A Goofy Movie


A Goofy Movie is a 1995 American animated musical road comedy film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Directed by Kevin Lima, it is based on The Disney Afternoon television series Goof Troop created by Robert Taylor and Michael Peraza, and serves as a standalone spin-off to the show. Taking place three years after the events of Goof Troop, it follows Goofy and his now teenage son, Max, as they embark on a misguided father-son fishing trip across the United States.
Former Walt Disney Company chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg suggested a storyline inspired by a planned car trip with his daughter to Goofy Troop's story supervisor Jymn Magon. Expanding Goofy as a character that would resonate with audiences, the film features the voices of Bill Farmer, Jim Cummings, and Rob Paulsen reprising their roles from the series as Goofy, Pete, and P.J., respectively, while Jason Marsden replaces Dana Hill as Max, alongside Kellie Martin, Wallace Shawn, and Pauly Shore as new characters. The rhythm and blues singer Tevin Campbell provides the vocals for Powerline, a fictional pop star who prominently appears in the film, performing the songs "Stand Out" and "I 2 I". Production lasted for two and a half years.
A Goofy Movie was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on April 7, 1995, by Walt Disney Pictures. Because it had been greenlit by Katzenberg, its release was deemed by Disney to be a contractual obligation. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a modest commercial success, grossing $37.6 million against an $18 million production cost worldwide. However, with its home media release, it garnered a cult following and has become a more prominent property within Disney. A direct-to-video sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie, was released on February 29, 2000. A documentary about the making of A Goofy Movie, Not Just a Goof, premiered in 2024 and was released on Disney+ in 2025 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film's original release.

Plot

is an average teenager who pines after his classmate Roxanne, idolizes the pop star Powerline, and has a tense relationship with his clumsy, old-fashioned father Goofy, whom he fears he may end up taking after when he grows up, having already inherited his laugh. On the last day of school before summer vacation, Max, with help from his friends P.J. and Bobby, hijacks a school assembly and dances while lip syncing to a Powerline song. The performance succeeds in making Max a school celebrity, and he invites Roxanne with him to a viewing party of a live broadcast of Powerline's upcoming concert in Los Angeles.
Goofy, after school principal Mazur warns him about Max's potential juvenile delinquency, immediately plans a fishing trip to Lake Destiny, Idaho, to curb his son's behavior. Max attempts to cancel his date with Roxanne, but panics and tells her that not only are he and Goofy traveling to Los Angeles to attend the concert, but that Powerline has invited them onstage.
Goofy and Max hit the road, visiting a run-down possum-themed amusement park where Goofy embarrasses Max. The next day, they run into P.J. and his father, Pete, while camping. Goofy takes his son fishing and shows him the "Perfect Cast" fishing technique, accidentally luring Bigfoot to their camp and forcing Goofy and Max to spend the night in the car with Bigfoot outside. While Goofy sleeps, Max alters the map's route to Los Angeles.
The next morning, Goofy makes Max the navigator of the trip, and the two enjoy several stops together. That night, while staying at the same motel, Pete overhears a conversation between Max and P.J. and informs Goofy that Max has tricked him into traveling to Los Angeles. Goofy still believes Max will do the right thing, but the next morning, Max chooses the route to California, and Goofy stops the car at the Grand Canyon and storms off. With the brake loose, the car drives off on its own; Goofy and Max chase after it and end up riding the car down the Colorado River. After a brief argument, Goofy says no matter how old Max gets he will always be his son, and the two finally reconcile. After learning about Max's promise to Roxanne, Goofy decides to take him to the concert. The two nearly plummet down a waterfall, but Max rescues Goofy using the Perfect Cast technique.
In Los Angeles, Goofy and Max arrive at the concert, sneak on to the stage, and dance with Powerline, delighting Roxanne. Max and Goofy return home in their barely functioning car and Max tells Roxanne the truth; she admits she always liked him and they make plans to go out. The car explodes, ejecting Goofy into the porch roof of Roxanne's house, and Max proudly introduces his father to his new girlfriend.

