[Goofy] Well, here we are,
out on the open road,
retracing the steps of my boyhood.
And here's Maxie! [chuckles]
- Not now, Dad.
- [reels rolling]
Why are you doing this to me, Dad?
See, my dad's
on the stupid father-son kickin'.
- Whoa!
- [horn blaring]
[chanting, applauding]
[grunts] This is the stupidest vacation!
You drive me from home,
you jam me in this dumb car,
then drive a million miles away!
Hey, Max.
- [both scream]
- [growls]
You know, maybe Max isn't all the things
that you think a son should be,
but he loves me.
- [Christopher] So are you rolling?
- [Eric] Uh, no.
[Christopher] Okay, I'm gonna
play you guys something, okay?
[Goofy] Hey! Where did everybody go?
[upbeat song playing
Parachute Express "Dr. Looney's Remedy"]
I kinda get the feeling
we're not in Kansas anymore
[Christopher] You guys remember this?
Doctor, doctor please come here quick
[Christopher]
This played on The Goofy Movie VHS tape
before the movie started.
- It's Dr. Looney's Remedy. [chuckles]
- I can't say I recall that. [chuckles]
[Eric] All right, Chris,
we're gonna start the movie
with you telling us
how much The Goofy Movie means to you.
[soft instrumental music playing]
- [Eric] All right, I'm slating.
- Okay.
[crew member] Chris, can you give me
some levels real quick?
Yeah. Um
Test one, two. These are levels.
I just got so nervous.
I don't like being on camera.
[Eric] We're doing it for the fans,
and we're fans.
I want to tell you a story.
It's not a story about mythic quests,
legendary heroes,
or galaxies far, far away.
It's a story about his son and his father.
[music intensifies]
[birds chirping]
[Christopher]
So we're here at my uncle Kevin's house,
and he also happens to be the director
of a movie that means a lot to us.
- [Christopher]
- I guess.
I have a little treat for you. Bring you
into my basement, where I keep
all of my movie treasures.
Little mementos that have made their way
to my house over the years.
This is where I keep all
of my movie memorabilia.
And I have this special box here
I want to show you.
It's got something very cool inside.
Let's take a look.
So, these are one-of-a-kind maquettes
that were made for A Goofy Movie.
These were made in, like, 1993
by Kenny Tompkins for us.
We didn't have much money.
So, this is what we got. One-of-a-kinds.
Here's another special girl here.
She's a little bit more beat up, but
still in wonderful condition for being,
what is it, 20, 25 years old?
Oh, my. How do you define who you are?
Kevin Lima is a forever creative person
who has been trying his whole life
to find ways to play.
It's what I've been doing
since I was a little kid,
what I continue to do today.
And what I think I did a pretty good job
doing with the Goofy Movie
is giving it a sense of that spirit,
that playful spirit.
I wanted to be a filmmaker
from the first time
I sat in a movie theater
and saw an animated movie.
I saw The Jungle Book with my mom.
At the beginning, there are
all these names that pop up.
And my mom said,
those are the people who made this movie.
And I said, "I'm going
to make this movie when I grow up."
And that was the moment
that it all sort of coalesced to me
and made me think "it's possible."
[Christopher]
I did what most people who wanted
to go into Disney at that time did,
is I went to CalArts.
CalArts was the only school
in America at the time
where you could actually get
a degree in animation.
It wasn't a direct path to Disney,
and so we all went off
and did different things,
and I, after a couple of years off
in the world, I ended up at Disney.
[Christopher] The year was 1984,
and Disney was not making
financial successes
like The Jungle Book anymore.
Jeffrey Katzenberg was brought in
to run the animation studio
and try to turn things around.
His first animated project
was The Black Cauldron,
which was already well into production.
Jeffrey Katzenberg was there
from the very, very beginning.
He was in charge of everything.
Live action, animation.
He knew exactly what he wanted
from a movie,
and I think he knew
how to speak directly to the director
and to the producers
and to the writers about what that was.
He had no animation background,
and when he came on set
with the editor on Black Cauldron,
he asked to see, like B-roll on something.
[chuckles]
It's like we don't do B-roll on animation.
You gotta hand draw all that stuff,
so you edit it
before you actually make it.
But once he understood that,
he got up to speed really quickly,
and he liked it.
When you came to Disney
about ten years ago,
you didn't believe in animation.
In fact, the animators saw you coming
and said, we're dead.
[chuckles] Yes, there is no question,
when I first arrived here,
I saw animation as something that I,
quote, had to do.
It was a responsibility. [chuckles]
There is no question that,
you know, in the course
of doing our "responsibility,"
I fell in love with animation.
Somebody like that in that position,
they're gonna have real opinions,
and they're gonna make them known.
[Christopher] The Black Cauldron would not
be the success the studio hoped for,
so Katzenberg decided
to shake things up
and reinvent the animation department.
With a fresh perspective
and new up-and-coming talent,
Katzenberg pushed forward
with new projects,
Oliver and Company
and The Little Mermaid.
And so I was hired as an animator
on Oliver & Company,
but the first thing
I really did while I was there
is I became a character designer
on The Little Mermaid.
And I designed all the characters
in "Under the Sea."
There's all the extra characters
in "Kiss the Girl."
And I did a whole bunch
of design work on Ursula.
[Christopher] After years of development,
The Little Mermaid
was released in the theaters in 1989,
to critical acclaim,
earning praise for the animation,
music, and characters.
It also marked the start
of the Disney Renaissance,
followed by hits
like Beauty and the Beast in 1991,
and Aladdin in 1992.
[buzzes]
[Christopher] After years of working
in the animation department,
Kevin tried to do something different.
I always felt like I'm having
a real hard time
sitting behind my desk eight hours a day.
I think what I really want
to do is directing, so I asked.
I went in and said,
I want to be a director.
And they said, "Sorry,
it ain't going to happen."
"There's not enough room."
"We've got directors for the next
six years. We have it all planned out."
[Christopher]
After recent studio successes,
Disney started developing a movie
based on one of their classic characters.
The pitch I got from Disney TV animation
was, we have a giant amount
of international talent
that we can bring to bear
to maybe make a different kind
of Disney animated movie
that was more experimental.
This first script I saw
was the Goofy Movie.
I wasn't really sure
exactly what I was getting into.
[Steve] Initially, I was brought on
to do storyboards,
and they had this project.
It was a Goof Troop movie.
Because Goof Troop was a TV series.
Like father, like son
You're always number one
[Steve] They were going through a reboot,
and they had brought Jerry Reese on.
Jerry had recommended me,
and they had me come on
and do some exploratory boards.
Put Goofy in some situations and locations
where he can do a setup,
and then disaster happens.
They took the Goof Troop thing,
they stripped it all away,
all these ancillary characters,
and just made it Goofy and his son.
And we had this big pitch
to Jeff Katzenberg.
In this meeting, it was either going
to get greenlit
or it was going to get k*lled.
I go in with the guys, and they've got
the beat boards hung up.
It was a sequence that was very funny,
got big laughs.
Some assistant comes in and lines up
all these Diet Cokes for Jeffrey,
and whether he was going
to drink them or throw them, I don't know.
And just how nervous
and frightened everybody was,
"Jeffrey's coming, Jeffrey's coming."
[Steve] He comes in in a big rush,
and he's got all these people around him
writing down everything he says.
He sits down, and he's looking,
and I get four panels in,
and he goes, "Hang on a second.
Is this how
this whole thing is going to be?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is it all going to be gags?"
And I said, "Well,
Gary Kreisel was the president of it."
And he jumps in there, and he goes, "Yeah,
well, this was some goofy syndrome."
And he cuts him off and says,
"Uh, uh! I don't want to see this.
Anybody can do this.
I don't need to see this."
He goes, "I want to see the heart.
I want to see the heart."
[chuckles] So I'm standing there.
Now, I didn't realize it,
because I'm showing the board,
but he had scanned that entire board
in the time it took me
to do those four panels.
So, he saw where that was going,
and he was like, no.
So, I was dismissed.
I almost k*lled the Goofy Movie.
[chuckles] Right then and there.
[Christopher]
Thankfully, the film would push on.
Katzenberg saw there was more to Goofy
than audiences were used to.
The studio decided to move forward
with the last director
they had on their list.
[Kevin] The next thing I know,
Disney asked me if I wanted to do it.
I was a first-time director.
