No Smoking

A narrator tells the story of a Goofy lookalike named George Geef, who is an avid smoker, but attempted to quit. After stopping smoking for, like, a few minutes, he had that sudden urge to take a puff again. So, he goes through highs and lows to get that cigar or cigarette.

The message in this cartoon would obviously be that smoking is bad for you; however, it wasn't really construed appropriately here. The ending was left pretty ambiguous as to what George was telling you - smoke or not to smoke.

Like much of other Goofy cartoons, this was has a lot of narrating (and smoking, in this case). Not much of a laughable cartoon here.

Grade D+

No Smoking is not a favourite of mine really. However, I still thought it was very good and in my mind nowadays it is relevant. No Smoking is funny, there are some good writing and sight gags, but it made me think too even as a child. I am not a smoker, I never have been and I doubt I ever will be, but I still found this cartoon relevant. The cartoon ends on an interesting note too.

The animation is good mostly, it looks solid, has some good visual ideas and Goofy looks good. The music and story are also solid and Pinto Colvig does a great job as the voice of Goofy.

All in all, No Smoking is very good. Whether you smoke or not, it should be a fun and interesting watch, without feeling you are being preached to. 9/10 Bethany Cox

In the politically correct America we live in today, it's so easy to look at a Disney short like No Smoking and have our eyes widen a bit. Just when you thought a ten-minute educational short on how the menstrual cycle works is enough, herein lies another short by the enormous and ubiquitous empire that is Disney that focuses on their popular character Goofy having a huge nicotine dependency. In one desperate, nearly-crazed attempt to score something he can smoke after quitting cold turkey, Goofy demands a man for "a cig, a fag, a cigar" and even weed. In 1951, this didn't bother anyone, but try showing Jack Kinney's No Smoking before a Disney film today and watch how fast a lawsuit or a heap of potboiling controversy would result.

However, No Smoking doesn't promote tobacco products nor does it really have much of an opinion about them other than showcasing how out of control and potentially implosive one can get if they quit a long-standing habit. Goofy is a chain-smoking addict who smokes while doing every conceivable event before upping the courageous and the will to quit one day by throwing everything he has cigarette-related away. It takes all but six seconds for nicotine-dependent tendencies to kick in before Goofy becomes practically a lunatic going through withdrawal, searching every sidewalk crack and vacant area outside in desperate hopes to find a cigarette butt he can smoke. Despite the subject matter, which could've been darker and more eerie in the blink of an eye, this is a tame short that, again, is worth more of a mention in a discussion of Disney or how the times have changed more-so than the lasting value or present entertainment value one gets while viewing such a short. Not to mention, the short was extremely subversive for its time since the war on tobacco had yet to begin, and Television and film during the time still portrayed smoking as somewhat glamorous.

Directed by: Jack Kinney.

We are introduced to Goofy's big time habit of smoking. We see him every moment of the day puffing away, in a cloud of cigarette smoke. At some point he tries to quit, but in a smoking culture it is easier said than done. This is a fast paced little cartoon that is probably designed for children, to show them the evils of smoking. Colorful and well-done.

And that's much about it, because that's the only point of it to show us.

If it really was an anti smoke short, it was ruined by the ending. It pretty much had the whole point of stopping smoking left unanswered. But it illustrated the frustration by stopping pretty well.

The animation was good, I will give it that.