Tag Archives: 1940s

March 8, 1946 – The Goofy Short, A Knight for a Day, is Released to Theaters

“Stand by, everybody, as we turn the calendar back 500 years and bring you the 123^rd running of the Canterbury tournament at Blunderstone Castle.”

Directed by Jack Hannah, A Knight for a Day was released on March 8, 1946. This short continues the trend of having Goofy play a part in the story, rather than being the regular Goofy audiences were used to from earlier Mickey Mouse shorts. Also, all the characters in Knight for a Day are designed to look like Goofy. The story was written by Bill Peet, with music by in-house composer Oliver Wallace.

Knight for a Day relies on clever puns woven throughout the story, such as the names of the knights: Sir Loinsteak and Sir Cumference. Modern day sports-casting and a medieval setting mix as the audience is taken back in time to attend, the announcer says, the 123^rd annual Canterbury jousting tournament. Everyone in town flocks to the castle for this event, and it sells out fast. The winner is to receive honor, glory, and the hand of the beautiful Princess Esmeralda, who is seen watching from her tower.

The squire Cedric, dreaming of the day he can win the favor of the princess through jousting as a knight

We then head to the dressing room of Sir Loinsteak, whose squire, Cedric, is busy polishing the knight’s suit of armor and preparing him for the fight. Cedric dreams that one day he shall be a knight “and face death for the smile of a lovely princess.” He takes a moment to daydream, but quickly sets back to work preparing the knight.

As the trumpet sounds, Cedric races to help Sir Loinsteak mount his horse, breaking the knight’s sword in his haste. He hides the pieces and continues to prep, but as he tries to shove the knight onto his horse, he pushes the Sir Loinsteak out of his armor (and Cedric into it) and the knight is knocked out cold when he lands on an anvil. Cedric can’t believe that Sir Loinsteak is unable to fight, and then realizes that he is wearing the armor. The narrator tells Cedric that this is his big chance—he can win the honor and glory, not to mention the hand of the fair princess.

The tournament begins with the champion, Sir Cumference (“Old Iron Pants, they call him”), entering the arena. His horse has hash marks for all the gallant knights who have fallen in battle against him. Cedric enters from the other gate, and is blown a kiss by Princess Esmeralda; the narrator comments that it must be love at first sight. Cedric’s dreamy-eyed gaze is cut short when he notices that the knights are prepared to joust, with shields made of bricks and sharp points at the end of their lances. He quakes in his armor.

Although nervous, Cedric charges with all of his might

The umpire checks his wrist-sundial, and the crowd waits anxiously for his signal to begin. The umpire waves his flag, the trumpet sounds, and off they go into the joust! Cedric charges gallantly forward, but it’s no use again Sir Cumference – Cedric and his horse are pushed out through the castle wall into the moat. Sir Cumference is still the champion, but this does not please the princess, who lets out a loud shout of discontent at this outcome.

Suddenly, Cedric is seen climbing through the hole in the castle wall, still on his horse, ready to try again. The champion puts on his helmet again, charges, and sends Cedric flying into the air and landing in the bleachers. The crowd lifts him back to his horse, infuriating Sir Cumference, who pulls out his sword and charges. Cedric pulls out his sword, too—forgetting that he had destroyed it earlier. Thinking fast, he attaches the arm from his armor to the end of the broken sword and goes full speed ahead, using it to knock the champion out of his seat. He then uses the armor arm to push the challenger back as he tries in vain to hack away at Cedric.

Cedric is able to hide comfortably inside the armor as Sir Cumference beats it relentlessly with a mace

Cedric begins to throw pieces of his armor at Sir Cumfrence, and the fight becomes a no-holds-barred scuffle. Sir Cumference takes out a mace and begins to smash the Cedric’s armor, with Cedric hiding inside. Cedric, however, being a lot smaller than the armor would suggest he is, is able to hide away without being injured. The champion is exhausted from his angry work, and Cedric becomes the new champion when “Old Iron Pants” falls from his horse. The princess leaps from her balcony and begins to shower Cedric with kisses. “What a day for a knight,” the narrator ends, “and what a knight for a day.”

