Disney came up with the idea to make a theatrical animated film starring Goofy while considering ideas for a potential Goof Troop TV special. Lima wanted to expand Goofy as a character and "give him an emotional side" that would resonate with audiences. The film features the voices of Bill Farmer, Jim Cummings, and Rob Paulsen reprising their roles from the series as Goofy, Pete, and P.J., respectively, while Jason Marsden replaces Dana Hill as Max, alongside Kellie Martin, Wallace Shawn, and Pauly Shore as new characters. Furthermore, R&B artist Tevin Campbell provides the vocals for Powerline, a fictional pop star who prominently appears in the film, performing the songs "Stand Out" and "I 2 I".
A Goofy Movie was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on April 7, 1995, by Walt Disney Pictures. Because the film had been greenlit by the recently fired Jeffrey Katzenberg, the film's release was deemed by Disney to be a contractual obligation. Upon release, it received mixed reviews from critics and made a meager impression at the box office, grossing $37.6 million against an $18 million production cost. However, with its home media release, the film garnered a cult following and has become a more prominent property within Disney. A direct-to-videosequel to the film titled An Extremely Goofy Movie was released on February 29, 2000.
Plot
Max Goof is an average teenager who pines after his classmate Roxanne, worships the pop star Powerline, and has a tense relationship with his clumsy, old-fashioned father Goofy, whom he fears turning into. On the last day of school before summer vacation, Max, with help from his friends P.J. and Bobby, hijacks a school assembly and dances while lip syncing to a Powerline song. The performance succeeds in making Max a school celebrity, and he invites Roxanne with him to a viewing party of a live broadcast of Powerline's upcoming concert in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, after learning from school principal Mazur that Max is becoming a juvenile delinquent, Goofy decides to curb his behavior by immediately leaving on a father-son fishing trip to Lake Destiny, Idaho. Unable to admit the truth to Roxanne, Max tells her that not only are he and Goofy traveling to Los Angeles to see the concert in person, but that Powerline has invited them onstage.
Goofy and Max hit the road, visiting a run-down possum-themed amusement park where Goofy embarrasses Max. The next day, they run into P.J. and his father Pete while camping. Goofy takes his son fishing and shows him the "Perfect Cast" fishing technique, accidentally luring Bigfoot to their camp and forcing Goofy and Max to spend the night in the car with Bigfoot outside. While Goofy sleeps, Max alters the map's route to Los Angeles.
The next morning, Goofy makes Max the navigator of the trip, and the two enjoy several stops together. That night, while staying at the same motel, Pete overhears a conversation between Max and P.J. and informs Goofy that Max has tricked him into traveling to Los Angeles. Goofy still believes Max will do the right thing, but the next morning, Max chooses the route to California, and a frustrated Goofy stops the car at the Grand Canyon and thumps away. With the brake loose, the car rolls away; Goofy and Max chase after it and end up riding the car down the Colorado River. After a brief argument, Goofy says no matter how old Max gets he will always be his son, and the two finally reconcile. After learning about Max's promise to Roxanne, Goofy decides to take him to the concert. The two nearly plummet down a waterfall, but Max saves Goofy using the Perfect Cast technique.
Goofy and Max arrive at the concert, sneak on to the stage, and dance with Powerline, delighting Roxanne. Max and Goofy return home in a barely-functioning car and Max tells Roxanne the truth; she admits she always liked him and they make plans to go out. The car explodes, ejecting Goofy right into the air and falling through the porch roof of Roxanne's house, and Max proudly introduces his father to his new girlfriend.
Director Kevin Lima portrays a walk-around character at Lester's Possum Park and provides the vocal effects for Roxanne's father.[9]Florence Stanley plays a waitress, Jo Anne Worley portrays Principal Mazur's upbeat secretary Miss Maples, and Julie Brown and Joey Lawrence voice popular students Lisa and Chad.
A Goofy Movie is based on Goof Troop, an animated Disney Afternoon show created by Robert Taylor and Michael Peraza Jr., that centered around Goofy and his son, Max.[10][11] When considering ideas for a TV special, Disney decided to produce a theatrical film based on the show, contracting Jymn Magon to write a feature-length script starring Goofy. The filmmakers chose to age up Max, who was portrayed as an 11-year-old in Goof Troop, setting the film several years later and putting him in high school.[12] The movie was the feature film directorial debut for Disney story artist and animator Kevin Lima, who went on to direct the Disney films Tarzan (1999), 102 Dalmatians (2000) and Enchanted (2007).[13] In 1995, Lima said that "Instead of just keeping Goofy one-dimensional as he's been in the past, we wanted to give an emotional side that would add to the emotional arc of the story. We wanted the audience to see his feelings instead of just his antics."[14] Magon stated that the father-son dynamic of the film was inspired by a story from then-Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg in which he and his daughter—with whom he had an estranged relationship at the time—went on a road trip together, during which they bonded and their relationship considerably improved.[3][15]
While the work was a Disney production, it was considered far less essential than the studio's mainstream works at the time such as The Lion King, and was given a far smaller budget compared to these films.[3] Thus, A Goofy Movie was jointly produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Television Animation, and Disney MovieToons and with outsourcing to Walt Disney Animation France and Walt Disney Animation Australia, along with additional Disney animation studios in Spain and Canada.[3] Pre-production was done at the main Feature Animation studio in Burbank, California, starting as early as mid-1993. The animation work was done at Walt Disney Animation France in Paris supervised by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, with additional scenes animated at Disney's studio in Sydney, Australia, under the direction of Steve Moore, and clean-up work done at the main Burbank studio.[1][16] Additional clean-up/animation was done by Phoenix Animation Studios in Canada, and digitally inked-and-painted by the Pixibox studio in France.[17] The film's planned release on Thanksgiving 1994 was delayed due to the monitor that they were using to capture the film's animation having a single dead pixel, forcing them to recapture three-quarters of the film again with a non-defective monitor.[3]
Several of the main voice cast from Goof Troop reprise their roles in A Goofy Movie, including Bill Farmer as Goofy, Jim Cummings as Pete, and Rob Paulsen as P.J.. Max, whose unchanged voice was provided by Dana Hill in Goof Troop, is voiced by Jason Marsden when speaking[12] and Aaron Lohr when singing.[18] Early in production, Katzenberg originally wanted Steve Martin to voice Goofy.[19] Katzenberg initially asked Farmer to give Goofy a regular speaking voice as opposed to the character's signature, cartoonish voice, much to the confusion of Farmer, who insisted that audiences wanted to hear the Goofy they were all familiar with. After a week of recording lines like this, Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney told Farmer to speak in Goofy's regular voice.[12][18] Farmer stated that he used a "mental image" of his five-year-old son at the time in order to fully embrace his role as a loving father.[15] Magon named Principal Mazur after his own high-school principal.[12] The character of Powerline was heavily inspired by real-life pop stars, including Michael Jackson, Prince, and Bobby Brown.[20] R&B artist Tevin Campbell provided the singing voice for Powerline, recording the songs "Stand Out" and "I 2 I". Campbell recorded the songs in front of a green screen while performing his own choreography.[20] The film is dedicated to Pat Buttram, who voiced the emcee at the possum park, as he died after finishing his voice work for the film.[21]
Music
A Goofy Movie: Songs and Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The score for A Goofy Movie was provided by Carter Burwell.[22] Burwell was the primary composer; after he had recorded his score with Shirley Walker orchestrating and conducting, Don Davis was hired to rework his score rather than write a completely new one. Burwell later wrote: "My score had relied somewhat on unusual instrumentation – banjo, percussion and choir for example – and Disney wanted the sweeping scale and familiar affect of symphonic score".[23] Davis is credited with "additional music" on the movie and the soundtrack album. The songs "I 2 I" and "Stand Out" were performed by R&B singer Tevin Campbell, while "After Today", "On the Open Road", and "Nobody Else But You" were performed by Bill Farmer and Aaron Lohr. The soundtrack album for A Goofy Movie was released by Walt Disney Records on March 18, 1995.[24]Mitchel Musso covered the song "Stand Out" for the Disneymania 7 album, which was released on March 9, 2010.[25]Magnolia Park covered the song "I 2 I" for the Disney pop-punk cover album A Whole New Sound, which was released on September 6, 2024.[26][27]
Within Disney, prior to A Goofy Movie's release, the film was frequently associated with Katzenberg, and by April 1995, Katzenberg had been let go by Disney's CEO Michael Eisner due to tensions between them. The company saw the release of A Goofy Movie as fulfilling contractual obligations.[3]A Goofy Movie was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on November 18, 1994.[28] In order to avoid competition between The Swan Princess and The Pagemaster, and due to production setbacks, the released date was moved to April 1995. The Lion King was reissued to fill in for the film's absence.[29]
