little voice modulation. Play with the filters.”
Candace could see some of what he was talking about on the monitor before them. The computer program seemed to change everything around. Mostly, though, she kept her eyes covered with her hands.
“And now, take a look,” said Phineas finally.
Candace slowly and reluctantly slid open her fingers and peeked out at the screen.
“To think… to dream… to be free of the curse.”
“Ahhh!” Candace gasped. There she was on the screen, looking positively awesome and gorgeous, speaking her lines perfectly — with real background music and everything!
“I… I… I look beautiful!” she squealed, clasping her hands together in glee.
“That’s what they call movie magic,” said Phineas.
“You two are the best brothers a great actress could ever have!” cried Candace. Then she threw her arms around them… something she’d never done before. She couldn’t wait for the movie to premiere.
Academy Awards, look out! thought Candace. Here I come!
Chapter 6
Candace didn’t have to wait long for the premiere. The producer set up a sneak preview before the day was through.
“We packed this theater with teenagers,” he explained to Candace, Phineas, and Ferb, as they stood outside the movie house. “They’re our target audience. If they like it, we’re in business. If they don’t…” He drew his finger sharply across his throat to indicate that the whole project would be dead.
Inside, the young audience quieted down as the lights dimmed and the title sequence began.
“The Curse of the Princess Monster!” said a low, sinister voice.
Instantly, the whole place erupted in cheers.
“Looks like we’ve got a hit movie!” declared the producer.
Phineas and Ferb high-fived each other, and Candace jumped for joy.
Whoopee! she thought. At last, her dreams of movie stardom were really coming true!
A couple of blocks away, Dr. Doofenshmirtz was showing Perry his very latest invention.
“Now, Perry the Platypus,” he said as they stood on a balcony high above the unsuspecting city below, “watch carefully as I demonstrate the Age-Accelerator… inator!”
The device was strapped to his back and, as he jumped into the air, a laser shot out from the top and blasted a glowing green beam through the sky. Dr. Doofenshmirtz aimed it at a park where children were playing, and the beam landed on a toddler who was happily riding a seesaw with another child.
Perry watched as the cute little toddler grew into a big, hairy adult. He got so heavy so quickly that he sent the kid sitting on the other side of the seesaw flying through the air.
“Hooray, it works!” crowed Dr. Doofenshmirtz. “And now, to make some perfectly aged cheese!”
Still wearing his age-accelerating machine, Dr. D. strode back into his office and up to his big wheel of cheese. He took aim — and fired.
The cheese ripened before their eyes. “Ah, perfect!” he exclaimed, delighted, cutting off the laser. “You can actually see the pungent aroma!” He cut off a large, fragrant hunk and handed it to Perry. “Here you go, Perry the Platypus. But I’m warning you.” He wagged his finger. “Once you start, you won’t be able to stop.”
Perry eyed the cheese skeptically. He didn’t approve of the villain’s methods… but his cheese did look good.
“I’ll go get some crackers,” Dr. Doofenshmirtz told him, heading toward the kitchen. He was back in a moment, carrying a tray.
“We’re in luck,” said Dr. Doofenshmirtz happily. “I still have some leftover melba—” But he stopped abruptly and froze in midstep. His hands started to shake, and he dropped the tray of crackers.
CRASH!
“Whoa! Oh, no!” he cried. Where moments before his perfect wheel of pungent cheese had gloriously rested, there was now only an empty pedestal. “The cheese! What happened to the stinky cheese? Perry the Platypus!” His eyes zeroed in on Perry — who looked more like a Frisbee than a platypus. “You ate all the cheese?” he wailed. “No! No!”
Perry tried to look innocent. But there was no hiding the distinct wheel-shaped bulge in his belly. It had been fabulously irresistible cheese.