Goof Troop

Premise

Goof Troop bears similarity to several early-1950s Goofy cartoon shorts which depicted Goofy as a father to a mischievous red-haired son.

Goofy, a single father, moves back to his hometown of Spoonerville with his son, Max. As it happens, Goofy and Max end up moving in next door to Goofy's high school friend: Pete, a used car salesman and owner of Honest Pete's Used Cars; Pete's wife Peg, a real estate agent; and their two children, son P.J. (Pete Jr.) and younger daughter Pistol. Max and P.J. become best friends and do practically everything together. A large portion of humor comes from the relatively normal Max's personality sharply contrasting with his father.

Broadcast history and feature films

Goof Troop was originally previewed on The Disney Channel from April 20, 1992 into July 12 of that year. Like its predecessors DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck and its successor Bonkers, Goof Troop was previewed in syndication (on September 5, 1992) with a pilot TV movie, which later aired as a multi-part serial during the regular run. The series aired on The Disney Afternoon block of syndicated animated series during the 1992/1993 broadcast season; concurrent with the Disney Afternoon shows, another 13 episodes aired on Saturday mornings on ABC in 1992. Reruns of the series later aired on The Disney Channel (starting on September 3, 1996), and later on sister cable channel Toon Disney. Reruns were shown on Toon Disney until January 2005. The program made a return from September 2006 until August 2008, and the Christmas special still aired on Christmas (although it is unknown if the special will ever be shown on Toon Disney's replacement Disney XD) in the United States.

Goof Troop was adapted into the feature film A Goofy Movie (1995) and its direct-to-video sequel, A Goofy Movie 2: An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000). Both films are spin-offs of the series and take place a few years after the series. The two movies featured Bill Farmer, Rob Paulsen and Jim Cummings reprising their character roles from Goof Troop in these two movies, with Jason Marsden providing the voice of a now-teenager Max. Dana Hill, who provided the voice of Max, died on July 15, 1996 at the age of 32, after suffering a massive stroke related to her diabetes.

The Goof Troop premise was also incorporated into 1999's Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and its 2004 sequel, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, the latter continuing Max's age-progression to a young adult that has recently started dating and is reluctantly bringing his girlfriend home to meet his father.

Character and place titles

Pete's wife Peg is a play on "Peg Leg Pete," one of Pete's names in the classic Disney shorts. Likewise, his daughter Pistol is a play on another such name, "Pistol Pete."

The town of Spoonerville is named after layout artist J. Michael Spooner, who designed many of the background layouts for the series.

In "Axed by Addition," Max uses the "Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard" line to distract the doctors from performing surgery on PJ. This line was from the Three Stooges short, Men in Black.

Goofy

Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer) is the single father of Max Goof. This is mentioned briefly in one episode, where it's said that Max's mother is "up there amongst the stars". It is a direct implication that she died in an undisclosed time. He and his son, Max, move next door to the Pete's from their trailer home in the city. Goofy's biggest weaknesses are his short attention span, scatterbrain, and clumsiness. He often drives his neighbor Pete up the wall. Goofy is very calm, lovable, and many times will turn the other cheek when Pete insults him (or just doesn't realize he's been insulted), though occasionally, he does get angry and gets back at him when the offense goes too far. He is very forgiving, and still considers Pete to be a friend no matter how often Pete is mean to him.

Pete

Peter 'Petey/Pete' Pete, Sr. (voiced by Jim Cummings) is a used-car salesman, who lives with his beautiful wife, Peg, and two children, his son PJ and his daughter Pistol. He is villainous, dishonest, abrasive, cunning, and suspicious. They live next door to Goofy and his son, Max. He is very cheap. He often exploits his good hearted yet addled friend, Goofy. His schemes often backfire, or he feels guilty about his horrible behavior and works to set things right. His wife, Peg, often attempts to rid Pete of his uncouth attitude, and his son PJ is the complete opposite of his father in behavior, as he is good friends with Max, in the series and the feature film A Goofy Movie and its direct-to-video sequel, A Goofy Movie 2: An Extremely Goofy Movie.

