Teachers Are People

Everything begins as a normal day with a kid named George who refuses to go to school so he changes his clothes we see that every child is riding a bike with other kids until the bus arrives leaving the dogs sad, then we see that Goofy is the teacher for the day of today as he must fair, understandable, honest and intelligent he puts a stop sign on the cars so kids can cross the street then he gets stuck in the middle of the road as he runs very fast, in the class we see that kids are making a mess until he arrives first they sing two songs called Good Morning Your Teacher and Were Happy To Be Here then he makes the role call with every kids names and they learn Geography noticing that George is making a funny face that Spongebob and Patrick would make fun of it then Everything in school goes all right until someone arrives a punched Goofy in the head one time and then a bomb explodes and we see the Bart Simpson running gag writting on the board saying the will not bomb the school.

Disney introduces the school from hell. The kids are a pack of sociopaths. Goofy plays a good natured man who tries to teach, but he is headed off at every pass. One little guy in particular is a holy terror. He brings an arsenal of weapons to school and intimidates and harms others. This wouldn't play too well these days where there has been so much violence. Still, Goofy endures.

Disney's Teachers are People is a wacky short that is captured with pure honesty as it portrays all the troubles an average teacher faces in a typical school day. Goofy plays a classroom teacher, forced to teach a plethora of delinquent children who were seemingly never taught respect or kindness and are basically running rampant the entire time, with one student named George causing most of the ruckus. The short is a colorful and often surprisingly hilarious endeavor, all the more-so when you realize how honest it is in the regard that this is what many teachers must put up with each and every day (most of which not to this extreme, I hope). As a minor footnote, the film does include one element that would most definitely not be included today, which is the short concluding with George bombing the school with his punishment being writing "I will never bomb the school again" on the chalkboard over and over again. However, for all the ruckus the short cooks up, it's surprising to note how much the finished product actually is, with bright, vibrant animation taking over and an always entertaining Goofy character taking prominence in the foreground.

Directed by: Jack Kinney.

This is a Goofy cartoon from Disney, where a narrator explains the notions about educating children; Goofy is the teacher.

This is more like an episode of a kids' variety show than a conventional Disney cartoon short with humor, adventures, slapstick comedy and just plain fun. What you get is just a non-entertaining attempt to illustrate the fundamentals of education and what goes around inside the kids' classroom.

While it may be educational, the pacing is very slow and the characters weren't remarkable. Even Goofy himself wasn't funny or laughable. Not one of the better ones.

Grade D

HAVING SET THE bar extremely high, Director Jack Kinney had perhaps created a sort of tender trap for his subsequent product. As a fine example and prima-fascia evidence to present in support of this thesis, Ladies & Gentlemen of the Jury, we give you TEACHERS ARE HUMAN.

TO START WITH, there was definitely a change in the art style. At least in the area of character design and rendering to the screen, we sense a sort of dramatic departure from what has gone before. We cannot say if it is either better or worse; but it definitely different to what we had become used to watching in those Disney short subject cartoons.

THERE ALSO APPEARS to be a sort of midstream compromise of the children populating this apparently one room, "Little Red Schoolhouse" type of elementary school; which just happens to be located in modern day (for 1952) American Suburbia. We can't be sure if they are human, humanoid, anthropomorphic puppy dogs or some sort of mutants done up to order as in THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS/ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. (Take your pick, Schultz!)

THE STORYLINE BRINGS us up close and personal with the trials and tribulations* of the teacher in dealing with the children. All is pretty standard stuff, but is expertly handled and framed with a great deal of brevity. No gag situation is over used and the action as described by the voice over talents of narrator, Mr. Alan Reed (future voice of FRED FLINTSTONE over at Hannah-Barbera Productions).

WHILE THIS EFFORT was obviously not our favourite GOOFY picture, we did enjoy it and do recommend it to our many faithful, loyal and kindly readers.

NOTE * In retrospect, those problems encountered by the Academic community in 1950 would seem to be quite tame by today's standards. This is also prior to BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, a milestone in cinematic portrayals of Juvenile Delinquency.