A Goofy Movie / YMMV

Adorkable:
- Roxanne and Max. Max is Goofy's son, so him being a cute dork is to be expected. As for Roxanne, she's shy, awkward, stutters adorably, and tends to babble, drop her books, or bump into things when she's nervous. At one point, she gets her finger tangled in her hair while twirling her finger through it. It goes a long way in having the audience root for the relationship.
- Stacey. Take away the glasses and braces and it's not hard to understand why she'd be popular—she's just as cute as Roxanne.
Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The movie still works as a condemnation of heavy-handed Scare 'Em Straight approaches to discipline, like the ones suggested by Principal Mazur and Pete throughout the film.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- The character of Stacey is far more interesting if you watch the film under the theory that she is in love with Max, and has determined that the best thing for him would be to match him with his dream girl Roxanne. Disney historian John Grant is a noted proponent of this theory. It helps that in a Disney Adventures comic strip, Stacey makes a flirtatious look at Max when accidentally falling into his arms.
- Is Pete a malicious Jerkass deliberately trying to drive a wedge between Goofy and Max out of jealousy for their genuine bond? Or is he giving his friend what he believes is an important parenting lesson by telling Goofy that having his son's respect is more important than having his love? Possibly a little of both? Note the devilish grin when he's eavesdropping on the boys and finds out Max's plan about the concert, which can be read as him taking sadistic joy in either proving Goofy wrong or catching the boys doing something he can punish them for. However, Pete does get defensive when Goofy insinuates that his son is afraid of him, implying Pete genuinely believes his parenting approach is the right one.
- The kid who sings "No more looking at losers like him" in "After Today" when Max accidentally uses his girlfriend to break his fall (in a way that made it look like he was deliberately jumping on her) after tripping. Is he a kid who knows Max and regularly picks on him, or just mad because he thought some random creep was trying to harass his girlfriend?
- As is said thrice, PJ is terrified of getting in trouble with his dad for the "Stand Out" stunt. However, after it's inevitable but before he can get his punishment over with, he's not only happy but uncharacteristically confident and optimistic once he and Max leave school and he finds out that Max got a date with Roxanne, even leading the entire school in a group chant of Max's name. Is PJ just so happy for his friend's success that he no longer cares about the inevitable hell his dad is going to put him through? Has he just accepted his fate to the point that he no longer feels the need to worry? Or is he trying to take advantage of his last few moments as a free man before it happens?
- It's never confirmed how or even if Pete punished PJ at all. Was making PJ do chores and manual labor while on vacation Pete's way of punishing him? Is this something he would have made PJ do anyway and whatever his punishment was came and went? Does he consider the trip itself a form of keeping PJ under his thumb (in the same way Goofy takes Max on their trip to protect him)^noteand he doesn't see any greater punishment necessary? Or does he even think about punishing PJ at all? We also don't know if Mazur even called Pete at all and instead just chewed PJ out himself, so it's possible Pete never even found out (he'd presumably be more angry that PJ stole his video camera than anything else anyway).
Aluminum Christmas Trees: When Max says that Powerline is "the biggest rockstar on the planet" at the beginning of the movie, Goofy says that he can't be bigger than Xavier Cugat, the Mambo King. It may sound like some throwaway name, but Xavier Cugat was a real musician who was active from 1925 to 1970. But not only had Cugat not been actively making music for a quarter-century when this movie came out in 1995, he'd also been dead for five years, as Cugat passed away in 1990. Anyone who recognized the name got a Genius Bonus, as it highlighted how out-of-touch Goofy was with modern trends even at the time the movie was released.
Angst? What Angst?: As mentioned above, PJ spends the entire first act dreading what will happen if and, later, when his dad finds out about his and Max's stunt. Once he finds out that Max got a date with Roxanne, the subject never comes up again. In fact, right before he presumably goes home to inevitably get dressed down by Pete, PJ leads the entire student body in a celebratory chant of Max's name with the utmost confidence.
