The Goof, as Walt Disney called him, is back. Nearly 50 years after Disney shifted focus from short cartoons to feature-length animation, the company has decided to return to the form.
The first short will be a reprise of the “how to” series popular in the 40s and 50s in which Goofy plays the American Everydog, befuddled by the complexities of modern life. In How to Install Your Home Theatre, Goofy will attempt to do just that with, Disney promises, comical results.
“You don’t want to put Goofy on a skateboard,” Kevin Deters, one of the cartoon’s two directors, told the New York Times. “There’s no reason to attempt to make him hip and cool. Goofy isn’t cool. He’s the ultimate domesticated man.”
The move comes as the people behind Pixar, the studio that made Toy Story and Finding Nemo before being bought by Disney, exert their influence on the famous name. “Shorts have always been a wellspring of techniques, ideas and talent,” said Lion King producer Don Hahn. “It’s exactly what Walt did.”
Disney used shorts as a training ground for his animators before embarking on his first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The new shorts include the Ballad of Nessie, about the Loch Ness monster, and Golgo’s Guest, about a Russian border guard who meets an alien. – Guardian Unlimited Â