Automobile Month: Motor Mania

As promised here is the second Goofy short that I said I would be looking at.  Today, I'll be taking a look at Motor Mania. This short was released in 1950 and it once again easily falls under The Everyman Years of the Goofy shorts.  For those of you that need a refresher, The Everyman shorts were Goofy didn't actually play himself but rather another character who is Goofy but with a different name.  The most common alias given to Goofy in these shorts was George Geef.  Now while Mr. Geef does make an off screen cameo in this short, he is not the main subject of this short.



The Plot

The plot is rather simple so to speak.  As you see in this short, we follow Mr. Walker, mild mannered nice guy that is until he gets behind the wheel and becomes Mr. Wheeler, motorist. Duh, Duh! Sorry couldn't pass up that joke.  To sum it up, this short uses the Jekyll and Hyde formula of having one character have two different personalities. With Mr. Wheeler being the Mr. Hyde of this short.


Narration

Narrator - John McLeish

Now while I didn't mind the narration, I did have one slight problem.  He sounded exactly the same as Paul Frees narrating Freewayphobia. Now this is both a an advantage and disadvantage at the same time.  It's an advantage in the sense that it does make it easier for the audience to get into the short but at the same time, when narrating the person doing this should put their own unique stamp on it.  Now this short did come out before Freewayphobia, so it is possible that Paul Frees either decided to base his narration off of that of John McLeish or he was told that his narration needed to sound similar.


Main Character


Now just as with Freewayphobia, Goofy wasn't portraying Goofy in this short and in the same vein, he was used as a visual aide but unlike the three Goofy's in Freewayphobia, the two characters have more to them.  Though, Goofy is still labeled as Goofy and that is how I will recognize him for this short.

Goofy voiced by Pinto Colvig

As stated above, this short uses the Jekyll and Hyde formula to make a point about how everyday average citizens turn into monsters and jerks when behind the wheel.


Mr. Walker

Now to carry on with the Jekyll and Hyde theme. Mr. Walker is the Dr. Jekyll of this short.  But that isn't play up that much as Mr. Walker is never aware of Mr. Wheeler's existence.  Mr. Walker is the all around nice guy and very cautious  and would never hurt a fly.  He is always very courteous to everyone he meets.  Now Mr. Walker while I get what they were going for as they were trying to show both extremes of being nice and being a jerk.  Still Mr. Walker comes off a bit flat when compared to Mr. Wheeler. Part of that comes from the fact that comes from the fact he wasn't in the short that much and that works to the short's favor.

Mr. Wheeler

Now we come to Mr. Wheeler, the Mr. Hyde of this short and the real star. Mr. Wheeler is what Mr. Walker becomes when he gets behind the wheel of a car and he is nothing but a big jerk. He takes no one else into consideration and thinks that people should bow to him. He has the feeling of that he owns the road. After all his taxes paid for it, so he thinks that he can go at any speed he wants. He gets mad when he doesn't get his way and he will do anything to get his way at all costs. Mr. Wheeler was big jerk and I just ended up hating him by the end of this short. It's funny I never thought a short could make me hate a character portrayed by Goofy. Yet,  the hatred was in an entertaining kind of way.  A good way to describe this is if any of you have ever watched Glee, then you would know about Coach Sue Sylvester.  She is the type of character that is easy to hate her but your curious to see what she does next.  That is the feeling I got with Mr. Wheeler.

My Final Thoughts

Out of the two Goofy driving shorts that I have looked at, this one is the stronger short. The Jekyll and Hyde aspect was used quite well in this short. The satire of drivers changing behind the wheel was a nice touch and in many ways it is still true today. This was actually the more entertaining short, I didn't have too many problems with it and I think many people could enjoy this short.

    

 When next we meet,  I'll be taking a break from reviewing and instead take a look at some Disney Parks attractions based around cars or characters that are cars, starting with an attraction that never came to be.

If you wish to watch this short, here is a link to it on YouTube.


Motor Mania