Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at A Goofy Movie

This article is dedicated to my parents, Scott and Lillian. We may not always see eye to eye but you stand out as the best mom and dad anyone could ever have and I wouldn’t be who I am without you.

Welcome everyone to the Deep Dive Disney article I’ve been looking forward to since I started this whole thing. The subject of today’s article is not only my favorite Disney movie, but easily one of my top 10 movies of all time. Welcome my friends, to A Goofy Movie. I mean it folks, as a child I watched this one almost every day and quoted it endlessly. As I’ve grown older, the film only resonates with me more and more. It is truly a film that both kids and adults can enjoy and has some surprisingly mature messages contained within. So, what’s the story that merits such praise? Well, set in the same universe as the Goof Troop cartoon, the show so aggressively 90's it hurts, the movie focuses on Goofy’s teenage son, Max, who is seen as a bit of a loser by his pears and is constantly embarrassed by his dad. However, on the last day of school, Max has put into motion a plan to leave his mark and hopefully impress his crush, Roxanne. Even though the plan to interrupt a school assembly with an awesome dance number is a success, it still lands Max in the principal’s office. When Goofy finds out that Max got himself in trouble, Goofy assumes that the only way to help Max is to take him on a father/son fishing trip. The problem is, Max had already told Roxanne that he’d take her to a party that will be showing the concert of Powerline, the biggest pop star in the world, on Pay-Per-View. Desperate to impress Roxanne, Max lies and tells Roxanne that he and his dad are actually going to the concert in person. As Max and Goofy embark on the road trip from hell, the two eventually start to find common ground but Max is still determined to get to the concert in Los Angeles, even to the point where he’ll betray his father’s trust in order to do it. I can think of very few if any movies that have had a deeper emotional resonance with me over the years and I can’t wait to get into it. Let's dive right into, A Goofy Movie.

Main Character:

I went back and forth on this, but I’ve decided that Goofy and Max share the title of main character in equal measure. We may as well start with Goofy, voiced as always by the supremely talented Bill Farmer, since his name is in the title. Goofy is still very much the character we know and love from the old Disney cartoons. He’s clumsy, ridiculous and seemingly dim-witted but still friendly and caring. From Goofy’s point of view, all he really wants is to have a better relationship with his teenaged son, hence the big fishing trip. To his credit, Goofy puts a ton of effort into making the trip the best it can be. However, what Goofy fails to understand is that Max isn’t a little kid anymore and his priorities have changed. Sure, Max could be a lot less of a party pooper about the whole thing but he’s at an age where he’s less concerned about shows about animatronic singing possums and more concerned with social standing amongst his peers and impressing his crush. It’s not really Goofy’s fault as a child growing up can be an adjustment for any parent. Even Goofy himself later admits that Max reaching this level of maturity happened so fast so fast he feels like he missed it. However, again to his credit, once Max opens up to Goofy about what he’s been going through, he makes it his priority to help his son get to Los Angeles to dance with Powerline. Sure, fishing probably would have been fun, but what really matters is that this is important to his son, which in turn means that it’s important to Goofy as well.

Now, let’s talk about Max, voiced by the always awesome Jason Marsden, who was nice enough to tweet me while I was live tweeting the film for this article, thank you very much for that. I honestly don’t know if there’s a character in fiction who I’ve connected with on a deeper level than I have with Max Goof. So many of Max’s experiences throughout this film have mirrored different parts of my own life. Max is embarrassed by his parents, he is seen as a socially awkward loser at school, he’s shy and unsure of himself with girls and he’s at that age where he’s desperately trying to assert his independence. He wants nothing more than to show Roxanne how much he likes her but lacks the confidence to just tell her how he feels, and when he thinks he may lose her forever, he lies out of desperation. Max’s major issue is that he thinks Goofy is actively trying to ruin his life. Trust me, I get it since it can be easy to view parents as working against you when their priorities don’t necessarily line up with your own. However, what Max and many others including myself fail to realize at that age is that truly loving parents will have your back no matter what, and though it may not always seem like it, they will always try their best to work in your best interest, even if they’re not one hundred percent sure what that may be. Honestly, if Max had simply trusted Goofy enough to tell him about Roxanne, he may very well have let him go to the party. Sure Max can be a little selfish but that only makes him a more realistic and relatable character as many can be very selfish at that age. Neither Max or Goofy are perfect and they make plenty of mistakes throughout the film but at the end of the day, they both love one another despite being very different people and they both put forth the effort to understand and support one another, just like any father and son should.

This is normally where I discuss the villain. However, unlike other film's we've covered for Deep Dive Disney, A Goofy Movie doesn't really have a villain or even a central antagonist. Instead, the conflict mostly arises from the tension between Goofy and Max. With that in mind, let's move on to our next section.

