Episode 005 | A Goofy Movie
Professional video magician, Keaton Monger, moseys down to the basement to talk about his love for A Goofy Movie (1995), a classic we all see I 2 I on.
Our little Goof troop discusses Goofy's evolution as a character, whether or not there's a Mrs. Goof (or if it even matters), and NASA's recent breakthrough in determining just how many cups of sugar it takes to get to the moon.
Later, we call some Gen Alpha critics to get their take on A Goofy Movie's lasting legacy.
So grab yourself a cup of Hi Dad soup and watch A Goofy Movie on Disney+, or wherever you get your anthropomorphic dog-toons.
Keep the fun going by watching Keaton's "Starlight Theater Presents" on YouTube.
Subscribe//Follow on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for future episodes.
Haunted Basement is a full-service video production company that creates professional content for every budget to promote your business or brand. Visit hauntedbasement.video or contact hello@hauntedbasement.video for more.
Episode 005 Transcript
Bubba: Haunted Basement: The Podcast is brought to you by Haunted Basement, the production company.
A.J.: Haunted Basement is a full service video production company that creates professional content for every budget to promote your business or brand.
Bubba: Our portfolio has a bunch of different videos including branded content, social ads, music videos, documentaries, and our credits include an editing role on a feature film.
A.J.: We are a sibling-run production company, and together we have over three decades of experience working in film, tv, digital media, and marketing.
Bubba: So if you need a video to promote your business or brand, reach out.
A.J.: Get in touch. Let's talk.
Bubba: We have a link to our website in the show notes below, and you can also find us on Instagram at _hauntedbasement_.
A.J.: All right, let's start the episode.
Bubba: Welcome back to the basement. Today we are going to talk about one of our favorite childhood movies that is still a favorite, I would say.
A.J.: Formative.
Bubba: Childhood favorite. Adult favorite.
Ashleigh: Current favorite.
Bubba: A Goofy Movie. We're talking about A Goofy Movie. And I think that before we get to our conversation about A Goofy Movie, we should talk about two things. First, A.J., I think a lot of the reason why Ashleigh and I also love A Goofy Movie with you is because at some point when you were growing up, you decided that Goofy was your favorite Disney character.
A.J.: Oh, absolutely.
Bubba: So much so that you bought a three foot tall safari Goofy stuffed animal.
Ashleigh: And it's in my house right now.
Bubba: At the time when I was a kid, when you were loving Goofy, I was seeing that as like the equivalent of people saying that Ringo Starr was their favorite Beatle. You know, like, it felt so alternative and cool. Tell us why Goofy appealed to you, please.
A.J.: He has a few features that I really appreciate in cartoon characters. One, he's got the messed up teeth that are very spaced out. Also because I love doodling. And he was just really easy for me to doodle. I could draw him pretty quickly. Another reason is because I'm a lanky person.
Ashleigh: He's got big feet, long arms.
A.J.: I'm tall, I slouch a little bit, and I just saw a little bit of myself in his character. And I consider myself somewhat of a goofy person. And I think I knew that at a young age, way back when I was five or six years old, when I first saw A Goofy Movie. Out of all the Disney characters, he's the one getting blown up the most. He's like the clown out of all the Disney characters, and I appreciated that nothing could stop him. Yeah, he can get blown up or he gets stretched and thrown far away, but he's going to come back and look like Goofy after he goes through those trials.
Ashleigh: He's a good guy.
Bubba: He's a good guy. He's a good guy. But I was watching A Goofy Movie this time around and listening to Goofy’s weird scream, yell, yodel thing. It opens up the movie and I was like, is that a variation of the Wilhelm scream?
Ashleigh: I don't know what that is.
Bubba: You'll hear it in like every movie that you watch, every action movie from now on. Because the Wilhelm scream, when you actually pay attention to it isolated. It's goofy. It's literally goofy.
Ashleigh: Wow. Wow.
Bubba: The second thing is that I would be willing to bet that we were so smitten with this movie because of the music, but more specifically because mom had this relationship with aerobics and the pop music, the house music of the 90s.
Ashleigh: Gloria Estefan. Madonna.
Bubba: Prince songs that are obviously influential in A Goofy Movie. And it felt as a kid kind of specifically tailored to us.
