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.

'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.

This doesn't belong to my favourite Goofy cartoons. What is good about it though is that it is very amusing. Sure, the animation is a little dated, and some of the narration got a little distracting, but seeing Goofy struggling on skis was very, very funny, especially when he rides down the side of the mountain, and disappears down a hole, and you hear that trademark whine he makes. The narrator assures Goofy it is all very simple, but Goofy fails miserably. It's part of an ongoing joke, that Goofy is pretty useless at anything simple. I liked the music and I liked the ending. Overall, very good, not Goofy's best, but entertaining for fans. 8/10 Bethany Cox.

Another short on Disney Plus is this 1941 classic, part of a series of "how to" spoofs that the corporation has made starring the ... dog, is goofy a dog? Let's not question the Goofy/Pluto mechanics of the Disney universe right now.

Narrated by John McLeish, the short sees Goofy (Danny Webb) go on a skiing vacation to the Sugar Bowl ski resort in Northern California. There he clumsily dresses himself, clumsily goes skiing and clumsily runs a ski jump.

I don't want to go to overboard in my review of this one, it is a short after all and just 8 minutes long but it's a classic one and, apparently the debut of Goofy's now iconic holler. It's a lot of fun too and both me, and my son, chuckled along with the cartoon.

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.