Goofy's Freeway Troubles

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

GOOFY'S FREEWAY TROUBLES begin the moment he leaves common sense behind and heads out onto the busy motor ways.

This valuable cartoon is full of practical advice on how to maintain safety while driving America's most dangerous roads. Goofy illustrates in the persona of Stupidicus ultimus. Paul Frees supplies the narration.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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 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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

In this second Walt Disney short about the problems of Goofy driving on a freeway, we get a long list of problems faced by the thoughtless driver.

With the decline of America's movie-theater-going habit and the lessening of production of "selected short subjects" for a full program, Walt Disney's cartoon production declined. The occasional feature was still an ongoing thing, but as he moved into live-action movies, his short-cartoon staff had less to do. While they were often called upon for filler pieces for his prime-time TV show, shorts production declined, and they moved away from pure entertainment to a mix of educational shorts and public-service shorts like this one. His staff continued to make use of his established characters, like this one where Goofy is shown being, well, goofy. Likewise Scrooge McDuck might appear in a lecture about money. So there's a good deal of entertainment here, and the instructions of how to behave are offered in an entertaining fashion. But the solemn side of the message tends to overwhelm the fun of watching Goofy foul up.

Just watched this Walt Disney educational cartoon starring Goofy on YouTube. This is the sequel to Freewayphobia # 1 and is the last time original Goofy voice Pinto Colvig would play this iconic character before his death in 1967. This time, the Goofy character plays Stupidus Altimus-someone who's careless about everything especially driving and the many other things involving either packing, checking, or repairing his car. Quite a few hilarious visual gags like when the tire detaches from the running car on the freeway or when stripped to his boxers while stopping on the road, another running car takes away the polka dots on them! And narrator Paul Frees can be both humorous and serious in making his points of how important a checklist is when preparing to take the automobile for a ride. So on that note, for Disney enthusiasts especially those of Goofy, I highly recommend Goofy's Freeway Troubles.

A great sequel to a great short, very true in style to it but ideas wise it doesn't try to be derivative of it. The animation is very bouncy and colourful with detailed backgrounds, this and its predecessor Freewayphobia is far superior animation-wise to Aquamania(like an experiment with a relatively new animation technique that didn't quite work), the first Goofy short of the 60s and the one that came before them. The music is beautifully orchestrated and has great character and energy, succeeding as ever with synchronising well with the gags. The narration is very well-written and a great blend of the comic and the serious, managing- like the rest of the Goofy documentarian-style shorts- to entertain as well as teach. Seeing Goofy do the opposite as to what the narrator is saying is always fun to watch. The gags manage to be fresh and hilarious, helped by their crisp timing and lively pacing. The story is simple and structurally similar to its predecessor, but never dull and well-told. Goofy counter-balances against the narrator to truly effective effect, unlike Freewayphobia he only takes on one persona instead of three but his facial expressions, gestures and how he talks make for a persona that is memorable and plays to Goofy's strengths. Paul Frees does a sterling job with the narration, and Pinto Colvig is fine as Goofy. Overall, a great sequel to a great short, Goofy's last short is a good note to end on. 9/10 Bethany Cox