A.J.: I always say nineties house music is like comfort food to me because Mom was a nineties aerobics instructor. She would bring us when we were little kids, when she couldn't find a babysitter, she’d bring us to her aerobics class. It was just ingrained into my being at such a young age.
Ashleigh: And also mom and dad must've really loved you, A.J., because there's no way I would ever let a three foot stuffed animal come home with us.
A.J.: Oh, yeah. I was insistent on bringing Goofy home with me. Well, stay tuned. We're going to talk about this movie. Really break it down with my friend Keaton. Let's meet him.
A.J.: Hello and welcome back to Haunted Basement: The Podcast. I'm A.J.
Bubba: I’m Bubba.
Ashleigh: I’m Ashleigh.
A.J.: We're siblings and we run a production company called Haunted Basement. And this is our podcast where we talk about the movies, music and pop culture that inspires and influences our video work. Today our guest is a professional video magician working in the city of New York. His YouTube channel, Keaton World, has been churning out bizarre and funny videos for over 15 years, and he parlayed that early success into working for media companies like Complex and Elara Pictures. He's a video editor, motion graphics designer, sound designer, music maker. His music is our theme song. Keaton Monger, welcome to the basement. Keaton, we are here today to talk about the Disney animated classic, A Goofy Movie. And you have some history with this movie because on your YouTube channel, Keaton World, there's a video called Starlight Theater Presents, which we will link in the show notes, and A Goofy Movie is heavily featured in that short. Can you talk about the history of Starlight?
Keaton: I could like David Lynch it and be like, I don't want to elaborate, and I feel like that is the way you maintain the magic on why something works. And I've been surprised that that works because to me it was so obvious that I glued two things together kind of. I already had the idea that I wanted to do something where I pan down from credits.
Ashleigh: That was so cool.
Keaton: That you're like scrolling down credits and then the camera just lazily starts to come down.
A.J.: When I saw that I was like, this man is a genius. I think that was the first thing outside of Complex that I saw of yours. And I said I need to know more about Keaton.
Bubba: I feel like my computer would break if I tried to piece together that comp in After Effects because I imagine you took screenshots and just stitched them together to make the endless thing.
Keaton: That is how I did it. And it's not even good quality. It's a YouTube rip.
Bubba: Incredible. Well, it works.
Ashleigh: I feel like I still have vertigo from watching it last night.
A.J.: Plus your music taking I2I and stretching that song out. And it just is a disorienting and beautiful version of that song.
Keaton: So I definitely had done that music item a few years before I had touched any of this stuff. And then I can't remember the order of operations, but I think I did the Goofy Movie credits just because I like the way those credits look with those little funny shapes.
A.J.: It really feels like you're watching some sort of DVD special feature or like a DVD Main Menu from Hell.
Ashleigh: I don't know if you've listened to any other episodes of this podcast, but one thing we talk about a lot are titles of movies and how we normally get them wrong. So when I'm thinking about A Goofy Movie, I usually say The Goofy Movie. So when I was watching your video, it said The A Goofy Movie Movie. It's so funny. I love that.
A.J.: Well, that's how this movie starts. It's like A Movie. And then Goofy comes crashing into it.
Keaton: As a kid, I didn't notice that until my brother, who's also a really big fan of this movie, he's three years older than me. He was the one that sort of pointed out that at the beginning it says A Movie and then the Goofy crash. And I don't think that was hitting me or the fact that they didn't put the bar until he pointed it out. It happened the other day. My girlfriend called it The Goofy Movie, and I was like, actually, it's A Goofy Movie.
Ashleigh: Let me tell you something.
A.J.: Did you see it when it came out in theaters in 1995?
Keaton: Yes. Hell yeah.
A.J.: I can't remember if we did. I distinctly remember having the clamshell VHS. We would watch that. But I don't know if we saw it in theaters.
Keaton: I think that seeing it in theaters is so much of what frames my experience of how I feel about the movie now and how I felt about it as a kid, because I was pretty embarrassed about it, seeing it, I feel like with my family as a kid especially, it’s starting out on the kind of love stuff and it's sort of sexual almost immediately.
Ashleigh: Roxanne is a real cutie, guys.