I had a first-time head of story,
had a first-time lead editor.
We were all pretty new
at what we were doing.
We all wanted to prove ourselves.
We all had this sense
of like a ragtag team
attempting to make something happen
and to show the world that we were worthy.
We were just as capable as anyone.
[Christopher] This is the shot that Kevin
and so many others had been waiting for.
Kevin's dreams as a kid of making
a Disney film were finally coming true.
The success or failure would be
on him and the rest of the ragtag team.
Each of us wanted it so desperately
that we had to prove it.
We had to prove to the world
that we were worth something.
This is the real find. VHS tapes.
Hi8 tapes...
of behind the scenes.
I tell ya, most of this, maybe all of it,
I haven't looked at in 30 years.
So, you're gonna discover things
that are gonna even blow my mind.
[Eric]
- [Kevin] You're gonna be the first.
- They're about to.
[both chuckle]
[instrumental music continues]
[Dan] This studio has been trying
to do a contemporary version
of a classic character
in different formats, in TV, in shorts,
and this is probably
their first real theatrical,
you know, full-length
theatrical attempt at it.
I felt pretty prepared
to take on a feature film.
I hadn't done it,
but I had certainly done
all of the work that I needed to do
in order to understand
what the steps were going to be.
- Are you filming or what?
- [Kevin] Yes.
Well, thanks for nothing.
It's a lousy angle.
[Kevin] Hello, this is 2020.
Get that camera out of here.
This is my job, to make sure
we get a document of what's going on.
This is Kevin Lima,
the director of the Goofy Movie.
[man] The Goof Troop program,
are there the same people
involved creatively
with both this film and that program?
No, actually,
it's a much different group of people.
I don't want you to hate us,
because this is really a
I shouldn't say this. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, Howard.
This is just a big issue around here.
[Howard] Yeah, well, let's forget it
then. I just didn't know it was
I mean, I can say
that it's the same characters.
- I can talk about PJ are in this.
- [Howard] Let's not bother.
[Kevin] But it's been a big issue
around here.
- Just us being here.
- [Howard] Yeah.
[Kevin] Being feature people
coming into the studio has been
[Howard] I just thought it might be
something that might tie in
- because of the
- [Kevin] I almost don't, too. [chuckles]
[Howard] Let's, uh, if you have
any other questions
Jeffrey was pushing the studio
to make cheaper films.
Was there a way to make sort of,
you know, you had the A unit
over at Feature Animation,
was there a B unit?
They had us all come in
and watch DuckTales.
You know, the notes were harsh.
[narrator] It's a movie so big,
so special, so exciting
- Sha-booey!
- no TV can hold it.
DuckTales The Movie.
I think it had come out not done well
and not critically well received.
And I think he was hoping
that he could sort of
take the next step
and goose up the quality
so that it sort of kissed
what feature animation was doing.
I think there was an inherent, you know,
protection of the brand.
We wanted it to live up to the artistry
of a Disney feature animated film.
We thought, there's no way
that we can compete
with those big Disney movies.
So how are we going to separate ourselves?
How are we going to get noticed?
It was important to me
to make a movie that spoke to its time.
I thought we had the opportunity
with this movie to make
like a John Hughes movie in animation.
That was really what I felt.
I felt like, let's make a movie
that is about contemporary teenagers,
as opposed to what feature animation
was doing over there,
which was all fairy tales and,
you know, talking animal movies,
even though these are, kind of,
talking animal movies.
And we said, is there value
in the smaller domestic story?
Can that resonate in a way
that's just as powerful as The Lion King?
It was so low expectations, I think,
that you got to try things,
and you got to play around,
and you weren't worried
as much as, like, I think at features,
you're worried about this legacy
you have to hold on to.
It didn't have that pressure.
Everybody was used to Goofy
from the shorts, pretty one-dimensional.
- [announcer] Ready? Set. Go!
- [g*nsh*t]
The big challenge for me
with Goofy was how do I relate
to him on a human level?
Is there more to the character
than a series of sight gags?
[commentator]
An emotional half Max got off track,
latte smeared for the nine-yard loss.
[man] How is this film different
than other classic Disney animation
that has come out in the last few years
like Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast
and Aladdin and so forth?
You're gonna see
the emotional side of Goofy.
You're gonna see how he interacts
with other characters,
his feelings,
as opposed to just the antics.
Can we mine something that feels real?
I was really looking
for ways to make him relatable.
How can I relate to him emotionally?
[Christopher] The team decided
to focus on fatherhood,
something that had been
present with the character
but never pushed
beyond Goofy's comedic beginnings.
It was something that both Katzenberg
and Kevin were connected to.
Basically, it's the story of Max,
Goofy's son.
He's growing up.
He doesn't want to be like his dad.
He's scared to death that he's going
to grow up and be a goof.
It's not bad enough that, you know,
you're a 14-year-old
and your dad is, you know,
that you got your dad hanging around.
It's even worse.
This time your dad is Goofy.
I've heard Jeffrey Katzenberg
was talking about going on a vacation
with his daughter,
and they weren't quite getting along.
And he thought that might be
an interesting subject matter
for the continuation of this story
of Goofy and Max.
He gets scared to death at his kids
turning into a juvenile delinquent
and decides that the only way
to solve it is to bring him
on a vacation, cross-country vacation.
This story is about the relationship
of a father and his son.
It's about the evolution
of this relationship from the beginning
of a father who's worried
about his son and where he's going,
and the fact that they don't get along,
they don't communicate.
I was really interested in telling
the story of a father and a son
and how an experience that they
go through brings them closer together.
I, um [clicks tongue]
My dad went away when I was 11,
and I didn't meet him again for 25 years.
Absolutely no communication.
So it was something that I really felt
like I could explore in an emotional way.
What is it like to have a father?
What is my dream
of what a father and a son are?
That you could actually go through
great turmoil and still end up together.
And I think I always had that sort of,
that fantasy that that could come true.
And I think I worked that out
to a certain extent in this movie.
[Gary] This is a unique role for Goofy.
I think it gives him
a much greater depth of character.
So he isn't just foolish
and isn't just a slapstick kind of humor.
He also has the same feelings we all have.
You know, I'm sure my son
thinks of me as Goofy.
[indistinct chatter]
The hills are alive
with the sound of music
[Christopher]
The original script when I came on
was essentially the same.
Father and son not connecting,
they go on a road trip,
and in the process they connect.
But the details of that
drastically changed as we evolved it.
I ended up sitting by myself
in the corner of an empty suite
at the Disney building
for almost a year, kind of typing away.
[Bruce] It's always great when you go
to a studio for the first time
to feel the vibe, just seeing the boards
on the wall and stuff, right?
When he broke the story down to me,
this felt human.
This felt like a real father-son story.
We would do a lot of rewriting ourselves,
just with the storyboard artists.
[Brian] Whoa, I can't believe it.
[whispers]
[Kevin] I like this angle.
This is a good angle.
This gives you that heroic
the heroic storyboard artist.
[woman] The upshot makes him
look bigger, bigger than life.
- Yo.
- [woman] You're the ham of the century.
We had a script, but we definitely needed
to take it in a new direction.
You know there has
to be emotional beats, right?
Because it's a feature film.
But hard to sort of think
about how you're going to do that.
[Brian] It was a balancing act
of how far could you push Goofy
without breaking him, kind of,
and without losing the essence
of who he was.
The first pass,
we probably did more cartoon,
fun, humor stuff
with a little bit of heart.
[Kevin] We probably worked on the movie
for about a year and a half
before we actually went into animation.
It was a pretty quick turnaround
for an animated movie.
It usually took four years
to make these things.
I believe we made ours
in about two and a half years.
And in some ways, it was freeing,
because you got to make decisions
that were implemented immediately.
All right, guys, let's do this.
Places! Chris?
[Christopher]
You know, the casting process is
as it would be with any movie, really.
Bill was set. Bill Farmer as Goofy.
To adventure!
Well, at least in the movie,
he has more layers to him.
He's a good father.
He cares very deeply and loves his son,
wants the best for his son.
And so we see more
of Goofy's emotional side.
[blows, coughs]
[Goofy] It's been handed down from Goof
to Goof to Goof, and now it's yours.
[Max] A stick?
Because there's a three-year difference
in age and Max,
I wanted to go for an older voice.
They wanted a voice much like mine,
not like, you know,
a cartoony-type voice
or not like a goofity-type voice.
