From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : More Goofy “How To” goodness today, as we look at the Goof taking on one of my father’s favorite pastimes – fishing. How To Fish is a humorous look at the world of a fisherman. As most fishermen can tell you, fishing is a frustrating pursuit with some exciting rewards every now and then. This short captures that perfectly.

The opening of the short is amusing, as it focuses on the relationship of the tides and the astrological chart to how the fish end up biting. Any good fisherman can tell you when the best time to fish is, and most likely, you’ll end up with different recommendations from each and every one. In the short, the narrator uses a cleverly drawn image of fish in the astrology chart to show that fish will bite in certain phases.

From there, we see Goofy lounging at home, until he falls prey to the same astrological phenomenon. It comes upon him like a flash, driving the Goof out of his seat and into full fishing mode. Again, I’ve seen this happen to family members, where hey get taken over by the urge to go fishing. It’s quite funny to see it portrayed through Goofy, though.

The scenes of Goofy trying to fish are exactly what you’d expect, but that doesn’t make them any less amusing. Goofy gets caught on his own line, scares the fish away by falling in the water and generally contradicts everything the narrator is telling him to do. It’s the genius of this series that it continues to work, despite the fact that viewers know exactly what to expect.

My favorite little bit is when Goofy uses a fly lure to drop in the water, and we get to see the view from the fish. The distended and murky view of Goofy trying to see the fish react is priceless, as is the laughter from the fish themselves.

By the time we reach the end, you’re rooting for Goofy to catch something, anything. And of course, he does just that, but not a fish. No, instead the line gets caught on the engine of his boat, and drags Goofy along the water for an endless procession of gags.

Is How To Fish formulaic? You bet. That does not make it less fun, though. It hits a ton of great notes and provides a humorous way to look at a hobby that many people enjoy. Plus, it’s Goofy. How can you go wrong?

From Trae Robinson : This cartoon isn't that special. Goofy already fished on two early shorts such as The Whalers and Goofy and Wilbur. The ending is really funny when Goofy catches a fish, but it was his motor, not a fish.

From Baruch Weiss : These "How To" shorts would have been better being titled How not to, especially in this one because Goofy demonstrates how not to fish, especially in the finale when he ends up catching the motor to his boat instead of catching the real fish, but nevertheless they are still funny cartoons!

From Dino Cencia : On The Complete Goofy bonus materials poster gallery, I saw the How to Fish poster with Goofy saying "I know how to fish, I just don't know how to catch them." I loved it when Goofy said that on The Complete Goofy. Goofy is right. Catching fish is a little hard, but it's also fun to fish. I love fishing. I give this a 694 out of 694.

Poster

How to Fish

A Goofy Cartoon

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United States

Germany

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United States

Germany

France

Italy

Canada

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United Kingdom

Television

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Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

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