Pictures You Can Hear Goofy Ill Do It Again

Illustration: James Bareham/Polygon | Source image: Disney

Gawrsh! Goofy's entire family unit may be dead

The baroque, tragic, and likely imagined history of Goofy's married woman and family

By Jul 5, 2019, 10:15am EDT

Some things are and then tragic that they take time to procedure and recover from before we can discuss what happened, even with family and friends. Time might be able to heal all wounds, simply there's no schedule that shows exactly how long information technology might take. I respect that.

Content alert, my friends: We're going to be discussing tragedy and existentially terrifying topics well-nigh trauma and loss. Only, after nearly three decades, it's finally time to talk about Goofy's dead wife and missing family unit.

Goofy's tragic backstory

Goofy likely has a dead wife. Yes, that Goofy: Disney'southward accident-prone cartoon dog. This may require a bit of an explanation for those of yous who don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of archetype and '90s-era cartoons.

In the 1950s, Disney began fleshing out Goofy equally a suburban lowest effigy in theatrical animated shorts. Goofy wore a suit, worked in an office, and raised a son named Goofy Jr. with his wife, who is ever drawn with her back to the camera. Her face up is never shown, although she does speak in some of these shorts. The ascent of television all just wiped out these cartoons, and the characters by and large dropped out of view by the early '60s.

But Goofy returned in 1992 with a one-half-hour television show called Goof Troop, which was circulate during the Disney Afternoon animation block. The show ran for 78 episodes and was followed by the feature-length film A Goofy Flick, which was released theatrically in 1995, and its sequel, An Extremely Goofy Moving-picture show, which received a straight-to-DVD release in 2000.

In Goof Troop and the ii Goofy Movies, Goofy is a unmarried father to a son named Max. His wife from the 1950s shorts never appears in the bear witness or in the movies. Max'southward mother is never discussed, as far as I've constitute. Goof Troop fans have long speculated about what happened to Mrs. Goofy, but Disney has never provided an official explanation.

Many web sources merits that Goofy told Max that his mother was "up among the stars" during an episode of the show, but this seems to be an urban legend. In fact, Goofy and Max never mention her at all, as far equally I can tell. Disney's Guest Services once even included a statement well-nigh Goofy's wife in the FAQ section of their website. Their official position (since deleted) was that they didn't know what happened to her, either:

Years later, when the tv prove "Goof Troop" was being created, Goofy Inferior evolved into Max and Mrs. Goofy was no longer on the scene. Because these are fictional characters, they do not have real biographies and we can but become past what appears on the screen. Maybe someday there will be some other movie or television show that will explain who Max's mother is and where "Mrs. Goofy" went, but until that time, at that place is no definitive answer. Y'all can find lots more information about all of your favorite Disney characters in our online Disney Archives.

Mrs. Goofy'south face up was never shown in the original cartoons, and she was never mentioned during the afterwards afternoon shows and two movies.

Disney via Disney Wiki

Information technology's hard to avoid the determination that she has passed on. There is nothing in Goof Troop to indicate that Max has a living mother. He never goes to visit her or talks to her on the telephone. Goofy doesn't share custody of his son with anyone else.

Possibly the trauma of whatever happened to her is so terrible that Goofy can't bear to talk about it, but in that location's no indication that Max has a mother whom either of them have contacted at whatever point in the show's run.

A 90s Disney exec reclines with his anxiety on the conference table. He takes a few puffs from his cigar.

"Goofy should take a dead wife."

— Kibblesmith ☃️ (@kibblesmith) February 25, 2017

The just alternative explanation for the absenteeism of Goofy'southward wife comes from the 1953 brusque Father's Day Off , in which Goofy takes the twenty-four hours off from the part to assist out with the housework while his wife is away. At one point in this short, Goofy answers the door, and the milkman hands Goofy two bottles of milk and kisses Goofy on the mouth. Goofy turns to the camera and says, "Friendly cus, own't he?"

The implication is that the milkman kissed Goofy because he expected Goofy'due south wife to answer the door, equally she typically would take when Goofy was working in the part. Perhaps Mrs. Goofy'due south apparent infidelity could explain her absence from Goof Troop, but it doesn't explain why Mrs. Goof is not in contact with Max, or why Goofy is the sole custodial parent, since, if this theory is correct, Max may not even be his biological son.

