Positive proof that I'm not just a goof
You’re not going to get an unbiased review from me on this one. A Goofy Movie ranks among my most treasured and rewatched films, a movie I have an almost molecular relationship with, and one that I suspect hits harder for those of us who grew up on it during its underdog afterlife on cable and VHS rather than its recent canonization (Disney was pushing 30th anniversary merch hard when I visited Disney World last year). So understand that a mere puff piece would have satisfied me. A sixty-minute sizzle reel of talking heads and movie clips and I’d have walked away happy. But Not Just a Goof is a lot better and more interesting than that.
The documentary, assembled in part by Kevin Lima’s nephew
Eric Kimelton from a recovered cache of production videotapes, traces the full life cycle of A Goofy Movie: its origins in a Disney animation department operating entirely in the shadow of The Lion King, through its rocky development under the thumb of Jeffrey Katzenberg, to its box office fizzle and eventual cult resurrection. It’s the story of the department’s “B-team”: young, hungry animators and voice actors working on what the studio brass clearly considered a minor project, making it up as they went. The footage they left behind is really something. It’s all stuff that existed merely in my head before: We see Tevin Campbell and Rosie Gaines recording “I2I.” We witness a wonderful moment when Jason Marsden and Kellie Martin actually kissed in the recording booth to simulate the awkward energy between Max and Roxanne. (Martin is just as adorable as I always imagined the voice actor for Roxanne must be.) The interviews carry real weight, sometimes, particularly Bill Farmer’s reflections on fighting to bring depth and new dimension to a character who had historically been defined by a single gag.
The most fascinating thread running through the film, though, is Jeffrey Katzenberg — both hero and villain of this story, sometimes in the same anecdote. Like every studio-financed film, A Goofy Movie is the product of both mercenary and artistic forces, and Katzenberg cut with both those edges. He tried to reinvent A Goofy Movie as a Steve Martin star vehicle, forcing Lima and Farmer to tiptoe around the whims of the fickle C-suite producer controlling their fates to keep Goofy Goofy. But he’s also the film’s lone champion among Disney’s executive class, the only honcho who believed in its heart when other executives would’ve axed it at a moments notice. The documentary doesn’t flatten Katzenberg into a stock villain or savior; it airs out that complexity. Scary to think that if Katzenberg had been canned just a few months earlier into its production, A Goofy Movie might never have existed.
Where the film falls short of its full potential is as a piece of documentary storytelling on its own merits. The story definitely has some holes. For one, a few seconds of archival footage are all we get of Katzenberg. Mostly we hear about him second-hand. His take would definitely have enriched the story. The film works around that limitation, and others, with some fill-in animation: a stylized 2D “blue line” animation to depict pivotal meetings and characters, and the technique is charming, but it highlights a problem: there isn’t quite enough material here to sustain a truly great doc. “It was a lot of hard work, we made it through, and we’re glad the final product landed” is, truthfully, the summary of most good and great films’ production stories. And where the film often avoids being overly self-congratulatory, the final ten minutes really lean into back-patting — well-deserved, in my opinion, but the celebratory tone tips from affecting into indulgent.
Nonetheless, I had a huge smile and a warm heart for the duration of Not Just a Goof. Cameron Chambers’ score, which mimics the orchestral feel of ’90s Disney Menken/Zimmer/etc. triumphs, pings the nostalgia and sweeping feeling. And I suspect I’m not the only viewer for whom this documentary doubles as a kind of homecoming, a proper coronation. If you’ve ever loved A Goofy Movie — if you’ve ever belted “Stand Out” in your car or teared up at Goofy telling Max he’ll always be his son — this is must-watch. For everyone else, it’s an engaging portrait of an underdog creative team that made something with more lasting power than anyone expected.
Is It Good?
Very Good (6/8)
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