To be perfectly honest, this classic Goofy short is more concerned with the actual getting to your holiday destination of choice than with the two weeks vacation itself. We see far less of this and a lot more of the travelling process involved, which sometimes makes me wonder if they really had loads more material to come on this one but were forced to cut things short for the sake of the 6 minute running time. Something about the story here does feel just a tiny bit incomplete...nevertheless, combining all the usual ingredients in the trusty Goofy formula the off-screen, plumy-voiced narrator who succeeds in putting a more positive spin on the visual mishaps our hero endures, along with fluid animation and distinctive voice-work it lacks none of the charm or humour needed to make a great Disney cartoon.
Taking a break from the monotony of the office, Goofy is hitting the road and heading for the wilderness for a fortnight of camping and leisure, but finds the journey to be stressful enough in itself. Of all the Walt Disney shorts I watched while I was growing up (and am always glad to come across again whenever I'm going through all my old videotapes from the 1980s), this is one of the little highlights that have really lingered on inside my mind. Not so much for its amusement level (which is certainly high), but mainly because its depiction of life on the 'Open Road' is, in some ways, every bit as troubling and twisted as it is funny and this was 19 years before Steven Spielberg's 'Duel' at that. I tell you, the sequence with the approaching train by the overnight rest-stop used to freak me out considerably as a younger viewer and please, don't get me started on the deal with that trailer!
Unlike those Disney shorts centred around Pluto or Donald, which have appealed to me from pretty much the split-second I was introduced to them, Goofy's unique line of cartoons are something I think I came to appreciate more with age. There's a fairly wry, ironic and sometimes even satirical edge to his shorts that's perhaps even more liable to tickle an adult audience than one made up of kiddies, including a great moment here involving a road-side hitch-hiker who seems determined to disprove the old saying that 'beggars can't be choosers'. I also have to dig that foreseeable but still very enjoyable encounter with the crooked car mechanics. And of course, there are still plenty of colourful sight gags on hand to ensure that younger viewers won't be bored.
For anyone familiar with Goofy's luck, the final outcome shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but the central joke of this short that setting out on vacation can be ten times more exhausting than being at work is definitely a good one, and doesn't go to waste.
Grade: A-
Taking a break from the monotony of the office, Goofy is hitting the road and heading for the wilderness for a fortnight of camping and leisure, but finds the journey to be stressful enough in itself. Of all the Walt Disney shorts I watched while I was growing up (and am always glad to come across again whenever I'm going through all my old videotapes from the 1980s), this is one of the little highlights that have really lingered on inside my mind. Not so much for its amusement level (which is certainly high), but mainly because its depiction of life on the 'Open Road' is, in some ways, every bit as troubling and twisted as it is funny and this was 19 years before Steven Spielberg's 'Duel' at that. I tell you, the sequence with the approaching train by the overnight rest-stop used to freak me out considerably as a younger viewer and please, don't get me started on the deal with that trailer!
Unlike those Disney shorts centred around Pluto or Donald, which have appealed to me from pretty much the split-second I was introduced to them, Goofy's unique line of cartoons are something I think I came to appreciate more with age. There's a fairly wry, ironic and sometimes even satirical edge to his shorts that's perhaps even more liable to tickle an adult audience than one made up of kiddies, including a great moment here involving a road-side hitch-hiker who seems determined to disprove the old saying that 'beggars can't be choosers'. I also have to dig that foreseeable but still very enjoyable encounter with the crooked car mechanics. And of course, there are still plenty of colourful sight gags on hand to ensure that younger viewers won't be bored.
For anyone familiar with Goofy's luck, the final outcome shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but the central joke of this short that setting out on vacation can be ten times more exhausting than being at work is definitely a good one, and doesn't go to waste.
Grade: A-