Christmas: A Goof Troop Christmas: Have Yourself A Goofy Little Christmas

Hello  & welcome back to A Look at Disney Christmas.  Something,  I haven't touched upon much over my 400 or so articles on this blog that much is the Disney Afternoon.  That does seem a bit odd as I did watch these shows and I own DuckTales  Darkwing Duck, and Rescue Rangers on DVD.  Well, the first volumes but one I have not seen get a proper DVD release like the other shows from this line up is easily, what was my favorite Disney Afternoon show...  

Yes, Goof Troop. This show is one that I enjoyed the most out of every Disney Afternoon show.  Which should come as no surprise seeing as "A Goofy Movie" is one of my favorite movies.  And the Christmas special,  well the last time, I saw this when Disney XD was still Toon Disney.  (Ah, the good old days).   With that out of the way, let's begin.

Episode Titles

Now,  this  episode was actually aired as part of a one-hour special that included behind-the-scenes look at Aladdin.  That's why up top, you saw two  title cards.

Title Card A

This one is cute and I like the wreath.

Title Card B

Now  I think I like this one just as much for the candy cane lettering and as for the two titles,  I think the second one is better because it's funnier. 

The Plot

We open the special on Goofy and Max setting up decorations on their house.

  And Goofy being Goofy is having a heck of a time and trips over some of the decorations causing, Pete's young daughter to think that Santa had come early.  As we see Goofy fly by and  later see Santa go down Pete's chimney.   

 



Pistol runs to take Santa a treat in a rather cute moment of salsa and I think hot dogs.  Anyways, later on, we see Pete decorating a fake Christmas tree, when Pistol asks Pete, why  they don't have a real tree.   Pete explains that they don't have a real tree because Goofy has one and Pete doesn't want to be anything like Goofy.   Afterwards, Goofy noticing that Pete's house doesn't have enough Christmas decorations.  Goofy brings over a light-up snowman and plugs it in.  After Goofy leaves,  Pete tries to yank out the cord, which causes Pete to be electrocuted and shorts out his house.  Pete, now fed up with Goofy shorting out his house decides that his family will not be spending Christmas in Spoonerville and will instead be going to Aspirin, Colorado.  Aspirin, get it.  It sounds likes Aspen.  Really,  someone thought of....

And thought naming it...

Would be a funny pun.  And you know what....  They were right. That was perhaps one of my favorite things about this episode in now the name was played straight.  And it also made me think of Pete's pain and suffering.  And  perhaps it's wrong but Pete's pain makes me laugh.  P.J. at first suggests that maybe Max can come along but Pete being the cruel man, he is refuses in a cruel manner.  Later on, back at his house,  Max talks to his dad and how he's tired of the same old Christmas traditions.

That's when Max suggest that they go on a Christmas vacation to...

No no no, not Aspen....

Aspirin.   Goofy is at first wary about changing his family's Christmas traditions but he decides that if, it means that much to Max, they'll do it.  Later, that night we see Goofy and Max arrive at their cabin and Max makes a joke about dying and going to Montana.  Uh no, Max.   Montana and Colorado are two different states.  I should point out that they never refer to Aspirin being in Colorado but tell me, that it's not Aspen because again...

Sounds like...

(You'd think with how many times I've used that picture I had a headache). They are unaware that there is a hungry bear in their cabin.

Goofy at first assumes that the bear is just a bear rug but he is soon revealed the bear is real.  And the bear starts to chase Goofy and we see Goofy up on top of a fireplace as he tries to reach for a fireplace to shoot the bear (Probably, wouldn't see that today) but instead grabs a mop and tries to use to fend off the bear.  Somehow, that explodes in the bear. Afterwards, the bear flees.  We then see that Goofy had brought all of his decorations to Aspirin to decorate their cabin. And as he starts to decorate, he starts to sing Christmas carols very loudly.  This awakes a sleeping Pete.  Who has my favorite line.