Just, it's just basically my voice
up a little bit an octave and,
you know, a little crack here
and there and lots more energy.
[grunts]
It's okay, folks.
I was just acting. [chuckles]
And then across the line,
it was a combination
of actors who were
in Goof Troop and new characters.
- We went after people like Wallace Shawn.
- How about science slumber parties?
- Pauly Shore.
- [slurps, clicks tongue] Mm, slurpage.
Because they already had a sense
of caricature
to the way they naturally spoke.
The thing I think about
when I'm performing Pete is I don't think.
I just let it pour out.
You know, you just look
for the humor in the scene.
Because it can't just be just me.
Whoo-hoo! Strike-ola! Yes!
Thank you, thank you! [laughs]
And the crowd goes wild! [chuckles]
High five, son! Psych! [laughs]
PJ is a really hip kid
in a very unhip bod.
And it's just sort
of a genetic predisposition.
See? See? [chuckles]
I told you our plan would work.
These characters are really appealing
because they're kind of a comical view
of what people are really like.
It's really cool
because kids can relate to it, I think.
I think maybe the hardest piece
of the whole thing
was being in the booth with actors.
I actually had to fight because the way
they make television animation
is that there is a voice director.
And that director goes off and records
all the voices for the animated series.
So the director of the episode
never gets to talk to the actors.
And I came from feature animation
and said, like,
"I don't want to do it that way."
So I had to really push my way in.
And, you know,
make sure that I got my say.
Two on mic now, Joe.
- How you been?
- [Kevin] All right, you?
- Pretty good.
- [Kevin] Yeah? What have you been up to?
- Lots of Goofy. Lots of Goofy.
- [Kevin] Lots of Goofy.
Tried to record Goofy and Max together
as much as possible,
since they were
in every single solitary scene.
I trust you wholeheartedly, Maxie.
You get us
to like destiny any way you want.
Wherever you point, I follow.
I knew that we were adding layers
to the character,
more intimate layers
than he'd ever revealed about himself.
I had no idea how it would work
or how people would accept that.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
When I got the role, I was over the moon,
because number one,
I was like a big Disney fan.
And also being a fan, it's like,
"Man, you can't get any closer
to being part of Disney history
than being like the spawn of Goofy."
Oh, my name's Max.
I think Bill and I recorded on and off
for over the course of two years.
I knew it was special.
I knew it was different.
[kisses]
- [chuckles]
- [Kevin] He enjoyed that way too much.
But as we recorded,
and re-recorded and re-recorded,
the movie kind of took shape.
[Kevin] Um, it was great.
Give me a little less of the [moans]
- Okay?
- [chuckles]
[Kevin] If you know what I mean,
I think you do. All right, here we go.
You get the right amount of humor,
but the right feel.
[Kevin] Here's what I want you to do.
On both these lines,
both these lines for Max, okay?
I want to soften them both up.
I want them to seem real sweet
on both of them, okay?
I was thinking maybe I could wave to you
at the end of the last song.
Max, this is so incredible.
I wouldn't miss our date for anything
that wasn't incredible, Roxanne.
[Jason] We were recording the scene
where Max and Roxanne have to smooch,
and Jamie Thomas,
and I remember him saying,
I'll never forget this, he's like,
"All right, we're all adults here.
Do you mind, Kellie, coming over
to Jason's mic and maybe try a couple
where you're just kissing
for real and reacting that way?"
And I'm like, yes,
and I remember feeling
very excited and terrified,
and I think that really,
it definitely helped the scene
because it was exactly what it was.
It's probably one of the takes they used,
[Jason]
[Kellie]
- [smooches, chuckles]
- [Jason smooches, chuckles]
[all chuckle]
[chuckles]
[Jamie] What happened?
Well, I, like, leaned in to kiss him,
but then I realized that he's supposed
to kiss me, so I stopped.
[Jamie] And as he pulled back
at the last second,
Jason, I'm there with you, man.
I know what that's like.
Way to put it all on me.
Max, you know, being a teen,
you know, raging hormones, you know,
wanting to fit in in school
and wanting to have his own life.
Goofy thinks, like, well, you know,
I want to connect with my son.
I know the best thing to do.
I'll do something that my dad did to me.
I'll take him on a road trip,
and I'll take my boy fishing. [chuckles]
Hey, got a present for you.
[Max] No, Dad, stop.
I can't go with you. I got things to do.
- You look just like I did at your age.
- Please don't say that, Dad.
- [in Goofy voice] Oh, garsh.
- Stuff like this, it embarrasses him.
But through the course of the movie,
he realizes he does love his dad.
You know, he's actually pretty cool.
There's a story that goes
around about Bill
having to do the whole movie
in his own voice.
We had recorded the entire movie
many, many sessions with Bill as Goofy.
And we showed the movie
to Jeffrey Katzenberg.
[Brian] At the end of the screening,
and he just was like,
the voice isn't working for him.
And we're like, "What do you mean?
It's Goofy."
And like, "Yeah, does it have to be?"
[chuckles] I think he really found
put-on voices insincere.
He wanted the character to have a range.
And in the beginning, it was just
kind of Goofy from the shorts.
And he had this great idea.
What if Steve Martin were Goofy?
Wouldn't that be fabulous?
Imagine how you could sell that.
That would be great.
I think I asked Jeffrey, I said,
"So that means you want Steve Martin
to do the Goofy voice?"
"No, no, no, no, no."
"He's going to use his own voice
so that we know who he is."
And I said to Jeffrey,
before you even think about this,
let me go back into it with Bill,
and we'll record
a bunch of the scenes
with Bill doing it in his own voice.
Because I knew,
how can you make A Goofy Movie,
or how can you play Goofy
with just a regular person's voice?
That would be
like having Mickey Mouse, right,
speak with Cary Grant's voice.
It's just incredibly ridiculous.
But we had to, because he's the boss,
Jeffrey's the boss,
we had to go and try something.
[Brian] They came to me and said,
well, they think
that your voice sounds too cartoony.
Jeffrey Katzenberg wants you
to do the voice in your voice.
And I say, "You don't want me
to go... [Goofy chuckle]
or anything like that?"
"Just talk like I'm talking now?"
"Yeah."
So I brought Bill and Jason in the room,
and I said,
"Listen, guys, we have to try this."
And Bill has a complete meltdown.
[Bill] I went home
and I didn't get much sleep those days
because I was worried,
"Don't they want to hear Goofy
when they hear A Goofy Movie?"
We have to prove
to Jeffrey that it's a bad idea.
So we did several days
of recording in my voice,
more as an experiment, I suppose.
And we did it.
We showed it to him.
I said, "I'm not behind this, Jeffrey."
And we didn't do it.
Jeffrey said, "I agree with you.
We shouldn't do it."
[exhales]
This is how the whim of a studio executive
can change a movie in a moment
if you don't fight back
against a bad idea. Bad, bad idea.
It helped him
and it helped us see the character
in a way
that we hadn't been looking at him.
And when we went back and we started
doing the Goofy voice again,
we could push the range. Like,
remember when you did the scene like that.
Bring some of that.
Bring some of the warmth to it.
Let him get sad.
Let us hear a crack in his voice.
He brought a lot more subtlety to it,
so it got us a much better performance.
[Dan] Animation is a long process.
- [Kevin chuckles]
- [Dan] Tries one's patience.
You might want to do a close-up
of the structure of Bigfoot's head.
You can see the cranium up here
and the beak or proboscis here.
And each tooth is numbered.
[Brian] There's a big space
between his middle teeth, Dan.
Yeah. That's a sign that's
- [Brian] Give us a smile.
- That's the sign of intelligence.
And obviously, we wanted
to sort of indicate
to everyone that Bigfoot does think.
So we used the character model
with a tooth like this.
Me and David Letterman
have the same thing.
But it's also historically been thought of
as a sign of intelligence,
advanced intelligence.
It's Bigfoot!
Could you back up a bit, Mr. Foot?
You're out of focus.
[yells, growls]
This sure is A Goofy Movie.
- [man] How you doing?
- How are you?
I've been just chewing on my finger.
Excuse the moistness. [laughs]
[both scream]
[Max] Great. What do we do now?
[Goofy] Well, we just have
to wait till he goes away.
Hi, Paul.
And who else may be there watching this.
I'm going to start with sequence 16.1.
There's a lot of this
that we can't put into animation yet
because Jeffrey wanted
to change a bunch of them.
