A Goofy Movie

A Goofy Movie

I have loved this movie for years, since I was a teenager. Not only is it pretty funny and heart-warming, it has an awesome soundtrack. It's a musical, but unlike Mama Mia, it is not a jukebox musical, they do original music. Unfortunately, also unlike Mama Mia, one of the primary actors doesn't do his own singing but instead uses a voice double. It wasn't his idea, he can sing, but Disney wanted a Broadway singer instead, so they got one of kids from Newsies.
So this movie features your typical teenager-is-embarrassed-by-his-parent story. It is set after the series Goof Troop where Goofy is a single dad to his son Max. For those who don't know Goof Troop, Goofy is a single dad to his son, Max. They live next door to the Petes (Pete Pete, Peg Pete, PJ Pete and Pistol Pete). Pete was a common villain in Mickey Mouse cartoons. Max and PJ are best friends. Pete hates Goofy and all Goofs though his hatred lessens over time. By the time of the movie he and Goofy are best friends, too.
Max is in high school now and has a crush on a girl.

This one will be mostly spoilers, but it's an animated feature from 18 years ago, so are you really going to hate me for not covering the spoilers?

Let's watch.





So right at the beginning Max has a dream. In the dream he is in a wheat field and he hears a sing-song call of his name from Roxanne, the girl he is crushing on. He chases after her and they laugh and fall to the ground. She leans in for a kiss then recoils in horror. The wheat fields around them have turned to brambles. The sun is gone and it is dark. His teeth have grown grotesquely large. Next his ears, fingers, and toes get longer. He starts stretching to be taller and finally the top of his head pops up a little until he resembles... Goofy. Max/Goofy clutches at his throat, trying to keep the sound from coming out, but out comes Goofy's signature laugh. Max wakes up in a panic.
I love how much it followed any of several other nightmare/horror sequences when someone turns into a monster. Only instead of a monster Max turned into his father. As a teenager I think he'd rather turn into a monster.





On the way to school Max start singing the first musical number of the movie "After Today." He's planning some big gesture to get Roxanne to notice him. While he sings about that all of the other kids in school are singing about how vacation starts after today. Everyone is looking forward to how much better everything will be tomorrow. At the end of the musical number Max is at the top of the football bleachers and trips down them. He is helped up by Roxanne. Max gets so nervous he starts laughing and let's slip a hyuk, just like his dad. He gets embarrassed and runs away leaving Roxanne confused.




Max's big stunt is totally awesome. I don't know anyone in my high school who could have pulled off something like that. In the middle of the principal's speech his friends load a projection screen and have live feed of him lip-syncing and dancing to a song from a pop star Powerline. He's dressed just like Powerline from his music video for the song, including big sunglasses, so people aren't really sure who he is. He trips and falls through the screen onto the stage. He's a little nervous until he notices that Roxanne is captivated by his performance. The whole crowd is cheering for him, he gets hooked up to a rope and is swinging above the audience. He's about to reach out to Roxanne's hand when the music stops, the lights come back on, and he's brought right to the principal. The principal takes off his glasses to everyone can see that it's Max Goof who did that cool stunt. Everyone is shocked except for Roxanne who looks even happier.




Goofy and Pete are talking at work about summer plans. Pete is taking PJ camping, but Goofy doesn't think he'd be able to get Max to spend enough time with him for a trip like that. Pete puts ideas into Goofy's head that behavior like that leads to kids getting into gangs and causing riots.
Meanwhile Max is waiting to see the principal but sees Roxanne. He asks her if he could take her to a big party the next week at another student's house to see the Powerline concert on TV. She says yes so he's ecstatic and is dancing around the room after she leaves.
The principal calls up Goofy and goes on about how Max was wearing gang colors and started a riot in the auditorium, just what Pete had said would happen.He decides the best way to save his relationship with his son is to take him fishing for the summer to Idaho, just like he went with his dad and his dad did with his grandfather and so on for several generations of Goofs. When he tells Max he faints- his life is over. He just got a date with the girl of his dreams and has to cancel because his dad is forcing him on a road trip.
Max gets his dad to stop at Roxanne's house so he can break the news to her. He loses his courage and is afraid he'll lose her so he makes up a story about his dad knowing Powerline and that he will be on stage with him during the concert. Now he has to figure out a way to make it happen and hurt his dad, or not do it and hurt Roxanne. If only he hadn't lied in the first place.




During their road trip they have a couple misadventures, including a hilarious run-in with Bigfoot. Goofy was trying to teach Max his family's "perfect cast" for fishing. While casting out the line he snags a steak that Pete was cooking on his RV's barbeque grill. The steak lands across the river and attracts the attention of Bigfoot. They hide from Bigfoot in the car and he is ransacking through their camping supplies. Max says he is hungry and just then a can of soup lands on the hood of the car. Goofy rolls down the window slightly to grab the can. Bigfoot notices and runs to try to get in the car. They get the soup in and roll the window back up, Bigfoot bounces off the car door into their stuff and a box falls on his head. He shakes off the box but Max's headphone/radio is around his ears and "Staying Alive" starts playing. The look on his face when he starts to feel the beat and dance along is priceless. I found a picture online, let me show you.

I mean, how can you not laugh at this?

So Goofy uses the cigarette lighter to heat the soup and while it is "cooking" reminisces about "Hi Dad" soup. When Max was young he used to use alphabet soup to spell out little messages like Hi Dad, Bye Bye, or I Love You. Both Max and Goofy got uncomfortable with that last one as they realized their relationship was not what it used to be. After Max ate his soup the passed the cup back to Goofy before curling up to try to sleep (while Bigfoot was sleeping on the roof of the car). Goofy's eyes began to tear up as he saw Max had written Hi Dad with the letters at the bottom of the cup. Very sweet, Max has taken his first step away from rebellious teenager.

