How to Fish

There is a sameness to all these videos made by Disney. This one gives a brief history of the need for people to fish and then takes us on a trip with good old Goofy. Of course, it is one pitfall after another as he tries to do what the narrator says, missing the boat each time. But he is really undaunted no matter how many failures occur. There is a lot of action and a bit of fun here and there.

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

The Goof illustrates HOW TO FISH in the worst possible way imaginable.

This humorous little film was one of a large number of pseudo-educational cartoons produced by Disney between 1940 and 1953 to feature Goofy at his most bumbling & inarticulate. A few tidbits of actual knowledge may be gleaned amid the laughs, however, as the narration discusses when to fish, fishing fever, where to fish, the trout, how to approach the stream, fly fishing, casting the lure & lake fishing. John McLeish narrates 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.

How to Fish is not one of the best How to cartoons for me. It does have a formulaic story, you know that Goofy is going to demonstrate in how not to do something(in this case fishing) and you do get an inkling of how it is going to end. However, it is still thoroughly entertaining. For those who love fishing, my dad and grandfather do and I do remember going fishing once(though personally it's not one of my favourite things to do, I can definitely see though why it is so for others) and watching How to Fish was a piece of nostalgia for me in a way. Goofy is on top form, doing what he does best, being likable and clumsy without meaning to and we love him for it. As ever there are bits where he finds things that we find obvious but he doesn't, again this said that has always been part of his charm and he was always at his best in that situation. There are some really great gags, especially when Goofy lures a fly to catch a fish and we see the action from the fish's perspective under-water and in the finale when he catches the motor to his boat instead of catching the real fish. The animation is fluid and vibrant as you'd expect from Disney shorts of this particular period, and the music is very energetic. All in all, a very, very good Goofy short, although the story is formulaic, Goofy's antics and charm and the gags really carry the day. 9/10 Bethany Cox

More narrated "How To" cartoons featuring Goody, this time of him fishing. But, as with anything he tries, his unorthodox fishing techniques doesn't quite yield him much results, resulting in some laughable but predictable moments. Nothing too new or unique here. An average cartoon.

Grade C+