The more intimate scenes
were a little out of character,
because I hadn't done that before.
It was difficult.
It was difficult to get there.
So when we come back in,
a little cigarette lighter
has been pressed in and it pops out.
Well, nice to know
this thing's good for something.
[Kevin] And he goes to place it
underneath the can
to heat the can
on the little cigarette lighter.
I know it's an impossible thing to do,
but maybe in the cartoon,
we can sort of get away with it.
So we thought we'd play out the silence
of the moment of the two of them waiting.
And they both turn away.
Like they catch each other
looking at each other.
- [chuckles]
- What's so funny?
- Hi, dad soup.
- Huh?
Don't tell me you don't remember
"Hi, dad soup."
[Kevin] And this is a real
endearing thing for Goofy.
It's a real nice memory.
You used to spell things out using letters
like, uh, hi, Dad or Maxie or
- Ambidextrous?
- Yeah, that's, uh
- No, little words like, uh
- Hasta la vista?
- Like bye-bye.
- Or I pledge allegiance.
[Kevin] And Goofy doesn't catch himself.
Or I love you.
[Kevin] And he realizes
that maybe he's saying
the wrong thing at the wrong moment.
He and his kid
aren't getting along very well right now.
At the moment,
they're sort of grappling
with this whole sort of, I love you thing.
- Is it, uh, is it soup yet?
- Oh, almost forgot.
Whoa, where'd you learn to do that?
Your granddad taught me that
when we went to Yosemite.
- You two did a lot together, huh?
- Yup.
[Kevin] So it's something
that he and his dad shared.
Throughout the movie,
overall, we're trying
to play up all these ideas
that Goofy's sharing things that he,
uh, learned from his dad.
- Dad, listen, I have a
- I also soup
Oh. How's the soup?
Not bad. I'm not [clears throat]
[Kevin] Goofy sort of remembering.
- What?
- Nothing.
And I think he feels a little bit
of the pain of what's going on
between he and Maxie right now.
I think one of the biggest things
in their relationship
is communication, that they
really don't have the ability
to talk to each other. That
Perhaps, perhaps they've both
They've both grown a little distant.
That they're not, that they haven't
talked a lot recently.
[groans, growls]
[sighs]
Well, we might as well get some shut eye.
I don't think
we're going anywhere tonight.
[Kevin] Looks down in the cup, kind of,
you know, what's left in the bottom of it.
The cup comes in.
Goofy takes it. He looks into it.
And it says, "Hi, Dad"
A big step for Max.
[Goofy] Hi, Maxie.
[Kevin] And then we're out.
We see Bigfoot sleeping on the car.
You know, he loves his son
more than anything in the world.
There needs to be a lot of sensitivity
in the end of this sequence.
This is really the first point that Maxie
and Goof have come together.
Don't be afraid to be subtle.
It isn't a big, huge, Goofy moment,
of sort, of flamboyant overacting.
So this is really a sincere, subtle
Facial expressions say much more
than what they're even saying
to each other.
There's a whole sort of hidden text
of what's going on underneath the scene.
We've got to try
to get that in the facial expressions.
People don't always
say what they're thinking.
And I think a lot of that's in this scene.
[Bill] They're having their first
father-son kind of coming together,
learning about each other.
He's feeling more for Goofy,
and Goofy's feeling for Max,
even though there's a Bigfoot outside
with underwear on his head.
Okay, bye.
You know we're gonna do this shot again.
[upbeat music playing]
[Christopher] With production underway
and with a much smaller budget
than the big Disney films of the time,
A Goofy Movie would not be completed
at its headquarters in California.
They'd have to find the magic elsewhere.
[Kevin] I'm curious,
how does animation compare here?
[Larry] They have a high level
of craft over there.
French cartoonists
are extremely proficient.
They have tremendous panache
and style to their drawing.
[Kevin] As you can see,
it's a regular working day here in Paris,
and there's
some bustling activity all about.
So the background actually, wraps the car,
or is this the direction then?
[Kevin] Hi, guys. How are you doing?
- [animator 1] Hey.
- [animator 2] Hey, what's up?
[Kevin] How much?
Where do you guys get those glasses?
What do you mean?
[Larry] You can see that we've
been working these artists so hard
that their eyes are giving out,
and they're wearing
Coke bottle pipe glasses.
They're cool.
They look good in them, too.
This is the Ernie Kovacs tour
of Walt Disney Animation France.
All of the studios that took on work
were all existing studios.
So we had the Paris studio,
the Australian studio.
We used the studio in Toronto.
We were doing freelance in Burbank
with all the cleanup people
who were working
at Disney Feature Animation.
They were doing
freelance moonlighting for us.
We're always looking for where is there
a great talent pool,
and we felt France had it.
Because we had so many animators
from so many different countries,
I mean, I was
I speak a little tiny bit of French,
but I don't really
I couldn't really communicate
the intricacies of what I wanted.
We had interpreters.
We have Goofy and all the little kids
running out together,
and he's really,
really excited, all happy
and giddy like a little boy
on the first day of Christmas.
[in French]
[chuckles]
But I also would do this thing
where I would sit down
with the storyboards,
and I would record myself
acting out each of the characters
in every single scene,
hoping that being able to see
what I was doing would be meaningful.
The light's blinking, so we're set to go.
So I'm making tapes.
We're putting them in the mail.
We're shipping them off.
They're looking at the tapes.
They're asking questions
over the telephone.
Max and Goofy set out on the open road.
Goofy is really happy
about what lies ahead for them.
It's a solution to all their problems.
Max doesn't want to be there at all.
He wants to be home with Roxanne.
Hi, everyone.
Let's go through this again.
Storybook, 6.1. See that? 6.1.
We're talking
about where Goofy should put the hat.
Hey, there was just one thing
that I wanted to bring up.
I was thinking about it this weekend.
It's mostly about sequence 22,
the end in the hot tub.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
Don't go away.
It's late, but I'm determined
to finish this tonight.
That was my wife.
She's saying, where are you?
It's 8:30 on a Friday night. Come home.
Okay, you can go now.
I promise I'll try not to come back and,
like, snort you again, okay?
Right? I promise.
Au revoir. Au revoir. Au revoir.
So, it's a whole different way
of making it work,
but I find that animators understand
visual communication, right?
That's what they do.
They would just,
like, grab a hold of these,
you know, these facial expressions
or attitudes that I was going through.
Slam-cut close-up, kind of the
The fool, close up in the camera,
making all of these faces, go, go,
you know, just come right up and go
[imitates Goofy] Ga, ga, goo, goo.
[coos]
[Christopher]
So it was always the intention
to be a musical. I love musicals.
It seems like everything I make
turns into a musical somehow,
even when it's not a musical.
Take one.
[upbeat music playing]
[Kevin] Okay.
That should about do it.
That was our lovely Brian.
I think right from the get-go,
we started talking about, like,
how would we incorporate songs into it,
and what would be the right kind of songs?
How would Goofy sing a song
that you would want to listen to?
[Kevin] When I first came on,
"Stand Out" wasn't in the movie.
They had already, I think,
written "Made in the Shade,"
an opening number for the movie,
and that song always told
from Goofy's point of view.
How could we be afraid?
We got it made in the shade
And we decided that we needed a deeper
emotional thrust in the film.
So we flipped the whole thing and decided
to tell it from Max's point of view.
I mean, there was
a whole other Roxanne song.
We played it for Jeffrey,
and I thought it was a really good song.
[upbeat pop music playing,
"Roxanne"]
Just hold your hand in mine
There's nothing I won't do, Roxanne
If you had told me in the middle of making
that that that was not going to be
in the movie,
I would have said, you're crazy.
The storyboard process allows you that.
It allows you
to go back in and iterate and iterate
and iterate again and again.
I remember there was a song
when Max was sent
to the principal's office
about him being a juvenile delinquent.
Oh, little Maxie.
Oh, little Maxie's head, it's a mess
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam
- [electric buzzing]
- [groans]
[Kevin]
[chuckles] Sorry.
So we tried a lot of things
that didn't necessarily work.
- Oh, Dad, you ruined it.
- Sorry about that.
Who was he, anyway?
It's only Powerline, Dad,
the biggest rock star on the planet.
There's a character named Powerline
in the movie who's a rock star
in this cartoon dog world that Max,
the son of Goofy, it's his hero.
