El Día de los Padres

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

Goofy tries coping with the child, the pets and all the housework during FATHER'S DAY OFF.

Here is a cautionary little film for any male who's ever thought his wife had it easy around the house. Pete has a tiny cameo at the end as a police detective.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

A somewhat laughable Goofy cartoon where he was left in charge of his household while his wife goes out. From trying to dust the furniture to ironing his wife's dress, everything just about goes wrong with poor Goofy. Even his kid and pets don't cooperate, as they pretty much trashes the home. All these mishaps lead to some pretty hilarious results, from the firemen trying to put out fire to a telephone operator mistakenly thinking a crime has taken place in Goofy's household. You'll wish you have better organizational skills in doing chores after watching this cartoon.

Grade B

Goofy is one of Disney's best characters, with his character evolution being truly fascinating, and all his shorts are at least entertaining. Father's Day Off certainly is that, and is one of his better domestic shorts. The story isn't the most surprising, but the pacing keeps things moving at a quick pace and the quality of the gags ensure that the gags are not too obvious. The animation is colourful and drawn in a fluid and detailed way, not the best-looking of Goofy's shorts but still very nicely done. The music is catchy and is orchestrated beautifully, the way it syncs with what is going on in the gags, action and animation is seamless. The narration is funny and somewhat informative too, and the gags are clever and serve a point to the story. They are also never less than amusing, with most of them based around the listening of the radio program that is taken literally by the wife and they are the best gags. The scene with the salesman is a good touch too. Goofy is his usual lovable self, he is clumsy and does a lot wrong but that is part of his charm and it nearly always makes for hilarious results here and in general. His wife is not the original of characters but is well placed in the short. Pete's tiny cameo at the end is nice, and Alan Reed's voice work as the narrator is perfect, if just lacking the sardonic thoughtfulness of John McLeish. On the whole, great fun, not one of Goofy's very best but one of his better domestic shorts. 9/10 Bethany Cox

MAYBE IT'S JUST my being now a crabby, old codger; but it seems that many of the Disney short subject cartoons of this period (the early 1950's) weren't quite up to the same level that those of only a few years before. Oh sure, we'd never castigate the work of the animation team as worthless; for such as this FATHER'S DAY OFF (1953) has its bright moments.

PERHAPS IT IS a case of going to the well once too often, for the same people under Director Jack Kinney had been at the helm for some years. That they had a fine record of accomplishments in their resume and a few Oscars to boot. So what is it that we find to be at the heart of the matter?

IT COULD BE a combination of factors which contribute to our slight irritation. This was now several "Ages" beyond the zenith of the theatrical cartoon that flowered during World War II. It was now: the Atomic Age, the Television Age, the Age of the Post War Baby Boomer, the Rock n' Roll years and what was perhaps the greatest years of Pro$perity in the USA.

SO WE THEORIZE that the Disney production team made a conscious effort to "change with the times." That meant slightly different story lines, different treatments, pacing was changed and even the artwork, both in character design and the backgrounds, was "adapted" to this new decade.

ONCE AGAIN, WE may well be Old Fashioned", but as my good friend, Schultz, would say;"If ain't broke, why fix it?"

Very funny, with intelligent and hilarious jokes, with a very good animation, good morals and good actors. I highly recommend it