Side Characters:

Ironic that I said that this film doesn’t have a proper villain since one of Disney’s most classic antagonists, Pete, is a prominently featured character. I would hardly say that Pete, who is voiced here by one of my favorite voice actors of all time, Jim Cummings, is the villain of this film. He’s mostly there to provide a contrast in parenting styles between Goofy and himself. While Goofy genuinely tries to be Max’s friend as well as his father, Pete takes more of an authoritarian approach, firmly believing in keeping his children under his thumb. Unfortunately, his method has mostly served to make his son PJ afraid of him.

Speaking of, let’s move on to PJ, who is voiced by voice acting legend, Rob Paulsen. By the way, if you’re ever looking for a great laugh, check out Paulsen’s show Talkin’ Toons where he has voice actors, including many who appear in this film, read movie lines as their characters. If you ever wanted to laugh your ass off, check out Bill Famer reading for Don Vito Corleone in his Goofy voice, it’s hysterical. Not much to say about PJ, he’s the typical lovable and supportive friend to Max and that’s about it.

Bobby is Max and PJ’s tech savvy hipster friend voiced by Pauly Shore. Now, Pauly Shore is one of those actors with that Rob Schneider reputation where his mere presence in a film is cause for concern. However, as someone who grew up with films like Jury Duty and In the Army Now, I’ve always had a soft spot for the guy, and he brings the same energy he has in those films to the role of Bobby. Of course, I’d be insane not to mention the infamous CHEDDAR scene, a scene that I quoted ad nauseam as a child. In exchange for helping Max and PJ, Bobby receives payment in the form of a can of spray cheese. So over the top is his reaction that one can’t help but find it utterly hilarious.

Next, let’s discuss Roxanne. There’s not too much to say about her but I do appreciate that it’s made clear that she isn’t some unapproachable popular girl. She’s shown to be just as awkward as Max and clearly has just as much of a crush on him as he has on her.

I’ll give a brief shout to Principal Mazer if for no other reason that he’s played by phenomenal actor and renowned play-write, the inconceivable Wallace Shawn, best known for his role as Vizzini in The Princess Bride.

And we’ll close out this section by discussing the emcee at Lester’s Possum Park. Now, this guy barely qualifies as a character. He's given very few lines and less than a minute of screen time. So, why am I pointing him out? Beause it’s our old friend, Disney voice acting veteran, Pat Buttram in what would be his final film role, Buttram having passed away of Kidney failure at the age of 78 the previous year. I've greatly enjoyed Buttram for his many roles in Disney animated films including The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood and Chief in The Fox & The Hound and It’s been fascinating learning more about this man’s career during this retrospective. I’m honestly sad to have reached the end of his tenure.

Songs:

If compared directly to our last film, The Lion King, A Goofy Movie’s soundtrack will likely pale in comparison, mostly because that’s the musical equivalent of taking a world champion middle-weight boxer and putting them in the ring with a fully-grown grizzly bear. One may be the champion in their weight class, but there's not much they can do against such an overwhelming opponent. That having been said, there are still plenty of songs in this movie I absolutely love. After Today is a fun number that nicely sets up Max’s character, social standing and crush on Roxanne. Open road is a lovably ridiculous number even if the song sequence is a traffic accident waiting to happen. Nobody Else but You is a powerful and emotional number which has Goofy and Max finally accepting one another for who they are, and of course, Eye to Eye is one of the strongest finales that Disney has ever produced. Speaking of Eye to Eye, Powerline must be one of the most chill entertainers who ever lived seeing as how Goofy just stumbles onto the stage in the middle of his performance and he just rolls with it. In real life Goofy would have been bum rushed by security within seconds. All that having been said, the song I’d most like to discuss is Stand Out. How fitting is it that my favorite Disney song of all time, one that I relate to on multiple levels, would come from my favorite Disney film of all time. Many assumed at the time that the song was performed by Michael Jackson but in actuality, this song, as well as the previously mentioned Eye to Eye were performed by Tevin Campbell, a pop star in the same vain as Jackson who never quite gained the same level of notoriety. On the surface, the song is about trying to impress a girl and I can certainly relate to having done plenty of stupid stuff to that end. However, if one really listens to the lyrics, one finds a much deeper meaning in them, a meaning that has influenced my outlook on life. See, my whole life people have told me that I must blend in and conform in order to be accepted. While conformity has its place in society, when it comes to social situations I find it’s just not me. I’d rather stand out in the crowd and be noticed. Maybe it makes it difficult for me to relate to others, but I’d rather have ten friends who appreciate and understand me for who I am than a million friends who don’t. I remember that I had a moment like this in high school. It was the homecoming dance and the song Jump Around by House of Pain was playing. In a moment that was perhaps inspired by Max, I just threw caution to the wind and danced like a maniac. As a result, the whole school was cheering my name. It was a wonderful moment inspired by another one from my childhood.

