An Extremely Goofy Movie

Shit son I am getting old.

Story time! While I never even heard of the first Goofy movie, I actually had this on VHS back when I was most likely 5 and watched it regularly, and boy howdy this movie may have have left an impact on me I'm only just now rediscovering. The story I feel is somewhat better and somewhat worse than the last, with Max heading to college and pretty soon after Goofy has to go back to school for a better chance of employment (You remember when college meant something?), and then they get embroiled in the X Games which is a whole other ass story and...I'm split. The last movie was very much Max's film despite the title but here the focus is split between our two leads and their subsequent college lives, and while I do understand both characters have stories to finish I do wish it could have focused on just one. I honestly adored Goofy's story in this movie, from that almost akin to a death in the family loss when your kid goes to college which honestly kinda cut me deep and it did even more so when I was younger even if I was too young to fully comprehend why, to him finding a girlfriend, to him being able to let Max be his own individual, that's a pretty friggin' strong story all by itself! Whereas with Max I almost feel like all the character growth from last movie got thrown into the incinerator and we're back to square one, with him wanting nothing to do with his dad and just wants to compete at the X Games which leans a little too close to character assassination for me personally, and there's just nothing even slightly interesting going on in his story. Hell I was having more fun seeing PJ get this sassy hipster girlfriend and their background relationship more than Max's story. The voice acting is still just as good even on a direct to video production, Bill still has such a wide range of emotions to play with and interesting dynamics to keep it entertaining, Jason leans heavier into the young adult angst and cockiness which fits the story even if it isn't that engaging. Bebe Neuwirth I feel is criminally underused as Sylvia, Goofy has a girlfriend and why the fuck are people not talking about that? This dorky ass, nerdy, redhaired librarian is such a sweet presence and the relationship feels real although I'm screaming to the heavens for it to be expanded upon in the still 82 minute runtime. They vastly deserved more on screen time together and for a Disney animated movie, that could have broke all new ground. Jeff Bennett was pulling overtime on this production with three characters including our main antagonist Brad, who my God is he hateable for such a stock jock character so props to him on that! The animation quality has dipped a notch as is common with direct to video material but it's far far from bad, with pretty solid use of color, rather fluid animation for a budget, and can have some scale to it when needed. This damn soundtrack though, holy shit! How is it that the cheaper movie has a better soundtrack than the theatrical film, with Pat Benatar, John Avila, Carmen Carter, and the friggin' Partridge Family?? And it's not covers either, it is flat out the song! We get a Saturday Night Fever dance sequence for crying out loud! So I guess my love for disco started at a young age. You see what I mean? Some aspects are maybe a little too good and some are just average at best! It's fairly aggravating I must say. Which does make me understand why absolutely no one brings up this movie, it makes the first movie seem almost hallowed but the good stuff shines bright even amidst all the other stuff. I still was super happy to revisit this movie which I probably haven't seen in 20 years and though it didn't hold entirely up I can still recommend it. 2.5 stars, 6.5/10!

The Sandlot

I almost daresay this is a summer movie, but why?

Well The Sandlot, to my knowledge was the first sports movie I ever saw. Before I even knew half the rules of baseball or even played it myself, I watched The Sandlot. And The Beast frightened me. Yeah, that dog freaked me the hell out when I was young! To the point where I did not want to watch the movie, but now when you see him (in not animatronic form) he looks ridiculously cute, like I would totally get this dog! But if someone told me Darth Vader showed up at the end, I could have pushed through. But anyway, many people consider it to be one of the best sports movies of all time, certainly the most beloved, although and this is surprising even to me, the movie is not really about the sport of baseball but a small group of kids who play it. They play it a lot, even go against a rival team once and yet I hesitate to fully define it as a sports movie. It's more a summer movie to me. So what's the story? A young kid who just recently moved to a new town meets with a group of kids who play baseball every day of the summer, and we are told of this story through his own eyes all grown up. He makes friends with them all, learns to play better at baseball, and just enjoys his time with his friends. And I think that's what makes it more sort of accesible, and more fun for people including young kids to watch. Because it's not about the sport, they don't throw in terminology or lines that only hardcore baseball fans would know. Anyone with a passing interest or knowledge can enjoy this movie. It's more about the young boys than the sport. And that's what makes me say it's not really a sport movie like say, Friday Night Lights or Major League. And the problem is I don't watch sports movies hardly ever, it takes a lot to get me interested in watching one, but with this I feel like I could pop it in anytime and enjoy it, in fact...I do! It's a fun, really good movie with memorable characters, funny scenes, it just has this fun, care free sort of feel to it, and holds the most cuss words I have ever heard in a G rated film! I mean damn kids. I just really like this movie, and for those of you who do classify this as a sports movie, it's definitely my second favorite, next to Rocky. Probably because it defies every single sports movie trope, and for those of you who do not know anything about sports or don't watch sports movies you're in luck. I have a supplemental sort of review-esque video where one of my favorite critics dissect why people watch sports movies. It's not too in depth, in fact it's more of a brief overview of various movie tropes of sports films so you don't have to worry about it dragging on. It's only about 10 minutes if memory serves correctly.

Here's the link: https://youtu.be/s9QdLt_3KCY

Well that's it for today, but tomorrow might hold something new in our midst.