It is revealed in the show's pilot episode ("Forever Goof") that one of the reasons why Pete dislikes Goofy so much and takes pleasure in conning or undermining him. 25 years before the start of the series when Pete was a quarterback in a big high school football game, it was Goofy who accidentally caused Pete to fumble the ball and lose the game because Goofy accidentally kicked him in the face, revealing that Goofy was on the cheerleading squad in high school. In the episode "Come Fly with Me", Pete gets zapped by Hank 5000 and then turned into a fly, which parodies The Fly (first film) and The Fly (second film).

In the series, he is the co-protagonist and antihero. In the beginning, he viscerally hates Goofy, and tries unsuccessfully to oust him from his house so he can build a fine fishing reserve in its place. However, Pete and Goofy are much closer pals in the feature film A Goofy Movie, and its direct-to-video sequel, A Goofy Movie 2: An Extremely Goofy Movie.

Max Goof

Max Goof (voiced by Dana Hill), is the son and only child of Goofy. He is 11½ years old, and is in the same grade as his best friend P.J. at their junior high school. He is active, nice, alert and friendly. He loves his dad, and is close to him, but wishes he would be a little more normal. He wears purple sweatpants with a yellow stripe, trademark gloves, brown sneakers with a green stripe in the middle, and a red shirt with yellow stripes. In the feature film A Goofy Movie, and its direct-to-video sequel, A Goofy Movie 2: An Extremely Goofy Movie, a now teenaged Max (voiced by Jason Marsden) feels embarrassed by his father's demeanor. Inevitably Max realizes Goofy has his best interest in mind and wants nothing more than to connect with him.

Peg Pete

Peg Pete (voiced by April Winchell) is Pete's wife and the mother of both P.J. and Pistol. In the pilot episode, it is revealed that Peg was a cheerleader in high school where she met Goofy and Pete. Peg works as an real estate agent in Spoonerville. She is a fashionable woman that usually wears a pink sweater, tight white pants, pink high heels, hoop earrings, and professional attire going to and from work. When Goofy briefly left Spoonerville, Peg married Pete and settled down.

Over the course of the series Peg is shown to be a no-nonsense type of mom who fits the types of being wise, quick witted, sarcastic, sometimes short-tempered, through often cantankerous natured, and loud at times – mostly towards her husband and sometimes towards her children and anyone who crosses her. For whatever reasons, she often defends Goofy against Pete, even going as far as kissing him to prove a point. Peg has such a loyalty towards Goofy (even favoring him well enough over Pete every now and then) because he is a kind person and is very good friends with him and Max who she treats as her own son. Max looks up to Peg and respects her as if she was his mom.

Peg is not present in either feature films which cause many fans to speculate that her and Big Pete had gotten divorced during the time in between the show and movies. During the show, Peg was known to visit her mom (who Pete hated but respected) and took both kids or Pistol alone with her when Pete got out of hand with his antics. Even so, during the series she shows that she loves her husband dearly. As a potential result of the above, Peg was not introduced in any other Walt Disney franchises after Goof Troop went off air but is fondly remembered as a strong female lead in a show.

P.J. Pete

Peter 'P.J.' Pete, Jr. (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is the eldest child of Pete and Peg, Pistol's older brother, and best friend of Max Goof who calls him "Peej" on an occasion. He is in the same grade as Max and loves both parents, mainly Peg very much because she understands and listens to him. Max and P.J. have a very strong friendship to where it is brotherly.

He is generally shy, laid-back, kind, and sometimes acts and talks as if he is never enthusiastic about anything like many active preteens/teenagers that like relax at home. Max is a positive best friend and encourage P.J. to work together to achieve something. Like Max, P.J. sometimes questions Pete's intelligence before, during, and after he gets involved in any of his dad's plans or schemes.

