User reviews

In this animated short, Goofy plays a teacher trying to reach his pupils. Most of it consists of goofball gags and some slight humor with the way kids of the 50s viewed school. The real reason to watch and study this short however, is for its implicit (and attempt to find humor in) school violence. In the short, "Billy" brings a virtual arsenal of weapons to school, including a gun, slingshot and hand grenade. Goofy eventually, lightheartedly takes these away, disposing of the grenade in the trash can. Billy goes on to cheat off a students paper by "holding him up" with a water pistol, and blows up the school. In the end, "Billy" is seen writing on the chalk board (as does Bart Simpson 40 years later), "I will not bomb the school again." This is another example of Disney naivete and really seems frightening in todays culture. 8/10

Disney's Teachers are People is a wacky short that is captured with pure honesty as it portrays all the troubles an average teacher faces in a typical school day. Goofy plays a classroom teacher, forced to teach a plethora of delinquent children who were seemingly never taught respect or kindness and are basically running rampant the entire time, with one student named George causing most of the ruckus. The short is a colorful and often surprisingly hilarious endeavor, all the more-so when you realize how honest it is in the regard that this is what many teachers must put up with each and every day (most of which not to this extreme, I hope). As a minor footnote, the film does include one element that would most definitely not be included today, which is the short concluding with George bombing the school with his punishment being writing "I will never bomb the school again" on the chalkboard over and over again. However, for all the ruckus the short cooks up, it's surprising to note how much the finished product actually is, with bright, vibrant animation taking over and an always entertaining Goofy character taking prominence in the foreground.

Directed by: Jack Kinney.

HAVING SET THE bar extremely high, Director Jack Kinney had perhaps created a sort of tender trap for his subsequent product. As a fine example and prima-fascia evidence to present in support of this thesis, Ladies & Gentlemen of the Jury, we give you TEACHERS ARE HUMAN.

TO START WITH, there was definitely a change in the art style. At least in the area of character design and rendering to the screen, we sense a sort of dramatic departure from what has gone before. We cannot say if it is either better or worse; but it definitely different to what we had become used to watching in those Disney short subject cartoons.

THERE ALSO APPEARS to be a sort of midstream compromise of the children populating this apparently one room, "Little Red Schoolhouse" type of elementary school; which just happens to be located in modern day (for 1952) American Suburbia. We can't be sure if they are human, humanoid, anthropomorphic puppy dogs or some sort of mutants done up to order as in THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS/ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. (Take your pick, Schultz!)

THE STORYLINE BRINGS us up close and personal with the trials and tribulations* of the teacher in dealing with the children. All is pretty standard stuff, but is expertly handled and framed with a great deal of brevity. No gag situation is over used and the action as described by the voice over talents of narrator, Mr. Alan Reed (future voice of FRED FLINTSTONE over at Hannah-Barbera Productions).

WHILE THIS EFFORT was obviously not our favourite GOOFY picture, we did enjoy it and do recommend it to our many faithful, loyal and kindly readers.

NOTE * In retrospect, those problems encountered by the Academic community in 1950 would seem to be quite tame by today's standards. This is also prior to BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, a milestone in cinematic portrayals of Juvenile Delinquency.

Disney introduces the school from hell. The kids are a pack of sociopaths. Goofy plays a good natured man who tries to teach, but he is headed off at every pass. One little guy in particular is a holy terror. He brings an arsenal of weapons to school and intimidates and harms others. This wouldn't play too well these days where there has been so much violence. Still, Goofy endures.

Not one of Goofy's best shorts, with a story that comes across as routine, but very entertaining and also historically interesting. The school violence and the references to it are easy to spot though probably controversial at the time, is amusing and not too violent and fits very well within the story and its concept. The animation is bright and colourful with everything drawn smoothly, and the music is adeptly orchestrated and full of character. One of the Disney shorts' strengths was how the music merged so well with the humour, and you see that with Teachers are People too. The sight gags are slight but very funny and the sort of stuff people can relate to easily, especially the parent-teacher conference and the ending. Goofy is still likable and his everyman persona works so well for him, he's also great here with a scenario that plays to his strengths. Billy is one of those characters that has been seen many times and he is a brat but he is crucial to the story and his actions do make for some genuine laughs to be had. The narration is the sort that entertains and teaches, very like the best of the Disney/Goofy How To...series, and Alan Reed's voice work pitches it perfectly. Pinto Colvig is fine as Goofy too. All in all, interesting, funny and colourful, not one of the best but a winner still. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is a Goofy cartoon from Disney, where a narrator explains the notions about educating children; Goofy is the teacher.

This is more like an episode of a kids' variety show than a conventional Disney cartoon short with humor, adventures, slapstick comedy and just plain fun. What you get is just a non-entertaining attempt to illustrate the fundamentals of education and what goes around inside the kids' classroom.

While it may be educational, the pacing is very slow and the characters weren't remarkable. Even Goofy himself wasn't funny or laughable. Not one of the better ones.

Grade D

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

Goofy strives to remind the viewer that TEACHERS ARE PEOPLE just like everyone else.

Although humorous, many educators may not be too amused by this little film as it hits too close to the mark. Imagine a classroom with 4 or 5 kids just like young George. The animation & storyline are enjoyable, but routine.

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 storm of naysayers, 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 always pay off.

Everything begins as a normal day with a kid named George who refuses to go to school so he changes his clothes we see that every child is riding a bike with other kids until the bus arrives leaving the dogs sad, then we see that Goofy is the teacher for the day of today as he must fair, understandable, honest and intelligent he puts a stop sign on the cars so kids can cross the street then he gets stuck in the middle of the road as he runs very fast, in the class we see that kids are making a mess until he arrives first they sing two songs called Good Morning Your Teacher and Were Happy To Be Here then he makes the role call with every kids names and they learn Geography noticing that George is making a funny face that Spongebob and Patrick would make fun of it then Everything in school goes all right until someone arrives a punched Goofy in the head one time and then a bomb explodes and we see the Bart Simpson running gag writting on the board saying the will not bomb the school.