Goof Troop: Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas

When I was a kid, I used to love watching cartoons on Toon Disney or Disney Channel, mostly Recess, Sabrina the Animated Series, Lilo & Stitch & Kim Possible. However, one show I'd watch from time to time when it came on was Goof Troop, except I didn't really remember much about it other than it shows Goofy & his son Max going on crazy antics in suburbia with Pete & his family. In fact, the only ways I really knew about Max was Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas & the other stuff showing him as a teenager like A Goofy Movie, its sequel, House of Mouse & Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas. So can Goofy & Max bring some Christmas cheer in their TV show, or will I forget this immediately after watching it? Let's find out!

Story: The story in this involves Goofy & Max going away for Christmas to follow Pete & his family for doing the same thing Goofy's antics cause Pete to explode & have a trip away from them. When they come across each other, even more hijinks ensue thanks to Goofy's naive clumsiness as Christmas gets worse for everyone, including for Max. Honestly, from the get-go, you can tell this plot is pretty generic with the buddy comedy-type plot with 2 warring families where crazy hijinks ensue until they all get along by the end. It doesn't really do much to make it new other than the fact that it involves Goofy. It does have heart, don't get me wrong thanks to the relationship between Goofy & his son by the end & they all make up by the end & realize the meaning of Christmas despite being stuck in a cave with a bear that had been following the characters throughout the special as the main running gag, but even then that can get pretty predictable. There isn't much to the story, but I will say the comedy can be pretty funny rather it be the characters & their personalities or the crazy slapstick (which there happens to be a lot of in this) Sure, it's generic & does nothing new, but the comedy kind of makes up for it!

Animation: Yeah, the animation is actually pretty good for a cartoon despite the rather rough quality, as the character animation is really well done during the fast paced action/slapstick scenes or just the Reindeer Rumba (a pretty fun musical number at the end) The backgrounds are pretty good considering they're not in a generic suburbia for most of the special like they normally would in an episode, with the cabins looking pretty Christmas-y along with the snow & lights outside in the streets setting up a nice & cosy mood. There isn't really much else to say about the animation if I can be honest other than the quality being rough as mentioned before, but for what it is, it's pretty good for something like this!

Characters: There isn't really much characters in this other than the main ones, so this one will be pretty quick! Goofy is pretty much the same clumsy yet kind hearted character despite embarrassing his son & inadvertently causing disaster everywhere. He is of course likeable & Bill Farmer, as always does a great performance! As for his son, Max, he's pretty much just the typical 90s kid that tries to be cool &, ahem, 'hip' & honestly, it makes him feel pretty dated & at times can come across as unlikeable due to being embarrassed by his dad & feeling disappointed in him for 'ruining Christmas' despite it not being his fault. Pete, the kinda antagonist, has enough of Goofy's Christmas decorations taking all of his electricity & plans to leave with his family, which ironically ends up going wrong thanks to Goofy following him along with his wife Peg being caring yet feisty & big-mouthed, his son PJ being Max's best friend & trying to be 'cool & 'hip' & his young daughter Pistol being a hyperactive motormouth. Despite Max & PJ feeling really dated & all of them not really being developed besides Pete being worried about Goofy despite keeping his jerk-ish demeanour, the other characters are pretty funny thanks to their personalities (especially Peg, she's just so hilarious at the end).

 

Honestly, Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas isn't really the best Christmas special out there with a predictable story despite the fun comedy, rather nice animation despite the rough quality & the characters being fun despite a few of them being dated & not being as developed. The only people I can really recommend this to is people who watched the show when growing up (so not really me since I barely remember this) since they don't really do anything for newcomers to establish the characters.

Story: 4/10

Animation: 5/10

Characters: 6/10

Overall: 5/10