No matter how reluctant P.J. is after he voices he doesn't want to do things with his dad that will backfire – Pete becomes irritated and guilt trips P.J. When Peg find out, she angrily fusses at Pete for doing so. P.J. strongly resembles his dad physically, loves to eat and shares, wears a blue jacket, a pink turtleneck, white gloves, cerulean pants, and brown sneakers with a yellow stripe in the middle.

Pistol Pete

Pistol Pete (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) is the youngest child of Pete and Peg, and is P.J.'s younger sister. She has long red hair in two pigtails. She is 4½ years old, and is in preschool. Pete absolutely adores Pistol and gives her any and everything she wants without question and calls her nicknames like "daddy's little princess." Pistol is very cute, talks with a lisp, and is hyperactive like many happy children – that does not mean she is a morally disruptive little girl. She a typical girly girl who loves ponies, sparkly things, dolls, fairies, and everything pink.

During the series, Pistol gets herself into a mess a few times, and either P.J. and Max, or even her father to have to bail her out in which she thanks them for. Pistol talks a lot, asks many questions rapidly (at times not letting anyone finish their sentence), and annoys some of her fellow characters or charms them. She wears a white shirt, a yellow skirt, pink socks and white velcro shoes. Like most differently aged siblings, Pistol has gotten P.J. into trouble for something she did.

Waffles and Chainsaw

Waffles and Chainsaw (both voiced by Frank Welker) are the pet cat and dog of Goofy and Pete's families. They can't talk.

Other characters

Goof History cast

Additional voice cast

Comics

VHS releases

On February 26, 1993, Disney released three VHS cassettes of the series in the United States, titled "Banding Together", "Goin' Fishin'", and "The Race is on!". They included the episodes "Shake, Rattle & Goof", "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime", "Slightly Dinghy", "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape", "Meanwhile, Back at the Ramp", and "Tub Be or Not Tub Be". The videotapes included a Goof Troop music video which played at the end of each tape.

Additionally, on September 28, 1993, the Goof Troop episode "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas" was released together with the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Happy Holidays with Darkwing Duck and Goofy! On December 14, 1994, the Goof Troop episode "Hallow-Weenies" was released together with the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Ghost of a Chance" on one VHS cassette as a special release called Boo-Busters. The episode "FrankenGoof" was released with the DuckTales episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show" on another special VHS release titled Monster Bash.

UK, Australia and New Zealand releases

On November 26, 1993, three VHS cassettes containing 6 episodes of the series were released in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

DVD releases

On February 14, 2006, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Goof Troop: Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1. This one-disc release features three episodes, including "Slightly Dinghy", "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape", and "Shake, Rattle & Goof", with no bonus material. Many fans did not buy Goof Troop Volume 1 because it has only three episodes and additional episodes were only available on VHS. At the time, many fans were still waiting for Disney to put out Goof Troop Volume 1 again with more episodes. The DVD release of A Goofy Movie features one episode titled "Calling All Goofs", but the intro is removed. A Disney Movie Club exclusive DVD titled "Have Yourself A Goofy Little Christmas" contains the holiday special of the same name.

In 2013, Disney Movie Club released two new volumes of Goof Troop on DVD. Each volume released from the Disney Movie Club includes 27 episodes of the show for a total of 54 episodes released, leaving 25 unreleased episodes to go.

Goof Troop Volumes 1 and 2, in addition to "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas", had a wider retail DVD release in January 2015 and were Wal-Mart Exclusives in Canada ahead of that wider release date.

Video on demand

The entire series is currently available for purchase on Amazon Instant Video in Germany, with the episodes being split into six seasons.

Books

Legacy

Goof Troop had a lasting impact on Goofy's career as many later appearances were built on the show's status quo. These include A Goofy Movie, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, An Extremely Goofy Movie, House of Mouse and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. Goofy and Pete also appeared on Bonkers and Raw Toonage in their Goof Troop designs.

Adaptations

In other languages