Walt Disney Home Video presents

Classic Cartoon Favorites: Starring Goofy (1941-1953)

"Organization! That's the secret!"- Goofy (Pinto Colvig) from Father's Day Off

Stars: George Johnson, Pinto Colvig
Other Stars: John McLeish, James Macdonald
Director: Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (nothing objectionable)
Run Time: 01h:04m:27s
Release Date: 2005-01-11
Genre: animation

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
A-	B	B+	B	F

 

DVD Review

In what seems like a mass market offshoot of the harder to find Disney Treasures series, a new set of modestly priced Classic Cartoon Favorites from Walt Disney has hit the streets, each focusing on one principal character with a set of shorts from the 1940s and 1950s. In this volume—number 3 according to the spine—it's all about Goofy (voiced by George Johnson or Pinto Colvig, depending on the short), that lanky, addle-brained dog/man.

Just what is Goofy exactly?

As an overview, this set features a fine cross-section of Goofy spanning 1941-1953, and thankfully there are five of the wonderful "how to" series, which are probably the funniest of the lot. The setup for these is the same, with Goofy learning the hard way how to do some activity (ski, fish, swim, dance, photography), with the expected wacky results. Sure, you might have to spend time explaining what a hot water bottle is to youngsters (used for a few gags in the opening of The Art of Skiing), but most of the comedy is physical and nonsensical. When I think of Goofy, these are the shorts that immediately come to mind, and I wish the whole disc had been devoted to these.

Things don't necessarily hold up as well in some of the later segments, especially Father's Day Off. This one really bends the whole Goofy mythos, and transports him from being a bumbling simpleton into a husband with kids who thinks he knows how to run a household. The thought of Goofy in a shirt and tie, dealing with domestic issues just seems wrong to me, and even as a kid this would have seemed thematically problematic.

Of the nine shorts collected here, eight were directed by the durable Jack Kinney, who also directed the infamous Disney propaganda short Der Fuehrer's Face, with Donald Duck taking on Hitler. The only other director represented here is Clyde Geronimi, on The Big Wash. It was Geronimi, in the mid- to late-1950s, who co-directed such Disney classics as Peter Pan, Lady & The Tramp, Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty, so it is interesting to get a glimpse of his early animated short film work on this collection.

The shorts on this release are:
The Art of Skiing(1941)
How to Fish (1942)
How to Swim (1942)
Baggage Buster (1941)
How to Dance (1953)
Lion Down (1951)
The Big Wash (1948)
Hold That Pose (1950)
Father's Day Off (1953)


Rating for Style: A-
Rating for Substance: B

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: For animation pushing 65 years old, the transfers here are pretty impressive. Colors are bright, and the shorts have very little in the way of noticeable nicks or dirt, with the exception of some minor specking. There is, however, some flicker, which is most apparent during the title cards.

Image Transfer Grade: B+
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
Mono	English	no

Audio Transfer Review: Audio is provided in basic 2.0 mono, and aside from some occasional hiss, manages to sound clean and presentable, especially the music elements.

Audio Transfer Grade: B 

Disc Extras

Animated menu with music
Scene Access with 9 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English with remote access
4 Other Trailer(s) featuring Bambi, Cinderella, Mulan II, The Cat Returns/Nausicaa/Porco Rosso
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extras Review: This disc utilizes Disney's FastPlay option, which starts the DVD automatically, but that includes playing trailers for Bambi and Cinderella.

The disc is cut into nine chapters, one per short, and features optional English subtitles.

Extras Grade: F
 

Final Comments

Not the most thorough Goofy collection, but the presence of a number of the always fun "how to" shorts makes this worth a look.

Rich Rosell 2005-01-27