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Description
DAY 312

Goofy wouldn't really get his own series of separate shorts until the start of the 40s. At that point, Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Pluto had their own collection of cinematic cartoons, but Goofy's only started after the move to the new studio. His cartoons have always been flexible and vary from the subject material, but without a doubt, his best known format is always the "How to"s: instructional tutorials that star Goofy doing a seemingly simple task, but of course, his clumsiness interferes with him getting it right, complete with a narrator who takes the whole thing like it's going exactly as planned. A simple premise that can easily be repeated over and over yet never get stale.
The Art of Skiing is always considered the starting point of Goofy's How to career... even though it's not officially the first one. At a ski resort, we're treated to Goofy doing all the different forms of skiing at the glorious Swiss Alps mountains. There's the proper uniform, types of positions, ways of showing off, correct mountain ranges and anything else you'd see in the Winter Olympics. I remember seeing this from some compilation VHS centered around Christmas (Mickey's Good Deed and Toy Tinkerers were also in there). There's a soothing atmosphere with the frosty white mountains, there's lots of great slapstick from Goofy (most in part of Goofy's skis of all things), the animation on Goofy doing such graceful skiing but still in his natural manner is great, each stunt outdoes itself as it goes bigger and bigger, the narrator keeps pronouncing "skiing" as "sheeing" and there's a lot of yelling. And by that, I don't mean that it's constant noise with every scene, it's actually very light on score actually. That classic cartoon yodel sound effect is repeated with each transition and this short is the birthplace of Goofy's "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH-HAAA-HAAA-HOOOO-WHEEEEEEEEE"
Goofy & Wilbur has Goofy fishing out on a lake. He has live bait with him, a grasshopper he names Wilbur, who assists him by luring the fish right into Goofy's net. Of course, this is a dangerous job since Wilbur's literally live bait and the fish start to catch on. I believe this was Goofy's first overall shot at starring solo if he could hold a cartoon by himself. And indeed he could and can. This clearly must've started Goofy's appreciation of fishing (which would be MUCH more prominent some 50 years later), Wilbur's a cute little trickster, I like the setting used for the lake and forest as well as the muted color scheme, the different schemes to get the fish are all clever, there's a quickly-paced chase scene at the end and there's a really sweet friendship between Goofy and Wilbur. You already get the sense that this isn't their first rodeo and you don't wanna see Wilbur get eaten just as much as Goofy doesn't want to.
Goofy's Glider is the official first "How To", which features Goofy trying to create a glider airplane and attempt to fly it. This is another short that feels very Wile E. Coyote, as Goofy's repeated attempts almost work but then don't. There's elaborate contraptions, he's only following what the book says, it's mostly at a slow pace but that lets you take in the easy-going flying much more, it's a simple sort of plane to get comedy from (a strap-on costume instead of an actual airplane) and Goofy actually ends up winning, flying across the globe.
In Baggage Buster, Goofy works as a baggage wrangler at a train station and his most recent move is a giant trunk. Turns out to be a magician's trunk and all the tricks and pranks make Goofy's job harder and harder. Goofy's body movements in this feel more humanoid than any of his others (like they used a human reference model), he's also much more silent here mostly using archival lines, the backgrounds mostly stay at the same shot but that's only to make the magic of the trunk only more... magical. Speaking of which, there's a lot of fun opportunities used with that trunk, from the top hat, the magic hankie conjuring animals (including Ferdinand), the trunk being able to split in half, it really is wondrous and it's really funny seeing Goofy try to combat the illogicality of it all.
How to be a Sailor takes Goofy on the history of mankind's evolution of boating. I remember seeing 2 scenes from this in the "Sailing, Sailing" portion of the Under the Sea sing-along video (Goofy as a pirate captain and him dumping buckets overboard). It does have a lot of funny moments, there's some good music and it IS very educational as we travel through history, but I wouldn't say it's the funniest Goofy short out there. This one seems to put the educational merit before the comedy merit, it can be a little dry at times and it does feel a bit dated as it ends with WWII Japanese ships getting sunk. But even then, the sight gags and physical comedy from Goofy is what saves it.

DAY 314

Comment & enjoy!

