Donal Duck has always been my favorite Disney character, but I have a really soft spot in my heart for Goofy as well. He's such a good guy, always trying to do right, to help, to impress his son with his skills or knowledge, trying to be "cool" as he sees it. And it never works. He bungles things. Goofy is always too loud, too clumsy, too clueless or too enthusiastic. He keeps trying, though, often too hard, but he keeps at it. And Goofy's friends get caught up in his bungled attempts at cool and helpful, but they never hold it against him in the end. Rather, they always laugh it off and realize his heart is in the right place. Maybe that's why I like Goofy so much, I can totally relate.
Three or four years ago there was a little email game going around. You were supposed to come up with one word to describe the person that sent the email to you and they would do the same for you. Two of the people that knew me best, a really close friend and the cousin I grew up with, came up with the same word. It wasn't a simple, trite word like "nice" or something either. Out of all the words in the English language, and these were very smart people with large vocabularies, they both came up with "goofy." I guess I might as well own it. There are worse things to be, right?
Ohhh, Jeffrey. You mean, Walt Disney didn't somehow have a glimpse into the future and model Goofy after my best bud? And here I was, believing in Disney magic......
ReplyDeleteI just finished Neil Gabbler's biography Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination and there are several references in it to just how much Walt HATED Goofy. Apparently, he absolutely despised the character. The only reason they continued to make the Goofy cartoons was to fullfill contractural obligations and keep the animators working between features - this was especially the case after WWII when the studio really struggled and wasn't producing many features. I guess this proves that even Walt wasn't flawless in knowing what the audience wanted/liked. Here we are 70 years later and Goofy is still as popular if not more popular than ever. And yes, I want one of those Goofy baseball caps with the hang-down teeth.
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