I remember when the guys
were showing me
just some of the initial sketches
on Powerline.
He breathed hipness and coolness.
Remember, we were
in the era of the '90s,
and you had all these
great individual R&B artists.
You had the Bobby Browns, Michael Jackson.
Giving these characters that hip edge,
that's when I knew,
okay, this is cool.
If I'm remembering correctly,
Tevin happened because we were
looking for a music producer first.
And we found David Z.
There was a kid named Tevin Campbell
that Prince was working with.
David Z said,
I think this kid would be great.
Goofy's one
of my favorite Disney characters.
I mean, when I watched him
as a little kid, he would make me laugh.
[David]
And then I came out here to Sunset Sound.
We had the Waters as background singers.
[Waters Family]
Listen to each other's hearts
We had Rosie Gaines,
who was one of Prince's singers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
We approached those songs
as regular R&B pop hits.
We were trying to make amazing music.
The songs had meaning.
The songs were indicative of growing up.
[soft, pop music playing,
Tevin Campbell "Stand Out"]
Open up your eyes, take a look at me
Get the picture fixed in your memory
I'm driven by the rhythm
like a beat of a harp
And I won't stop
until I start to stand out
Stand out
And when we heard it,
we were all just like blown away.
Gonna stand out
Stand out, hey, stand out
Yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Stand out
Till mine is the only face you'll see
Gonna stand out
Til you notice me.
Holy, I don't even think he took more
than two takes.
He sang it all the way
through and didn't make a mistake.
- [Kevin] I can't believe it's this good.
- [uplifting music playing]
The paths to getting to things
are sometimes
not what you expect them to be.
They're not direct.
And sometimes you end up
with something better
than you ever thought you could have.
And it's definitely,
it's really cool, especially
-kinda...
-Getting to see yourself.
- [both chuckles]
- [music concludes]
Having your voice come
out of someone else.
It just looks it looks cool.
It's definitely fun.
It's definitely an experience.
I want to take it further
maybe one day. [chuckles]
[Christopher]
Hardest sequence to pull together
was probably "I2I."
[upbeat music playing]
[Kevin] Just because
of the number of effects,
all the lighting,
it was incredibly complex.
We had live action reference.
So, we choreographed
this whole "I2I" thing,
and we were on this little
sound stage in Burbank.
We got a video camera guy,
and he's gonna tape
this small group of dancers
doing the Powerline sequence.
We couldn't have done what we did
in the animation without it.
I got myself a notion
One I know that you'll understand
Set the world in motion
It's just like a white background
and it's got a grid on the ground
so the animators,
when they see the footage,
they can get a sense of the space.
And he had these dancers and we had
a video camera operator guy
who was running around setting up
all the angles and he was matching
shot for shot the animatic.
...Never too far apart
And maybe love...
So, all of that had to come together.
And we did multiple, multiple passes
each time we got a new element.
Seeing it we are seeing it
- Eye to eye
- Yes, we are
Seeing it eye to eye
So, we had a guy who was Powerline.
He was the choreographer it was parallel.
And he was the one
who was doing all the slick moves.
Max? [groans]
[Steve] And then we had another guy
who was doing those same moves,
But as Goofy would do it.
Hey, hey, dad! Dad, do the perfect cast.
[Steve] He's putting a little more flap
in the arms and all this, and...
If you're ever lonely
Stop, you don't have to be
[Steve] And then we had
the shorter guy doing it as Max would.
So, he's doing it as a teenage boy
version of Goofy doing Powerline.
If we listen to each other...
And you see the footage,
and you've seen the footage, and it
it worked.
To see the three
of them dancing together was like,
holy crap, these guys are brilliant.
Seeing it eye to eye
[singing indistinctly]
Seeing it
[overlapping singing]
It's kind of extraordinary.
Eye to eye
Eye to eye
[vocalizing]
- Yay!
- [chuckles]
All right, was that cool?
Like Mary J. Blige says, "Am I finished?"
[Kevin] But I'll tell you,
the whole movie was difficult.
We were just holding it together
with scotch tape, right?
Trying to figure out
how to get through it on our budget.
It was difficult.
[Gregory] I know
there were production challenges.
When we started on Goofy Movie,
even in Burbank, we were doing it
in a reduced sort of capacity.
We were expected to deliver,
but with a much lower budget.
[man] What is this movie about?
Well, 15 million dollars.
[man] He's been on this movie
for, oh, a year and a half now.
He's got another year to go.
I don't think he's gonna make it.
[Brian] I can remember a lot of times
we would be there working really late
in the editing room with Greg
and staying up till two in the morning,
you know, trying to get things done.
[gentle music playing]
[Goofy] From now on,
you're gonna see a new Goof.
[Max] And you'll see a new Max.
We'll be a team, son.
Like Lewis and Clark.
- Like, uh, the professor and Marianne?
- Yeah, like spaghetti and meatballs.
Like liver and Dad?
- Liver and the dad? That's a new one.
- No, Dad, look!
[dramatic music playing]
[guffaws] A waterfall.
A waterfall!
[Kevin] There were little speed bumps
all along the way.
While we were finishing the movie
in France, in Paris,
Disney Feature Animation
takes over Disney France.
They move us out of our studio
down to a few floors down
because they wanted to remodel.
And as you go through here,
you can see that it's international sign
for medical assistance.
[Kevin]
So, we're trying to finish our movie,
on like, pieces of plywood.
And we were just like,
we couldn't believe it.
We felt so demoralized.
It was so hard that only
two people survived till the end.
We're gonna have to finish the film up.
You think we can get this movie then?
- I don't want to finish this movie.
- [chuckles]
But it looks dubious for the Goofy Movie
here in France.
That's encouraging.
Let's make our way back
through our screening room.
That's how we watch movies in France.
Voila. Let the cartoons begin.
[uplifting music playing]
[Gregory] Sequences have to be approved
before they can move forward
into their next iteration of production,
and then it can go into animation.
Boy, I would say we had those
at least for those kinds
of approvals, once a month,
for maybe every six weeks
or something like that.
We were showing reels
to Jeffrey all the time.
Often at seven o'clock in the morning,
he'd come in
and we'd have to show...
Imagine watching A Goofy Movie
at seven o'clock in the morning.
That's not an easy task.
And so what that meant
is that you would have to get there
at least by 6:00 in order to lay it
all out for the projectionist.
I always know that by the end of it,
my hands [chuckles]
almost felt like they have arthritis.
I mean, they were just k*lling me,
because I was so tense leaning forward.
And then I would listen to the comments
that Jeffrey would give Kevin.
I think I even a number
of times, like looked over,
and he was sound asleep.
He was watching the movie completely,
like, with his eyes closed.
And then we'd go back
and talk about the movie afterwards,
and he'd give all these notes.
And after Jeffrey left,
I'd say, like, "He was asleep
through a half hour of the movie."
Of course, he doesn't know.
He doesn't know
how these two things connect
because he was asleep. [chuckles]
And then we would run away
and b*llet point the notes.
And then this note is this much money.
This note is this much money.
It was sort of like a menu for him.
Then that would be sort of like now
approved into our budget.
We just had a Jeffrey screening.
We got it okayed.
So, here we go.
It's kind of crazy
to make a movie that way,
but that's how we fit
into his schedule, I think.
We were a B priority, so we had
to squeeze into these little spaces
that he had in his day.
Yeah, and he was busy
with other big things,
like big movies, you know? [chuckles]
[upbeat music playing]
[promoter] Six hundred people are rushing
to finish this movie.
[Jeffery] Wow, that's great.
[promoter] And then there
was a brand new studio chief,
Jeffrey Katzenberg,
with a reputation for efficiency.
And you hear Mufasa, I mean, you hear
He drives us crazy, and he comes over
and has sometimes suggestions
that are out of left field,
but what he's usually saying is,
"I don't know the solution,
but it's not firing off,
it's not working, do better."
- [interviewer] Is it great?
- It's gotta be.
- [interviewer] But not yet.
- Not yet. [chuckles]
[Christopher]
Lion King released in June of 1994,
it would go on to cement itself
as the highest-grossing
animated film at the time,
all under the leadership
of Jeffrey Katzenberg.
We ended up with some problems
in getting our movie finished.
It became especially problematic
towards the end when we realized
we were having a really difficult time
getting proper color footage,
finished color footage.