The simplest answer is nevertheless the nigh tragic: Logic inevitably leads us to conclude that she is probably dead, although nosotros can only hope that Mr. and Mrs. Goofy were start able to work through their intimacy problems in the wake of her adultery.

Just the darkness, sadly enough, doesn't end there.

Also, Goofy's whole family unit is probably dead

Goof Troop seems to imply that Goofy's entire firsthand family unit is also expressionless. In A Goofy Motion picture, Goofy becomes concerned about Max'south futurity after Max gets in problem at school. Goofy'south solution is to have Max on the aforementioned grapheme-building angling trip that his father took him on when he was a male child.

Goofy shows Max a map annotated by his begetter, and reminisces almost how his dad taught him to open a soup can using his buck teeth. The two elderberry Goofs seemingly had a close relationship, and Goofy tries to connect with Max in the same way. Even if Goofy's father is gone, it's clearly important to Goofy that Max know who his grandfather was.

Still, Goofy'south father does non appear in the movie, and Goofy is never shown speaking to his parents in Goof Troop or the Goofy movies. Spoonerville, where Goofy and Max live in Goof Troop, is Goofy'south hometown, but Goofy does not seem to have any other family living there.

Goofy may also have a dead brother or sister. In one episode of Goof Troop, Max's cousin Debbie comes to visit. She calls Goofy "Uncle Goofy," which suggests she is Max'due south first cousin and therefore the daughter of Goofy's sibling. But Debbie's parents never announced in whatsoever episode. In an episode in which Goofy has a family reunion, the only attendees are his aunt, his uncle, his great-uncle, and a cousin.

Debbie doesn't show up for that reunion, so it's always possible that there are other Goofs who, similar her, did not nourish. But considering that Goof Troop is a show well-nigh the relationships between parents and children, it'due south certainly noteworthy that we never see Goofy's parents.

So they're probably expressionless, too.

The fact that Goofy's parents, siblings, and wife are never depicted and never directly mentioned — other than a few references to Goofy'south father — is especially glaring, since several Goof Troop episodes involve Goofy showing Max his family photo albums, and telling the stories of his ancestors similar Sherlock Goof, Mopalong Goofy, and Caveman Goof. Why wouldn't he bring up his parents in that state of affairs, or Max's female parent? Why wouldn't Max ask?

Goofy is clearly dealing with a significant amount of trauma that he has issues confronting directly, and mayhap Max is existence agreement of Goofy's challenges.

How could this accept happened?

Directors were once allowed to do some pretty wild things with the classic Disney characters. One 1947 Donald Duck cartoon showed Donald developing a magnificent singing vox and dumping Daisy to get a famous singer. Daisy then obsessively stalks Donald and threatens to kill herself.

That one, as yous might imagine, is not in circulation on the Disney Channel these days.

Disney had become an empire of media properties and theme parks by the 1990s, and had grown much more conservative with its mascot characters, who past this fourth dimension were extremely valuable franchise properties. Disney famously withheld Donald Duck from the original DuckTales series out of fear of overexposing the character. It's very possible that the higher-ups nixed the idea of depicting Goofy's wife, whose face had never been shown in any Disney animation.

It'south besides possible that the testify's writers were interested in the relationship betwixt Goofy and Max, but weren't interested in exploring the dynamic between Goofy and his wife or between Max and his mother, so they just wrote her out of the show. That created a larger problem, notwithstanding, as the show often dealt with familial issues, and the lack of discussion virtually Max'south mother became harder and harder to ignore.

The determination to leave these characters out of the evidence seems to have completely backfired. The unremarked-upon absence of Goofy'south married woman and family implies a backstory for Goofy that is much darker and peradventure less advisable for the grapheme than well-nigh any other story Goof Troop'southward writers could have come up up with. You lot can't hint at something and then painful that no other character is willing to even bring it up, and then look the audience to just let it go.

One time you think nigh this mystery, in fact, y'all virtually can't stop thinking virtually information technology and viewing the show through the lens of tragedy.

Maybe Goofy cared for his married woman through a long, wasting disease, and held her hand, weeping as she drifted abroad. Tin can you imagine Goofy angrily enervating that his pastor tell him what kind of God would permit something like this to happen? Tin y'all imagine him sitting in his armchair, in a darkened room, with a canteen of whiskey in one hand and their nuptials album in the other? Tin can you imagine him vowing to concur it together for Max, and deciding he tin can manage, equally long as he never, ever talks about it? Can you imagine him taking down all the family photos and locking them abroad, because he tin can't comport to look at them?

