Goofy is Roger Rabbit's favourite actor, so RR would have been delighted that after about 60 years Disney finally gave Goofy a feature film. At least I think he would.
'A Goofy Movie' as at least as much about Goofy's 15 year-old son Max than it is about his dad. Specifically, it's a father-son bonding film, where the frustrated and thoroughly normal Max tries to find some common ground with his desperately uncool father.
Let's stop there a minute. How many Disney films involve a father-son relationship as the main point of the film? (I mean a father who's actually present all the way through the film?). Oh, there are single mothers, surrogate mothers, Long John Silver's and estranged fathers all over the place, and even a couple of fathers who last the whole movie, but an actual biological father who's on screen with his son for virtually the whole film - this one is almost unique in the Disney catalogue as far as I can judge.
Ok, the film. Well, it's a bit hard to know what to think. When this first came out I actually thought it was a DTV, but it was really a theatrical release. In fact it took more than three times as much as Balto at the box office back in 1995. Still, in 1995 Disney couldn't have lost money at the box office if they tried (and they tried pretty hard with 'Pocahontas')
Why did I think it was a DTV? Well it just doesn't seem like a mid 90's Disney feature does it? Nestled between several very serious and grandiose movies, this thing is a like a throwback to their old slapstick shorts. It looks like a TV movie or a DTV. It's very cartoony. I mean, it has to be. Can you imagine a Goofy Movie with art design ala 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'? Anyway, this isn't a bad thing. I actually think this one emerges from the 90's looking a lot more respectable than several of its big-budget stablemates, despite a lot of not very good songs.
Unlike most of those movies though, there isn't a real lot here for adults. Not many jokes that would zoom over the little one's heads. Still it's enjoyable enough, even if the only people who are going to relate to it are young teens (and maybe single fathers).
Anyway, Max has the hots for this girl called Roxanne, and just as he gets her to go on a date with him, his dad decides to take him on a month-long meandering road trip to go fishing, which he thinks will save Max from the electric chair (long story). To complicate matters, Max has for some idiotic reason told Roxanne that he's going to be appearing on stage in LA with the most famous rock artist on the planet, so Max has to try and work that into the trip somehow. It works pretty darn well, actually. I didn't think much of it was outrageously funny, and I didn't think much of it was terribly poignant, but it came close enough to be fairly satisfying. The father-son hang-up theme isn't too cloying. It's handled pretty deftly.
This isn't a classic, but honestly I'd jump over any number of Pocahontases and Hunchbacks to see it.
One thing, though. I've got to mention this. Whenever I think about Goofy I immediately think about that scene in 'Stand By Me', where the kids say -
"Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?"
"Goofy's a dog. He's definitely a dog."
"He can't be a dog. He wears a hat and drives a car."
"God, that's weird. What the Hell is Goofy?"
Well, a couple of minutes into this film you get a glimpse of Max's crush, Roxanne, who has a passing similarity to Minerva Mink, and the question takes on whole new dimensions. What the hell are all of these... creatures who occupy the universe this movie is set in? Goofy is androgenous in a species sort of way. He's... well, what the hell IS he?
/ 4 reviews)
Reviews for A Goofy Movie
