User Reviews

After spending all day in Birmingham getting some gifts for two birthdays, I decided to end the day by watching a short and sweet short. Planning to start the second Complete Goofy DVD in a few days,I decided today was the perfect time to start watching Goofy again.

The plot:

Return home from work, Goofy sees an ad for gym equipment that can help him build muscles. Getting all the equipment, Goofy takes it to the gym, and finds out that building muscles is tougher than expected.

View on the film:

With the screenplay by Dick Kinney mostly keeping Goofy at the gym, director Jack Kinney (brother of Dick) uses the setting to keep the Comedy moving at a lightning-fast pace, with each gym machine Goofy uses leading to rubbery slap-stick Comedy mishaps. Pumping Goofy up,the fluid, brightly coloured animation lifts all the troubles Goofy has with weights, with Pinto Colvig wonderfully putting Goofy's tiredness across in his voice, as Goofy goofs up at the weight lifting.

"Goofy Gymnastics" is an American cartoon from 1949, so this one has its 70th anniversary this year, which shows you how old it is. Sadly everybody working on this film is long gone, but thanks to their efforts Goofy is still very well-known today. At 6.5 minutes is is not a long cartoon by any means and the title already gives away that it is another Goofy work and there were quite few of these around that era in the latter years of the Golden Age of Animation. This is Disney of course. I already mentioned the running time and to think that it took until 2:00 roughly till Goofy finally started exercising here, there was a lengthy introduction that lasted almost one third of the film that turns Goofy into Average Joe again coming home from work now and being exhausted, but this is when the aczion only begins. It was an okay film, not one of my Goofy favorites and also inferior to the Tennis short starring Goofy from the same year, but that is of course due to my preference. Other people won't find it inferior I'm sure. Early on, it was almost more fun when we don't see Goofy as he crashes down to the floor into the apartment below. Next up i was already a bit surprised that he actually succeeded with these exercises pulling himself up that bar, but then we see the truth and that was kinda funny. The final act is disappointing though and sacrifices wit for spectacle as we see Goofy flying out of his apartment when too eager to perform. But despite the weak ending, I give this one a thumbs-up, also thanks to the moving mini muscles, at one point up on his head even and the muscular background that Goofy fits surprisingly well at the end. Go check this one out if you love old cartoons. The Kinneys and Colvig as well as McLeish (lets not forget him only because he is not as famous as the trio I mentioned before) did a good job here overall. Fun watch at times.

. . . becoming the Governor of California. Any random schlub can move into the Executive Mansion if they fill out a coupon in a muscle magazine for a home gym, use this equipment to become a well-sculpt body-builder like Goofy here and than star in a bunch of B-Movies, such as CONAN THE BARBARIAN. After that, it's simply a matter of getting a Texas energy company to bankrupt the Golden State, blame it on the sitting Chief of California and win a special recall election.