The film was first released on VHS and LaserDisc by Walt Disney Home Video in the United States and Canada on September 6, 1995. The American VHS release included a music video for the Parachute Express song Doctor Looney's Remedy on their video, Come Sing with Us. In the United Kingdom, it was released in theaters on October 18, 1996 (with the Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain preceding it), and on VHS in 1997.[citation needed] It was reissued on June 20, 2000, along with a DVD version, as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection series.[32][33] The DVD edition includes the Goof Troop episode "Calling All Goofs", the episode "The Goofy Success Story" from the Disneyland television series, and a "Disney-fied" edit of Lou Bega's 1999 song "Mambo No. 5."[34] Not counting Doug's 1st Movie (which was produced in open matte full screen but was cropped to widescreen for theaters), A Goofy Movie is the only Disney animated feature film produced in widescreen that has pan and scan-only Region 1 DVD releases. The movie was released on Blu-ray as a Disney Movie Club exclusive alongside An Extremely Goofy Movie on April 23, 2019, with several contents edited to make it more fitting for the intended audiences.[35]
A 4K HDR resolution version of the film was completed as an educational project by the team at The Bigger Pictures Film Restoration in June 2023. An early version of the tests utilized AI upscaling technology to patch low-resolution line art in select shots but were not utilized in the final version. The film was used as a sample reel showcasing the ability of the team to remove dead pixels, debris, and hair from the transfer that were found on the negative and interpositive - a byproduct of the experimental animation system used on the film. During production, a 35mm camera captured the digitally composited PEGS/Pixibox renders at a resolution approaching 2K. The Pixibox renders were displayed on a high-definition commercial-grade calibrated monitor which was filmed in 35mm using the successive exposure technique, one frame at a time. As this project was created for educational/demo purposes - the restoration is not planned for released to the public. A documentary showing clips and the restoration process is available on YouTube.[36]A Goofy Movie was re-released on Blu-ray on November 14, 2023, as part of the Disney Legacy Animated Film Collection, which consists of 100 titles from both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the Disney company.[37]
Reception
Box office
A Goofy Movie opened in 2,159 theaters at second place on its opening weekend with $6.1 million—held from the number one spot because of the Will Smith blockbuster Bad Boys that opened the same weekend, with $15.5 million in box office returns.[38] It ultimately ended its run at the US box office grossing $35.3 million.[39] Internationally it grossed $2.3 million, partially due to the fact the film was not released theatrically in most overseas territories, for a worldwide total of $37.6 million.[6]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, A Goofy Movie holds an approval rating of 59% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A Goofy Movie offers enough of its titular ingredient to satisfy younger viewers, even if most parents will agree that this beloved character deserves better."[40] On Metacritic, the movie has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[41]
Contemporary
In contemporaneous reviews, the film received mixed responses from critics. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, noting that he only got to see a portion of the film in his initial viewing before a technical problem in the projection booth ended the screening early (somewhere between 35 and 40 minutes into the film, based on information given in his review — much less than the approximate hour he believed he had seen). He later clarified the film was worthy of three after viewing the entire film stating, “Three stars is about right.”[42] In his one-star review from The Austin Chronicle, Louis Black said "The movie appears to have forgotten that [...] it is an adolescent angst drama about his son Max's ambivalent feelings about having Goofy as a dad. This is a story about a boy and a dad [...] it is bland, a barely television-length cartoon stretched out to fill a feature, and not much fun."[14] Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack summarized it as "brutal", and said that "there's no denying that A Goofy Movie can't be a proud moment for Walt Disney Pictures."[43] While the Los Angeles Times questioned the overall tone of the film,[44]Empire's Bob McCabe gave the movie three stars out of five and the following verdict: "Harmless enough day in the sun for Goofy; pity there's an overwhelming feeling throughout that he deserves better."[45]
From The New York Times, Stephen Holden called the film's story "too rambling and emotionally diffuse for the title character to come fully alive."[46] Writing for Variety, Todd McCarthy criticized the film's score, and felt that the personality of Goofy's character, while agreeable enough in support, proved a bit over the top for a headliner, and that "by any reasonable reckoning, he's distinctly overbearing and selfish, and responds with a bland dismissal to any opinion offered up by his son".[1]
Retrospective
Since its release, A Goofy Movie has undergone critical reevaluation and is now appreciated as a "true cult classic".[47] In a 2020 editorial for Rotten Tomatoes, Rafael Matomayor wrote: "Featuring a small-scale story that kids can see themselves in, an excellent portrayal of teenage life and father-son relationships, and, crucially, a soundtrack filled with earworms to rival the work of Rice and Menken, the movie has something for everyone."[48] Nell Minow of Common Sense Media praised the low-key tone and humor of the film, concluding: "Even tweens will enjoy this road trip with Goofy."[49]The Mary Sue’s Princess Weekes cited the soundtrack and story as to why the film "remains a perfect father/son film".[50]
