MOVIE REVIEW : A Mildly Amusing ‘Goofy Movie’

Goofy finally gets his own movie in--”A Goofy Movie.” He had his own TV show, “Goof Troop,” which started up in 1992, but that wasn’t enough for him. After all, what’s a TV series compared to big-screen stardom?

These days even animated animals are acting like David Caruso.

In a sense, “A Goofy Movie” is still a TV show. Several of its characters are drawn from “Goof Troop” and the Disney Television Animation team was hired to oversee the work of artists in Disney’s animation studio near Paris, where many of Disney’s afternoon TV episodes are concocted. Compared to the lavish detailing that Disney expends on its Grade A features like “Aladdin” and “The Lion King,” “A Goofy Movie” is cut-rate. It wouldn’t look out of place on the small screen.

But it’s not slipshod. A few of the voice-over actors, like Wallace Shawn as a school principal or Bill Farmer as Goofy, provide some joys. Small children will probably find the film sporty and painless, and it has six musical numbers and a hilarious subplot involving Bigfoot. Directed by Kevin Lima and produced by Dan Rounds, it moves briskly, and, if it doesn’t make a star out of Goofy, it doesn’t trash him either. It lets Goofy be Goofy.

Most of the movie, however, is taken up with Goofy’s teen-age son Max. Goofy wants to bond with the boy; at the start of summer vacation they go on a fishing expedition that turns into a series of mini-disasters. That’s where Bigfoot comes in; he traps the duo in their camper and does a little dance from “Saturday Night Fever.” (Don’t ask.) Max starts out distancing himself from his goof of a dad and ends up becoming best buddies with him. And, in the process, he wows his high school heartthrob Roxanne. This Cyrano gets the girl.

Animated movies are generally at their best when they’re not trying to be civic-minded. “A Goofy Movie” is fairly funny but, with its father-son confabs and bond-a-thons, it’s a bit too drippy with life lessons for tots. The lessons seem to be in the movie to impress parents and make them feel as if they’re doing a Good Thing in bringing their children.

If you’re going to make something called “A Goofy Movie,” why dampen the goofiness?

* MPAA rating: G. Times guidelines: It includes a scene where Goofy is rescued from a waterfall that may scare kids under 3.

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‘A Goofy Movie’ Goofy: Voiced by Bill Farmer Max: Voiced by Jason Marsden Pete: Voiced by Jim Cummings Roxanne: Voiced by Kellie Martin A Walt Disney presentation. Director Kevin Lima. Producer Dan Rounds. Screenplay by Jymn Magon, Chris Matheson, Brian Pimental. Editor Gregory Perler. 1 hour, 32 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.