A Goofy Movie: The Overlooked Disney Classic
Making its case among Disney’s Renaissance films
(There will be spoilers ahead)
The 1990s went down as one of most important time periods for Disney. More commonly known as the Renaissance, it was the turning point that brought Disney back from its financial and critical slump and firmly re-established Disney as the animation giant it continues to be today. Beloved films such as Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, are films from the era that Disney showcases as their best. Those aren’t the only animated films Disney released in the decade, one of them didn’t gain as widespread of praise as the aforementioned films did but has won the hearts of fans over the years. That movie is A Goofy Movie.
It is the last day of classes and Max, Goofy’s son, dedicated to go all out to impress his crush, Roxanne, dresses up as his favorite artist, Powerline, and perform while getting into trouble with school authority. Max impresses Roxanne and they plan to go out together and he gains the respect of the entire student body. Meanwhile, Goofy, afraid of the bad influences in Max’s life leading him to disaster, forcibly takes him on a fishing trip to establish a more special bond with his son, much to Max’s utter dismay. Before leaving, Max lies to Roxanne that his dad is taking him to the Powerline concert. The trip doesn’t go well for the most part until Max changes the destinations on the map, unbeknownst to Goofy’s knowledge. Things go great for them until Goofy finds out about Max’s changing of the map. They eventually reconcile and Goofy takes Max to the Powerline concert where the duo dance onstage with the Powerline himself to the delight of Max’s friends and Pete’s bafflement. All ends well for Max and Roxanne and she finally meets Goofy.
One look at the movie and it’s obvious why it isn’t in those Disney highlight reels of films, it made $35 million at the box office and received mixed reviews, it’s not as grand as any of the Renaissance films and was apparently a mere contractual obligation to the then-fired Jeffrey Katzenburg. Fortunately, it grew in popularity over the years and has been acknowledged more by Disney again. To me, A Goofy Movie has qualities that put it on par with at least half of the Renaissance classics.
First is comedy. When your characters are Goofy and his family/friends, expect hilarity. The movie does have its great comedic moments whether it be his interactions with Max, his scenes with Pete and the supporting characters’ own quips. It all works for the movie’s favor.
Next are the songs. Every Renaissance film comes with their iconic soundtracks that stick to the minds of fans for years. They serve the purpose of establishing the world around them and expressing the characters’ emotion and motivation. At the same time, the songs, especially Powerline’s, are good pop songs in their own right. For example, Powerline’s “I2I” is a great, catchy finale song that encapsulates all the lessons Max and Goofy learned throughout the movie. Honestly, the film does a much better job with its songs than latter Renaissance films like Hercules, Tarzan and Pocahontas. It conveys character motivation and world-building more effectively than they do. But that’s just me.
Finally, the best aspect of this film is just how good its emotional weight is. Aside from the comedy, the film is thrilling, sad and joyful. The themes of fatherhood, adolescence and all the awkwardness that comes along with it is done excellently in this film. It does a great job in making Max relatable with all the things he goes through like impressing a crush, impressing his peers and not being humiliated by his uncool parent.
I do love that the movie makes an obvious contrast of Pete’s authoritarian, fear-based parenting as compared to Goofy’s passive parenting, at least until the third act where Goofy learns to accept that Max will grow up from the kid he once knew and adapt his mindset and also, stop taking fatherhood advice from Pete. All this is carried by the film’s smart writing that makes our characters sympathetic and relatable and thus, a story that resonates with its audience.
A Goofy Movie is one of the many Disney films I owned on DVD. I never got tired watching it over and over. I am glad to know it gained a cult following over the past few years from kids like myself who grew up to appreciate the underappreciated classic that it is. It’s a great coming-of-age film that stands out from the numerous classics Disney’s produced at the time. It has great emotional weight, smart writing, real characters that you can relate to and memorable music. All the qualities of a great Disney film that I hope they capitalize on and families will grow to love as well.
