A Goofy Movie review
A father tries to bond with his son to improve their wavering relationship.
So I’m at a conference for work right now, and I didn’t have a chance to bring any “special” movie with me to review. I also didn’t have any movie ideas to pitch and I don’t have anything to complain about. However, I want to give you three reviews a week and so I tried to think about a movie that I could give a good review for...then, I remembered;
“Oh yeah! I watched ‘A Goofy Movie’ the other day.”
Why did I watch this? On an online show that I watch (Does It Hold Up) they were speaking very highly of this movie and I hadn’t seen this film since the 90’s, when I was very young. I was actually surprised at the acclaim that the show was giving this film, so I looked at the Rotten Tomatoes score and saw that it had a 53%. I couldn’t trust anyone…I had to watch this for myself. Here we go folks! This is my spoiler filled review for this movie.
Max has a nightmare about becoming his father. That’s how the movie starts. Everyday I notice myself becoming my dad more and more, which is awesome because my dad is the man. However, Max’s dad is Goofy. Do you remember when you were in high school? You were so embarrassed just because your parents existed. Goofy comes in Max’s room and starts to clean it up, which only infuriates Max further. Sound familiar? Anyway, Max has a goal: He wants to ask out a girl at school named Roxanne. Now, I noticed something very interesting here…Roxanne is not the out-of-reach-cheerleader cliche. Roxanne is a normal girl at school who Max has a crush on. She’s not surrounded by a bunch of guys, she walks around with her best friend, and is a normal person. In order to impress Roxanne, Max takes over an assembly and lip syncs a pop song. This sounds terrible, but the song is quite good, and it’s actually a really fun scene. However, the principal cuts the song short and calls Max to his office. While Max is waiting for his punishment, he runs into Roxanne. He asks her if she will go to a party (where they will watch a new music video for a popular musician named Powerline) with him. She says yes, of course.
We now get to spend time with another character: Goofy. Yes. Goofy is a character. Goofy just loves his son, and his son wants nothing to do with his father. After Goofy hears about his son’s behavior at school, he decides that he needs to spend more time with his son. What could bring them closer together than a road trip? Max hates this and it also means that he will have to miss his date with Roxanne. Instead of telling her the truth, he tells her that he won’t be at the party because he will be in Powerline’s new music video.
So now Max and Goofy embark on their road trip. Goofy lives up to his name, but he’s not an idiot. He wants his son to have a good time! He wants to bond with his son! Max actually says some really hurtful things to his father, and we see that this hurts Goofy! YES! I’m talking about Goofy. Now, Max finds his fathers map and learns that Goofy is taking him fishing. Max realizes that if he alters the map, he can make it to the Powerline concert.
Now, at this point Goofy gives his son a little control on the road trip and they start to have fun. There’s actually a really nice montage where we see Max enjoying time spent with his father. That is until Goofy learns about Max’s plan. Goofy is betrayed and storms off. I’m not gonna go into detail, but I will say that this is all very well executed.
Long story long, Max and Goofy make it to Powerline’s concert, they make it on stage, Max comes clean to Roxanne, she forgives him, and Max and Goofy are closer as father and son. I left out a lot of details, because I want you to watch this with your friends this weekend.
I really enjoyed watching this movie! I think people were expected an animated Dumb and Dumber and instead they got an emotion filled movie about a father trying to reach out to his son. Maybe that’s why they didn’t like it. I really related to a lot of this movie and so I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I’ve also been listening to the soundtrack non stop this week.
Now, I do have a few flaws with this movie.
- Some of the animation isn’t quite up to par with the other Disney movies of the 90’s. Sometimes you just see characters in the background and they don’t move at all.
- A few times, Max and Goofy are in situations where escape seems impossible, and then in the next scene they have escaped. We never see how the escaped. This is never explained, and it’s a little disappointing.
Over all, this is a fun film. Watch it with your whole family!
A Goofy Movie B+
Guys, thanks for reading.
Expect my Hail! Caesar review this weekend!
