A Goofy Movie Duology Retrospective

Seeing how an incredibly popular film celebrated a major anniversary this month, I figured that it would be the perfect time to honor an overlooked classic when it comes to Disney’s animated films. In the ’90s, Disney Animation was largely defined by the Disney Renaissance, an era that saw the release of some of the studio’s most critically-acclaimed films such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. However, this resurgence wasn’t just limited to Disney’s feature film department as the decade also became heavily defined by the iconic bit of programming that was known as The Disney Afternoon. Every weekday from 3PM to 5PM, this syndicated programming block featured some of Disney’s most popular cartoons at the time, including Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. And from 1992 to 1993, one of the shows featured on The Disney Afternoon was Goof Troop, which followed the various misadventures of the one and only Goofy and his son Max. Its initial run on The Disney Afternoon lasted 65 episodes and was then followed by a 13-episode run that premiered on ABC’s Saturday Morning block and a Christmas special. But perhaps its most notable achievement was how it ended up spawning two feature films. The first of these films has since gone on to become one of the most beloved cult classics of the ’90s and it just so happened to celebrate its 25^th anniversary recently, and while the other was only a direct-to-video release instead of a theatrical release, it celebrated its own anniversary (its 20^th) back in February. And so, without further ado, it’s time to start jamming out to those classic Powerline tunes as we look at the duology that is 1995’s A Goofy Movie and 2000’s An Extremely Goofy Movie.

Now before I begin, I just want to note that this little retrospective will not be covering Goof Troop even though it is the show that these films were spawned from. Simply put, the only reason why is because I wanted to get this post out at a time that reasonably correlated to A Goofy Movie’s official 25^th anniversary, which had happened on April 7^th. However, I also want to note that I did watch a few episodes of the show beforehand thanks to Disney+ and I do recall watching reruns of it on TV when I was younger.

A GOOFY MOVIE (1995)

We begin, of course, with A Goofy Movie, which notably served as the directorial debut of longtime animator Kevin Lima, who would then go on to co-direct 1999’s Tarzan with Chris Buck (he also directed the 2007 live-action/animation hybrid Enchanted). As for Goofy Movie, however, it had a bit of a rough run when it was first released. It did okay financially, but at the same time, it wasn’t exactly a runaway hit and it also attracted a generally mixed response from critics. And as far as its reputation within the company was concerned, apparently it was widely considered as a ‘lesser production’ that was directly tied to the studio’s former chairman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had just recently left the company due to conflicts with CEO Michael Eisner. However, once the film hit the home video market, it soon began to attract a dedicated cult following that has endured to this very day. And because of this, Disney has now fully embraced it as a staple of their 90’s catalog, and while I’ll openly admit that I didn’t end up seeing it until the mid-2000s (I’ll expand upon that a little later…), I can clearly see why it’s such a beloved flick. What may seem like a straight-forward road trip comedy on the surface ends up being an incredibly heartfelt story in which Goofy tries to rekindle his relationship with his son Max as he takes him on a cross-country road trip. The only problem, though, is that Max would rather spend time with his crush Roxanne, thus resulting in him attempting to lead them in the direction of Los Angeles so he can end up on stage at a Powerline concert to fulfill a false promise that he made to her. And because of this, there are some highly effective emotional moments in this film (e.g. ‘Hi Dad’ soup), which I’m sure is something that not many people would’ve expected from a character like Goofy who’s known more for the wacky shenanigans that he ends up in.

The film also happens to sport an incredibly catchy soundtrack, and when it comes to its most popular tracks, many fans tend to focus on the two songs from Powerline (who was played by Tevin Campbell), ‘I 2 I’ and ‘Stand Out’. And while those two songs are genuinely great, the same can also be said for the other three songs in the film. ‘After Today’ is a fun opening number as Max and his classmates head to school eager for the start of summer vacation and ‘Nobody Else But You’ is a heartwarming little duet between Goofy and Max as the two float down a river after their big fight. But if you want to talk about my personal favorite song from the soundtrack, that would be ‘On the Open Road’, which Goofy and a bunch of other drivers start singing during the initial stretch of the road trip. This is mainly because the song was featured on one of those classic Disney Sing-Along VHS tapes that I watched all the time growing up (1998’s Honor to Us All, if you want to be specific), which means that this song was how I was first introduced to A Goofy Movie. And so, while it admittedly took me a while to finally jump on this film’s hype train, it goes without saying that I immediately understood why it has continued to maintain its prolific reputation. Even as a film that’s arguably one of the most definitive examples of a ‘90’s film’, it fully succeeds at being both a delightful comedy headlined by our favorite comedic Disney icon and a genuinely sweet tale of the bond between father and son. And really, it’s quite impressive how a film that was largely developed by Disney’s television division ended up being just as well-made as many of the films that Walt Disney Animation was making at the time that fully defined the Disney Renaissance.