Keaton: Roxanne’s a real cutie. And then that whole opening song people are making out and stuff and it's like, that's really smart because it makes you feel like you understand the grief of Max and how he’s feeling left out. But as a kid, it just made me feel like this is the stuff I least like about movies is when they start kissing and stuff. Like, this is what this whole movie is going to be showing? But I overall love the humor of the movie. I remember walking away really thinking that it was something special as a kid, even though I was embarrassed by a lot of stuff.
Bubba: And can somebody just give a brief synopsis of A Goofy Movie for anybody who hasn't seen this film before?
Ashleigh: Anyone who hasn't seen it, get out of here.
A.J.: Stop listening and watch it.
Ashleigh: It’s streaming on Disney+. I highly recommend it.
A.J.: A Goofy Movie is about Max Goofy who is in middle school or high school-
Bubba: Wait, is it Max Goofy or Max Goof?
A.J.: His name is Goofy. Goofy Goof, right?
Bubba: I don't know. Oh, God. Anyway, take two.
A.J.: A Goofy Movie is about Max Goof, who is either in middle school or high school. He's got a crush on Roxanne who is real cute. He's also in the midst of puberty, so he's like, I don't want to turn into my dad. He’s a big goof. I want to look really cool and sexy for Roxanne so she wants to go out with me. So in the beginning of the movie, Max, with the help of PJ and Bobby, crashes the end of the year talk that the principal is giving about what they can do over summer vacation. He crashes it and he performs as Powerline, who is this Prince-like pop figure. And he impresses Roxanne. And then he's going to go to a party with Roxanne.
Ashleigh: Feeling on top of the world.
A.J.: But the principal, Principal Mazur, played by Wallace Shawn. He calls Max's dad Goofy and he's like, Your son is a menace. He's bound for the electric chair and you better get him in order or he's going to be a menace to society. And Goofy, who is a photographer, and he looks very much like Joaquin Phoenix in The Master at the beginning of this movie
Bubba: Big time.
A.J.: He gets really freaked out because he wants his son to grow up to be a good person.
Ashleigh: He doesn't want his son in the electric chair. Yeah, but get to the point here.
A.J.: Okay. So and then they go on this road trip. A lot of things happen. They get in a fight and Max wants to go to L.A. to go to the Powerline concert to impress Roxanne. Goofy wants to go somewhere on the camping trip, and then they get in a fight. They meet Bigfoot, they fall off a waterfall, and at the end of the movie, they end up in Los Angeles. They end up reigniting their father and son bond.. They're dancing in the Powerline concert, and then they go home. What happens when they go home?
Keaton: They do a lot of smart stuff with crossfades to just skip over stuff and kind of get to the next thing. But yeah, he's just on Roxanne’s porch and he fesses up.
Ashleigh: And he laughs and Roxanne says, I've always liked your laugh.
A.J.: Yeah. Okay. That's the plot of this movie.
Bubba: The briefer logline: a son and his father go on a road trip and kind of reconcile their relationship. It's a road trip movie where a father and son kind of bond.
Keaton: Right. Because the first pitch that just came out made it sound like more what I would like the movie to be, where it's about a kid in high school dealing with a bunch of stuff and his dad's doing all this photography. I kind of wish that was the whole movie. I kind of wish they didn't go on the road trip. I mean, I know we're going to see some fun stuff, but I'm like, can we stick around at home for a couple more scenes and see what's going on?
Ashleigh: Do you guys remember the show Goof Troop?
Keaton: I knew the title, but I never watched early Disney Channel stuff.
Ashleigh: So I read that they originally wanted it to be more of an extension of Goof Troop where they are home, probably going to work at Sears or J.C. Penney's where they take those pictures. But then it became more of a father-son movie.
Keaton: Because you already slightly feel alienated by these characters. If you've never watched Goof Troop and you're like, dammit, am I supposed to already know who the fuck all these characters are? And then they drive away from them and it's like, oh, that's fine.
Ashleigh: Okay. So I had not ever heard or considered that this was like a huge movie in the black community, especially black nerds. Has anyone come across this?
A.J.: Oh, absolutely.