Max wakes up in the middle of the night to Goofy's and Bigfoot's snoring. He pulls out a postcard and starts to write to Roxanne saying how close he is to LA and the Powerline concert. Just then his dad asks for more Hi Dad Soup, talking in his sleep. That makes Max reconsider and he erases his message and apologizes saying "Sorry I lied." He gets frustrated knowing that no matter what he does he's messed things up with Roxanne. He kicks the glove compartment and out pops the roadmap his dad has been using. The same map had been used for this trip for generations of Goofs. He grabs the pencil and erases the trip to the lake in Idaho and remarks the map to go to LA so he can get to the concert.
Before going back to sleep Max rips up the postcard and holds it out the window so the night breeze can carry the pieces away. Before the scene changes we see a piece that had got caught on a branch. Clearly we see the words "I lied" referring to both his story to Roxanne and what he just did with the map.

The next day while eating breakfast at a diner (I guess Bigfoot got bored and left in the night) Goofy decides to make Max the navigator for the road trip and hands the map to him saying he won't even look at it anymore. Now Max can keep his plans to go to LA secret even longer.

They make stops of things that Max wants to do. He realizes that his dad is not having fun so he decided to make some stops for Goofy too, like the house of yarn (a house made from a giant ball of yarn). But the best part, the funniest thing in the whole movie is this: while at a street fair or some such Goofy is watching a mime. Goofy decides to join the mime and makes like he's passing along an invisible wall to get to the mime. The mime then is pulling an invisible rope and Goofy offers his fingers as imaginary scissors. The mime presents the imaginary rope to Goofy, he cuts it with his fingers, and then a real piano falls on the mime. So funny.






Goofy finds out that Max had changed the map but gives him the opportunity to keep true to the trip. They come upon the last junction that they can take left to LA or right to Idaho. Max is indecisive until the last instant and yells out left. Goofy thinks that means his son is up to no good and is just a liar. Goofy stops the car at a scenic overlook by a canyon. He gets out in a huff and Max follows him trying to explain why he changed their destination. Goofy is too upset to listen to Max so Max goes and leans against the car. That's when they discover that Goofy didn't put the brake on. The car starts rolling down the road and they chase after it. All of their stuff gets knocked off from a rock formation and luckily one of the objects that comes flying toward them is Max's skateboard. They both hop on and catch up to the vehicle, still fighting the whole time about who is to blame for their problems. They manage to get into the car but the brake breaks. The car goes careening off the cliff into the canyon and lands on some rock formations, knocking them over one by one until the car lands in a river. Goofy tells Max that all he wanted was to take his boy fishing. Max yells back that he is not a little boy anymore and he has his own life. Goofy responds that he just wants to be a part of that life. They both get quiet and reflective as they sit atop the car floating down the river. They then sing a duet about how even though they are different people they wouldn't want to be in this situation with anyone else. They make up by the end of the song and then Max explains his situation to Goofy while they continue along the river. Goofy wants to help his son get the girl so he vows to help him get on stage for the concert. Max is hesitant and Goofy asks "How come you think I'm always going to lead you into some calamity?" Queue the waterfall they are heading towards. Goofy gets out of the water but Max is still on the roof of the car. Their fishing pole hits Goofy so he grabs it and uses it to catch the car and try to stop it. The log he was bracing against breaks and Max and the car go over the edge. Max then gets caught up in the tarp they used to cover their stuff on the car and the tie down ropes attached to it. It catches the updraft caused by the waterfall and becomes like a parachute holding him aloft. Goofy floats to the edge of the waterfall himself and reaches out towards Max with the fishing pole. The grip on the end comes loose though and Goofy falls. Max turns the fishing pole around and shows that even though he still hated his dad at the time he still paid attention to the "perfect cast" and used it to catch his father and reel him up. Goofy was so touched that he forgot they were in mortal peril.
Now wipe to the concert.





They get into the concert and Max and Goofy get separated. Goofy ends up on stage first while Max is on the lights above. Max encourages Goofy to do the moves required for the "perfect cast" and it ends up being a new dance move that Powerline adopts mid performance. Max falls in and all three of them start dancing. All of the kids from school are watching at home and see them on TV and start dancing themselves. The song that Powerline is singing is called I 2 I - it's about listening to someone's heart and seeing them for who they are, not who you want them to be. Very appropriate for the lessons Goofy and Max learned.

Max then stops by Roxanne's house on the way home and tells her the whole truth. She is a little mad but glad that he told her the truth. She said he didn't need to go to any lengths to impress her, though. She liked him from the first time she saw him and heard him laugh like his dad. He kisses her and then they both laugh, and he sounds just like his dad. He then introduces his dad to Roxanne, proving that he is no longer embarrassed by his dad.

Good story about family, honesty, and Bigfoot.




I used to quote this movie all the time. Here are my favorite lines:

PJ: Oh man. If my dad finds out he's going to nuke my entire existence.

Goofy: We're going to be away from it all.
Max: I don't want to get "away" from it all. I like "it all."

(As he's backing out of the driveway)
Goofy: Goodbye, house. Goodbye, yard. (Backs though the fence) Goodbye, pile of broken wood.

Max: My life is a living-
Lester: Hello!

Lester: Aww, you're so sad. Who's your favorite possum? (I just love the way he says it)

This one is my favorite
Goofy: While half asleep) How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon?
Max: Uh... three and a half?
(Goofy falls back asleep)