Sure, Goof Troop viewers tin probably enjoy the show without thinking too much about the Goofs who must accept existed merely no longer seem to. But the implied tragedies of Goofy'southward past are an unavoidable subtext of the Goofy Movies, which focus on Max growing up and pulling away every bit Goofy, who has zippo and no one else of note in his life, clings desperately to his son.

This is peculiarly evident in An Extremely Goofy Picture, the relatively obscure and extremely weird straight-to-DVD sequel to the better-known A Goofy Movie.

Buckle up, this subtext is nigh to become straight upward text.

Gawrsh, he'due south clinically depressed!

In An Extremely Goofy Moving-picture show, Max, who was a trivial boy in Goof Troop and a high school pupil in the previous picture show, is going away to college. This throws Goofy into a crunch. Goofy trudges through his empty house afterwards Max leaves at the beginning of the moving-picture show, goes into Max's empty bedroom, and clutches Max'southward teddy bear; the scene fades to blackness as Goofy begins to cry. The scene is 95 seconds long, and is played completely straight. In that location are no laughs to exist found anywhere.

I know I continue maxim this, just: This is Goofy nosotros're talking well-nigh here.

Goofy falls into a depression that indirectly causes a workplace accident. He is fired every bit a issue. Then, Goofy goes to the unemployment office and learns that he is unemployable because he never graduated from college.

Goofy goes to higher to undergo humiliating task retraining in his middle age, and there he finds Max, who is not pleased to see his dad. Max just wants to listen to ska music, habiliment baggy pants, creep on girls, and practice skateboarding for the College 10-Games, an embarrassing 1990s sporting result that Max plans to compete in with his as embarrassing friend Bobby Zimuruski, who is pretty much Poochie as played past Pauly Shore.

Goofy, overjoyed to be near his son over again, recovers a scrap and even gets a date with the higher librarian. Merely Max is frustrated because he is less pop and worse at skateboarding than his father, and so he tells Goofy off. This crushes Goofy; Max is everything to him. Goofy falls back into depression, stands up his new girlfriend and fails an important test.

It's a Disney movie, so Goofy and Max eventually reconcile, but this is still an astonishingly weird story. An Extremely Goofy Movie came out in 2000, eight years later on the original run of Goof Troop. A lot of people were on the internet in 2000; they had blogs and message boards. The writers of this film must have been aware of the fan speculation about Goofy'southward dead wife, and it'southward hard not to run into the character'southward implied-but-never-addressed history of loss and tragedy underlying his breakdown after Max goes to college.

The determination to tell a story about a depressed, grieving Goofy cannot have been unintentional. The pic's writers could have done just about anything with this story, and the conclusion that the creative team landed on involves Goofy causing a unsafe workplace situation due to his inability to talk most his feelings of abandonment.

I want to listen to an interview of the writer who decided to give the archetype disney character goofy a dead wife

— Matt Grippi (@MattGrippi) September 6, 2018

Goofy'south vocalization role player, Nib Farmer, was nominated for an Annie Honour for his song performance in An Extremely Goofy Movie, and it'southward a performance deserving of recognition. Farmer manages to weep convincingly, conveying the grief of a family man who has lost his family, lonely in an empty house with zero but the ghosts of his past to keep him company. But still in character.

Equally Goofy.

What does this hateful?

It seems that making a show for children starring a beloved franchise character, and working within Disney'southward constraints, unintentionally created a fiction that implies the character is a widower and that his unabridged family is probably expressionless.

Or maybe the fan theories are true and this was the plan all along: Goofy has canonically lived a life of tragedy, regret, and hurting.

Just what can nosotros practice with this information? Is there a lesson to derive from Goofy's past?

Probably not. However, the Goofy movies are very weird relics of semi-forgotten 1990s pop civilization, and are worth checking out. If Goofy has taught us annihilation, it's that sometimes you lot just need a practiced cry to let it all out. If you're non honest well-nigh your own past, and you don't seek out the help necessary to talk over where you are in life and where yous come from, everyone around you may begin to imagine all sorts of foreign reasons for your behavior.

Goofy needs aid to process his trauma and, afterwards getting that aid, one 24-hour interval, he may finally be ready to speak. Mayhap not to his fans, merely at least to his son. Nosotros may not be owed the full story, but Max deserves to hear what happened from his male parent before information technology'southward too late.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/5/20677088/goofy-dead-wife-family-tragedy-depression-disney

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