Leçon de Ski

With the loss of Pinto Colvig for voice work, the sound track of this Goofy cartoon from Disney is carried by the narrator telling us the details of the sport, punctuated, of course, by the slapstick antics of Our Hero. There is also yodeling, sound effects and the accordion-laden score.

It's very rough, bone-breaking slapstick, of a variety that was almost never practiced in America in slapstick's heyday.... although some of the Laurel & Hardy shorts would come close. European slapstick, on the other hand, was much rougher, particularly the Italian shorts before the First World War. The essential humor is, of course, that while it all looks very dangerous, it's done in such an offhand fashion, and nothing serious ever happens.

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

The viewer is instructed in THE ART OF SKIING on snow - with the Goof giving the perfect examples of what not to do.

This humorous little film was one of several made by Disney between 1940 & 1956 in which Goofy receives instruction in some task or pastime - with inevitably chaotic results. If one ventures beyond the chuckles there is plenty of pertinent information to be gleaned concerning ski clothing & equipment; we even get the terms schuss & slalom explained to us. John McLeish provides the narration in his best documentarian manner.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

Just watched this very funny Disney Goofy cartoon short on YouTube. In this one-as the narrator instructs on the fine art of dressing and then going skiing (which he insists is pronounced SHEE-ING)-the Goof does the opposite in every hilarious way one could think of and more. Director Jack Kinney and his animators milk every bit of humor and slapstick comedy out of this premise and provide a new bit for the humanized dog-his yodel. That yodel was not thought of by the character's original voice-Pinto Colvig who was at Fleischer in Miami at the time-but by his temporary replacement, George Johnson (other yodels were recorded by Hannes Schrolle). That particular bit proved so popular that it became a recurring thing in subsequent Goofy cartoons. So on that note, I highly recommend The Art of Skiiing.

'The Art of Skiing' is another example of Goofy's instructing videos and it does not belong to one of my favorites. Although it is not boring to watch you will not really laugh out loud. The cartoon starts in the morning with Goofy in bed, we see how Goofy put on his clothes and from there we see the kind of skiing Goofy. Of course the voice over says one thing and Goofy shows something completely different.

The problem is, I think, that every single gag is very predictable. You can even guess the kind of animation that will come next and that is not something I really want to see with a cartoon. But still, like I said it was not boring so my time wasn't wasted.

... Until today I had never completely watched this short. For most of my childhood I have enjoyed half of this quite a lot on a different video. It skipped the beginning bit. When I discovered the beginning bit on Youtube I was really surprised that I had missed some.

ANYWAY, this is a very entertaining and amusing short. It has little plot (which may bother some people), instead it has a narrator instructing Goofy how to ski. Despite providing pretty clear instructions, Goofy fails rather miserably. The results of this exceedingly unintelligent dog will provide laughs for a good many people - especially if you like Goofy already. This is also a very good short to watch this coming Christmas, so if you can find it on Youtube as well, you are bound to have a good time with this one!

Enjoy "The Art Of Skiing"! :-)