“Did you ever wonder why we are always like wearing gloves?”

Justin’s rating: Shake your Goof thing

Justin’s review: It never ceases to amuse me how Disney practically wrote off 1995’s A Goofy Movie as not being worthy of promotion the way it was treating its top tier animated flicks of the decade — and yet A Goofy Movie did rather well and became entrenched as an enduring fan favorite.

So while the studio probably was smarting from this misstep, it wasn’t going to turn down some free money by pumping out a direct-to-video sequel some five years later. While I’ve seen A Goofy Movie so dang many times (and own the soundtrack), I have never once checked out the follow-up. Is it good or an embarrassment of goofs?

I do like that this is an actual sequel that continues the themes and story of the original with several of the same voice actors. Max (Jason Marsden) is absolutely delighted to be heading off to college out of the oppressively smothering presence of his dad Goofy (Bill Farmer). He’ll be doing so with his best buds PJ (Rob Paulsen) and Bobby (Pauly Shore in a much-expanded role). Missing from the group is the first movie’s Roxanne, which is never explained.

The thought of Goofy as an actual parent who, at some point, managed to woo and procreate with some cartoon lass weirdly captivates me. Social services should’ve been called by now, because having an accident-prone parent who’s often hanging out with a duck with no pants is a warning sign. We also learn that Goofy works at a toy factory — or worked, past tense, because he gets fired and has to go live with Max at college. Because that’s normal, right?

Goofy apparently went to college back in the ’70s and so attempts to bring that style back. Unlike the first movie, where he was looking for how to connect with his distancing son, now he comes off as a clingy parasite who can’t bear to give Max any space whatsoever.

I guess 2000 was still in the era where the only thing adults knew about teenagers was that they were into extreme sports, so get ready for a whole bunch of skateboarding, BMX biking, and rollerblading at this college. I mean, theoretically they go to classes at some point, but it’s mostly X-TREME sports… to the extreme. Sponsored by ESPN.

As Max deals with the ongoing embarrassment of his dad, he’s also trying to beat the Gammas — led by the hilariously named Bradley Uppercrust — at the X College Games. We also get Newsradio’s Vicki Lewis as a beatnik coffeeshop poet (she seems to be all anyone remembers of this film) and Goofy romancing the librarian.

This isn’t a bad movie by any stretch, but I felt it lacked the special blend that made A Goofy Movie work. There aren’t any musical numbers this time around, and the humor is most definitely not as strong. Yet I did like how it embraced the college experience, from dorm rooms to frat pledging to hanging out at a local coffee shop.

Alas, the extreme sports angle dates this more than Goofy’s bellbottoms and butterfly collars. And there is so very much of it.

Intermission!

• They’re not even in college and they’re talking about “beating the Gammas”
• You can cram an entire dartboard into a suitcase if the editor isn’t paying attention
• OK Goofy is sad Max is off to college. We get it.
• Are NONE of their parents seeing them off to college?
• Movies at the cinema: The Gooffather, The Goofinator, and Pup Fiction Too
• Beatnik coffee bars were all the rage in 2000
• A SNAP OFF!
• Goofy went to college in the ’70s but never got a degree?
• Well if you ever wanted to see Goofy with an afro, here you go
• “This could severely affect campus hijinkage!”
• The many ESPN logos
• “Your cool balances out… his fool.”
• Nobody will notice that your skateboard is rocket-powered, even on live TV with judges
• Tests can make you hallucinate?
• “Let’s do it to it!” is not a phrase I’ve heard this century
• The X College Games did not have much of a fire fighting presence