[playful music playing]
[Gregory] The way it worked is that
the images were composited digitally,
put up in a frame,
and it was literally
a film camera aiming down.
We were sh**ting,
basically sh**ting with a movie camera,
frame by frame off a monitor.
It wasn't totally digital in that sense.
We also didn't project our dailies.
So, when we finished a scene,
we didn't project anything.
So, I remember once we thought,
we have to go in
and look at this on the big screen
and just make sure we're okay.
And it was during one of those screenings
- that someone noticed a missing pixel.
- [dramatic music playing]
There was a little black dot.
We were sh**ting the movie off a monitor,
and one of the pixels was burned out.
At that point, someone went back
and checked the whole movie,
checked all the negative,
and there was a missing dot
- on the entire film.
- [crew cries]
[Kevin] We were almost done
with the movie, I think.
So, we had to go back
and get a new monitor.
I'm sure that monitor screen
was really expensive.
[Kevin] It was so discouraging.
We went back to the studio and said,
"Hey, we have a problem."
So, we had to go back
and reshoot the entire movie again,
which pushed us.
[Gregory] And then you can't trust
anything that you've watched.
And then it becomes like a game,
a very unpleasant game,
where you have to sit
and scrutinize shot after shot.
I remember doing that a lot.
It was so labor-intensive,
so time-intensive, right,
- that it just bumped us.
- [suspenseful music playing]
[Kevin] You know? Who would have thought
that it would take us sh**ting
a whole movie before we realized,
"Oh, great, now we have
to go back and start completely over."
- [evil laughs]
- [music concludes]
I think as a team,
missing our first release date
was a relief
[scoffs] to be quite honest with you,
because we truly didn't know
how we were going to finish.
Oh, we were thrilled
that we were gonna get more time.
That little black dot
saved our butts. [chuckles]
[Dan] You know,
trying to do a feature animation
in a TV pipeline environment,
I kind of felt the burden of all
of this impossible journey we were on.
You know, one hand I had
to ask people to do more
with a lot less all the time.
And the other side,
you know, I got beat up
at a finance meeting every week.
There was, you know,
people in the studio came
and went through, you know,
how much I was spending
and how far we were on the show.
There's no new rock animation here,
but it might be a good idea
to have a little sneak peek
of what it looks like.
[Christopher] With The Lion King released,
Katzenberg's primary focus
became A Goofy Movie.
As animation was being finished in Paris,
the final assembly was
taking place back in California.
Because they're there, we're here.
- There's a lot of extra work and stuff.
- [gentle music playing]
I wish I could be there.
I wish I could be part of
Sometimes I feel like I'm not really part
of making this movie.
Here I am in a room talking to a camera.
We're trying to get things done.
It looks like next week
we'll have the song done.
We're gonna show
Jeffrey 6.1 this week.
On the tenth of February, I think we're
gonna show him the whole movie,
so let's keep our fingers crossed
and hopefully that'll go well.
You know, he always has something to say,
so we'll decide
how we're gonna deal with that then.
We were Jeffrey's pet project,
so he was totally invested in the film.
Up until he got let go, he got fired.
There was a big fight
between he and Michael Eisner.
Jeffrey was out,
and we were just finishing our movie.
The company announced the resignation
of Disney Studios
chief Jeffrey Katzenberg.
While rumors run rampant
about where Katzenberg will end up,
Disney chairman Michael Eisner
said today the company
will likely produce fewer films.
[Kevin] Everyone was concerned
that they had lost sort of their champion.
He could be a really difficult taskmaster.
It was not always easy chasing
what he was attempting to grab.
But on the other hand,
when he supported you,
he was a 100% there.
[Christopher]
- [gentle music playing]
- More chaotic, I think, probably.
[Kevin] When Jeffrey left,
We all knew
that we were in trouble
as far as even
whether or not we'd get a release.
We were Jeffrey,
attempting to discover if he could make
an animated feature that
could compete with feature animation
on a much smaller budget.
There just wasn't
a big expectation for it.
Because it was such a small movie
and it was contemporary,
it just felt different.
All the Disney films
have always been, you know,
some villain,
some good person going about their life,
and some villain stopping them.
And we just had Goofy and Max.
And I honestly think
Disney left their head
scratching a little bit
what to do with it,
'cause it was so different.
[Kevin] And at that moment,
I watched all the support disappear
from the movie. I, you know,
I don't know if it was intentional.
I mean, because, of course,
why would feature animation
want a movie that... coming out,
that could possibly make money
when they're spending so much more
to make their films, right?
They'd want to crush their competition.
Oh, well, let me show you something.
In the L.A. Times, in the back,
we didn't get
as much coverage as Lion King.
See, Lion King
gets their own little feature.
You see that?
But they get a color picture.
And we're down in
On page 16, The Goofy Movie, it says here.
"Goofy stars in his first feature film."
Seems like it's starting,
so we'll see what they do.
Hopefully they'll sell this thing
pretty well.
[Kevin] Everything about
the movie downsized.
We were no longer going
into the same number of theaters.
There was lots of merchandise discussed,
which never got made
and ended up on shelves.
There was a premiere that was supposed
to happen in town, in L.A.,
that got moved to Disney World.
So, we were moved as far away from,
like, journalists as possible.
And I think we all realized,
"Oh, okay, Jeffrey
was really our guardian angel."
But I think that they just looked
at releasing A Goofy Movie
as an obligation at that point.
Thanks a lot.
I just want to thank you all for
for I mean, I know,
I don't thank you enough and
I really do feel,
you know grateful that um,
what you guys have done for this film,
I don't think
it would have ever been half as good
had you guys not, you know,
put your all into doing this.
Thank you guys for doing everything
you're doing on this film.
Just thanks a lot. That's it
for now. I'll talk to you later. Bye.
[static]
[ upbeat music playing]
Hi, everybody. Welcome to Extra.
- I'm Dave Niemann.
- And I'm Arthel Neville.
Now, check out this Goofy Movie.
The star is one-dimensional,
and the acting is, well, cartoonish.
Still, its premiere drew
the roadrunner and quite a crowd
for today's Celebrity Traffic Report.
[Kevin] You know, going to the premiere
was still a huge joy
to see the movie on the big screen
with an audience that so appreciated it.
It was wonderful
to celebrate with everyone.
It was unusual to do a press tour
for anything we'd done prior
to A Goofy Movie. This was a movie tour.
For 63 years or so,
a certain celebrity has been star
of stage, screen, and theme park photos.
Goofy has been doing cartoons
for Walt Disney since the 1930s.
- He looks great.
- Attaining leading man
or dog status in his first
full-length motion picture.
A Goofy Movie.
And they actually put me on camera,
which was rare in those days.
They generally like
to preserve the Disney magic.
Hey, Bill, come on in here.
Look at this guy.
How you doing?
Now, what in the world could you be
Why would you be involved
in A Goofy Movie?
What do you have to do with it?
I've been kind of helping
Goofy out with his dialogue
- for about the past eight years.
- His dialogue, huh?
- Yes, yes.
- So, you're his writer?
[imitates Goofy]
Garsh, I'm not sure.
I had a lot of fun on the tour.
We went to Orlando.
We went to New York.
I remember in a restaurant,
I got to meet Regis Philbin sitting there.
No one knows who I am.
Everyone knows who Goofy is.
- Well, Bill, good luck.
- Thank you very much.
Congratulations on your success,
and good luck with the movie.
I don't remember feeling
like we had big expectations,
although deep down
we probably were hoping for it.
When I watched the movie
for the first time,
I was really blown away. I felt great.
I felt like, "Wow, I'm so proud of this."
Like, I'm so proud
to be part of something so unique.
I think that's what made it,
you know stand out.
Above the crowd,
even you have to shout out loud.
That was gonna happen eventually.
[chuckles]
[narrator] From Walt Disney Pictures,
Max is the most popular kid in school.
- [cheerleaders] Max!
- [kids] Max!
- [narrator] His girlfriend's a babe.
- Call you later.
- Okay?
- [narrator] His best bud is cool.
It's the Leaning Tower of Cheesa.
[narrator] There's only one problem,
his dad's Goofy.
- [expl*si*n]
- [screams]
[Christopher]
I can remember going to one screening
and it all clicked together.
Oh, this is going to be good.
This is actually going to be good.
- [narrator] This is CNN.
- [news intro music playing]
The hottest ticket
at the box office over the weekend
featured two of TV's brightest stars.