Rating: 5/5!

AN EXTREMELY GOOFY MOVIE (2000)

So… remember how I mentioned earlier that it took me a while before I ended up seeing A Goofy Movie for the first time? Well, because of that, I’m technically more familiar with its direct-to-video sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie, since I ended up seeing it first. I still remember renting it from Blockbuster back in the day (either that or I just owned it on VHS… either option would be plausible) and I also remember it airing on Disney Channel a few times. Anyway, An Extremely Goofy Movie sees most of the main characters returning from the first film… except for Roxanne, for some reason (although she would later appear in an episode of House of Mouse and was seen in a photo alongside Max in a recent episode of the Ducktales reboot series). The film sees Max and his friends heading off to college, which ends up leaving Goofy with a severe case of empty nest syndrome. And when it ends up getting him fired from his job, he learns that he’ll have to go back to college to get his degree so that he can find another job, which results in him enrolling at Max’s college to Max’s outright horror. With that in mind, the first thing to note about this film is how it does kind of go back on everything that Max and Goofy went through in the previous film. Instead of maintaining their shared character growth in which they learned to accept each other for who they are, this film reverts back to the dilemma of Max being embarrassed by his dad, and because of this, they’re arguably at odds a lot more here than they were in the previous film. However, at the very least, there are still a decent number of instances where Max and Goofy get to have those emotionally poignant father-son moments, and the film also sports some equally terrific emotional beats through its handling of how Goofy grapples with Max leaving for college. Plus, given how Goofy has frequently been portrayed as a single father with no given explanation of what happened to his wife, it’s quite nice that this film ends up giving him a romantic interest, which he finds in Sylvia, the college’s librarian.

As for the rest of the film, it’s basically what you’d expect from a direct-to-video release. It certainly isn’t as well-polished as its theatrically released predecessor and like A Goofy Movie, it’s also very much a product of the times. Whereas the first film was a pure representation of 90’s culture, this one focuses heavily on the extreme sports craze of the late ’90s and early 2000s. Much of the film’s plot revolves around Max and his friends competing against a snooty fraternity at the College X-Games hosted by ESPN (which, in case some of you don’t recall, is owned by Disney). Ultimately, though, I will say that An Extremely Goofy Movie is still a decent watch. No, I’m not saying that it’s better than A Goofy Movie, but aside from the rehashing of the first film’s father-son conflict and the questionable exclusion of Roxanne (who, sure, didn’t have much to do in the first film, to begin with, but at the very least, she did have some genuinely nice chemistry with Max), there are still some good things about it. Namely, at the end of the day, we’re still following the same likable group of characters from the first film, and because of this, it maintains a lot of the first film’s strong emotional poignancy, thus continuing to prove that even comedic characters like Goofy can pull at the heartstrings when given the right material. In conclusion, while I fully recognize that this may just be my nostalgic memories doing the talking here since I’ve well-aware of the notorious reputations of the direct-to-video Disney sequels of the 2000s, I would argue that this was one of the best of those films. And yes, I know that for many folks, that won’t be saying much given the other films in that category, but in this instance, this does manage to be a decent follow-up to arguably the biggest cult classic of my generation.

Rating: 3.5/5

And that concludes this little retrospective on the duology that is A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie. While I’ll admit that I don’t have as much of a connection to the first film compared to other folks of my generation given how long it took for me to watch it for the first time, it’s easy to see why it’s one of the most beloved films of the ’90s… simply put, it truly is that great. And so, with that in mind, be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own memories of these films. Ah-hyuck!