Goofy's son Max (Now in High School) is desperately trying to win the affection of Roxanne, the girl of his dreams. So his big plan involves him staging a concert as Powerline, the biggest music star of the time. He wins her affection, but also gets in trouble, which causes Goofy to fear that his son may be going down the wrong road, and there might not be much time left to bond with him. So he takes Max on a fishing trip against his will, despite it being Max's one big chance to finally be with Roxanne. However, Max makes things worse by telling her that he knows Powerline, and will be at the big upcoming concert, so he sabotages the trip unbeknownst to Goofy.
The voice acting retains most of the original cast, with the exception of Max, who is played by James Marsden, who does a pretty good role, and has pretty much been his voice in any other media featuring him. Bill Farmer's back as Goofy, Jim Cummings is once again the perfect Pete, and Rob Paulsen is PJ. No Peg or Pistol interestingly enough, which makes me think that more than likely Peg and Pete got a divorce in between. Also added to the cast is (shudders) Pauly Shore as Bobby, who is pretty much just playing Pauly Shore. He always felt like a character that was never needed, but then again that kind of is the career of Pauly Shore in a nutshell, innit?
The animation looks great, almost on par with that of the bigger Disney films at the time like The Lion King and Pocahontas. There are some really outstanding scenes like the opening dream sequence which at first feels like something really artsy, then becomes straight up nightmare fuel with Max morphing into Goofy. The Powerline concert at the end is also really well animated, and damn if you'll ever be able to get his songs out of your head. Powerline was performed by Tevin Campbell, and they are insanely catchy, particularly I2I.
On a story standpoint, it's nothing too amazing. You've gone down these roads before. Character tells major lies and tries to manipulate things into going their way, eventually gets revealed, things get tense, but everyone turns out happy at the end. But when the reveal happens, it really does feel intense. I mean this may be the only time you'll ever see Goofy, animation's most beloved happy-go-lucky character, suffer from a range of emotions. From being legitimately upset about being duped, to actual anger. But the movie's messages of growing up, and especially its story of a father having a hard time letting go really work, especially for a movie that you at first think is just going to be a... well... goofy movie.
Like a lot of movies I've reviewed for these 12 days, A Goofy Movie wasn't a massive box office hit, but found more love on home video, and has since become a more beloved film, as well as one of my favorite Disney films. Is it perfect? Not entirely? Does it feel a tad too 90's at times? Definitely. But there are more than enough laughs, songs, and charm to this movie that it can easily appeal to all audiences. If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a watch.