In Stand By Me (1986), one of the boys asks, "If Mickey is a mouse and Donald is a duck, what's Goofy?" The answer: he's a dog. Originally named Dippy Dawg, the Goof, as the animators called him, made his debut as an obnoxious hayseed in "Mickey's Revue" (1932). This generous collection includes 46 of the 48 shorts that starred Goofy between 1939 and 1961 (but none of the great Mickey-Donald-Goofy films from the mid-'30s). The "How to Ride a Horse" sequence in The Reluctant Dragon (1941) set the pattern for many of these cartoons. An elegant narrator (artist John Ployardt) explains a sport that Goofy attempts to demonstrate. The character that animator Art Babbitt described in a 1935 lecture (quoted in the DVD bonus material) as an easygoing dimbulb gave way to an enthusiastic but spectacularly maladroit figure. One of the funniest entries in the series, "Hockey Homicide," contains several studio in-jokes: dueling stars Icebox Bertino and Fearless Ferguson, and referee Clean-Game Kinney are named for artists Al Bertino, Norm Ferguson, and director Jack Kinney. During the '50s, Goofy was transformed into a genial suburban Everyman in such domestic sitcoms as "Fathers Are People," "Two Weeks Vacation," and "Father's Day Off." The animators reduced his floppy ears and buck teeth, improved his posture, and gave him a brisker walk. The best-known short from this period is "Motor Mania" (1950), a mildly didactic spoof of American behavior on the road that was shown in driver's education classes for decades. (Unrated: Suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon
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