Awesome Art: For a project that had most of its animation farmed out overseas (to Disney's Paris and Australian units, plus Phoenix Animation Studios in Canada), the animation is just as fluid and expressive as Disney's in-house productions. The slapstick scenes capture the feel of the classic Goofy cartoons and the dance scenes do a great job translating Michael Jackson-style dancing into cartoon form. Combined with the excellent voice work, it also makes for not only one of the best-looking non-canon Disney features but also one of the best acted.
Awesome Music: When the film was released, in its review, Variety called the songs "unmemorable". Come 20 years later, at the D23 Expo panel, during the part of "On the Open Road" where the other drivers sing, Bill Farmer, still in character as Goofy, invites the audience to "sing along". And if you listen closely, every single audience member still knows every word! You can especially see Jason Marsden laugh when everyone shouts "Yeah!" along with the big fat lady. This is especially incredible, when most nostalgia of this film tends to veer towards the Powerline songs ("Stand Out" and "I 2 I"), which are still awesome, but "After Today", "Open Road", and "Nobody Else But You" are just as great!
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- At the end of "On the Open Road" a corpse not only joins in the song but gets up and dances on the roof of the hearse he's riding in. No one bats an eye.
- Just before that is a guy tied up in the trunk of a car in Cement Shoes singing the song.
- Bigfoot's appearance comes and goes with no foreshadowing or references to it either way. This arguably makes it that much funnier.
- Max's Nightmare Sequence of him turning into Goofy while having a romantic dream with Roxanne. It comes completely without warning and once Max wakes up, it's never mentioned again.
Broken Base: The fact that both Max and Goofy are at fault for letting things get as bad as they do between them is indisputable. But while both Max and Goofy are both portrayed as flawed but sympathetic by the narrative, there's debate among this movie's fans of whether Max or Goofy was more in the wrong. On one hand, Goofy took Max on an impromptu vacation that Max vocally did not want to go on instead of simply talking about Principal Mazur's phone call, which was in and of itself grossly overreacting to what was essentially a school prank. Not to mention, Goofy failed to realize that Max is old enough to make his own decisions about what to do with his future, and Goofy was only thinking about how Max's actions would affect him personally, making Goofy's motives pretty selfish. On the other hand, Max may have been upset at being taken on the trip, but he still acted self-centered the whole time, complaining about minor inconveniences and being just plain rude to his dad when Goofy tried to extend the olive branch. Max's claim that "I've got my own life now" is made in spite of being a teenager living under his father's roof, making him sound like a pretentious jerk. Finally, Max wouldn't be in such a jam if he hadn't interrupted a school assembly just to try and impress a girl he was crushing on, then digging himself deeper by lying to Roxanne about what the father-son trip was for.
Can't Un-Hear It: Although he is the second person to voice him, many fans view Jason Marsden as the one true voice of Max (as a teenager and a young adult, at least).
Critical Dissonance: The film received mixed reviews from critics, scoring a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes (Now with a fresh 61%), but the audience loved it and the film has a 70% audience score on the site.
Crosses the Line Twice: The part where a mime gets a piano dropped on him. That's not funny - what's funny is not only Max but Goofy both whistling and just walking away like nothing ever happened.
Cult Classic: The film wasn't particularly universally known until years later, but it maintains a small, devoted fan base and is regarded as an underrated gem. The sequel is also held in good regard for its strong Character Development of several characters. It helps that it is currently the only theatrical film to star a character from the Classic Disney Shorts and an original story at that.
Designated Villain: Sure, Max crashing the Powerline concert is clearly a wish-fulfillment fantasy that would no doubt get any real person who attempted it in serious trouble, and the burly security guard chasing getting a painful comeuppance wouldn't be nearly as funny if it were played straight. Still, you can't blame the guy for just doing his job.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Kids, don't crash your school assembly with an impromptu song-and-dance spectacle, it will get you in trouble with the principal and also earn you the respect and admiration of all of your peers, including the girl you have a crush on. Also, don't sneak past security at a concert and try to join the star on stage, it may get you arrested, even if said star is okay with it and happily lets you join his performance and even teach him a new dance movie while you're being broadcast to the entire world on pay-per-view, making you even more popular than you already were.
