Did Marvel's First Avengers Movie Swipe Its Final Battle From ... Phineas And Ferb?

Dan Povenmire isn't going to say that "Avengers" ripped off "Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension" ... but he's not NOT going to say it either. In late 2021, the co-creator of Disney's "Phineas and Ferb" franchise posted a video on all of his social media outlining the notable similarities between the final battle in Marvel's first big team-up film, which came out in 2012, and the final battle in "Across the 2nd Dimension," which came out in 2011.

"Remember that first movie where all the heroes were together and they had that one building downtown that was branded — it was like the one weirdly shaped building — that had a device up on top of it that shot a ray up into the sky and opened a big circular portal into another dimension," asked Povenmire in his YouTube video. "And this army of metallic gray warriors came through and flew around downtown and there was this huge epic battle where they battled them and when they finally shut off that device they all fell from the sky and just collapsed."

While Povenmire speaks, footage from "Avengers" plays, and then he says, "No, not that movie, this one." After this, he repeats the speech, only this time with footage from "Across the 2nd Dimension" playing. And it cannot be ignored that the footage from both productions is strikingly similar. Povenmire ends the video by urging viewers to compare the films for themselves by watching both on Disney+.

Based on Dan Povenmire's tone, his overall social media presence, and the shameless streaming plug at the end of his video, it's pretty clear that he clocked the similarities between "Avengers" and "Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension" as a joke, not with any ill intent. The question remains, however, if it's really possible for Marvel to have copy-and-pasted Povenmire's creation. Why not? Let's dig this hole.

Well, Marvel revealed that Joss Whedon would write and direct "Avengers" at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2010, and principal photography for that project began in April of the following year and continued at least until August — the month that "Across the 2nd Dimension" released. Since "Avengers" does not seem to have required any notable reshoots, that means that when principal photography wrapped, Povenmire's animated film had only been out a short while.

Unless Whedon felt compelled to change course at the last minute, then the only logical way for him to have had any knowledge of "Across the 2nd Dimension" would have been for him to be a long-time fan lurking around the animated film's place of development. And, if we're being honest with ourselves, that seems about as likely as anything else Whedon does. That said, this one's probably just a coincidence. Neither of these films originated the idea of an alien invasion targeting a massive metropolitan city. Sorry, folks.