Voice cast

  • Bill Farmer as Goofy, a hard-working, clumsy single father who is a photographer at a photo studio in a mall department store.
  • Jason Marsden as Maximilian "Max" Goof, Goofy's troubled 14-year-old son
  • Jim Cummings as Pete, Goofy's misanthropic neighbor whom he and Max encounter during their road trip
  • Kellie Martin as Roxanne, Max's kind-hearted high school crush
  • Rob Paulsen as P.J., Pete's timid son and Max's best friend
  • Wallace Shawn as Principal Mazur, the strict principal of Max's school
Tevin Campbell and Pauly Shore make uncredited appearances as the pop star Powerline and Max's friend Bobby Zimuruski respectively. Jenna von Oÿ voices Roxanne's best friend Stacey and Frank Welker provides vocal sound effects for the Bigfoot. The director, Kevin Lima, portrays a walk-around character at Lester's Possum Park and provides the vocal effects for Roxanne's father.
Florence Stanley plays a waitress, Jo Anne Worley portrays Principal Mazur's upbeat secretary Miss Maples, and Julie Brown and Joey Lawrence voice the popular students Lisa and Chad. The character actor Pat Buttram appears in his final role as the emcee at Lester's Possum Park, while Wayne Allwine makes a cameo appearance as Mickey Mouse alongside a silent Donald Duck.

Production

Development

In the early 1990s, former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg commissioned the project, suggesting the storyline inspired by a planned car trip with his daughter to Goof Troop's story supervisor Jymn Magon. Suggesting to make a movie about "contemporary teenagers" as opposed to "talking animal movies and fairytales", Magon thought it would be an interesting idea for the story of Goofy and Max. Accepting Katzenberg's suggestion, Magon attempted to write the first script for the film. The movie was the feature film directorial debut for Disney story artist and animator Kevin Lima, who went on to direct the Disney films Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians and Enchanted. Instead of being "one-dimensional", Goofy was given an emotional side to show depth to the "emotional arc of the story", hoping the audience would "see his feelings".
While the work was a Disney production, it was considered far less essential than the studio's mainstream works at the time such as The Lion King, and was given a far smaller budget compared to these films. Thus, A Goofy Movie was jointly produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Television Animation, and Disney MovieToons and with outsourcing to Walt Disney Animation France and Walt Disney Animation Australia, along with additional Disney animation studios in Spain and Canada.

Cast and recording

Several of the main voice cast from Goof Troop reprise their roles in A Goofy Movie, including Bill Farmer as Goofy, Jim Cummings as Pete, and Rob Paulsen as P.J.. Max, whose voice was provided by Dana Hill in Goof Troop, is voiced in the film by Jason Marsden when speaking and Aaron Lohr when singing. Some recording sessions were done with only one actor. The film is dedicated to Pat Buttram, who voiced the emcee at the possum park, as he died after finishing his voice work.
Farmer recorded his lines for more than 25 studio sessions. After Farmer recorded nearly all of Goofy's lines, Katzenberg wanted to replace Farmer with Steve Martin, using his normal voice. Thinking it was a bad idea, Farmer was asked to voice Goofy using his regular speaking voice as opposed to the character's signature, cartoonish voice. This confused Farmer, who insisted that audiences wanted to hear the Goofy they were all familiar with. After many weeks of recording lines with his regular speaking voice, Farmer re-recorded his lines to speak in Goofy's regular voice.

Animation

The animation work was done at Walt Disney Animation France in Paris supervised by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, with additional scenes animated at Disney's studio in Sydney, Australia, under the direction of Steve Moore, and clean-up work done at the main Burbank studio. Additional clean-up/animation was done by Phoenix Animation Studios in Canada, and digitally inked-and-painted by the Pixibox studio in France. During one of the screenings, a single dead pixel was noticed in the footage from a monitor they were using, forcing them to recapture three-quarters of the film with a non-defective monitor. As a result, the planned release date was moved from November 1994 to April 1995. Though this created extra work to re-shoot the animation and verify it was clean of defects, Lima said the delay time gave them time to polish up the movie.

Music

R&B singer Tevin Campbell provided the singing voice of Powerline. While looking for an artist, producers shaped Powerline's image inspired by Prince. Campbell was chosen because he worked with Prince prior to production of the film, being known at the time as "Prince's protégé". Providing Campbell with a song, producers approached David Z to produce songs for the film. His tracks were recorded at Paisley Park. "After Today", "On the Open Road", and "Nobody Else But You" were performed by Bill Farmer and Aaron Lohr. The score for A Goofy Movie was provided by Carter Burwell.