A Goofy Movie (1995)
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A Goofy Movie Movie Review
A Goofy Movie is a 1995 animated musical teen film directed by Kevin Lima. It’s such an underrated, cult flick.
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“She looked right through me,
and who can blame her?
I need a new me,
plus some positive proof that
I’m not just a goof“
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It follows Goofy and his son, Max, who is now in high school, and revolves around the father-son relationship between the two as Goofy takes Max on a fishing trip out of fear that Max is drifting away from him, unintentionally interfering with Max’s social life, particularly his relationship with Roxanne, his high school crush.
Yes, there have been many films about this subject, but this is still a hugely successful, wonderful example of a strong father-son story as their relationship is stupendous and very believable, though at times Max can be overly terrible to his father. But their relationship is mostly beautiful, and whenever the movie focused on their bonding time, it reached the greatest heights.
But it’s also very much a coming-of-age movie as Max is a teenager and his high school life includes his crush Roxanne (their relationship is sweet and memorable) as well as his obsession with the newest pop singer sensation. Those elements gave the movie an overly hip feel, but still I really liked them for the most part as they were a whole lot of fun. Obviously these two tones to the movie are very different and clashing, but they all worked individually very well.
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Let’s talk about the characters who are all uniformly terrific. Max can be an extreme brat, but there are a lot of teenagers like himself in real life so I really respected how they portrayed that for the younger audience to take notes not to be like him. Goofy himself is our usual, endearing Goof. He’s clumsy and fun, but they gave him emotional purpose here by making him a father, and a single one at that, so the end result is a great enrichment of the character.
P.J. is typical and other teenagers are annoying stereotypes. Roxanne herself is a standard, but likable love interest. Pete is here still a villain owing to the twist with his manipulations later on, but he’s less cartoony and more of a believable, manipulative villain which I loved. This whole movie is a more mature version of these famous Disney cartoon characters.
A Goofy Movie is very much a musical as well, though an unevenly distributed one as the first half is where they put the majority of songs and the second half has much fewer numbers. But still, this is one of the most underrated animated musicals out there given that we get so many truly memorable, catchy tunes here.
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On the Open Road is fine for what it is, and rather catchy in its country feel. Nobody Else but You is the weakest number, though the one which has the most emotional oomph. But I adore the three main numbers of the film. After Today is such a wonderful, classic Disney “I Want” opening number which sets up the character of Max superbly through good lyrics and a catchy tune. The imagery is great as well.
Stand Out is incredibly catchy, very well executed and instantly iconic. The film employs the boy band pop tunes of the nineties so well, and though it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I loved them. I 2 I is the standout for sure how immensely entertaining it is. It’s the most memorable, classically nineties pop number here and it was thus deservedly repeated in the end-credits.
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The film is solidly directed, very well edited and solidly paced. The animation is actually pretty good given the usual budget constraints of Disneytoon studios and it looks pleasantly retro. The film can be annoying in some of the action scenes which are ridiculously prolonged and stupid even. The humor could have been better too. But overall, I’ve had a blast watching it.
It’s no surprise that A Goofy Movie is considered a cult classic and one of the most underrated animated flicks of all time. Yes, some of the characters, action and humor can be annoying, but for the most part this is a stupendous film which takes a more grounded, mature take on the character of Goofy through his wonderful relationship with his son Max. The coming-of-age elements also mostly worked and the same goes for the musical numbers which are all surprisingly strong with the highlights being I 2 I, After Today and Stand Out, all three being very catchy and a lot of fun.