Draco in Leather Pants: A minority of fans see Principal Mazur as more of a reasonable authority figure who's understandably upset that Max not only commandeered his school assembly with an over-the-top stunt, but sent him down a trap door to do so. Mazur's perception of being a textbook fun-hating Dean Bitterman character is thus sometimes viewed as misunderstanding his "electric chair" comment — he said that Max's behavior may land him there, not that he wishes for Max to wind up there. He still negatively exaggerates Max's stunt by saying he was "dressed like a gang member" and calls the students' excitement "a riotous frenzy," neither of which is true. The whole film may not have happened had Mazur not essentially tried to shock Goofy into being a more attentive parent. Even so, this minority of fans consider Mazur a Well-Intentioned Extremist who certainly could have chosen his words better, but isn't exactly wrong about Max in spite of what the narrative suggests.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Just about every Canon Foreigner with a speaking role has a following.
- Roxanne and Stacey. The former is only a relatively minor character in one movie, but is more popular than most of the regulars to the point that fans took more note of her disappearance than anyone else's. The latter is only in five scenes but has a big enough impact on the story and a large enough personality that she stands out.
- Bobby is a very popular, quotable character within the fandom, especially for being a brand new Plucky Comic Relief character in about a fifth of the movie's scenes. Cue him being a main character in the sequel.
- Bigfoot, who has been jokingly called the "best Disney villain." He's since even made his way into modern Disney media, like DuckTales (2017).
- Also the Trekkie (voiced by Dante Basco) who catcalls Stacey during her speech at the school assembly.
- Lisa, the blonde, busty, scantly clad and seductive schoolgirl. She is also notably voiced by Julie Brown, who voiced Julie Bruin in Tiny Toon Adventures and Minerva Mink in Animaniacs.
- Technically, he doesn't have any speaking lines, just singing, but since his music is a major part of the film's plot and is AWESOME, Powerline is arguably just as popular among fans of the movie as he is in it. If a geek apparel store's got Goofy Movie merch, it'll be more than likely a Powerline shirt, mostly so it can double as a defictionalized concert tee.
Fanfic Fuel:
- So, what was everyone else doing while Goofy and Max were on their road trip?
- Mickey and Donald's cameo in the "On The Open Road" sequence has sparked plenty of discussions and ideas amongst fans about what they were doing and what kind of misadventures did the duo get into during the movie's events. Especially on 4chan's /co/ board.
Fan Nickname: "Cheez Whiz Dude" for Bobby.
Fanon: Being a sequel to Goof Troop, the absence of Peg and Pistol (Pete's wife and daughter, respectively) has lead to many fan theories as to why they're not here. The most common theories are that Peg divorced Pete and got full custody of Pistol, that they died, or that they're on a girls' vacation while the boys take their own vacation. Kevin Lima, the film's director, has only encourged this, stating that their absence is up to the viewer's imagination (though he did joss the divorced theory).^note
Genius Bonus: Goofy's line to Bigfoot mentioned under Comically Missing the Point is a reference to the fact (often repeated by skeptics) that no picture or video of Bigfoot ever seems to be completely in focus.
Harsher in Hindsight: Pete’s line, "My son respects me!" is effective and scary, but it gets a subtle callback during his Villain Song in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers where he sings, "If you can’t be loved, be feared!" In a way, he probably doesn’t care if P.J. loves him or not, just as long as he does what he says.
