Five-and-a-half hours of Goofy may seem like overkill, but for the connoisseur of such things it's nice to have the complete set.
"Hold That Pose," 1950, and "Two-Gun Goofy," 1953, return briefly to the older style of detailed backdrops and a recognizable Goof, but they are exceptions to the rule. Then, after 1953 there's an unexplained jump of nearly eight years with no Goofy releases until 1961 and the final Goofy cartoon, "Aquamania." This last effort is quite different again from anything that went before, displaying the cheap qualities reminiscent of a made-for-television product. Maybe the art work was meant to look rough intentionally as part of some weird artistic style; I don't know. I do know I didn't care for the feature's appearance, and it seemed a sad way to end a series that started out so beautifully rendered.
Video:
The earliest Goofy cartoons are the most visually attractive, with their elaborate scenic precision, but it's here that the colors are very slightly less vivid and bright than the later transfers, and it's here that the most (but not much) grain is evident. From the late forties onward, the colors are more brilliant and the screen is more free of grain. These are relative differences, naturally, and even the earlier Goofy cartoons are quite lovely to look at, some of them announced as restored to their original hues.
Audio:
The sonics are consistent throughout all the Goofy soundtracks: clean, clear monaural. Although no great shakes by today's surround standards, the sound is free of background noise and reproduces the on-screen shenanigans with consummate ease. I daresay, the sound we are hearing today is better than what theater audiences heard fifty or sixty years ago, given the better quality of our modern electronics and speaker systems and the subsequent noise reduction applied to the audio.
Extras:
Both discs in the set contain Goofy cartoons, presented either alphabetically or in the order in which they were made. In addition, both discs contain introductions by film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, who not only gives us information on how and why many of the shorts were made but offers apologies for a few of Disney's depictions of Japanese, Mexican, and Native American stereotypes, as well as for things like making light of school violence. It all has to do with the cultural expectations of the era in which they were made, he explains, and the cartoons in question were all made in good faith and in good fun. In today's age of political correctness, his justifications may or may not sit well with some viewers. Disc one also includes two, brief, five-to-six minute featurettes, the first called "The Essential Goof," about the creation of the Goofy character, and the second, "Pinto Colvig: The Man Behind the Goof," about the fellow who created the voice of the Goof. There is also a menu of program selections, with English as the only spoken language and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Disc two gives us the remainder of the cartoons, plus a fourteen-minute featurette, "A Conversation with Goofy's Voice: Bill Farmer," conducted by Leonard Maltin. Farmer is the current voice of Goofy, a job he tells us he's held since 1986. Then, there are three galleries: "Goofy Through the Years," a poster gallery, and a memorabilia gallery. The discs come in a double keep-case enclosed in an attractively embossed silver-metal box.
Parting Thoughts:
Five-and-a-half hours of Goofy may seem like overkill, but for the connoisseur of such things it's nice to have the complete set. Of course, it would also have been nice to have some of the earlier thirties' cartoons, as well, that featured the Goof as a secondary character, but for that you must get the Disney Treasures sets of "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" and "Mickey Mouse in Black and White." The Disney folks must have so much of this stuff in their vaults from over seventy years of filmmaking, they can probably continue issuing Disney Treasures for the next seven decades and have some things left over. Here's hoping.
Video:
The earliest Goofy cartoons are the most visually attractive, with their elaborate scenic precision, but it's here that the colors are very slightly less vivid and bright than the later transfers, and it's here that the most (but not much) grain is evident. From the late forties onward, the colors are more brilliant and the screen is more free of grain. These are relative differences, naturally, and even the earlier Goofy cartoons are quite lovely to look at, some of them announced as restored to their original hues.
Audio:
The sonics are consistent throughout all the Goofy soundtracks: clean, clear monaural. Although no great shakes by today's surround standards, the sound is free of background noise and reproduces the on-screen shenanigans with consummate ease. I daresay, the sound we are hearing today is better than what theater audiences heard fifty or sixty years ago, given the better quality of our modern electronics and speaker systems and the subsequent noise reduction applied to the audio.
Extras:
Both discs in the set contain Goofy cartoons, presented either alphabetically or in the order in which they were made. In addition, both discs contain introductions by film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, who not only gives us information on how and why many of the shorts were made but offers apologies for a few of Disney's depictions of Japanese, Mexican, and Native American stereotypes, as well as for things like making light of school violence. It all has to do with the cultural expectations of the era in which they were made, he explains, and the cartoons in question were all made in good faith and in good fun. In today's age of political correctness, his justifications may or may not sit well with some viewers. Disc one also includes two, brief, five-to-six minute featurettes, the first called "The Essential Goof," about the creation of the Goofy character, and the second, "Pinto Colvig: The Man Behind the Goof," about the fellow who created the voice of the Goof. There is also a menu of program selections, with English as the only spoken language and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Disc two gives us the remainder of the cartoons, plus a fourteen-minute featurette, "A Conversation with Goofy's Voice: Bill Farmer," conducted by Leonard Maltin. Farmer is the current voice of Goofy, a job he tells us he's held since 1986. Then, there are three galleries: "Goofy Through the Years," a poster gallery, and a memorabilia gallery. The discs come in a double keep-case enclosed in an attractively embossed silver-metal box.
Parting Thoughts:
Five-and-a-half hours of Goofy may seem like overkill, but for the connoisseur of such things it's nice to have the complete set. Of course, it would also have been nice to have some of the earlier thirties' cartoons, as well, that featured the Goof as a secondary character, but for that you must get the Disney Treasures sets of "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" and "Mickey Mouse in Black and White." The Disney folks must have so much of this stuff in their vaults from over seventy years of filmmaking, they can probably continue issuing Disney Treasures for the next seven decades and have some things left over. Here's hoping.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]10673[/release]