How to Play Football

Here's another "Goofy" explanation of a sport: this time, college football. The beginning explains all the ingredients that go into the game, and that's pretty funny.

Then the football starts, pitting Taxidermy U. vs. Anthropology A&M. The star is Taxidermy's "Swivelhips Smith," who takes the opening kickoff and swivels his way 105 yards for a touchdown!

This is really cornball material, but very funny in spots. For example of the corn, they explain "the quarterback barks the signals" and you hear a dark barking - that sort of thing. The funniest play of the game is a 100-yard fumble recovery and run. The rest is fairly routine sight gags.

Very corny, very dated but definitely fun to watch.

Not only that, one of the best sports cartoons and one of Goofy's best. Hockey Homicide is perhaps the very best of the Goofy sports cartoons, but How to Play Football is one of the finest examples also. The animation is colourful and fluid as one would anticipate, and the music when it's played is full of energy and makes the audience part of the exciting atmosphere that you get playing sports(or even performing in a concert for that matter). The story, which focuses on college football at its most dominant, is simple and always exciting. But the stars of How to Play Football, other than the deliciously sardonic narration and the gag that the crowd ignore the narration giving a sense that the rules aren't important to them, were Goofy and the gags. How to Play Football is full to the brim with gags(mostly sight gags), and all of them hilarious and on target. Goofy is seen in several personalities, as a wily coach, pampered star player, brutish lineman and silly kicker, all in the same character design, and I found it both interesting and amazing at the same time. All in all, if you love cartoons and sports you will find How to Play Football a treat(I'm not the biggest sports fan but find the How to sports cartoons brilliant on the whole). 10/10 Bethany Cox

After your average Disney short - especially one from the 1940's that centers itself around a "how-to" demonstration of a specific sport - it almost feels as if you need a nap or a reassuring breather. The Disney shorts progress at a briskly-paced rate that almost defies all sense and time and even at their average length - a brief seven to eight minutes - they often race by at such an inconceivably quick rate that one needs to take a look at the time again. Jack Kinney's How to Play Football is no exception to the rules and the content and approach is the same as other "how-to" shorts from the global empire that included golf, baseball, and swimming. The film stars Goofy and gives us a simple yet kinetic look at the sport of football through the use of slapstick and anarchy, pitting together Taxidermy Tech against Anthropology A&M in a rousing and lawless game. The short features the trademark and expected traits of Disney's shorts, being very colorful and involving, but also, just plain entertaining and fun.

Directed by: Jack Kinney.

Since there is little reality to this, we have to look at it for its comedic value. Goofy and his ilk are again there to teach us about a sport. This is college football and the most accurate part of it is the milieu itself. The game is silly but the whole surrounding business is quite well done. The fans, the doctors, the alumni, the coaches are the most fun. Of course, the game itself is just craziness. I saw this in my childhood or on The Wonderful World of Disney and got a kick out of it. I did like how the final touchdown was scored.

This Walt Disney Cartoon spoofs the many newsreels that people watched in Cinemas in the '20's, '30's and '40's. It explains to viewers how to play (American) Football, with hilarious results. Recommended Deeply.