He Really Can Act:
- Before the movie's release, there was understandably some doubt as to whether or not Goofy's exaggerated voice would be tolerable for a feature-length movie (especially since this is a dialogue-heavy film). There was also debate if audiences would buy a character mostly associated with slapstick comedy having more understated emotions. Anyone that's seen the film can attest that Bill Farmer more than assuages these doubts, proving that Goofy can experience heartbreak, bitterness, unconditional love and even bliss without the least bit of irony and in ways that are still true to his comedic roots. At times, you almost forget that this is a 1930s cartoon character transplanted into the '90s and instead see him as just a normal guy who happens to speak with a drawl.
- Jim Cummings is no slouch either, especially since Pete has very little screen time and yet he still manages to make his abuse feel a lot more palatable and feel like his signature hammy villainy in the few scenes he's in. The hot tub scene is a good example of this: you can really hear it in his voice how much he's trying to manipulate Goofy just to subtly rub it in how "right" he is that discipline is more important than love, and the way he says "My son respects me!" is chilling.
- There's a good reason Jason Marsden is seen by many as the "true" voice of Max. In the scenes where he's talking to Roxanne or getting fed up with Goofy, respectively, he doesn't even sound like he's acting, he just sounds like a real life teenager stumbling over his own words or getting angry at his father.
- Wallace Shawn, despite playing a minor character in this movie, does a particularly chilling performance as Principal Mazur, when he tells Goofy that Max could end up in the electric chair just for putting on an unauthorized rock performance at school.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Goofy addresses Bigfoot as "Mr. Foot."
- Take a good look at Powerline's backup dancers and compare them to Ariana Grande.
- Max tries to warn Goofy about the car going down the mountain, to which Goofy bitterly replies, "Now you wanna drive, too?" Max would later become a valet at the House of Mouse.
- When Goofy mentions that it's a trip with him and his best friend Max comments "oh, Donald Duck?". Years later it's revealed that this film and Goof Troop take place in the same universe as the 2017 DuckTales series, and the pair are good friends.
Iron Woobie: Goofy wants more than anything than to connect with his son, and takes all of his failures to do so in stride. At least until he discovers that Max deceived him, at which point he loses all faith.
Jerkass Woobie: Max may have been a bit difficult with his father and he did lie to Roxanne, but he's also a teenager with realistic insecurities and wants a social life, not helped by Goofy unintentionally keeping him from even having a social life once he gets one.
Memetic Mutation:
- The shot in the car with Goofy and Max where Goofy has a disappointed/irritated look on his face is basically the poster for "son, I am disappoint". Mainly because Goofy is very rarely angry.
  - Similarly, it's quite a common joke to paste a bunch of characters◊ into the car with angry Goofy to make it seem like he doesn't appreciate the people he's carpooling with.
- Bobby's lines "It's the Leaning Tower of Cheese-a!" and to a lesser extent "CHEDDA WHIZZY!"
- "Yo Stacey! Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me, bay-bay!"
- For some reason, the Finnish version of "Mornin' son!"^note "Huomenta, poika!" is a frequent Running Gag in the Finnish Youtube Poop community.
  - Also the Finnish version of "Nice Lamp" ^note "Kiva Lamppu" in the motel scene to a lesser extent, including a video where this line gets repeated over and over again for 10 minutes
- "After Today" begins with Max singing, "They've been laughing since I can remember, but they're not gonna laugh anymore." Some have joked that, out of context, it sounds like he's about to shoot up the school. It's recently spawned a few youtube videos to that effect.
- The opening title screen, in which the word "Goofy" gets slapped in the middle of a fairly normal title reading "A Movie," often gets parodied, with people wondering what "A Movie" would be like or slapping the word "Goofy" onto other movie titles (like Children of Goofy Men or Schindler's Goofy List).
Moe: Roxanne. She's sweet, stutters and twirls her hair. It's no wonder Max likes her.
More Popular Replacement: Jason Marsden's performance as the now teenage Max was so well received that every work featuring the character thereafter sans Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas has kept the character that age with Marsden reprising his role.