Ashleigh: I took a lot of notes and I really enjoyed going down this rabbit hole. So I read an article about how A Goofy Movie is the Blackest Disney movie ever made. So this article was on a website called The Black Nerd, and it was written by a guy named Jordan Calhoun. So when I was watching the movie, I wrote down that quote aboutif you don't get your son in order then he's going to go to the electric chair. And I was like, that's extreme. Like, why did they say that? The principal called Goofy and he says: Dressed like a gang member. Your son caused the entire student body to break into a riot. I seriously think you should reevaluate the way you're raising your child before he ends up in the electric chair.
A.J.: 1995 was not that far removed from the L.A. riots of 1992. So, yeah, of course, that had to have been in the cultural air.
Bubba: Plus the leftovers of the satanic panic. And the war on drugs mentality, I can totally see that kind of seeping into people in the early nineties, or at least this Disney principal’s idea of the world at this point.
A.J.: This movie is a very American movie, but from the research that I did about the making of this movie, all the animation was outsourced to either France or Australia, which sort of boggles my mind.
Keaton: But animation can mean that they get right up to the point that it just needs to be actually physically animated, which is definitely a skill, but that is outsourced quite often.
Bubba: It was still in a Disney studio, but like the Disney studios in Paris, in Australia. And that's because Katzenberg, when he got this project going, I think the general consensus was like, this is a B-level or C-level movie, so we're not going to put a ton of money behind it. I guess they were making Pocahontas around the same time.
A.J.: And Toy Story.
Bubba: Quick aside- Toy Story and A Goofy Movie have the same title design.
Keaton: The red trapezoid.
Bubba: Yeah, it's like come on guys. But anyway like this is supposed to be a B level C level movie.
Keaton: And that makes sense. But it being called A Goofy Movie, probably, they were like, also, holy fuck, this could have mass appeal. It's like all their parents and everybody like, let's not focus on extension of all these characters that they don't fucking know at all, which that was such a smart move.
Bubba: Yeah, I was surprised too, because a lot of the backgrounds, especially when they start getting out on the open road, it feels so perfectly Americana. But yeah, there's some French animators that were putting together a lot of those images.
Ashleigh: It feels too American sometimes. At one point when they're on the road trip, they're like at the ocean and then they're at the amusement park. I'm like, where are they coming from?
Bubba: The geography is hilarious because they make their way to like Oregon to see, you know, Sasquatch or Bigfoot.
Keaton: He says it's two days to Lake Destiny when they're at the Bigfoot stop. And then most of the montage stuff happens after that. It's kind of a weird line. It's almost just because they wanted him to say. Like, it's only a couple days till like this. And then it just sounded right because, yeah, the way every scene plays in the movie, it seems like there's many dates happening afterwards, which is what they want those montages probably to achieve.
Ashleigh: It was such a classic nineties montage. I can't remember quite what the music was like, but I was like, Oh my God, this is like straight from a nineties sitcom right now.
Keaton: It looks like they're in New Orleans. I guess it's a joke, but they're jumping around because that part stood out where I was like, well, this is weird.
Ashleigh: I thought that was weird, too, because while it looks like obviously it's supposed to be New Orleans. It also looks straight from a place in Disney.
Bubba: Liberty Square, which is New Orleans.
A.J.: There's a lot of Disney stuff in this because it’s a Disney movie. But Lester's Possum Park. It's like a precursor to when Katzenberg left to go to DreamWorks and he made Shrek and the Welcome to Duloc song. Making fun of Disney.
Keaton: And they didn't go too far because they're not actually poking fun at Disney, but they're able to like, poke fun of like the childishness of Disney probably right at the right time when people were not expecting that when they went to go see this movie and probably laughing their asses off. I know we were. Like on the radio, the Oops there goes another rubber tree plant song. I don't know if that is a Disney thing, but it feels like it without them poking at like an actual zippy doo doo dah or something.
Ashleigh: One of the things that I liked that was like poking fun was when Goofy is packing up and Max just comes home from his high and Max is like, Where are you going, Pops? And he's like, Oh, I’m getting ready to go out with my best friend. And he's like, Who? Donald Duck? And he's like, No, silly. You! Then I was like, When is this movie supposed to take place? Because Max has the Mickey Mouse phone. When I saw that, I was like, is Goofy part of the Mickey Mouse world? Is he retired? Does he know them? Because they also have a Disney keychain.