January 28, 1944 – Goofy Short Subject How to Be a Sailor is Released.

“Star light, star bright – gosh, I wish I knew where I was tonight.”

On January 28, 1944, the short How to Be a Sailor was released to theaters. Following in the tradition of the How-To series starring Goofy, the short is an entertaining quick run-through of sailing throughout the ages. The surprising thing about this short is that the ending does deal with World War II, where it is Goofy against the entire Japanese fleet. This section, coupled with the rest of the short, not only gives the audience a good laugh, but also helps establish the feeling of invincibility in the face of fear when it came to the Japanese soldiers and the war. It’s also notable for being the only short of the war shorts to deal with the Navy, as the rest were mostly dealt with Army settings. The short was directed by Jack Kinney, and stars Pinto Colvig as the voice of Goofy, with John McLeish as the narrator.

“In the beginning,” the narrator starts off, “the world was all wet. Today, it is still four-fifths wet.” We are introduced to early man – or, early Goofy, as the case would be – who tromps through the woods and through shallow water, before falling into a deep section. Struggling to swim, he comes across a log; he’s unsteady on it, but manages to gain some stability and float along, until he comes across a method of propulsion: a wooden board. Excited, Caveman Goofy takes the board and happily steers himself around in circles.

Caveman Goofy gets an idea of how to propel himself on his log

We fast-forward to Egypt, where we see a boat rowing down the Nile river, and find that Goofy is rowing it by his lonesome, with a contraption that allows him to row the at least twenty oars needed to propel the ship. Soon after, we are sent to visit Viking Goofy, who used the stars as his compass. As Goofy laments that he wish he knew where he was, a constellation of Goofy with a bow and arrow hears his plea and shoots the star arrow, sending Viking Goofy and his boat flying across the ocean to their destination.

The next sequence addresses how 13^th Century people viewed the world, and wondered what shape it was in, and the audience sees various shaped globes, ranging from diamonds to cylinders. We then see one of their theories in action: sail West far enough, you would sail off the edge of the world. A Goofy version of King Neptune and two fish peek out from the edge of the world, watching the ship fall, and shake their heads.

Scarier than Pirates of the Caribbean were the Goofy Pirates

“From the earliest days, sailors were preyed upon by…pirates!” the narrator yelps as the pirate flag is raised. Goofy, a perfect pirate captain with peg-leg and eye-patch, is the victim of a mutiny. His crew pushes out a board, and he is sent to walk the plank, or “feed the sharks.” But a storm hits the next boat the audience sees, and the waves play a game of passing the ship from wave to wave. “For safety’s sake,” the narrator explains, “sailors would lash themselves to the mast.” We then see Goofy tied tightly to the mast, which is unfortunately is struck by lightning and sent crashing through the ship.

The most famous sequence of the short is the flag sequence, where we are taught the alphabet through semaphoring and wigwagging. Goofy tries to keep up with the fast pace of the narrator, but unfortunately wigs where he should have wagged, and his trousers fall around his feet. After hiding behind a sail to fix his situation, he comes out and begins to dance the traditional dances of the sea, including a dance of hoisting the sail, rowing, and being a look out, only he isn’t looking out where he is going. We also see Goofy tying knots, with some literal interpretations by the animators: Goofy ties a square knot (the knots make the shape of a square), then a sheepshank (which “baas” when he pulls on it), and as he slips on the next knot, he knocks himself in the jaw, to which the narrator explains is the “slipknot.”

Goofy finds that knots are a little more complicated than he thought

“And now, through trial and error, the sailor has at last, mastered the sea.” We see sailors on a Navy vessel, dreaming of pin-up girls, when the call to attack is sounded. Goofy picks up a missile to fire, only he slips and is sent out of the ship instead of the weapon, and is seen single-handedly destroying the Japanese fleet, as well as the symbol of the Rising Sun, saving the day.

