'Phineas and Ferb' creators talk reboot, beginnings in animation

LOS ANGELES -- "Phineas and Ferb" creators Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire stepped onto ABC's On The Red Carpet Storytellers Spotlight stage at D23 to share details about the production of the "Phineas and Ferb" reboot and share perspectives into their career beginnings as animators.

Povenmire says "Phineas and Ferb" stopped so he and Marsh could get some much-needed rest after helming the show for more than seven years. Now that they're rested up, they're excited to bring back familiar faces and integrate new ones for a fresh spin on the classic show.

"So far, our writers' room is about half people who worked on the original and half people who are young storytellers coming up, who grew up with 'Phineas and Ferb' as sort of their 'Scooby Doo,'" said Povenmire. "We're just having the best time in the writers' room. There's like six or seven episodes already of this season that are [going to] be iconic episodes that may replace people's favorite episodes in their brain."

Povenmire and Marsh have worked together as creative partners for over three decades. Marsh is grateful that their "bromance" has lasted this long, that he's had a partner in Povenmire to lean on that cares about the craft of storytelling as much as he does.

"You can have an absolute argument, hardcore, but it's about the work," Marsh said to ABC Owned Television Stations Executive Producer Nzinga Blake. "Somebody can go, 'Ah, you're an idiot. It's time to go to lunch.' And we go to lunch. People are like, 'You were just yelling!' And it's like, 'Yeah, but it was just about making the work better.'"

Povenmire has wanted to make movies since he saw Spielberg's "Jaws" in theaters for the first time with his father. During a scary scene, he remembers the entire theatre jumping in fear at the shark on the screen, including his father, leaving him awestruck at the mass impact.

"I was like, wait," he said. "I'm just a little kid, I know why I'm scared. How did he do this to this entire group of people in this place? I felt like 'that's what I want to."

Marsh's beginnings were more unorthodox. He's always been creative, forever drawing as a child and playing in rock bands during his teenage years. As an adult, he found himself working as a computer executive, later quitting on a whim due to unfulfillment. After a friend saw his amazing drawings, done during this time to help curb the anxieties due to unemployment, he was encouraged to pursue a job in animation.

"[I was] like, 'Can we get [the job] now?'" Marsh joked. "Because I'm unemployed, and I have a mortgage, and I stupidly quit my last job without actually having another one. And it wasn't until I started doing [animation] that I thought, 'Oh my gosh, why haven't I done this my whole life!'"

On the Red Carpet's Storytellers Spotlight Creator Conversations was a daily offering at D23 that shined a spotlight on creators across film, television, theater, music, and Walt Disney Imagineering. These intimate conversations delved into their journeys as storytellers, exploring how their own fandom has shaped their creative paths within the Walt Disney Company.

Stay tuned for the release date of the 40-episode reboot of "Phineas and Ferb" on Disney+.

Watch the the full Storytellers Spotlight interview with Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire in the video player above.

Jason Honeycutt and Andres Rovira contributed to this report.

Disney is the parent company of Disney+ and this station.