Bubba: Where in the Disney multiverse are we?
Keaton: This is very much a huge part of why I think so much about this movie is all the things you just listed. That line I think is the best line in the movie. And I noticed in the trailer they play it right at the beginning. It's so perfect and such a good hook for adults that are like, What the fuck is this thing? And like, yeah, even though Donald Duck makes a cameo and it is a cameo. They have a line, play it as quick as fuck, but like, you know they're in this universe. But yes, the fact that Mickey is on the phone in his bedroom and they show that right from the beginning makes you ready for that sort of I don't want to call it meta-ness, because when I've thought about it, I'm like, I don't know if it's meta by like definition that they have this stuff, but it's definitely some weird universe where Walt Disney exists and they're like very strongly associated with him and fans of him.
Bubba: Yeah, they're playing games or they're trying to guess a person and it’s Walt Disney. They reference that twice. They're aware of their creator in this world. Which I mean I guess some people are aware of the creator in this world, too.
A.J.: Oh, you’re getting all religious on us, huh?
Keaton: It's yeah, it's so good. In 95? Come on. That's good for a movie. You're like, What is happening? I've never seen this.
A.J.: And now it is time for our newest segment, Kidz Critics. Where we talk about today’s film with tomorrow’s generation. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Rory and Reagan.
Bubba: Hello?
A.J.: Rory?
Rory: I hurted my lip and now it’s bleeding.
Bubba: Oh no, you have a bloody lip?
A.J.: Did you put some ice on it?
Rory: Yeah.
Bubba: Is it feeling better now, or does it still hurt?
Rory: It still hurts.
A.J.: Okay, Rory, you know what movie I watched the other night?
Rory: No.
A.J.: A Goofy Movie. Have you ever seen A Goofy Movie?
Rory: Yeah.
A.J.: Well, do you like it.
Rory: Yeah!
A.J.: Who was your favorite character in A Goofy Movie?
Rory: Goofy.
A.J.: Did you like Bigfoot?
Rory: Yeah, he's funny. Why does Max wear gloves?
A.J.: I don't know. Why do you think he wears gloves?
Reagan: Keep the hands warm.
Bubba: Keep the hands warm. Good idea. What was the funniest moment? What made you really laugh?
Reagan: (Indecipherable)
A.J.: Oh, I like that part, too.
Ashleigh: What’s the movie about?
Reagan: Goofy.
Rory: And Max too.
A.J.: If you shout it, it'll make it more true. Well, we loved hearing your thoughts about A Goofy Movie.
Rory: Thank you for asking me these questions.
Bubba: Thanks for talking with us.
A.J.: All right. Well, Rory, I hope your lip feels better. I hope you have a good weekend. Roy and Reagan, thank you. Bye.
Bubba: See you soon.
Ashleigh: Something else that I read that I was like, Oh, yeah. So this movie came out. They call it the Disney Renaissance, you know? Started with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. This movie came out like in the midst of all that and in all those movies, there's a clear bad guy villain. And in this movie there really is no villain.
Bubba: I would say it’s Pete.
A.J.: Under your thumb, Goof.
Keaton: If he is the antagonist, it's so great how they set him up at the photo studio to be such a nice guy. It’s such a perfectly confusing antagonist, if he is the antagonist.
A.J.: Did you guys know that the voice of Pete, Jim Cummings, is also the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, the Tasmanian Devil, Cat from CatDog.
Bubba: Get out of here. Holy cow. Under your thumb!
Ashleigh: How can he cross Disney to Warner Brothers?
A.J.: The paycheck will make you cross lines.
Ashleigh: There’s no villain. It's a lovely movie. That's all I wanted to say.
Bubba: There’s an antagonist.
Ashleigh: There’s no Ursula. There’s no Scar. These movies had very clear bad guys and this does not.
Keaton: I didn't really think about that as being a big reason that this movie is different. But yes, absolutely. Yes, I knew it felt more like a movie that I would watch as a live action movie.