The real gem of this short is the music, with the use of sea tunes to add humor to the situations. For instance, in the Egypt scene, when Goofy is struggling to row by himself, there is a teasing version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat playing in the background. Goofy, when dancing, also keeps in time with a xylophone version of The Sailor’s Hornpipe, which gives a whimsical addition to the already humorous dancing.

Although considered one of the war shorts, the short can stand up well on its own without the association. The pace is quick, but not overwhelmingly so, and gives the audience one laugh after another. This short is a highly enjoyable piece, and one of the best gems of Goofy’s career.

January 23, 1948 – Goofy Short Subject, They’re Off, Released to Theaters

Title Card for the Short, They're Off

Since Tintype I, horses of this line have been noted for their burning speed. And they’re also noted as camera muggers, or lens louses.

On January 23, 1948, the Goofy short, They’re Off, was released to theaters. Following in the tradition of the “How To” films that began with The Art of Skiing in 1941, the short is a tongue-in-cheek how-to on horse racing and betting on the winning horse. The short was directed by Jack Hannah, with story by Reiley Thomson and Campbell Grant, and music by Oliver Wallace.

Our narrator begins the film by taking us through the research one must do to identify the winning horse. “Today horse racing has become a science,” he declares, “a science to test the skill of the professional and unprofessional handicapper.” We see Goofy surrounded by mountains of books, periodicals, and newspapers, trying to identify what makes a winning horse. He tries to consider all the elements, including wind velocity, humidity, and rotation of the earth, with comical effect. As the narrator gives a brief history of the thoroughbred, the animators seem to have taken the terms quite literally, such as the horses being referred to as “bang tails,” much to the delight of the audience. Finally Goofy picks his horse, Snapshot III, and now must determine whether this horse has the “fine points of a horse’s conformation,” as the narrator states. Throughout his explanation, the narrator’s voice gradually speeds up, and Goofy ends up overwhelmed and delusional, with animations from How To Ride a Horse and the baby unicorns from Fantasia making a cameo.

Goofy becoming delusional from all of the confusion.

We next see Snapshot III’s pedigree. This is another clever example of wordplay: Snapshot III out of Developer by Hypodeveloper, out of Bromide by Flashbulb and Hypo, out of Tintype by Negative. This wordplay reflects Snapshot’s well-known trait of being a camera mugger or a “lens louse,” a term that causes the horse to glare at the audience.

The day of the big race arrives, and our confident Goofy enters the racetrack, trying desperately not to be swayed by the whisperings of the other bettors and the touts who convince him which horse will win. The narrator explains the many systems people use to pick a winner – again, with the animators taking it quite literally for comic effect. We then see the horses coming out to line up, with Snapshot III taking a jaunty trot down the track.

A confident Snapshot III, shown portraying the perfect conditioning

At this point, we see another Goofy, who has decided to go by luck to pick his horse. With “Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe,” he decides that Moe means something, and picks his horse: Old Moe, the 100-1 shot. The score at this point is a comically dour version of The Old Gray Mare, blaring from a brass instrument. Both Goofys place their bets, with the confident researcher stuffing in all of his money, and the play-by-luck Goofy betting only $2.

“The atmosphere is electric,” the narrator observes, although the members of the press, the cameramen, and the jockeys contradict the atmosphere he describes. The race starts, with Snapshot still standing at the gate, calmly eating oats. With a yawn, Snapshot’s jockey tells him to go ahead and start, and he takes off at a fiery speed. The scene grows more tense and chaotic as reporters are typing like crazy, flashbulbs are constantly flashing, and the audience is fighting among themselves. Old Moe and Snapshot are “grappling it out neck and neck,” and the race becomes a photo finish between the two.

The writers and animators must have had a fun time doing this short, with little gags here and there: Jack Hannah, for instance, is seen as the owner of Snapshot III and Insomnia, and writers Reiley Thomson and Campbell Grant are the trainer and owner, respectively, of Crankcase. Even the names of the books are wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, like Know Your Nag and Mother Hubbard’s Selections. Overall, this short is a clever one; while it may not stand out as one of the best, it is definitely one to watch for the subtle gags.