“Goofy’s Glider”

Technically, the first Goofy how-to was “How to Ride a Horse,” initially a segment in The Reluctant Dragon. In it, you know, Goofy learns how to ride a horse. This was a natural fit. Goofy, by definition, isn’t good at things. Teaching him to do things leads to natural comedy and frankly my favourite run of Disney shorts. That Pinto Colvig had a contract dispute with Disney and left the studio and that the shorts only technically need a narrator was a bonus, but it seems likely the shorts would have been made no matter what.

Goofy, shockingly, has a glider. He is learning how to fly it. He is very bad at it. First, he tries to launch it by simply running. Then, he tries a bicycle. Next, a slingshot. A ramp. Finally, high explosives. Each has a unique problem. Goofy, however, is completely game and keeps trying, cheerful throughout. This is his characterization through most of this series. It’s cute.

Why does Goofy have a glider? No idea. I’ve read a suggestion that director Jack Kinney was interested in gliders, but it’s also possible he just thought it would be a funny thing for Goofy to have to struggle with. Gliders were popular between the wars, and in the US, this was still before we were involved in World War II. Goofy in flight is objectively kind of terrifying; there are some people who just shouldn’t be in the air. But what’s terrifying can often be made funny with the barest tweaking.

I love these shorts despite their not being a ton to them. Obviously there’s barely any plot here. It’s Goofy, a glider, a narrator, and a handful of sight gags. The sheer amount of dynamite involved when Goofy is filling the cannon to send his glider aloft should actually result in a substantial hole where Goofy, the glider, and the cannon used to be, but this is a cartoon and therefore off he goes. The first creature to achieve orbit.

Funnily enough, this is the only Goofy cartoon I know of to have its own ride in a Disney park. Goofy’s Sky School at California Adventure isn’t the most exciting roller coaster going; it isn’t even the most exciting roller coaster in the park. It had actually just reopened a few months before I rode it; before, it had been a ride called Mulholland Madness that was more LA freeway-themed. It’s now the story of Goofy running a flying school, and if it’s more barnstorming than glider, well, it’s still clearly based on this short.