Bubba: Despite the fact there isn't any nightmarish evil villain or anything like that, I do remember as a kid being so struck by how, for lack of a better word, scary some scenes were where there are these unsettling, scary, emotional tonal shifts in this movie. And for example, when Goofy receives the phone call and hangs up, there's I can't describe the scene well, but like all of a sudden the lighting changes. He goes from a sterile mall environment to spotlights on him. And he has this existential dread moment. As a kid I didn't fully understand why that was so, but the composers that did the score for that, it's not just the soundtrack, not just having Tevin rock the Prince-style songs, but whoever did the original score completely hit the emotional beats exactly right. The other example I would give is when the map pops out of the glove compartment and Max is confronted with this, it is so perfectly made a six year old kid completely understands what's happening and it resonates as deeply as an adult understanding the implications on a deeper level.
Keaton: It's supposed to be funny, right? He thinks in a cartoonish wage if he changes the line Goofy will just follow it blindly and everything will just work out is supposed to be funny in and of itself. That's really funny.
Bubba: When the map is first introduced, Goofy is saying, look, this is the same map that me and my dad used. They've always had one pencil line to mark that map and it's always been the same route. So I think if anything, the rebellion that Max exhibits or acts on by even erasing that line from this family heirloom and adding a new mark on it, that's a rebellion enough.
Keaton: Big time. And I can see they set that up now when they introduce the map here and like he says like you'll crinkle history or something when Max touches it tje wrong way, like right off the bat he's like, you're you're going to erase history.
Ashleigh: I think that's why, again, we all agree this movie is so good because everything is about coming to terms with yourself and gaining confidence and becoming one with your family. That's ultimately what this movie is about.
A.J.: You're becoming your parent, but you realize you take aspects of your parents’ personality and you mold them into your own unique personality. Max had to learn to accept his Goofy laugh as part of him.
Ashleigh: I can watch it now as an adult and enjoy it because I can see it from Goofy’s side and Max’s side, my kids can watch and enjoy it because it's funny and it's visually appealing. It's so good. I'd rather watch this movie than Little Mermaid any day.
Bubba: It just seems like somewhere along the way this team working on A Goofy Movie was like, We're not going to make this a B-level movie. This will be a work of art.
Keaton: Yeah, totally.
Bubba: I just want to also sneak in this little tidbit that at one point Steve Martin was considered to be the right choice to voice Goofy. At least that's what Katzenberg wanted. Could you imagine Steve Martin delivering the line how many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon? Yeah, it would have been so weird.
Keaton: Bill Farmer killed it.
A.J.: It took two and a half years of recording his voice for this movie for them to get it right. Michael Eisner originally wanted him to just voice it like a regular person, and Bill Farmer was like, Uh, okay. And then after, like a while that they're like, okay, just do the Goofy voice.
Ashleigh: But hadn't he been doing Goofy for so long?
A.J.: He had been, but I think they were worried about, well, that was for TV. This is for a movie. It needs to be bigger, better.
Keaton: It's cool. He can do it. He can do dramatic scenes like the Whirlpool scene with Pete and have that Goofy voice as he's saying, like, I trust my son.
Ashleigh: Well, now that makes more sense, because I wrote this down. Bill Farmer, who's played Goofy since 1987, talked about how much Disney changes Goofy, even while he's been playing him. But historically, he's been very plain and simple. They've made him a dad, an everyman. At one point, they changed his name to George G. Geef.
Keaton: You mean like from the nineties to be cool, like he’s Geef now?
Ashleigh: I don't know what year this was. It was before Bill Farmer played him I think and they got rid of his ears. It's like they didn't know who they wanted Goofy to be.
Bubba: And I feel like we could talk forever about Goofy, but I also just want to say Goofy is a dog. Pluto's a dog, right? And I just feel like they should both be pissed. All the all the mice get their anthropomorphic selves. They're all treated the same. And then Pluto's like, What the hell?