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith
combined comedy and action adventure
to climb all the way
to the top of the box office chart.
Their film Bad Boys earned
an estimated 15.6 million dollars
in its debut weekend.
That's more than double the ticket sales
for Goofy, which came in at number two,
with Tommy Boy very close behind.
- I think I'm gonna be sick.
- [gentle music playing]
[Kevin] When the film was released,
it was a critical disaster.
It was so disheartening
because I could not,
for the life of me,
find like a wonderful review.
It's a very different kind of movie.
You know I didn't When we started seeing
the reviews, because those would come in,
Um, I didn't really
know how it was going to land.
[Christopher] The Los Angeles Times asked,
"Why dampen the goofiness?"
While the San Francisco Chronicle
called the film "an incoherent mess."
I think we thought it was going
to do better than it did.
I think that it being classic character,
me attempting to strive
for something deeper
with Goofy to see
if he could have an emotional side.
I mean, some of my friends
were angry with me
for what I had done to Goofy.
How dare I turn him
into a character with emotions?
Um, because he wasn't traditionally
that character.
With movies coming out that you star in,
you're gonna have to get used to critics,
well, critiquing your work.
I remember one story.
Roger Ebert went and saw the movie.
[jazz music playing]
People are always asking movie critics
what the difference
is between Goofy and Pluto.
Well, Bill Farmer,
who was the voice of Goofy,
once told me that Pluto
was definitely a dog,
but that Goofy was the missing link
between dog and man.
Well, by the same token,
A Goofy Movie
is the missing link
between six-minute cartoons
and the more
ambitious Disney animated features
like The Lion King.
Goofy Movie is not aiming
at the same level of artistry and ambition
as the heavy-duty Disney features
like Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin.
Fans of movie cartoons
will find some milestones
in this movie which reflect
the fact that it was made
in the 1990s
and not in a more innocent time.
For example, this is the first time
I can remember
where when cartoon characters get
out of their cars, they lock 'em.
So, you're hoping for someone
to say something
sort of supportive,
but it really just didn't happen.
I thought it was taking pedestrian,
uh, 1990s stuff,
rock concert stuff,
ah, sort of a Prince figure,
but recycled and softened all up,
and sticking him with Goofy,
which I associate
with the 40s and all that.
[Christopher]
With poor box office performance,
mediocre reviews,
and limited studio support,
the theatrical life
of the film was shortened.
The film made about 37
and a half million dollars.
The film cost 18 million dollars to make.
No, it was really twenty-eight-ish.
[Christopher chuckles]
Oh, yeah, easy, I think.
I'd have to go look.
I don't have those in my budgets anymore,
but off the top of my head,
I would say it was more like 28.
[gentle music playing]
[Christopher]
I thought that it would be invisible.
I truly thought, "Okay,
this is one that's just going to go away."
Because Disney didn't really value it,
they made it available.
Like, it was
on the Disney Channel all the time.
The Goofy Movie was cheaper
to buy than The Lion King.
Disney didn't know what they had,
is my feeling.
They didn't know
that it was as good as it was.
- [TV chimes]
- [Bill] It was the little film that could.
[Kevin] It was not until
20 years later that I realized
what kind of a groundswell
was happening in that moment in time.
I realized, oh, this is much bigger
than I ever thought it would be.
- [traffic buzzing]
- [uplifting music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[Kevin] There was a panel at D23.
I had heard that they put it
in one of the smallest rooms,
in that ultimately they had
to turn away about a 1000 people.
[Bill] It was standing room only.
It wasn't even one of the top ten
recommended panels to see that year.
[Don] Thank you so much.
Who's having a good time at D23 today?
[crowd cheering, applauds]
All these fans there,
and they're selling tickets,
and Don Hahn
is doing the introductions.
[Don] You guys have chosen wisely,
because you are here for,
I guarantee, the coolest and best panel
of the entire weekend
about The Goofy Movie.
- [crowd cheering]
- [Don] We're here tonight
with some incredible people
that were part of the making of the movie.
We felt like the Beatles.
It felt like that.
- We felt like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.
- It was unreal.
[Bill] And I'm so thankful that all
of you care for this movie.
And obviously, by you being here
[imitates Goofy] it's, garsh,
it is a little gem after all.
- [Bill] Thank you.
- [crowd cheering]
I think we talked about this a few times.
I didn't know the depth
of love for this film.
- It's absolutely astonishing.
- [crowd cheering]
It became the number one audience favorite
at that D23.
And that's when I thought,
"Oh, wait a minute."
- [keyboard clacking]
- [Kevin] There's something going on here.
[exhales sharply ]
- I want to talk about A Goofy Movie.
- [gentle music playing]
[Youtuber] A Goofy Movie
is my favorite movie of all time,
and it's been severely slept on.
A time capsule of amazingness.
- It totally holds up.
- It really did.
[Youtuber 2] It's just so much better
than it has any right to be.
Beautifully written, beautifully acted.
I was not expecting all the feels
that there were in that.
Such a classic movie.
- A Goofy Movie is fantastic.
- One of the best.
One of my all-time favorite
Disney animated films.
- I really enjoy this movie.
- It's fantastic.
So, I would watch that movie over
and over and I'd sing the songs.
- And yeah, just a feel-good movie.
- This is a childhood favorite.
It really is a special movie.
This is a movie I love so much
because it grabs you and pulls you in.
Is it clich to call it
the voice of a generation?
I'm gonna say it.
It was the voice of a generation.
So, heartwarming, the relationship
between Goofy and Max
is really beautifully
animated and well-written.
[Youtuber 3]
Hitting the mark with both generations.
And that's a quality
of a good movie, I think.
It's actually a very complex movie
for like, 75 minutes.
But it's about father
and son relationships
and traveling and growing.
But that core father-son relationship
is really freaking good.
And it's written so well.
It's very much the journey of them
compromising both of their viewpoints,
but realizing that things change.
I was right at that tween age
where everything your parents do
is embarrassing.
The story between Max and his dad
definitely was so impactful for me.
You can relate as a kid or you can relate
as a parent as you get older.
These two characters only have each other.
They don't have a wife.
They don't have a mom.
They only have each other.
Growing up, my dad
and I were never super close.
Watching the movie together really
brought us closer together.
I lost my mom when I was a kid.
This old movie that I had
on VHS that I still watched
from time to time became something
that I played constantly.
It means so much to me.
We watched it in the movies,
and then I got it on VHS.
And by the time
my little sister was like three or four,
we were just watching it all the time.
I rewatch this a lot because I have a son,
and I just love this movie.
This was like the exact movie
I needed in my life.
That's just in time to identify with this.
This is the first Black Disney movie.
I was quite shocked when I had discovered
that the African-American community
had embraced this movie.
Looking back at it, it lives in its DNA.
I can tell you the exact day
I watched The Goofy Movie,
and for the first time watching
a Disney movie, I saw myself.
There was this episode about Atlanta,
a whole episode dedicated
to a fake documentary about
The Goofy Movie.
You know, Donald Glover,
he was a '90s kid.
Many millennials relate
to A Goofy Movie in multiple ways.
This is my life.
I was just making a contemporary movie
with contemporary characters
that spoke to its time.
[chuckles] Yes. I love this movie.
[Kevin] I don't know if you guys
have seen it, but someone made
a shot-for-shot replication of one
of the songs in the movie.
I just couldn't believe how cool that was.
We made, after today,
just making it with our friends.
We were just wanting to do something big,
and now we are making
another scene from it.
Hey, everyone.
I'm back with another costume video.
[Youtuber 4] Yep, so here it is.
My whole cosplay of Powerline.
How did you feel the first time you saw
people cosplaying as characters?
If you love something enough
to emulate it,
and they always say imitation
is the most sincerest form of flattery.
[Dante] Hey, yo, Stacy!
[all] Talk to me,
talk to me, talk to me, baby!
So, many memorable moments.
[imitates Bobby]
Cheddar! Oh, Cheddar West!
[imitates Lester]
Who's your favorite possum? Lester!
[singing "Stayin' Alive"]
There's so many good moments.
Y'all know I can't talk about Goofy Movie
without talking about this guy.
[Al Roker]
A Goofy Movie, this is "I2I",
and they eventually end up
on stage with Powerline.
Using the perfect cast as a dance?
There has never been
a more hype moment in Disney history.
[Youtuber 5]
That's a breakout cult character.