This ain't no Osmond special 

This causes Pete to fall out of his window.  And to no one in the audience's surprise,   Max is annoyed that his dad brought the decorations. Pete, then crash lands in front of Goofy and Goofy is surprised to see they he and Pete are neighbors.   The next morning,  Goofy and Max decide to go to Pete's cabin to take his family sledding.  Seeing as how Pete had caught the chills, he declines but the rest of his family agrees to go and this was a cute little moment as we get another moment with the bear from the night before.  The bear chases them through the snow and in a great and humorous manner, they crash land in Pete's cabin.  That night, Goofy takes Max and Pete's family to the front of his cabin to show this huge tree that he had decorated.  He asks Pete to turn the lights on, which leads to the lights shorting out and starting a fire.  The fire spreads to Goofy's car and the tree falls on Goofy's cabin. Crushing it in and the fire burns Goofy's car but Goofy is able to save Max's present before the car is burnt to crisps.   Pete being Pete laughs at the Goofs' misfortunes before Peg invites Goofy and Max to stay with them.  While at Pete's cabin,  Goofy starts to make dinner for everyone but leaves the door open and bear re-appears as Goofy mistakes the bear for Pete.  Pete and sees this and Goofy decides that the best thing to do is let the bear eat all of the food. They are only left with a pressure cooker of cranberries. While cooking, Goofy suggests that they sing carols but everyone turns it down.   Despite this, Goofy decides to do the Reindeer Dance (something that was mentioned in the beginning that Max created, when he was 5).  During this little dance, the pressure explodes and blows up Pete's cabin. Furious,  Pete tells Goofy that he has ruined Christmas for not just his family but also Max.   Feeling sad,  Goofy decides to go out and get some fresh air. In reality, he wants to be alone because he is hurt by what Pete said and I don't blame him.  After Pete's family has opened their presents, we see Pistol take Max's present to him and give it to him.  It was a picture of Goofy and Max.  At the sight of this, Max decides to go out and search for his dad.   Pete tries to take command of the search party but that doesn't work out as we see him fall off a cliff.  They find Goofy by a makeshift fire in a cave that happens to belong to the bear. Max decides to distract the bear by doing the reindeer dance. Everyone including the bear join in. And then the episode ends with the characters singing "Silent Night" with Pete suggesting that next year, his family go to the Bahamas for Christmas.  All in all, this was a great special that was I happy to return to.


Characters


Now per usual, this'll be broken down into Main, Supporting, & Antagonist. With that out of the way, let's begin.


Main Characters


Goofy voiced by Bill Farmer

I liked Goofy in this special, you could really feel that he was going all out because A. he loved the holiday and B. he wanted Max to have a special Christmas. So to Goofy, that meant making it bigger and brighter.  I can totally understand getting wrapped up in doing something special for someone that you go overboard.  It's kind of sweet.

Max voiced by Dana Hill

Max was good in the special and I could feel really bad for him because he just wanted a simple Christmas but he knew what his dad wanted and he tried to subvert it.  You could see how much Max's Christmas was being dampened by his dad's actions because Goofy was messing up Christmas.  Though when he saw the picture of him and his dad that was a sweet moment and it showed that no matter what they may be through, Goofy and Max will be there for one another.


Supporting Characters


Pete voiced by Jim Cummings

Pete was funny and while at first, I felt bad for him at first, when he kept on getting hurt but over time, I came to laugh at it because it was just really funny and they did some great slapstick stuff with Pete. And to cap it off,  each time, I heard them say Aspirin, I couldn't help but to think of Pete's pain. Who probably needed one of these...

Peg voiced by  April Winchell

Peg is a character that  I've always liked.  She does a lot,  I mean she's married to Pete.  That can't be easy and while she has a bit of a loud mouth, she is very warm-hearted and was willing to help Goofy and Max in their time of need.


P.J.  voiced by Rob Paulsen

P.J.  really didn't have that much to do and took a back seat to the story but that was all right.


Pistol voiced by Nancy Cartwright

Pistol was pretty funny with her little moments such as with Santa and she was the one that reminded Max that his dad is important.



Antagonist


Bear voiced by Frank Welker

I gotta give the bear credit, he tried hard to get the food and never gave up. But to be perfectly honest, this special didn't need an antagonist as the conflict between Goofy and Max was interesting enough that an antagonist felt unwanted.



My Final Thoughts


All in all, this was a great special to return to and I loved watching it again.  It was nice to go back to this show from my childhood and see that it still holds up.  Join me tomorrow as I take a look at how...


Mater Saves Christmas