\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we listen to each other\u2019s heart \/ We\u2019ll find we\u2019re never too far apart,\u201d sang the fictional pop star Powerline (voiced by Tevin Campbell) during a 2017 screening of \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d at El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
The ecstatic reaction from those in attendance confirmed to Kevin Lima that the first movie he ever directed, originally released on April 7, 1995, had indeed amassed an adoring fandom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sat amongst an audience who was singing along, repeating back dialogue with the characters onscreen, dancing in their seats,\u201d Lima recalled during a recent video interview from his home in Mill Valley, Calif.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d observes the often hilarious, and at times thorny relationship between Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer), the lanky anthropomorphic dog from Disney\u2019s classic cartoons, and his teenage son, Max (Jason Marsden), as they go on a road trip that will bring them closer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Unlike most Disney films made during that time, this heartfelt father-son adventure was a contemporary story entrenched in the 1990s via its upbeat pop music and the characters\u2019 wardrobes. Lima described it as \u201can animated film that feels like a John Hughes movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Produced mostly in Paris by Disneytoon Studios, a television division with a far smaller budget than those for projects at Walt Disney Animation Studios, \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d made a modest $35.3 million, not adjusted for inflation, during its domestic theatrical release, according to Box Office Mojo<\/a>. Yet with time, it found its audience among young millennials watching it on home video, namely VHS.<\/p>\n Today, YouTube and TikTok are saturated with content about \u201cA Goofy Movie.\u201d Disney has capitalized on this interest by releasing new merchandise that outnumbers the products that existed when the film was originally released. And special Fork n\u2019 Film screenings<\/a>, at which audiences eat the food from the movie, have played to sold-out crowds.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very surprised that of all the films I\u2019ve made, this one\u2019s had such a deep connection with its audience,\u201d said Lima, who also directed \u201cEnchanted\u201d (2007) and was one of the directors of \u201cTarzan\u201d (1999).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That devotion has crystallized into \u201cNot Just a Goof,\u201d a documentary about the making of \u201cA Goofy Movie,\u201d streaming on Disney+, to mark the 30th anniversary of the feature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The directors of the documentary, Eric Kimelton and Christopher Ninness, met in 2010 while working for Lima and bonded over their shared love of \u201cA Goofy Movie.\u201d<\/p>\n Kimelton is also Lima\u2019s nephew and was inspired to pursue a career in filmmaking after attending the premiere of a \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d at Walt Disney World in Florida as a kid. \u201cI realized there was a whole other possibility to life and not just the small town I was living in,\u201d Kimelton said.<\/p>\n It was in 2020, after watching the documentary \u201cInto the Unknown: Making Frozen 2,\u201d<\/a> that Ninness thought he would like to see one about \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d as well.<\/p>\n Initially, Kimelton and Ninness approached Lima with the intent of interviewing him for a short piece to discuss the movie\u2019s legacy, but after Lima shared with them more than 50 tapes of never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage, the project evolved into a full feature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ninness said that the way people connect with \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d across generations is what makes it enduring. \u201cIf you\u2019re a kid you can relate with Max, and now that I\u2019m a father, I\u2019m probably going to start relating to Goofy more,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone considers their dad goofy to a certain degree.\u201d<\/p>\n With Lima\u2019s encouragement, Ninness gets personal in the documentary. He says that since he had a complicated childhood, his rewatching of \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d provided a safe space. \u201cI hope that when people watch my scene in the movie, they can maybe see themselves a bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While a whole generation of movie watchers has enshrined \u201cA Goofy Movie,\u201d many Black viewers in particular have embraced the film as a cultural cornerstone under the perception that Goofy and Max are a Black father and son.<\/p>\n That read on the movie became the basis of a 2022 episode of the series \u201cAtlanta\u201d<\/a> titled \u201cThe Goof Who Sat by the Door,\u201d<\/a> which was conceived as a revisionist fake documentary that imagines \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d as the brainchild of a Black man who became Disney\u2019s C.E.O.<\/p>\n For one of the writers of the episode, Karen Joseph Adcock, creating this fiction was an exercise in reappropriation. \u201cIt was like, even if this wasn\u2019t for us, we\u2019ve decided that this is our thing now, and let\u2019s all experience it and talk about it in that way,\u201d she said during a recent Zoom interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lima recalled being surprised when he learned about the \u201cAtlanta\u201d episode but understood at that moment that \u201cA Goofy Movie\u201d had earned a rarefied place in pop culture. \u201cHere\u2019s a whole community who took this movie and used it to represent something bigger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Adcock said she appreciated that Lima\u2019s movie shows Goofy, a character often portrayed as a simple-minded second fiddle to Mickey Mouse, in a more complex light. \u201cThis was a story that really fleshed him out and opened up his world to show that he\u2019s going through it and is having a hard time, doing his best to be a good father and connect with his son.\u201d<\/p>\n Lima admitted that it hadn\u2019t been his lifelong quest to make a movie about Goofy, but he took the opportunity because he wanted to become an animation director. After watching the documentary, however, Lima realized that making his film had helped him grapple with his feelings about having an absent father. \u201cI took something that wasn\u2019t me and found a way to express myself through it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis movie became a way for me to imagine what it might have been to have a dad who loves you dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI personally think it\u2019s a Disney classic that stands up with the epics of the Disney Renaissance<\/a>,\u201d said Ninness. \u201cWhat \u2018A Goofy Movie\u2019 might not have in scope, it makes up for in characters and emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n