Keaton: I guess it's okay for anthropomorphic dogs to also live in a universe where they're just dogs. I think it's so weird. Well, I think that anything that feels like there's tension and like a father and son are fighting, that can make you feel like if you're having a tense time with your father, you're like, Hey, it's okay. Look, Max and Goofy fucking went through it and they got through it. Weirdly, there's a connection there. You can think things seem pretty bad for them. They're floating on that car fighting and stuff. How could things get any worse? Things aren't even as bad for me as they are for Max and Goofy. And look, they got through it, and I think that the father and son relationship thing, to be honest as a kid, felt so aggressively sad that I was pretty sad about the movie. It was a pretty big downer. And I wanted to say a lot of movies that go from TV adaptations to a movie, like the Powerpuff Girls movie or the Rugrats movie or the Pokemon movie. They turn it into the sad movie and I think the SpongeBob movie, even though they do that and it's a little bit awkward, they try at least to make it feel like something you could laugh along with. And it's kind of a joke, even though it has that emotional arc. Yeah, this is one that's a downer you can appreciate as you grow older.
A.J.: The Powerline scenes really lift this movie way up into the heavens. So if you're feeling down, just wait for the bookends.
Ashleigh: However we never get any mention of Mrs. Goofy. Max’s mom.
Bubba: Yeah, but there are no moms really in this movie.
Keaton: My girlfriend said Pete might not be a single dad. It's not really implied. It could be, but it's not really. But Goofy has to be.
Bubba: There's never evidence either way.
Keaton: Then what about the TV show? I didn't see it.
Ashleigh: Pete, I think, did have a hot wife if I remember correctly. But Goofy didn’t.
Bubba: If that's the case, then, it kind of explains why Goofy is trying to win his son back.
Ashleigh: Now that I think about it at the beginning, after the dream sequence, when we see Goofy, he's wearing the turban towel and towel wrapped around him like very feminine, traditionally feminine. But maybe they're implying he is the mom and the dad.
Bubba: I think if you're looking for it and you really want to go on a deep dive into the family dynamics and the emotion of this, there's something to dig into with the missing Mrs. Goof.
Keaton: But they don't want you to think about that at all.
Bubba: You don't think about Bugs Bunny or any dynamics further beyond what's going on there. And I guess for this one, it was very smart to not utter a single word about it because then it would complicate it.
Ashleigh: Okay, So the opening dream sequence, right? Love. It ends with the nightmare of Max that he's transforming into his dad. And he's terrified. And Roxanne is terrified.
Bubba: Obviously, that sets up this whole kind of complex where Max is puba-sizing, as mom would say, and he's recognizing that he is becoming his dad. He has a few of his dad's traits, namely his laugh, which surprise twist spoiler alert, Roxanne actually loves, it is the reason why she loves Max, which is fantastic. But I think every child, especially every son, has a moment where they they recognize the traits, the attributes of their parents that they're growing into, becoming a teenager and having family members or close friends say like, oh, my God, you're so much like your dad or that's exactly what your dad would say. And you start thinking like you're a teenager. You're like, No, no, no, I'm my own person. What are you talking about? There's no predestined fates where I just end up being dad. I am whoever I want to be. You know, as a teenager. That's tough. It's tough. I mean, there's a moment when you finally become an adult where you're like, my dad's fantastic. I'm proud to have his features and his juicy eyebrows, you know, So, yeah, I think it just resonates. I imagine that's a pretty universal experience for a lot of kids, right?
Ashleigh: Yeah, right.
Bubba: All right. Quick Hits. I got a few. What’s up with the traveling nuns? Like, why? Who are they? They're following Goofy and Max across the country. They end up at the Powerline concert. It's funny that nuns are going to a concert. Second quick hit is Pauly Shore. He does a great job with Bobby, right? I didn't realize that he's uncredited for this film in the same way that Robin Williams is uncredited in Aladdin because he didn't want Disney using his name to advertise the film or did want to just say, Pauly Shore in.
Keaton: That seems crazy about Robin Williams.
Bubba: I don't know if it's like, is that an altruist thing or is it just like, I don't want my name to be on it.
Keaton: Feels kind of like it does not fucking matter. And that's what makes sense. Which seemed cool for Robin Williams. It seems like they'd be like, We're going to sue you if you don't put your name on it.
Ashleigh: Yeah, that’s crazy. Slurpage.
Keaton: I have a quick hint. The droopy woman at the photo shoot. And she does nothing. She just stands there. And the Elvis turning around in the diner and the way the movie was written was to me a fresh style of humor that I wasn't seeing on TV and felt like this was a universe they were establishing. It was so well thought out. I think the style of humor, I don't know what these people were on, was very fresh
Bubba: What is your favorite or most quotable line that you find yourself using in day to day conversation?
