Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Little August Showers

Started off a quick morning with breakfast and more Goofy shorts. "How to Fish" takes Goofy on a pier and on the lake as he tries to show how to get the perfect whopper. "Victory Vehicles" is one of two World War II propaganda shorts featuring Goofy. Goofy shows off various forms of transportation besides cars as everyone tries to figure out how to get around with rationing and low speed limits. 

Hurried off to work right after the short ended. Other than getting stuck in a register briefly to go in for someone's break, work could have been a lot worse. While I was on my own until mid-way through my shift, it also wasn't that busy. Also got stuck cleaning the men's bathroom, which wasn't fun. Clouds moved in as early as late morning; by 2, it started showering, but light enough to still push carts and only be a bit damp. Even that vanished by the time I rode home.

Took out the trash when I got home, then went into writing. Brett's fed up with the Red King's trying to force everyone to play by his rules. Maybe she will become queen somehow, and join Sir Richard in getting rid of him. The Red King, however, has his own plans for Sir Richard...

Broke for leftovers and fried potatoes at 6:30. Match Game '76 featured several jokes for the Audience Match "Lion __." Meanwhile, Brett offers Fannie's phone number to the single male contestant, Bill Daily claims he wants to go home, and there's a joke in the end about what animal-loving Betty gives a fly drowning in her soup. 

Returned to Goofy for the next hour while curled up under my old green afghan on the futon. I'm with Leonard Maltin. My favorite cartoon by far on this disc - and in fact, my favorite Goofy short - is "Hockey Homicide." The violence in this short puts a Flyers-Rangers game to shame. The star players keep ending up in the penalty box (including before the game begins), the players constantly check and smash each other, and the fans behave worse. It ends in a wild melee that manages to squeeze in a few random sequences from other Disney movies, too.

But then, Goofy always did have fun with sports shorts. "How to Play Golf" ends up almost as crazy when the stick figure representing Goofy steps out of the short to give him tips, and they end up getting chased by a bull. "How to Play Football" is pretty similar to "Hockey Homicide," only this time, the coach has to revive his star player and get him on the field pronto! "How to Be a Sailor" is the second World War II short. It starts off like a typical "How to" short, with Goofy explaining the history of sailing, but ends with him shooting down Japanese battleships. "Tiger Trouble" and "African Diary" show off Goofy's difficulties with hunting in exotic locations. 

The disc ends with two genre parodies featuring Goofy. "Californy or Bust" has Goofy fighting spoofs of your typical Natives from movies of the time. He becomes "A Knight for a Day" when he accidentally knocks out the handsome Goof he's supposed to be squiring for. He's the one who goes up against the wicked Sir Cumference for the hand of the fair Princess Esmerelda. 

Finished off the night on TCM with Easy to Love. I go further into this Esther Williams romantic comedy capped by a Busby Berkeley water skiing extravaganza at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

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