House of Mouse : Season 2 Episode 2
"Goofy for a Day"

Air Date September 29, 2001

Synopsis

When Max is embarrassed by his father's role at the club, the two switch places for the day so Max can learn how tough Goofy's job really is. (Includes "Soup or Salad, Fries or Biscuits" performed by Goofy)

Credits

Writer

Thomas Hart

Storyboard Supervisor

Rick Schneider

Storyboard

Chong Suk Lee

Edward Baker

Mark Zoeller

Kurt Anderson

Garret Ho

Lyndon Ruddy

Paul Fisher

Additional Storyboard

Calvin Suggs

Robert Griffith

Directors

Robert Gannaway

Tony Craig

Shorts Shown

How to Be a Waiter

Maestro Minnie : Hungarian Rhapsody #6

Donald's Dinner Date

Comments

From Juan F. Lara : Max, the only Television Animation character to have a recurring role in this series, got the focus for the first time in this so-so episode.

The plot was familiar. Max thought his dad's job was easy, and we all knew he'd get swamped by the job and apologize to Goofy by the ep's end. Max came off a little like a jerk in his first scenes. The ep's gag scenes felt old. Hades and Timon/Pumbaa have made so many appearances already, and most punchlines were just more of the show's trademark obvious puns ("There's a hare in my soup. This must be the diet burrito.") The gag scenes also seemed poorly staged: the faux-pas Max committed in front of Hades was funny, but Hades sounded so detached that I thought they were reusing a stock recording of his voice. And Max's itching from the beetle burrito looked faked because we never saw the beetles actually on him.

Nonetheless I liked Goofy and Max's repartee with each other. They had a lot of the personality traits they had in "A Goofy Movie". Max got easily embarrassed when his dad put him on the spot ("Like father like son" "Please don't say that.") But he still hyucked like his dad when he wasn't paying attention, like in the movie. Goofy kept interfering with Max's job to try to keep him from screwing up, but that just showed how much Goofy cared about his son.

And the penguins were funny supporting characters. Subtley, they got as much spotlight as Max did, because of that scene with Minnie and the song the Goofs performed ("Soup or salad, fries or bisquit, extra olives, doughnuts..."). I loved the artwork for their "brought to you by" scene, which looked like painted storyboards. (Also, along with Aurora we got cameos from Barks/"Duck Tales" characters Scrooge and Gladstone.)

From Lee Suggs : We start off this week with nifty references. Mickey (in Sorcerer's gear) says his "hat" might help him run the club, and that he's going to take an ax to the living brooms after they harass him. Then we see Donald looking bemused as the "Fantasia" mushrooms enter the HOM. Finally Goofy chases an olive through several characters including the Mad Hatter's Hat. The Hatter then states "What a Goofy Hat". (LOL) Max appears and questions why his Dad has such problems with such an easy job, which causes Goofy to hire Max to see just how "easy" it is.

While the cartoon is playing Max is making a complete mess of things, leading to several great sight gags. The Penguin waiters are so upset, they hide out with Minnie to avoid Max. Since everyone is hungry, (Max isn't quite getting their food to them) Mickey introduces a short that sounds like the HOM's guests feel.

Max, now desperate, askes his Father for help. Goofy obliges by singing a song about remembering everyone's order to the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". (I hope I spelled that right.:o) As it was last week this musical number is the high point of the show.

Mickey uses all this talk about waiting on tables to introduce the last cartoon.

We end up the episode with a VERY clever ad for "Penguin Waiters" with numerous references to "Mary Poppins". (The best being "They work for tuppence a day..."

All in all a fun episode, even if there weren't any new cartoons.