Dingo architecte

A Walt Disney GOOFY Movie.

The Goof's HOME MADE HOME is a model of construction chaos.

This late entry in Goofy's How To series of cartoons has its humorous moments as he battles with blueprints, glazing & painting. This is one fellow you definitely don't want to hire to build your new bungalow. 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.

One can easily imagine that a person incapable of tying his own shoelaces is given the job of building a house. After doing battle with blueprints that want to remain rolled up, he deals with window glass and paint brushes. It is fun, but it really is sort of predictable. An average Goofy how-to film that is an average part of the canon.

The narrator is here once again, telling us the story about Goofy trying to build his dream home. What results are some classic Goofy vocal and clumsy moments. The best part, I think, is his tangle with a glass window, which seems to have a life of its own. Funny stuff there.

A pretty average cartoon overall - nothing much to laugh about and not much excitement to make the story more enjoyable. But, it is nice to see Goofy try his best efforts to build his dream house; shows his commitment, nonetheless.

Grade C

After finding Lion Down (1951-also reviewed) to be a delight,I got set to visit Goofy at his new home.

View on the film:

Nailing every mishaps Goofy has following the blueprints, John McLeish gives a dry-wit, dead-pan narration, which acts as a great balance to the slap-stick antics.

With his brother Dick co-writing the script with Milt Schaffer , director Jack Kinney turns Goofy's simple DIY mission set-up into a lightning-fast reel of gags,with the smooth hand-drawn animation turning the spray paint machine into a snake,and getting Goofy tangled in the blueprints for his home.

Not one of Goofy's absolute best shorts, but what makes him and his shorts so entertaining in the first place is here and done very well. It is somewhat routine in terms of story, if you are familiar with his shorts you won't be all that surprised at what happens. That doesn't matter so much as the Goofy shorts are not about the story but the situations and how Goofy reacts to them. They are done to highly amusing effect, the best of the gags like the ending and the one with the window pane could be seen as hilarious even, and Goofy reacts to them in a wholly appealing and effortlessly funny way in a scenario that plays to his strengths. The narration is droll and thoughtful, managing to entertain and teach without feeling heavy-handed, and John McLeish delivers it wonderfully in a way that nobody else that narrated when he didn't(there are a few late-40s-ish ones where that was the case) did as well. The animation is lively and vibrantly coloured, with everything drawn very nicely. The music continues to be characterful and catchy with lovely orchestration, the title sequence here is very jazzy. In conclusion, colourful and very funny short, not one of Goofy's or Disney's best but still great fun. 9/10 Bethany Cox