An odd movie, this one.
Unlike the original staff of the traditional Walt Disney studios, I have never had *any* doubts that Goofy, my fave rave of all of Disney's comical "funny animal" characters, could carry an entire movie. I knew he could do it; he just needed a chance.
"A Goofy Movie" turns out to be something of a mixed bag, and as a result there are things I love about the movie and things I can't stand about it. I don't consider it a successful piece, really, but neither do I consider it a disaster.
The plot is very simple and revolves around an easily-relatable-by-the-audience misunderstanding: due to details I won't take the time to go into here due to their being too numerous and too revealing, Goofy becomes convinced that Max is on the verge of becoming a juvenile delinquent while Max is convinced that being Goofy's son is a major threat to his chances of having a normal life. As a result, they end up taking a cross-country vacation as unresolved tensions pile up until the inevitable.
As far as the plot goes, it actually works much better than paid critics would have you believe. The reason for this is because the tension's pressure cooker is depicted so superbly. Despite the gags, the tension succeeds in piling up worse and worse and WORSE to the point where you can't really relax watching the film. At one particular moment near the climax in which Max points out which way to go on a particular freeway intersection at the very last minute, you can cut the atmosphere with a knife. I mean, it is *awful*. But awful in a "good, convincing" way for the plot, if you know what I mean, not "written terribly" awful. You have to experience it for yourself to see what I mean.
The movie is carried reasonably, and believes in its own concept enough to work. It also has surprisingly good songs. And it's heartfelt even if, like all of Disney's most recent input, it seems to merely walk up to the edge of the heartfelt emotions it's reaching for instead of bravely walking over the edge to grasp them and going for the gusto (the same problem that currently plagues such Disney projects as "the Proud Family" and "The Emperor's New Groove"). Goofy's appeal helps here, of course, and certainly helps carry the movie over the things in it I personally don't care for.
Now as for what I didn't like: there's a bit character here, a friend of Max's (I can never remember his name) who wears glasses and has a thing for cheese. I personally find his cheese antics so disgusting and repulsive that he single-handedly succeeds in sinking nearly the entire movie for me! He remains one of the main reasons why I won't actually *buy* this movie because he just makes me queasy with every appearance. Not only that, but this is the first animated film I've ever seen which actually succeeds in making pizza look gross to the point of being nauseating (a la "Pizza The Hut" from SPACEBALLS) and it's *really* saying something in my case, since I'm a *HUGE* pizza-lover, when I remark that I wouldn't touch pizza for a long time after seeing this flick.
The animation is done smoothly and well-coordinated for the most part even though it was all farmed out instead of being done in-house. The draftsmanship, however, is simply atrocious. The animators here simply "go through the motions" with Goofy and the rest of the characters without making that little special effort to make them more visually appealing; the limbs, for example, are simply drawn as "black hoses" in Goofy's case instead of any attempt to add definition or figure, and they move like unjointed rubber instead of with the famous Disney "Illusion of Life". In fact, A GOOFY MOVIE demonstrates well how carelessness in the draftsmanship can threaten to sabotage an animated film (by comparison, the Australian-based animation of Goofy on HOUSE OF MOUSE demonstrates draftsmanship constructed with genuine love and care: it puts A GOOFY MOVIE to shame).
Still, despite these quibbles, I do like the movie alright and rent it on occasion (once every few months or so) and enjoy it simply because Goofy's appeal and certain pluses in it outweigh the minuses enough for me to see it once in a while. I personally find AN EXTREMELY GOOFY MOVIE an improvement even though its draftsmanship isn't too much better. A GOOFY MOVIE isn't the sort of quality Goofy project I've come to expect from classic Disney, not by a long shot, but it's do.
Unlike the original staff of the traditional Walt Disney studios, I have never had *any* doubts that Goofy, my fave rave of all of Disney's comical "funny animal" characters, could carry an entire movie. I knew he could do it; he just needed a chance.
"A Goofy Movie" turns out to be something of a mixed bag, and as a result there are things I love about the movie and things I can't stand about it. I don't consider it a successful piece, really, but neither do I consider it a disaster.
The plot is very simple and revolves around an easily-relatable-by-the-audience misunderstanding: due to details I won't take the time to go into here due to their being too numerous and too revealing, Goofy becomes convinced that Max is on the verge of becoming a juvenile delinquent while Max is convinced that being Goofy's son is a major threat to his chances of having a normal life. As a result, they end up taking a cross-country vacation as unresolved tensions pile up until the inevitable.
As far as the plot goes, it actually works much better than paid critics would have you believe. The reason for this is because the tension's pressure cooker is depicted so superbly. Despite the gags, the tension succeeds in piling up worse and worse and WORSE to the point where you can't really relax watching the film. At one particular moment near the climax in which Max points out which way to go on a particular freeway intersection at the very last minute, you can cut the atmosphere with a knife. I mean, it is *awful*. But awful in a "good, convincing" way for the plot, if you know what I mean, not "written terribly" awful. You have to experience it for yourself to see what I mean.
The movie is carried reasonably, and believes in its own concept enough to work. It also has surprisingly good songs. And it's heartfelt even if, like all of Disney's most recent input, it seems to merely walk up to the edge of the heartfelt emotions it's reaching for instead of bravely walking over the edge to grasp them and going for the gusto (the same problem that currently plagues such Disney projects as "the Proud Family" and "The Emperor's New Groove"). Goofy's appeal helps here, of course, and certainly helps carry the movie over the things in it I personally don't care for.
Now as for what I didn't like: there's a bit character here, a friend of Max's (I can never remember his name) who wears glasses and has a thing for cheese. I personally find his cheese antics so disgusting and repulsive that he single-handedly succeeds in sinking nearly the entire movie for me! He remains one of the main reasons why I won't actually *buy* this movie because he just makes me queasy with every appearance. Not only that, but this is the first animated film I've ever seen which actually succeeds in making pizza look gross to the point of being nauseating (a la "Pizza The Hut" from SPACEBALLS) and it's *really* saying something in my case, since I'm a *HUGE* pizza-lover, when I remark that I wouldn't touch pizza for a long time after seeing this flick.
The animation is done smoothly and well-coordinated for the most part even though it was all farmed out instead of being done in-house. The draftsmanship, however, is simply atrocious. The animators here simply "go through the motions" with Goofy and the rest of the characters without making that little special effort to make them more visually appealing; the limbs, for example, are simply drawn as "black hoses" in Goofy's case instead of any attempt to add definition or figure, and they move like unjointed rubber instead of with the famous Disney "Illusion of Life". In fact, A GOOFY MOVIE demonstrates well how carelessness in the draftsmanship can threaten to sabotage an animated film (by comparison, the Australian-based animation of Goofy on HOUSE OF MOUSE demonstrates draftsmanship constructed with genuine love and care: it puts A GOOFY MOVIE to shame).
Still, despite these quibbles, I do like the movie alright and rent it on occasion (once every few months or so) and enjoy it simply because Goofy's appeal and certain pluses in it outweigh the minuses enough for me to see it once in a while. I personally find AN EXTREMELY GOOFY MOVIE an improvement even though its draftsmanship isn't too much better. A GOOFY MOVIE isn't the sort of quality Goofy project I've come to expect from classic Disney, not by a long shot, but it's do.