It's wildly inappropriate to sing the praises of a Disney Channel show by saying that it pisses genius, but "Phineas and Ferb" does just that, deftly blending dry relationship humor with high-concept science and one of the best pop soundtracks you'll find outside of "South Park" (back when they wrote songs, anyway). Having wrapped their 39-episode (!) second season last fall, their first all-new show of 2011 is the wildly ambitious full-length movie "Across the 2nd Dimension," and to the surprise of no one, it's pretty awesome. Phineas and Ferb invent a portal to another dimension, and they discover a world where the nefarious Dr. Doofenshmirtz is a much more successful evil genius than the one in our world, and he plans to use the boys' portal to take over our tri-state area as well. The producers have a great time playing against type (the other Candace is an ass-kicking resistance fighter, while the boys are timid and never leave the house), but the overall tone of the film is quite dark, which may not sit well with younger kiddos. Thankfully, the movie's mini-tunes are the ringing pop gems fans have come to expect, to the point where one of the movie's best songs wound up on the cutting room floor.

The DVD of "Across the 2nd Dimenson" uses the alternate world in a cheeky manner by splitting the bonus features between two title screens (poke around the main screen, and you'll figure it out). The deleted scenes are quite good, but the two musical numbers, a longer version of "Robot Riot" and Candace's great "Mysterious Force" (arguably the best song Ashley Tisdale has sung in years) are the winners. They also included the episode "Attack of the 50 Foot Sister," which each universe in the DVD sporting its own audio commentary, one of which is the voice actors behind Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram in character. This should satisfy fans of the show while the producers are hard at work on the show's third season.

Click to buy Phineas and Ferb, The Movie from Amazon

I've never seen "Les Miserables," so watching this celebration of the enormously long-running Anglo-French pop opera recorded at London's enormous O2 arena was like being introduced to "Star Trek" at a convention full of rowdy Trekkies. In this semi-staged version, Alfred Boe sings and acts the role of Victor Hugo's impossibly good ex-convict, Jean Valjean. Valjean, of course, stole a loaf of bread to save his infant nephew, only to break parole and be hunted by the fanatical and pitiless Inspector Javert (Norm Lewis, superbly intense). He does this while becoming a wealthy bourgeois and experiencing guilt over his treatment of the tragic Fantine (Lea Salonga of "Miss Saigon" and "Aladdin").

Later, Valjean tries to help Fantine's daughter, Cossette (Katie Hall), who in turn must endure the perils of pre-revolutionary France while finding love with the heroic young Marius (Nick Jonas, yes, that Nick Jonas). Along the way, we bump into a pair of nasty and putatively comical brothel owners, the Thénardiers (Matt Lucas and Jenny Galloway). Lucas, his teeth blacked out, performs the damnably annoying earworm and George Costanza favorite, "Master of the House," as the audience goes bananas. The geek-out goes into overdrive as the show proper ends and several casts are brought on stage. Encore highlights includes "the Four Valjeans." Fans of "Les Miserables" will eat this stuff up. The rest of us should just either shell out for an ordinary production or wait for the movie. It might not be all that great, but it'll beat being an outsider at a fanfest.

Click to buy "Les Miserables: The 25th Anniversary Edition"

Well, this isn't going to help Denis Leary's reputation when it comes to stealing other people's jokes.

Here's a little back story: According to the biography American Scream, Leary used to do chunks of the routines of the late, great Bill Hicks. Hicks was aware of this, but since Leary played parts of the country that Hicks seldom visited, he let it go. Then Leary made No Cure for Cancer in 1992, where he committed the unpardonable sin of recording Hicks' material, and taking credit for it. Louis C.K. later claimed that Leary's song "Asshole" was based on a bit that he used to do. Leary has denied stealing from anyone because, well, what else is he supposed to do? Fortunately, we were able to ask Leary about Hicks directly, to which he gives a lengthy, thoughtful reply. (You can read it here.)

Now comes "Douchebags and Donuts," a comedy show Leary organized with a few friends as a fundraiser for his charity. It's a great cause, and it's great that the show was a success. But the first word in that title has already invoked the ire of one Jay Louis, editor in chief of the sublimely funny site Hot Chicks with Douchebags. Louis went on a long and unusually pointed rant about Leary's thievery, and how he's been championing the mock of the douchebag for five years, building a mini-empire out of it. And that's fine, but it's not as if Louis created these goofy-haired halfwits - he was just the first to dedicate a site to mocking them, and in fact should be honored that his efforts have created such a groundswell that the phrase is slowly working its way into the pop lexicon with his definition as the #1 description. Before Jay, calling someone a douchebag just meant they were a jerk; now, it defines a very specific kind of jerk. Well done.

Having said that, Louis should have waited to see "Douchebags and Donuts" before criticizing it, since doing so makes him like those Republicans who call out movies they've never seen. If he had waited, he would have realized that the 'douche signifier' portion of Leary's routine is pretty small, though it's hard not to think of either Louis, Jay or C.K., when Leary performs his new song "Douchebag." The rest of Leary's routine is pretty tame, though, showing mug shots of Nick Nolte and James Brown and dissecting the side effects to popular medications (side effect for Viagara: Death). It's no Cure for Cancer, or even Lock and Load, but it definitely looks better compared to the routines of his friends Lenny Clarke and Adam Ferrera, who come off like blue-rated Blue Collar guys. The star of the show, without question, is Whitney Cummings, who rips her mostly male audience to shreds while having fun with the idea of women as crazy bitches.

Some might point to the infrequency of comedy routines from Leary as an indictment that he is indeed a thief. That's faulty reasoning, but Leary isn't helping his case with "Douchebags and Donuts." He's clearly a funny guy, but one gets the sense that he was too busy with his myriad of other projects to work very hard on his own routine for this show.

Click to buy "Denis Leary and Friends Present: Douchebags and Donuts"