Memorable Scenes:

There are actually a lot of scenes worth discussing in this film. We may as well start with the fishing scene in which Goofy teaches Max “the perfect cast” (another scene I quoted endlessly). However, turns out the cast was a bit too perfect because Goofy accidently hooks the legendary cryptid, Bigfoot, who chases our heroes and keeps them trapped in their car. With the big hairy monster outside, Max and Goofy aren’t going anywhere for a while so they decide to chat and for the first time in the movie, they seem to be making progress and finding some common ground. However, all that goes out the window when a desperate Max tries to fool Goofy into taking him to Los Angeles by changing the map while he’s asleep. Let me tell you guys, in this retrospective, we’ve covered climactic battles against fire-breathing dragons, heart pounding stampedes and even a knock down drag out brawl between two shape-shifting wizards, and yet, a scene in which a teenager is worried about getting caught doing something deceitful by his father might be, for my money anyway, the most intense scene that we’ve covered here on Deep Dive Disney. You know that any second Goofy could wake up and Max could get busted, but we also know that Max is doing something awful because he feels he needs to and the guilt is written all over his face. Sure, the scene ends with a moment of levity with a half asleep Goofy uttering the hilarious "How Many Cups of Sugar does it Take to Get to the Moon" line but that in no way takes away from the intensity of the scene. Let me give you some advice kids, speaking as someone who’s been caught in a lie more times than I care to admit, it’s not worth it. Whatever consequences you think you might be avoiding, you only end up postponing and ultimately amplifying, and in the process, you end up hurting yourself and the ones you love.

That actually leads us nicely into the next scene we’re going to discuss. After Goofy is told what Max did, he does not take it well. He wants to trust Max but the nagging voice in his head insists that he check the map to make sure. When his fears are confirmed, Goofy is devastated that Max would try to manipulate him like that. On the road the next day, Goofy gives Max one last chance to do the right thing… and he doesn’t... and the look of anger and disappointment on Goofy’s face says it all. Nobody wants to be yelled at by their parents, but what’s even worse is when they won’t talk to you at all. Trust me, there have been times when my dad wouldn’t speak to me for a matter of months and it hurts more than anything you can imagine. Goofy’s silence only lasts for a couple of minutes but you still feel every second. It’s amazing that you can get so much pathos and raw emotion from Goofy of all people. Of course, this leads to the climatic car chase that leads to Goofy and Max falling over a huge waterfall but as great as all that is, it’s the moments before that have the strongest emotional impact.

Story:

I think we’ve already covered most of the central themes of the film, including the themes of honesty, communication and finding common ground with one’s parents, the last one being the most important. Now, I fully understand that not everyone is lucky enough to have had two loving and attentive parents as I did but for those who do, it is important to understand that your parents aren’t perfect. Sure, sometimes they can seem overbearing, hard to live with and even embarrassing at times but when the chips are down, they’re the ones who have your back. It’s important for children and parents to try to understand each other and meet each other half-way. There’s a line near the end of the movie that’s always stuck with me, and I’m sure many others can say the same. Max says to Goofy, “I am not your little boy anymore, I’ve grown up, I’ve got my own life now,” to which Goofy responds, “I know that, I just wanted to be part of it. You’re my son, Max. No matter how big you get, you’ll always be my son.” I honestly don’t know what I can add to that, but it’s something that can resonate strongly with both teenagers and parents. I’ll close this section out with a bit of symbolism I noticed for the first time during this past viewing. One of the first things we see Goofy do in this film is embarrass Max by running outside in nothing but a towel. At the end of the movie, we see Roxanne’s dad doing the same exact thing. It’s subtle, but it brilliantly illustrates how whatever issues one may have with their parents may not be as unique as we think. I guess everyone’s dad is a little goofy.

The Dark Disney Factor:

There isn’t too much dark stuff in this movie. The film opens with a dream sequence where Max turns into a gigantic were-Goofy which is pretty unsettling. There’s also this scene where it’s heavily implied that Max and Goofy killed a mime, or at the very least witnessed its death and just walked away like nothing happened. Now, I realize that in a cartoon, getting crushed by a piano isn’t necessarily a death sentence but it’s still pretty off-putting that our main characters may have killed someone.

Final Thoughts: This movie is simply amazing. It’s a movie I loved as a child and have only grown to love more and more with every subsequent viewing. It’s filled with laughs, great musical numbers, relatable characters and an incredibly strong emotional core that hits me every time. It’s one of the films that defined my childhood and in some ways my adulthood as well. Mom, Dad, if you’re reading this, thank you for everything you’ve done for me, I love you both and I hope you enjoyed the article. Next time, we return to the Disney Renaissance with a film that I’ve honestly been dreading due to its unfortunate historical baggage. Join me soon as Deep Dive Disney looks at Pocahontas.