Ashleigh: How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon? I used to pretend I was sleep talking and say that.
Bubba: We have served each other breakfast many times and I've been, like, withholding the plate. And I’ll say eggs, eggs, EGGS!
Ashleigh: I think that is the most quotable for sure. And then I used to really hate those cheese sprays. They just make me gag, but I'll always associate that with this movie. So what are you watching, Keaton?
Keaton: Well, A.J. sort of recommended a movie to me, I thought, and I went and saw it, and I didn't like it at all. Skinamarink.
Ashleigh: That is not the title of a movie.
Bubba: Is anyone supposed to like this movie? You know, are you supposed to enjoy it?
Keaton: Then IFC shouldn't pick it up for distribution if it's not supposed to be liked.
A.J.: IFC and Shudder. So it's a horror movie set in a suburban house.
Ashleigh: Is this your new Barbecue? Whatever that movie's called- Barbakoff?
A.J.: Barbarian. It is much more frightening and experimental than Barbarian.
Keaton: Definitely more experimental.
A.J.: It's basically this experimental 100-minute movie set in a suburban house with grainy footage that you can barely even make out what's happening on screen a lot of the time. It's about these two kids who are stuck in the house, in their childhood home. And the plot isn't really clear, but it seems like their parents are abusive and they're trying to hide from their parents and crazy shit happens.
Keaton: That was a really generous synopsis.
A.J.: That's how I read it. And I think there can be a million different readings of this.
Keaton: Can I give a synopsis? A movie where two very young children watch royalty free cartoons on like Archive.org all night and they play with Legos and you're seeing shots of walls and carpets. And halfway through the movie, a chair appears upside down on the ceiling. And then after that, there's two jump scares randomly.
A.J.: Yeah, very, very loud. Scary.
Keaton: Most of it is shots of the ceiling. Yeah. And walls and you don't even get to see the upper half of any of the characters until the very end.
Ashleigh: I will not be watching this.
A.J.: It reminded me of how scary our house used to be when we were little when all the lights were off.
Ashleigh: I’m still scared when my house creaks.
Keaton: Paranormal Activity and this movie I put in a really similar category and I can see how it could work for some people that are sitting there engulfed in it. And when there is a jump scare. But both those movies, all I'm thinking is like this is an extremely low budget attempt, like scoring a big box office hit. And they did. They hit that money, though. They hit the cha-ching.
Bubba: Well, this is the thing about this movie and A.J. said it after he watched and we talked about it. A.J. said he was bored by it often and I think you are right. I think it's intentional. You know, I think it's purposeful. You're so bored you’re looking at the loop of the grain.
Keaton: But the one thing you shouldn't be with a movie is bored.
Bubba: You're bored because they try to make you feel what these kids are feeling, which is like the low level anxiety where you're like, are we out of the woods? And then when you're slapped with a total of 576 days, it kind of makes sense.
Keaton: Honestly, there were a couple of fun moments, but that is me being really, really, really, really, really generous because I think you actually could sit there and watch the whole thing and not completely understand that there's actually even supposed to be two kids there.
A.J.: It reminded me so much of Inland Empire where I respect it. I admire it. Scared the shit out of me. I'm not rushing to watch it again.
Ashleigh: Is it a scary?
A.J.: Scariest movie I’ve ever seen.
Bubba: It's terrifying.
A.J.: Well, that wraps up our discussion about A Goofy Movie.
Bubba: And Skinamarink.
A.J.: Thank you for joining us on this journey. Thank you, Keaton, for coming on to the show. Do you want to plug anything that you've been working on lately?
Keaton: No. It was a blast to be here. Google my name Keaton Monger if you want to see me.
Bubba: Yeah. Everybody obviously watch A Goofy Movie and definitely check out Starlight Theater Presents. But try to forget everything that you know about this conversation. Everything that we said earlier because it's even better when you don't expect A Goofy Movie to be a part of the short.
Keaton: Oh yeah, I appreciate that. Hell yeah.
Ashleigh: We’ll talk to you later. Bye.