More Popular Spin-Off: This is a sequel to Goof Troop, albeit one that's quite loosely adapted from the source material. Disney doesn't advertise re-releases of their old TV shows nearly as much as their features, resulting in this movie ending up more remembered than the TV show it's based on.
Newbie Boom: Gained a new amount of popularity when Goofy made a guest appearance in DuckTales (2017).
Nightmare Retardant: Max's nightmare at the beginning of the film, in which he slowly transforms into… Goofy!
One-Scene Wonder:
- Bigfoot only appears briefly, but many fans testify to rewinding and watching his scene repeatedly, and it is often considered to be the funniest scene in the movie.
- The lethargic, disinterested Possum Park MC, voiced by Pat Buttram in his final movie role.
- Some of the kids singing After Today (especially for child viewers who can emphasize with the excitement about summer break). The bus driver is also popular for his hilarious line ("I'm gonna sit on my butt!")
One True Pairing: Max and Roxanne. Their adorkable chemistry is so off the charts, it got them a pretty big following. In fact, the one genuine complaint about the otherwise well-regarded sequel is that Roxanne was written out (she did become Max's official girlfriend in House of Mouse, but guess which one of the two doesn't currently have an official home video release?).
Periphery Demographic: While not intended to appeal to a specific demographic, the film has an incredibly dedicated African-American audience. A Huffington Post article by "Black Nerd Problems" editor Jordan Calhoun goes into great detail about how so many of the story beats reflect specifically on the experiences of black youth circa 1995.
Ron the Death Eater: While Max is mean to his father for much of the film, he's also a teenager who's still learning how to mature emotionally. Max's character development is learning to be nicer to his father who, despite his best intentions, took him for a trip without warning, making him equally responsible. Yet if you went by some of the YouTube comments, you'd think Max was an irredeemable sociopath who does nothing but abuse his father for ninety minutes.
Signature Scene:
- The motel sequence is quite memorable due to how adult-themed it gets surrounding Goofy and Pete's conversation, and how fathers should be taking care of their sons.
- Another candidate for the most memorable sequence is the Powerline concert at the end.
Strawman Has a Point:
- Pete might be a bad father, but he raises a good point: you might want your kid's love and friendship, but you need their respect too. Any parent will tell you that having the respect of your children is integral to correcting their behavior.
- Principal Mazur's phone call to Goofy certainly saw Mazur overreacting, exaggerating Max's behavior over the phone. But he does have a right to be upset after Max and his friends interrupted a school assembly and sent him down a trap door. Also, Principal Mazur's last line to Goofy about Max "ending up in the electric chair" could be seen as Mazur warning Goofy that his son would find himself into serious legal trouble down the road if he keeps that type of behavior up. Based on Max's attempt to be popular, as well as his scheming ways towards his own father, it seems like he was getting pretty close to heading towards that direction.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The first part of the car chase is accompanied by a pastiche of Copland's "Hoedown" from Rodeo, aka the "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" music.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Other characters are downplayed or given very little screen time in order to focus on Goofy and Max, in what little runtime the movie has.
- Despite being major characters in the show, Pete and PJ only appear in a handful of scenes and we don't get to see their bonding time.
- Despite being built up as Max's love interest, Roxanne gets five minutes of screen time, and what little we do see suggest that she's just as awkward and shy as Max, which could have led to some interesting Character Development or a subplot of her own. It doesn't help that she's absent from the sequel, though she is in a couple of lower deck episodes of House of Mouse that are focused on her and Max's relationship. According to an interview with the director Kevin Lima, the writers wanted to make her more of a Tomboy with a Girly Streak, but none of these traits are present in the film.
- The movie does an excellent job cramming in a ton of defining characteristics for Stacey, the fast-talking Genki Girl student body president and one of the nicer teen characters, yet her only function in the film proper is throwing the Powerline party, nudging Roxanne to talk to Max and getting paired at the last second with Bobby. As mentioned above, there's also a credible fan theory about her having a crush on Max but wanting him to be with the girl he already likes; those implications alone, along with the story potential of giving Max at least one female friend, would be worthy of an entire other movie!