Description
DAY 312

Goofy wouldn't really get his own series of separate shorts until the start of the 40s. At that point, Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Pluto had their own collection of cinematic cartoons, but Goofy's only started after the move to the new studio. His cartoons have always been flexible and vary from the subject material, but without a doubt, his best known format is always the "How to"s: instructional tutorials that star Goofy doing a seemingly simple task, but of course, his clumsiness interferes with him getting it right, complete with a narrator who takes the whole thing like it's going exactly as planned. A simple premise that can easily be repeated over and over yet never get stale.
The Art of Skiing is always considered the starting point of Goofy's How to career... even though it's not officially the first one. At a ski resort, we're treated to Goofy doing all the different forms of skiing at the glorious Swiss Alps mountains. There's the proper uniform, types of positions, ways of showing off, correct mountain ranges and anything else you'd see in the Winter Olympics. I remember seeing this from some compilation VHS centered around Christmas (Mickey's Good Deed and Toy Tinkerers were also in there). There's a soothing atmosphere with the frosty white mountains, there's lots of great slapstick from Goofy (most in part of Goofy's skis of all things), the animation on Goofy doing such graceful skiing but still in his natural manner is great, each stunt outdoes itself as it goes bigger and bigger, the narrator keeps pronouncing "skiing" as "sheeing" and there's a lot of yelling. And by that, I don't mean that it's constant noise with every scene, it's actually very light on score actually. That classic cartoon yodel sound effect is repeated with each transition and this short is the birthplace of Goofy's "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH-HAAA-HAAA-HOOOO-WHEEEEEEEEE"
Goofy & Wilbur has Goofy fishing out on a lake. He has live bait with him, a grasshopper he names Wilbur, who assists him by luring the fish right into Goofy's net. Of course, this is a dangerous job since Wilbur's literally live bait and the fish start to catch on. I believe this was Goofy's first overall shot at starring solo if he could hold a cartoon by himself. And indeed he could and can. This clearly must've started Goofy's appreciation of fishing (which would be MUCH more prominent some 50 years later), Wilbur's a cute little trickster, I like the setting used for the lake and forest as well as the muted color scheme, the different schemes to get the fish are all clever, there's a quickly-paced chase scene at the end and there's a really sweet friendship between Goofy and Wilbur. You already get the sense that this isn't their first rodeo and you don't wanna see Wilbur get eaten just as much as Goofy doesn't want to.
Goofy's Glider is the official first "How To", which features Goofy trying to create a glider airplane and attempt to fly it. This is another short that feels very Wile E. Coyote, as Goofy's repeated attempts almost work but then don't. There's elaborate contraptions, he's only following what the book says, it's mostly at a slow pace but that lets you take in the easy-going flying much more, it's a simple sort of plane to get comedy from (a strap-on costume instead of an actual airplane) and Goofy actually ends up winning, flying across the globe.
In Baggage Buster, Goofy works as a baggage wrangler at a train station and his most recent move is a giant trunk. Turns out to be a magician's trunk and all the tricks and pranks make Goofy's job harder and harder. Goofy's body movements in this feel more humanoid than any of his others (like they used a human reference model), he's also much more silent here mostly using archival lines, the backgrounds mostly stay at the same shot but that's only to make the magic of the trunk only more... magical. Speaking of which, there's a lot of fun opportunities used with that trunk, from the top hat, the magic hankie conjuring animals (including Ferdinand), the trunk being able to split in half, it really is wondrous and it's really funny seeing Goofy try to combat the illogicality of it all.
How to be a Sailor takes Goofy on the history of mankind's evolution of boating. I remember seeing 2 scenes from this in the "Sailing, Sailing" portion of the Under the Sea sing-along video (Goofy as a pirate captain and him dumping buckets overboard). It does have a lot of funny moments, there's some good music and it IS very educational as we travel through history, but I wouldn't say it's the funniest Goofy short out there. This one seems to put the educational merit before the comedy merit, it can be a little dry at times and it does feel a bit dated as it ends with WWII Japanese ships getting sunk. But even then, the sight gags and physical comedy from Goofy is what saves it.

DAY 314

Comment & enjoy!