A Goofy Movie, Fathers, and Connection

Connection is something every human yearns for. When we are young, it’s harder for us to accept that we can connect with anyone who isn’t deemed to be on our level. We rather seek our connections from people our age like friends, peers, or even in love. The idea of familial connection is either not favorable for most, even rebelled against, but so is youth! So many grow up fearing that they will become their parents that they fight tooth and nail against them, that they miss the love staring them right in the face. But when you cross the threshold from youth to adulthood and you can finally see eye to eye with your parents, you can see why you relate to films like A Goofy Movie so much, or at least I have. Because your entire life, all you’ve wanted was a father who wanted a connection with you as badly as Goofy wanted with Max, no matter how he acted.

A Goofy Movie turned 30 the day I am writing this. It’s a film I’ve seen countless times. It’s a film I made my now fiancé watch the first time we hung out. It’s been a staple in my life for a very long time, but I didn’t realize why until I was an adult.

The film follows Max Goof, a nerdy teenager with a massive crush. Max is a kid who will go to extremely goofy lengths to impress people and find a connection. After a stunt to impress his crush, Max’s dad, Goofy, takes him on a road trip similar to one his own father took him. It’s a memory Goofy holds dear, but it’s not something Max wants because he wants to spend the summer with his crush Roxanne.

Goofy is scared he is losing his son because the principal called him after the incident at the school and made it seem like Max was on the path to ruin. This sparks a cross-country road trip to go fishing. There is no malice behind the trip; it is purely out of fatherly love, wanting to connect with his son and make sure he’s on the path to success. But Max, being a young person, thinks his father is a devil. 

In my teenage years, I resented my parents for whatever reason, off and on. For not allowing me to do things, for disciplining me, or whatever minuscule reason pissed off a young man dealing with mental illnesses far beyond his comprehension. I related to Max because I had a strained relationship with my father. But secretly, I wished he would care like Goofy did. It feels so silly to write now. Amongst all the things I’ve written, the most personal piece I will have ever put out will be one that is essentially saying that I wish Goofy, as in Goofy the Dog, was my father. But it’s better than what I’ve got. Goofy never gives up on Max despite Max’s constant lying, his existential fear of becoming his father, and everything Max does to push him away because at the end of the day… he is the child.

Through the film, we see Max resist every kind thing Goofy tries to do for him. Every attempt to bond with him is met with a recoil that mimics the whiplash of a car crash. They’re very different people but not at all at the same time, which means they just cannot see each other until something drastic happens to make it click into place.

Goofy is, well, goofy. He has a much more classic approach to the world, while Max is more modern with electronics and pop culture. Neither is wrong, but it makes it hard for them to have any point of cohesion. It becomes the square peg for a round hole issue. You see it in the car ride with their taste of music as they fight over what to listen to on the radio to the point of destroying the option to listen to anything. It’s a direct representation of their relationship and the inability of both to meet the other where they are at. 

I do not think Max or Goofy is at fault in A Goofy Movie, which is why I love it so much. In real life, sometimes, one side just cannot accept that they are wrong or overcome their own neuroticism to admit their own faults and move past something. While Max does lie to Goofy about changing their end destination to Los Angeles to once again impress a girl, Goofy still pushes past it because he’s his father and loves him regardless. He’s there to be the father Max needs. After they literally crash their car into the Grand Canyon rapids, this is the interaction that happens after Goofy admits he was afraid Max was headed to prison.

Max: I had to! You were ruining my life!

Goofy: I was only tryin’ to take my boy fishin’, окау?

Max: I’m not your little boy anymore, Dad! I’ve grown up! I’ve got my own life now!

Goofy: I know that! I just wanted to be part of it. You’re my son, Max. No matter how big you get, you’ll always be my son.

A Goofy Movie explores the Goof Troop’s relationship through every stop of their fishing tour across the country and the music of the film. But “Nobody Else But You” is the song where Max and Goofy lay it all out on the table to say they see each other. It’s a song where they are just saying they love each other in the most truthful way. They see one another’s faults and differences, and despite it all, they will always be there for each other because they are connected, despite whatever the world throws at them.

In the final scene of the film, after the big grand finale dance number and Goofy saving the day for Max, something changes. Something iconic about Goofy is his laugh. You can hear it in your head right now as you’re reading this hyuck. As Max goes to see Roxanne, he lets out his own hyuck. A true blue Goof laugh of his father, a man he was fighting so hard to be nothing like. The connection Max tried so hard to sever from the start was always there. It just needed Goofy to take the time to dust it off and tell Max he was just not seeing eye to eye. Goofy is a good man. I wish he could be all of our fathers.