Short Film Review – “The Complete Goofy”

Still no sign of a Treasures collection with
Donald in Mathemagic Land, but I’ll keep my
eye out.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Pinto Colvig as the voice of Goofy.

Written and directed by several Disney crew members.
This is a
collection of all 46 cartoons starring Goofy.

This
DVD release

includes all of the Goofy shorts, and no language
options I can find
(apart from English subtitles.)


Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

Goofy slowly grows from a small-town hick to a sports
star to a 1950s
father figure.

High Point

Knight For A Day, also available on the
Sword In The
Stone
DVD, in which Goofy stars as a faithful
squire to Sir
Loinsteak. When Sir Loinsteak is taken out before a
joust, Goofy has
to take his place against the champion, Sir
Cumference, in a contest
for the hand of the princess.

Low Point

Goofy and Wilbur, Goofy’s first starring
short, gave Goofy
very little screen time, and wasn’t all that funny.

The Scores

This was great for originality. The “How
To” series and
sports series are loaded with classics, and the
contrast between the
narration and the action is always fantastic.
There’s a lot of
diversity, without the need for running gags, rigid
formulas, and the
like. I give it 5 out of 6.

The animation is generally good, although
there are a couple
of sloppy moments, particularly in the 1951 deluge of
cartoons.
(“Hockey Homicide” is loaded with errors, including
improperly
coloured uniforms, player numbers that change between
medium and
close-up shots, and so forth.) I give it 5 out of 6.

The stories are simplistic, but the series
nature of some of
them helps them play out as episodes in the life of a
character,
particularly after the introduction of Max and Mrs.
Geef. Considering
the short format of the medium, they are well done.
I give it 4 out
of 6.

The voice acting is very well done. Goofy’s
yell makes me
laugh every time. (“Waaaaah-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey!”)
Pinto Colvig did
some great work here, as did Goofy’s narrators. I
give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response is great. I love
Goofy. He makes me
laugh. “Knight For A Day,” “The Art of Skiing,”
“Tennis Racket,” “How
To Dance,” “The Art of Self-Defense,” “Goofy
Gymnastics,” “Lion Down,”
and “Two Gun Goofy” are all fantastic. Even the
weakest cartoons
(“Goofy and Wilbur,” “Baggage Buster,” and “No
Smoking”) make me laugh
more in seven minutes than I did in the entire second
season of
Friends. (After the second season, I refused
to watch with
those who wanted to watch it, and just left the
room.) I give it 6
out of 6.

The production of the shorts has a few
errors and flashes,
but it still looks pretty good considering the age of
the source
material. The DVD collection really needs a “Play
All” feature,
though. The editing was good in the later shorts,
but the pacing was
too slow in the early ones. I give it 4 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a great collection for Goofy
and animation
fans. It’s funny, if dated (in its representation of
women and
minorities). That’s really the bottom line: this is
a set of some
very funny cartoons. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, The Complete Goofy receives 34 out
of 42.