Accolades
The film was nominated for "Best Animated Feature" in the production categories and "Best Production Design", "Best Storyboarding", "Best Music", and "Best Animation" in the individual categories at the 23rd Annie Awards.[51]
Legacy
After its meager box office performance during its theatrical release, A Goofy Movie started to gain success in 1995 due to home media sales, and soon gained a cult following. The interest in the film is attributed to a combination of the film's catchy soundtrack as well as its story of cross-generational connections between parents and children.[3][52] The newfound interest led to waves of new merchandise based on the film to be sold at major retailers.[3][53][54]
In the television series House of Mouse (2001–2003) Max works as a valet for the titular club, and in the episode "Max's Embarrassing Date" (2002), Max has a date with Roxanne at the club. Jason Marsden reprises his role of Max for the series, while Kellie Martin was replaced by Grey DeLisle as the voice of Roxanne.[55][56][57]
On August 14, 2015, a 20th-anniversary reunion for the film was held at the D23 Expo at Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.[58] Those in attendance included Bill Farmer, Marsden, Jim Cummings, Rob Paulsen, Jenna von Oÿ and producer Don Hahn. Video messages were sent by Wallace Shawn, Pauly Shore and director Kevin Lima.[58] The panel included musical performances from Farmer, Marsden, and Tevin Campbell.[58][59] While the panel was not expected to be one of the largest panels at D23, it ended up with the largest attended, with around 1,000 fans attending, and forcing the expo to turn away some due to lack of seating.[3][60]
In the video game Disney Magic Kingdoms, Pete appears making some references to the film, wearing the same clothes and owning the same recreational vehicle with which he goes camping.[61]
In 2016, Campbell uploaded a video of him partaking in a jam session with the band Enfield, in which he performed both "I 2 I" and "Stand Out".[62] In June 2018, a one-week event titled "Disney FanDaze" was opened in Disneyland Paris, featuring several dedicated performances paying tribute to Disney franchises. Among these was "Max Live! Gettin' Goofy With It", which featured Max Goof performing songs from A Goofy Movie.[63] In April 2019, singer Uché performed "I 2 I" during the Top 10 Disney Night of American Idol's 17th season.[64] According to co-producer Frank Angones, the film was a strong influence during early development of the 2017 DuckTales series, particularly on its version of Donald Duck, as the creators "wanted [the] show to do for Donald what Goofy Movie did for Goofy".[65] The series itself featured several references to the film, including the appearances of the song "Stand Out",[66] Lester's Possum Park,[67] pictures of Goofy, Max, and Roxanne and, in 2020, is considered canon to the series.[68][52] In October 2021, Cody Rigsby and Cheryl Burke danced a Jive to "Stand Out" during night one of Disney Week on the 30th season of Dancing with the Stars.[69] During an interview with i-D for Paul Thomas Anderson's film Licorice Pizza, lead actress Alana Haim called A Goofy Movie her favorite movie of all time, stating "If you haven't seen it, you need to watch A Goofy Movie. It's the best movie of all time."[70][71]
The visual design of a scene in A Goofy Movie where Goofy and Pete have a conversation in a hot tub was cited as an inspiration for a similar scene in the season 2 episode of Gravity Falls "Roadside Attraction" in the episode's DVD commentary.
In 2022, Pixar director Domee Shi said she was inspired by A Goofy Movie for the story of her directorial debut, Turning Red (2022).[72]
In 2023, a newly orchestrated instrumental version of "I 2 I" was added as part of the new area music for the refurbished Mickey's Toontown section of Disneyland, and one of the photos added inside of Goofy's house in Mickey's Toontown now includes a picture of Max dressed as Powerline for Halloween. Furthermore, Goofy's yard now includes references to Bigfoot and Powerline as part of a play area. In addition, inside of the ticket booth of the land's El CapiTOON Theater (which houses the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction) there are references to Lester's Possum Park, Powerline, and a photo of the little girl that Max encounters at Lester's. Inside of the attraction's queue, there are parody movie posters including one featuring Goofy and Max (parodying the 1976 film Freaky Friday) with the tagline "Father and son who never saw eye to eye", and another (parodying the 2008 film High School Musical 3: Senior Year) featuring Max, P.J., Roxanne, Bobby, and Stacey, and a concession stand in the queue includes a brand of candy on display called Powerlimes, featuring Powerline on the wrapper, with an offer to win a trip to Lester's Possum Park on the candy's display box.[b]
A documentary detailing the film's production and eventual cult status premiered in May 2024 at the DocLands Film Festival. Entitled Not Just a Goof, the documentary is directed by fans Christopher Ninness and Eric Kimelton.[80][81] In October 2024, four couples performed a team freestyle to "I 2 I" during Disney night on the 33rd season of Dancing with the Stars.[82]
Sequel
A direct-to-video sequel, titled An Extremely Goofy Movie was released on DVD and VHS on February 29, 2000 and serves as the finale to the Goof Troop series as a whole. The film follows Goofy and Max as they become classmates at college and participate in the X Games.[83]
.jpg)
.svg){kind=small}
