Review: Mickey Mouse – “Goofy’s First Love”

 

Spoilers Below

It seems like the Mickey Mouse shows lately have been focusing less on the mouse himself and more on his friends. This particular episode is about Goofy. While it does feature Mickey, Donald, and Minnie (along with an Uncle Scrooge cameo), the main focus is The Goof.

Spoilers Below
Goofy, Mickey, and Donald are seated at a table in a diner. Across from them is a waitress who basically looks like Goofy in drag. The old dog sits at the table, pining for his love. Just when he is about to go over to confess, Mickey and Donald point out that he is not in the best shape. So the boys set out to make Goofy look attractive.

The first stop is Minnie’s house. Mickey uses Minnie’s makeup on Goofy. Unfortunately, all it does is turn his face (and ears) into Minnie. Donald points out that Goofy does not have to look good, he just has to have a lot of money. So the boys head off to Uncle Scrooge’s to get some dough.

When Donald asks for a million dollars, Scrooge chokes on his tea. Of course, the butler literally kicks them out of the mansion. So the boys head to the gym to get Goofy some muscles.

For some reason, the boys have decided that Goofy needs to use the treadmill. As the machine slowly starts, Donald notes that it is not working fast enough. Mickey continues to turn up the speed until the machine catches fire and shoots Goofy out the back wall.

Goofy smacks into a skyscraper, which flings him back into Scrooge’s mansion, where the butler literally kicks him out again, making him crash through the wall of Minnie’s apartment (where he picks up Minnie’s dress as she yells at Mickey for playing with her makeup), back into the gym…where the whole scenario begins anew.

Finally, the battered and bruised boys end up back at the diner. Goofy now realizes that he should just be himself. He walks over to the waitress…and confesses his love to the sandwich she is holding. Goofy marries the sandwich with a very confused Mickey and Donald by his side.

On one hand, I liked the hijinks of the episode. On the other hand, I’m not really sure why they decided to make Goofy into some smelly hobo. The entire episode is based on the “fact” that Goofy looks like he lives in a dumpster. The Goofy I grew up with was dumb but he was a participating member of society. I love Goofy and this new “look” completely put me off the episode. I think they could have accomplished all of the same bits without turning Goofy into something lesser than Mickey and Donald. The three friends may not be on the same mental page but they were at least on the same social page. I really think the writers need to go watch some classic Mickey, Donald, and Goofy cartoons to get the feel of these characters again.