In today's episode of the best songs
from our childhood.
For the first time
[Alana Haim] This movie changed my life,
and I've never been
so passionate about a movie.
Seriously, right now, the merchandise
for A Goofy Movie is pretty insane
t-shirts, lunch boxes,
collectibles, Funko Pops.
This next one
is the Powerline shock sauce.
[Youtuber 6] I mean, come on,
some of these reviews are just ridiculous.
"Emotionally diffused, small fry
only, insipid songs,
dampening the goofiness,"
and my all-time favorite,
"an incoherent mess."
Maybe you're an incoherent mess.
[Bill] The popularity of the movie
has just steadily increased.
It's kind of like a fine wine.
It just gets better with age.
[crowd cheering]
[Kevin] I'm surprised at some
of the folks who come to me
and say that this is
by far their favorite movie
that they've ever seen.
And that's a remarkable thing
when you get to be a part of that.
[Rob] I didn't expect to start
crying when making this video.
It's a very special movie.
To me, A Goofy Movie
has earned its cult classic name.
[reporter] One of the all-time great
'90s cult classic movies.
[Youtuber 7] It's truly just one
of Disney's biggest cult classics.
[Youtuber 8] I think it is a film
that's important to the Disney Renaissance
and to Disney as an entire brand.
Nostalgia is super powerful,
but it stands the test of time.
[music concludes]
[Christopher] Okay, so I didn't know
how to read this next part as narration,
so I reworked it and rewrote it
so it's more of a letter now.
Okay.
To the cast and crew of A Goofy Movie,
it's hard to explain how much
of an impact this film has had
on me, but I'm going to try.
- [gentle music playing]
- I want to tell you a story.
It's not a story about mythic quests,
legendary heroes,
or galaxies far, far away.
It's a story about a son and his father.
Since I can remember,
one of my favorite things to do
is watching movies with my dad.
Growing up, he'd introduced me
to films he watched with his father.
When I was five, my parents separated
for two and a half years.
I was confused why my dad had
to leave, but he did.
Watching movies with him became more
and more infrequent.
Instead of watching them with my dad,
films became my escape.
I watched everything
I could get my hands on.
Then, one day,
my mom brought home a VHS tape
that changed my life forever.
A movie about a father who just wanted
to spend time with his son.
[Goofy] I'm not giving up on you, son.
Together, we're gonna work this out.
[Christopher] I watched it on repeat.
Day after day,
A Goofy Movie became a comfort,
each viewing giving me
a better understanding of how
and why my parents were dealing
with their own struggles.
It was the story I needed
at the time I needed it.
This film connected me
to my father in ways
that I couldn't have predicted.
Sometimes a character as silly
as Goofy can mean so much more.
- That's it.
- [music concludes]
[Kevin] The story I hear the most
is really about how the movie
has done exactly what it set out to do.
Both parents and kids talk
about how in watching this movie
with my dad it gave us the ability
to actually speak to each other,
to find some equal ground
that we watched this movie together,
and my dad suddenly was
asking me questions about who I was
and things that he had never
asked me before.
And I think from the other side
it also happens that kids are able to see
that there's another side of the story.
"Oh, I gained sort
of complete understanding
that my dad's dealing
with a lot of things in his life."
'And there's a whole other side
to who he is
that I had never seen before."
Those are the stories
that I find the most rewarding,
because that's what lives
in the thematic of the movie.
[Eric] Yeah, this is crazy.
We're here making a documentary about
one of the greatest father
and son stories ever
with somebody
that I look to like a father.
Kevin's my uncle,
but he's always been there
for me when I needed it.
And he helped give my life purpose.
We shared similar histories
and relationships with our father.
So, if it wasn't for Kevin,
I wouldn't be a filmmaker.
Yeah, this is crazy.
If you watch the beginning of the movie,
you never think that
by the end, you know, they're gonna
come together the way that they do.
They do that
through acceptance of each other,
learning about themselves
and about the other.
[Goofy] I was only trying
to take my boy fishing, okay?
I'm not your little boy anymore, Dad.
I've grown up.
- [waves crashing]
- I've got my own life now.
I know that.
I just wanted to be part of it.
[somber music playing]
You're my son, Max.
No matter how big you get,
you'll always be my son.
[music concludes]
[Gregory] Through art, you get beauty,
and without it,
you would just have math
and logic and reason.
And it's something
that transcends speech and logic,
and it's purely emotional.
And we're all emotional beings.
[Kevin] I certainly would not
be sitting here where I am today
if I had not seen The Jungle Book
when I was five years old.
And I think that expression,
an inspiring expression,
in kids and adults
is incredibly important in our society.
Some people don't have the ability
to express themselves any other way.
I can only hope
that someone sees A Goofy Movie
and is inspired
to be a filmmaker or an artist.
That The Goofy Movie does for someone
now what The Jungle Book
did for me when I was five,
is cement purpose.
Art gave me purpose in life.
I would love
to have them laugh and cry at Goofy.
I would love to get both
of those things out of this movie.
More than the laughing, I would love
to have them be moved by who Goofy is
and by how he relates
to his son in that relationship.
The best thing these movies can do
is to confront real life
through this make-believe world.
[Brian] It was just sort
of innocent phase in our careers.
You know? It was fun to make,
and you were working with friends.
And the general nostalgic feeling I have
for the whole part
was just having fun doing it.
[Dan] You know, at the time,
it could seem really difficult,
but when you look back
in time at it, there is something,
you know, pretty magical
about the whole thing.
What I hope people take away
from the movie is expressed
within its last song.
It's a plea for us all
to be able to see eye to eye.
There's a hope that whether or not
you're two different communities
or a father and a son,
that you can find a way to see
each other for who you truly are
and accept each other
for what you have to give.
[Steve] You know,
the magic trick of animation
is making somebody believe
this inanimate thing is alive
and thinking and feeling,
and not only that,
but getting you to feel for it.
[Eric] I mean, I think the great thing
about any kind of art
is that you can touch somebody
and touch their lives,
make them laugh,
make them cry, make them feel seen.
And you don't always know it.
Once you put it out into the world,
you don't know what it's going
to become of it.
There is that universal connection
that people end up having.
And I think you can't ask
for more than that.
I hear it all the time out in the world.
It's so underappreciated.
A Goofy Movie isn't appreciated.
It deserves to be a Disney classic.
That exists within the audience.
They've decided.
They've made it a Disney classic.
If they didn't think
it was a classic film,
we wouldn't be sitting here talking
about A Goofy Movie.
There wouldn't be this groundswell.
It's touched them.
To them, it's a Disney classic.
They voted.
It started small
that crystal ball I looked at all
- But saw this coming
- Oh, yeah
It started there
And led us where we all can share
the tune we're humming
They said not a big deal
They said not even real
They said I was the only one
who knew about it
Then the word got around
Everybody had found out
that it's a hit
Though we barely could see it
- We made it
- You know we made it true
- We made it
- Better than we wanted to
- We made it
- And we know it made us
Wouldn't trade it 'cause I know
we, we made it
[Goofy] Yup.
Now looking back, I see the track
leadin' exactly where I come from
Oh, yeah
After today I'll never say
there is no way it all can be done
We made it a big deal
We made all of it real
They said we were the only ones
who knew about it
Now when they come around
they say crank up that sound
Yeah, that's it, it's a hit
Though we barely could see it
We made it
- You know we made it true
- We made it
- Better than we wanted to
- We made it
And we know it made us
Wouldn't trade it
'cause I know we...
Even now it somehow
is still a constant surprise
Love it, love it,
Yeah, we love it, love it
All the joy and the love,
seeing things eye to eye
Love it, love it,
Yeah, we love it, love it
A way to connect, a way to reflect
Make us feel less alone
Help us to fit in
Help us to stand out
Help us all to win
- This I know
- We made it!
- We made it better
- We made it!
- Better than we wanted to
- We made it!
And we know it made us
Wouldn't trade it
'cause I know we, we made it
You know we made it true
We made it
Better than we wanted to
We made it
And we know it made us
Made it real, made it right
Made it real, made it right
Made it through, made it true
Yeah, you know we made it
[song concludes]
[upbeat music playing]
[Christopher]
No.
You know, I've thought a little bit
about that it would be cool to make,
like, a Powerline documentary.
Um, I've thought about that.
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Not Just a Goof (2025)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, sidolanters, GabrielAlejo2341