BrianL
Doom Buggy Driver
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
A Goofy Movie (1995)
This was a new one for both of us, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!
The relationship between father and son is fantastic, both Max and Goofy have really lovely arcs, and this really works as a road trip movie. Goofy’s caring and trusting approach to fatherhood is really great-even if he is a little too quick to believe his son has the propensity to end up in ‘the electric chair’ in later life (Disney what were you thinking?) after he hijacks a school assembly to do some sweet moves.
All of the self-aware references are really fun! Ariel, Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas and the Country Bears, are all in here (my favourite reference). I did comment while watching this that Max’s disgruntled expression at having to sit through the Country Bears substitute was very similar to both my sisters’ when forced into the Carousel of Progress and the Tikki Room at Disney World - they flat out refuse to do the Country Bears. We also really liked the trappings of the environment in which the characters live, complete with exploding cassette tapes, waterbeds with actual fish inside, and hot tubs. Is this the 90s nostalgic for the 80s?
The songs are also great. I can see why they have nostalgic value for so many people.
Ok, some queries, about things which we were still not sure about when the movie was finished. 1) Is Goofy their surname? Nickname? Goofy gets called Mr Goof at one point and Max gets called the Goof boy. Is it Max Goof and Goofy Goof? The Goofys? 2) What kind of animals are they? I mean I appreciate Max and Goofy are dogs, but what about the female characters? Are they hybrid human/dogs? Maybe this is best left unknown...
The only thing about the film, and it’s not really a negative, is that when you watch them chronologically as we are, it seems really out of place where it is. It looks like such a throwback to the 80s, which I suppose it was, but it seems to have been an odd time for Disney to make a movie like this bang in the middle of the Renaissance. It really has echoes of Roger Rabbit with all its references and self-awareness, while the artwork is more Oliver and Company and Basil: The Great Mouse Detective.
For all it’s out of place, I am so glad it exists and will definitely watch it again sometime!
Awwww yeah! It's the GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE - Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time to STAND OUT and hit THE OPEN ROAD with...A GOOFY MOVIE!
Do you think I like this movie? Yeah. Yeah I do!
This movie not only has obviously great music, but it also has so much heart! The relationship between Goofy and Max is just the kind of family love and strife that we all go through, especially as moody teenagers. I mean, yeah, Goofy is, well, goofy, and Pete really makes him panic. At the end of the day though it is all motivated by love and only Goofy would crash a Powerline concert and pull off the perfect dance to impress the crowd. The music is just so catchy, so energizing, so fun. As much as I love Powerline, The Open Road may actually be the best song. Its so perfect and it has Mickey for half a second! This movie just speaks to me. It is amazing!
I will try to answer your questions since I am an expert on all things A Goofy Movie.
1. This movie is based on the Disney Afternoon cartoon Goof Troop. Max was aged slightly because the voice actor who played him in the show actually passed away, so they made him a teen to explain the voice change. In the show they are Goofy and Max Goof. Now, Goofy may just be a nickname based on his last name, like "Sully", but it's his only name ever, so I mean, yeah.
2. The populace of this world are generally dogs, but not always. In fact, classically Big Pete is a cat. No kidding! That's why he was a Mickey Mouse villain - what do mice run from? Anyway, I think dog is a good baseline, but like DuckTales, where there are anthropomorphic ducks, various other waterfowl, and also dogs, but sometimes another creature sneaks in there. They are what they are I guess - cartoons.
3. This movie was not made by Walt Disney Animation Studios, but rather DisneyToon (or whatever it was called at the time), the company that made television animation and many of the direct-to-video movies. This movie shows what they can do when given a theatrical budget! They also did DuckTales The Movie since that was also a Disney Afternoon spin-off. This doesn't really count as a "Renaissance" film in that regard, despite the fact that it is better than all of them combined!
So, on your scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being The Black Cauldron and 10 being The Lion King, I give A Goofy Movie a 1,000,000 for being an absolute delight and as I once told the actual Goofy at Tusker House, "The Citizen Kane of movies." Goofy did not react, but his handler sure did!
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