In postwar America, Goofy transitioned from a minstrel clown into a kind of common man used to comment on modern culture in shorts like How To Play Football (1944) and Aquamania (1961). The latter is one of Goofy’s earliest performances, as he works as a stagehand for Mickey’s stage production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Characters with blackened-faces, white gloves, and accentuated facial features perform on stages in cartoons like The Minstrel Show (1932) and Mickey’s Mellerdrammer (1933). Early commercial animation wasn’t shy about employing visual referents to black face minstrelsy, whose structure and themes were absorbed and reproduced in vaudeville, whose structure and themes would, in turn, influence animation. He is, in part, a representation of stereotypes of poor black people from the country, re-imagined for the entertainment of white people - a new kind of minstrel performer. He is very courteous and apologetic and his faux pas embarrass him, but he tries to laugh off his errors…” He laughs at his own jokes, because he can't understand any others. But then again, here’s Goofy’s original animator, Art Babbitt, on Goofy’s origins in 1934: "Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured colored boy and a hick…His brain is rather vapoury. Watch A Goofy Movie and it’s not hard to see why, as Goofy’s presence in his own movie undermines the claim that it offers an unequivocally positive representation of blackness, and the broader claim that the movie is black.Īt a glance, Goofy is obviously a dog - black, sure, but in the way Labradors are sometimes black but are dogs just the same, as evidenced by his snout, his floppy ears, and what is likely a tail underneath his pants. Narratives focused primarily on two characters as specific as father and son usually have some similarities, but it is interesting to see how this can be the case even with two very different pieces of media.However, Goofy is rarely mentioned in these arguments about the movie’s blackness, even though he too must be black. These are just a few instances where the stories of God of War and A Goofy Movie overlap. But throughout A Goofy Movie, the two learn to give each other the space they need, both with and apart from each other. On the other hand, Max wishes his father wouldn't be so silly all the time and let him have his own life. This is what lead him to plan the road trip. Goofy doesn't usually show emotions beyond being goofy, but he does share with Max how much he wants to be a part of his son's life. In the end, both Kratos and Atreus get a better understanding of each other and themselves. As their situation changes, both find new thing to be mad at and proud of about the other. Kratos gets irritated at his son for being naive and open to others, while Atreus is annoyed that his father is emotionally distant and doesn't always trust his judgment. God of War sees Kratos and Atreus argue constantly. As with any pop culture road trip, there is a lot of tension.
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