Motor Mania

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

Even the most mild mannered pedestrian becomes afflicted with MOTOR MANIA when he gets behind the steering wheel of a car.

This little film is not only humorous - in a bone-jarring sort of way - but it also deals with a serious problem: emotional drivers who are a danger to everyone else on the highway. This was the first of Goofy's car safety cartoons and would later be followed by FREEWAYPHOBIA NO. 1 and GOOFY'S FREEWAY TROUBLE (both 1965). 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 storm of naysayers, 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 always pay off.

Disney's short Motor Mania concerns Goofy as Mr. Walker, a calm, competent pedestrian who is just your average Joe as he walks down the street every day. But when Mr. Walker gets behind the wheel of a vehicle, he turns into "Mr. Wheeler," a venomous, hateful man, consumed by road rage. Nobody every drives fast enough for Mr. Wheeler, it seems, and it doesn't help his big mouth and reckless driving get him into more accidents than the average person. What happens to Mr. Walker when he gets behind the wheel and how come he can't simply drive without being filled to the brim with malice and hatefulness?

Unfortunately, what I will now call "The Walker/Wheeler Complex," some people can be the nicest, most warm- hearted people when they're simply walking down the street but as soon as they get in a car, they become consumed by rage and morose feelings that they lash out at other drivers. It's a sad, true reality Jack Kinney's Motor Mania illustrates very well, with quick-moving action scenes and moments that inspire laughs as well as winces because of true and relevant they actually are. Despite being part of a whole other world, Disney, with their variety of short films offering social commentary on a number of issues, prove once more they were and still are very much in the loop.

Directed by: Jack Kinney.

Though the 1950s is far from my favorite decade as far as the Disney studios are concerned, there is no denying how awesome the Goofy cartoons were, especially under the direction of Jack Kinney. Motor Mania (1950) is among the best of the bunch. It features Goofy as a mild-mannered fellow who becomes a homicidal, road-raging maniac when put behind the wheel. Not only is it bizarre to see Goofy so malicious, but it's funny too, especially because many of the film's observations about the manners of drivers have not aged or become irrelevant. The pacing is great, gags both surreal and grounded in reality come flying at you with no mercy whatsoever-- a great time!

This cartoon short has probably been seen by more than nearly any other. Why? Because often drivers education classes used the film as a how-to on how NOT to behave behind the wheel.

It all begins with a Goofy-like character, Mr. Walker leaving his house in the morning. He's described as a lovely man...but once he gets behind the wheel, he undergoes a Jekyll and Hyde-like transformation into Mr. Wheeler....a selfish, angry jerk! He drives like a road hog, has no consideration for others and lets his anger control him...all very educational AND funny to watch at the same time...a very rare thing!! Well worth seeing.

Certainly one of my favourites alongside Goofy Gymnastics. It is not just one of the funniest cartoons I've seen with its inspired Jekyll and Hyde vibe, but with the serious problem of motorists in cars it is also important. The animation is just wonderful, sometimes scary and sometimes cleverly exaggerated. The music is full of energy and never feels out of place, the humour is imaginatively timed in that it would tickle your funny bone in an appropriately jarring sort of way and the narration is sardonic and thoughtfully delivered by John McLeish. Goofy is a tour-De-force as Walker and Wheeler, lovable as the former and quite scary as the latter. All in all, a superb cartoon and one of the best that Goofy has been in. 10/10 Bethany Cox