Review: Disney Finally Admits A Goofy Movie Is ‘Not Just A Goof’

I was in the minority that picked Goof Troop over Batman when both competed in the same time slot in the fall of 1992. The reason for that was, I thought I’d get in trouble if my mom caught me watching Batman (and even though it’s as Y7 as you can get, I probably would have). In reality Batman kicked Goofy’s keister in ratings that fall, and Eisner responded by turning up the edge of Disney Afternoon originals, so we got cool stuff like Gargoyles. Somehow, though, he had enough faith in Goof Troop to let a theatrical spinoff get produced (or rather, as the documentary we’ll be talking about reveals, it was all Katzenberg’s doing, but I’m getting ahead of myself).

Having just cracked puberty when A Goofy Movie was first released, I was the perfect age to get the most out of it, but the truth I have to admit is, I didn’t see it when it was new, or when it was half-new either. Most people who have an emotional connection to this film saw it one of two ways: in the theater, or through clamshell VHS. The second one couldn’t happen for me because Mom didn’t buy clamshell VHSes….her attitude was “You watch it once and then it rots on the shelf, so why bother?” I mean, that’s what an ADULT does, but…

I MIGHT have gone to see this in the cinemas, if not for the amateur review of one kid I knew in school. I was in the computer lab goofing around with paint programs when he walked in…

“Hey, I saw A Goofy Movie this weekend.”
“How was it?”
“It wasn’t that great. Max spends all his time moping in the car. That’s like all he does, the majority of the movie is just him being grumpy in Goofy’s car.”
“Sounds lame.”
“Yup. Well, we’re in the weird in-between age where the Internet now exists but none of these computers are connected to it, so let’s amuse ourselves by making stupid Hypercard stories.”
“Sounds like a plan.”

And that was that. The time I at last witnessed A Goofy Movie was years later, when it aired on broadcast syndication on a weekend afternoon. This was close to when An Extremely Goofy Movie came out, the most likely reason Disney was letting me see this for free. An Extremely Goofy Movie is, of course, not nearly as beloved, since it was made by different people, lacked the same heart, existed to promote ESPN, and also people find the fact that Max isn’t still with Roxanne blasphemous. Can’t blame ’em.

Until now, finding any information on the making of A Goofy Movie has been difficult, as the rare DVD and Blu-Ray releases never contained any special features. Not Just A Goof, the new documentary that just appeared on Disney+ in honor of the 30th anniversary, is long overdue. It should’ve come out for the 25th anniversary. It should’ve come out for the 20th. But it’s only now, as in this very hour, that anyone high up at the Mouse House has become aware of the film’s cultural impact or its reputation as a Millennial classic.

A Goofy Movie was borne from a notion by animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg that Disney could produce some lower-budget animated films and release them to fill the gaps between their big tentpoles. The animation would be done by their TV units around the world, and be a notch below what Beauty and the Beast looked like, but a notch above what Rescue Rangers looked like.

The first attempt at this was a DuckTales movie, Treasure of the Lost Lamp, in 1990, but it didn’t perform as well as they hoped. Despite this, Katz wanted to give it a second go with a movie based on Goof Troop, and a script simply called “GOOFY MOVIE” was turned in by Jymn Magnon around the time the show started airing on TV. Katz went through a row of directors before settling on Kevin Lima, who had never directed a feature film before.

Lima decided to cut the majority of the show’s cast from the plot and tell a lean story focused on Goofy and Max, though Pete and PJ would make appearances in supporting roles. The first storyboard was, by eyewitness accounts, heavy on cartoon gags, but Katz insisted the plot needed to have more sincere moments. In fact, in one of the more unbelievable moments from the doc, he briefly desired to replace Goofy’s VA Bill Farmer with actor Steve Martin, who would talk in a normal voice. Lima convinced him otherwise by producing a redub of the film in progress where Farmer used his ordinary voice. Katz didn’t like it.

But it was actually that insincere dub that inspired the director to add some more emotion to Farmer’s delivery and take Goofy to some emotional places the dog had never been before. One of A Goofy Movie’s most memorable scenes is the hot tub conversation between Goofy and Pete, where Goofy is beginning to doubt that his relationship with his son is as sunny as he assumed it was. He still expresses optimism — until he opens that glove compartment.

By this point Disney was doing all their movie ink and paint digitally, but it still had to be converted to film before being shipped to theaters. Not Just A Goof reveals the incredibly low-tech way they did this: by running the digital footage on an early flatscreen monitor and capturing it with a film projector positioned above it. “What if it had a burnt pixel?” you might ask…well, that’s exactly what happened, and it wasn’t caught until late in the filming process. The only way to get rid of that little dot was to get a new monitor, then reshoot the entire film over again, which actually delayed its premiere from November 1994 to April 1995. Lima admits they needed the extra time anyway to tighten up the story, and would not have gotten it otherwise.

Given that Katzenberg would eventually become Disney’s Greatest Enemy when he led Dreamworks Animation and produced Shrek, the doc isn’t very kind to him at points, but does admit his influence improved the picture. For all his bumbling and Clueless Executive moments, Katz could be a blessing as much as a curse, and that becomes most apparent after the moment where he is fired. It turned out no one else at Disney believed in the project, and from that point the film was treated as an also-ran. Its premiere celebration was moved from LA to Orlando.

A Goofy Movie landed at #2 on its opening weekend, and made back its modest budget with profit left over, but that wasn’t enough to convince Disney Katzemberg’s idea had been a good one. They were still looking into making cheaper films, just direct to video…that Return of Jafar thing had done surprisingly well. But before the store racks could be drowned in sequels, A Goofy Movie was there first, at a discounted price from the typical Disney markup since they figured it wouldn’t be in high demand. That lower price and the giant “GOOFY” on the box ensured that every parent, every school, and everyone shopping for a birthday present would pick one up. A Goofy Movie became one of the most common VHS clamshells of the 90s and most kids and teens of the era would connect with it through that. (I, as we covered, was out of that loop.)

Neither Lima nor anyone else involved was aware of this until around ten years ago, when San Diego Comic-Con held a Goofy Movie panel for the film’s 20th anniversary. Expecting a low turnout, SDCC reserved the smallest auditorium. They ended up blindsided with a thoroughly packed showing. Footage is shown from this panel in the doc, with Farmer absolutely floored that anyone cared so much. It’s a great moment, but it’s topped by the following sequence, where they search “Goofy Movie” into Google and get a bunch of Reddit threads and AI slop — I mean, hundreds of legitimate results (that’s the magic of editing).

Video after video of thirtysomethings (and older, and younger) expressing their love, crafting tributes, doing Powerline dances, it just keeps going. Making money is nice, but the real reason anybody creates anything is to be appreciated for it. Lima, Farmer and the crew getting their overdue virtual praise is as heartwarming as any moment from A Goofy Movie‘s climax.

A Goofy Movie is a great movie, but Disney seems to have done just about everything to cover that up, including the film’s marketing campaign, which completely misrepresented what it was about. The trailer’s narration claims Max is the coolest kid in school, Roxanne is already his girlfriend, and his companions are cool as well (instead of the freaks and geeks they are). In this sense Goofy would be more of an antagonist than a father, his mere existence a threat to Max’s standing in social society. Thank goodness we didn’t get THAT movie.

I believe if you make something good people will EVENTUALLY discover it, whether it takes five years or thirty. There are plenty of animated films that didn’t get recognition when it really counted, yet have come back to be solidified as classics: The Iron Giant, Cats Don’t Dance, and to an extent, this. Both the original film, the new documentary, and the 78 episodes of Goof Troop are streamable now on Disney+.