Unintentional Period Piece: One of the best examples of pure undistilled nineties culture committed to animated film: everyone's dressed in flannel and baggy clothes, Pauly Shore plays yet another variation of his "Weasel" character, the soundtrack is full of New Jack Swing-style pop and Pete passively refers to his and Goofy's sons as "the MTV generation." It also captures the time in the mid-90s when live pay-per-view specials were big events, mainly because they were still Appointment Television; today, not only can even the biggest live events be watched on one's mobile device, but the entire broadcast can be viewed immediately after its initial airing. Like many animated examples, much of this has been dated for a couple of years by the time the movie came out, though unlike most, it's less the result of trying to capitalize on trends (save Pauly Shore, whose peak popularity at the time would come crashing down a year later thanks to Bio-Dome) and more a circumstance of a plot that's largely grounded in reality.
Goofy on his car trip pulls out a road map, a gesture rendered obsolete with the advent of GPS.
Unpopular Popular Character: In-universe, Bobby is The Friend Nobody Likes (well, more accurately, a friendly acquaintance they just met). Out of universe, he's very popular, enough to be a major supporting character in the sequel. Max himself is also a lot more popular among viewers than he is in his own movie, where he's at best treated as a complete nobody.
Values Dissonance:
- Stacey, who's implied to be a socially-conscious Granola Girl, is seen dressed in a Native American headband at her party, which is intended to show her standing in solidarity with a vulnerable social group but in later decades would be seen as cultural appropriation.
- An inoffensive example: Max refers to Powerline as a "rock star," while most would agree that pop star would be a more befitting name, indicating a Rock is Authentic, Pop is Shallow attitude. In early-mid 90s America, "pop" was considered a dirty word, reserved for only the worst and most agonizingly manufactured music acts out there (remember, the Milli Vanilli scandal was still recent and more niche, underground genres with like alternative rock and gangsta rap had had their mainstream breakthroughs shortly thereafter). When traditional "rock band" music began fading out of popularity in the late 2000s/early 2010s as more nuanced pop acts like Lady Gaga were taking off, the title of "pop star" more or less lost its negative connotation.
- Pete is also clearly drinking a beer when he sees Goofy on TV and does a Spit Take. Depicting the consumption of alcohol in a family movie was definitely unusual in 1995, but a major studio like Disney wouldn't even gently imply it today, lest they invite the wrath of Moral Guardians. Also cultural dissonance, as the 2018 Australian Children's animated series Bluey has adult characters drink beer.
Vindicated by History: The film was considered a B-movie in the eyes of Disney, except for Jeffrey Katzenberg, who championed it. The studio gave the film a smaller budget compared to the studio's other animated works. Most of the animation was outsourced, which is why it isn't considered part of the Disney Animated Canon. When Katzenberg left Disney in 1994, the studio released it with a half-hearted marketing campaign, and while critics were mixed, the film was a modest hit commercially, turning a small profit after it went to video. While this ensured a direct-to-DVD sequel, the first movie faded into obscurity for a number of years. However, the film had attained a cult following among those who grew up watching the film on VHS and appreciated its warmth, humor, characters, and soundtrack. The film's cult status grew and by the time A Goofy Movie hit its 20th anniversary in 2015, Disney was willing to acknowledge the film's existence for the first time in many years and now regularly mentions it in social media posts. Nowadays, it's regarded as one of Disney's best non-Animated Canon/Pixar animated films.
The Woobie: Just like in the show, PJ gets pushed around by his father and it’s not played for laughs.
Woolseyism: The Finnish dub slightly changes the "My life is a living- Hello, little buddy!" exchange in order to preserve the joke. In the dub, Max tries to say "Mun elämä haisee" ("My life stinks"), but he gets interrupted with "Seeeis, pikku ystävä!" ("Stooop, little friend!")

YMMV / A Goofy Movie

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