Max Holland: A Goofy Movie (1995) Movie Review

This is a movie that I really need to talk about. I’ve been holding back my thoughts on this one for so long.

Disclaimer: Nobody asked me to review this. This is a movie I’m looking back on in retrospect. There will also be spoilers in this review, so if you haven’t seen this movie, you may want to stop reading right now. So:

****SPOILERS****

A Goofy Movie (1995) is an animated musical comedy distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and produced by DisneyToon Studios. It serves as a continuation of the animated sitcom Goof Troop, and it kind of plays out like a John Hughes film. This movie got mixed reviews from critics when it first premiered in theaters, but it was otherwise a moderate box office success and it’s gotten a bit of a cult following on home video. I had this on VHS as a kid and watched it a good number of times and I enjoyed it myself.

The plot is centered on Goofy (Bill Farmer) and his teenage son Max Goof (Jason Marsden), as well as their complicated father/son relationship. Max has his eyes set on a nice girl at his school named Roxanne (Kellie Martin) and is determined to impress her by the end of the school year. To do this, he pulls a stunt, with the help from a couple of friends, at the school auditorium posing as the R&B pop sensation Powerline. However, this disrupts the principal’s speech, in which as a result, Max and his friends get punished for it.

Goofy works in photography with his friend Pete (Jim Cummings) and the two talk about bonding with their sons. Pete has a hastier way of parenting than Goofy and even encourages Goofy to follow his example. Goofy gets a call from Principal Mazur (Wallace Shawn), who threatens him that if he doesn’t re-evaluate his parenting, Max will get the electric chair. This worries Goofy, as he blames himself for not spending enough time with his son. Just then, after seeing a flash sale on bobble heads, Goofy gets the idea to take Max fishing. Max is reluctant about the idea, since he initially planned to take Roxanne to a party with their friends where they watch the Powerline concert live on TV, but then Goofy forces him along.

This leads to Max lying to Roxanne about his dad taking him to Los Angeles to see Powerline live in person, and that Goofy knows Powerline. And so then Goofy and Max go on their road trip to the lake, while having their share of misadventures along the way. Max isn’t on board with the vacation, and often daydreams about Roxanne. Goofy decides to let Max be the navigator as he trusts his son’s responsibility. Though unbeknownst to Goofy, Max rerouted the course to Los Angeles while he was sleeping.

The two visit all kinds of sites and bond very well. They encounter Pete and his son PJ, who are also on a father/son vacation, and Pete overhears Max spilling the beans to PJ about the map. Pete informs Goofy about this, in which the latter has second thoughts about Max being the navigator. At the fork on the road, Max chooses the left, which leads to LA, and this upsets Goofy. The two have a heated argument in which Max snaps that he never wanted to go on the trip in the first place, and being grown up he has his own life now.

Goofy then explains that he only wanted to be a part of that life and that no matter how old Max gets, he’ll always be his son. The two then calm down, and Max tells Goofy about Roxanne, and Goofy is shown to be proud that his son is in love. This leads to the “Nobody Else but You” song number, expressing their father/son relationship. There’s a win, win situation in which Goofy and Max got to fish and still go to the concert.

Earlier on, Goofy teaches Max how to fish showing him a fishing pole technique. This is brought up in the third act as Max uses this technique to save Goofy’s life when they approach a waterfall. They also incorporate it into a dance during the “I2I” number, so that was a nice pay off. In the end, Max admits to Roxanne that he lied about his dad knowing Powerline and that he's been trying to be something he's not. Roxanne then reveals to him that she always liked him just the way he is.

We have a set of supporting characters. I already mentioned Goofy’s friend Pete and his son PJ, and I’ve mentioned Max’s love interest Roxanne. There’s Max and PJ’ stoner friend Bobby, who has an unhealthy addiction to cheese whiz. There’s Stacey, Roxanne’s dorky best friend. Then there’s Principal Mazur, who’s kind of the villain of the movie even though he’s only in it for the first 15 minutes. He’s not very nice at all and appears to have no redeeming traits. He’s even shown to be quite full of himself during his speech. He’s also the one responsible for the main conflict, which makes him the main antagonist.

A Goofy Movie (1995) is quite good. It’s funny and it features a good coming of age story with a solid father and son aspect and some catchy songs. I do have a couple of minor nitpicks. The animation is decent for DisneyToon standards, but at times it comes off as cheap looking. Then there’s the design on the side characters. They’re supposedly sentient dog people, but they look about completely human but with dog noses. In comparison to Goofy, Max, Pete and PJ, the side characters feel just a little out of place. Also, I feel that the movie tried just a little too hard to be hip.

I’d also like to comment that this movie is Shockingly dark and edgy for a G-rated kids cartoon from DisneyToon Studios. We see nuns throughout the movie. During the “Open Road” song number, a hearse drives by, and the dead body pops out of the casket and joins in singing (kind of like that one part in Monty Python's Meaning of Life). During the Lester’s Possum Park sequence, there’s a little girl with a snaggle-toothed smile making direct eye contact, which is rather unsettling (Watching this as a kid, that creeped me out, and still does as an adult) It's like something out of a horror movie (the same can be said about Max's nightmare at the beginning of the movie).

There’s also a body count here. At one point, Goofy and Max hang out with a mime doing mime stuff, and Goofy accidentally kills the mime by cutting the rope that was holding a piano. The two then whistle and walk away. Then, during the I2I sequence, Max has a run in with the security guard. The two have a fight and then the security guard gets sent flying headfirst into the Jumbotron, which had to have ended up killing him. Also, as PJ is watching the concert on TV, Pete is seen drinking beer and spits it out right on the screen at the sight of Goofy and Max. Those are just a couple of things that made me question how this is considered a kid's movie.

All in all, I’d say A Goofy Movie (1995) is a pretty good feel-good animated musical. It’s not one of my personal favorite Disney movies but I have a bit of a soft spot for it (I think the first Toy Story (1995) and The Lion King (1994) were both better).

I give A Goofy Movie (1995) a solid 7.5/10.

So, have you seen A Goofy Movie (1995)? What did you think? Let me know in the comments.

You can check out my video review on YouTube: