From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Goofy as an athlete is a funny enough premise. When you add on top of that the chance to cast the Goof as an Olympic caliber athlete, well, that’s comedy gold. The Olympic Champ follows that mold, fitting neatly into the “How To” series as another great Goofy cartoon.

This time, we get a brief history of the Olympics, starting with the Torchbearer. There’s a great gimmick at the beginning of each event, where a title card is shown with a Greek look and feel to it, showing a well chiseled athlete doing that event. The scene then cuts to Goofy in that same pose, offering a fantastic comedic juxtaposition.

After Goofy carries the torch into a stadium full of equipment, the games are ready to begin. This short follows the classic “How To” formula, of the narrator carrying on about the proper way to do things, while Goofy demonstrates quite the opposite. With the Olympic events, though, it’s quite amusing, because Goofy really gets a chance to let loose with the free swinging limbs and contortions he is best at doing.

A great example of this is the demonstration of running track. We get to see the actions of Goofy running, leaned all the way forward with legs churning, followed shortly thereafter by a longer jog, and finished with a walk that turns into a little dance. Each of these uses Goofy’s long limbs and thin body to great comedic effect.

My favorite bit in this short, though, is Goofy’s attempt at doing the hurdles. Goofy gets a great running start and makes it easily over the first hurdle, but then collapses and starts getting slammed into hurdle after hurdle, never letting them slow him down. It just seems like a great metaphor for life – you’ll face a bunch of hurdles, but if you can’t go over them, just plow on through them.

There are some great gags in this short, like the oil derrick that results from when Goofy uses the hammer throw. Yes, an oil derrick. No, I’m not going to explain it, you just have to see it. It’s hilarious.

Watching this short was a nice respite from the wartime shorts and the educational efforts that I have been in recently. It was nice to have a pure comedy short, and especially one that was so very well done.

From Jesus Daprice : I love this cartoon. I am also kind of a sports freak, my favorite sport being track and field. I run just about everyday and watching a scene with Goofy running while holding a torch was just cool. It sort of reminded me of my high school days of track and field. I also loved the discuss throw scene.

From Ryan : This is one of my favorite Goofy shorts. I especially enjoy the running segment since I was involved in track back in my junior and senior years of high school. The narrator explains the different types of runners. There is the sprinter (which is what I was back in high school), the distance runner (which is what I should have been), and the walker (which was never involved on my high school track team). Goofy, instead of several different Goofy look-alikes, demonstrates everything in the Olympics for the audience. At the end, he lands in several different trophies, which might I add, he absolutely deserved. Goofy really is the "Olympic champ."

From Sam : Goofy tries his hand at track and field with the kind of hilarious results one has come to expect from the Goof. I especially liked the scene where he's pole vaulting only to have the narrarator stop him in mid-air to recite a poem. The scenes with Goofy and the torch are great, too. This cartoon certainly gets the gold as far as I'm concerned.

From Baruch Weiss : I like Goofy, and this short was kind of boring, but I did like the music. I like it best with all those Goofy look alikes, but on the other hand if everybody were like everybody else wouldn't it be boring?

From Al Galen : I saw this animated short in "The Roots of Goofy" on The Disney Channel in the early 1990s. Gary Owens hosted that television special. This cartoon appears in the Disney Cartoon Classics video "The Goofy World of Sports". I recommend it to audiences who are fans of sports comedy.

Poster

The Olympic Champ

A Goofy Cartoon

Synopsis

Characters

Credits

Director

Animation

Video

United States

Germany

France

Italy

CED

United States

Laserdiscs

Japan

DVD

United States

Germany

Sweden

United Kingdom

Television

Technical Specification

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

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