Sport Goofy in Soccermania

Release Date May 27, 1987

Running Time 19:44

Synopsis

Uncle Scrooge donates an old beat-up trophy for Huey, Dewey and Louie's soccer tournament. But when he finds out that it is actually worth a million dollars, he has to put together a ragtag team, led by Sport Goofy to win it back.

Characters

Scrooge McDuck

Huey, Dewey, and ,Louie

Goofy

The Beagle Boys

Gyro Gearloose (cameo)

Grandma Duck (cameo)

Credits

Director : Matt O'Callaghan

Videos

Germany

Goofy im Fussballfieber

Italy

Pippo Nel Pallone

Laserdiscs

Japan

Sport Goofy in Soccermania

Comments

From Zack613 : This odd short is most notable as the bridge between Mickey's Christmas Carol and DuckTales. It is this first animated apperance of the Beagle Boys. Here as Barks' unnamed clones rather then the individual personalities like in DuckTales. It also hase an incredibly short cameo by Roger Rabbit long before the movie was released!

From Steve Hernandez : Awesome toon! I remember watching this over and over and over when I was 9 years old...trying to find it on DVD or VHS. This site rocks!

Scrooge exhorts his team. Animation cel courtesy of Gremlin Animation Art Gallery

After the success of "Mickey's Christmas Carol" the studio decided to try more featurettes starring their regular stable of characters. "Soccermania" was one such attempt. But the studio felt that the original try, directed by Darrell Van Citters was not their style. Disney veteran Ward Kimball was brought in as a consultant on the project. It was completely revamped and eventually wound up being shown as an NBC television special.

There is a lot wrong with this short, though. Except in appearance, Goofy doesn't seem to be the same character as before. Where in his previous sports shorts, he succeeeded, if at all, by a combiantion of accident and dumb luck. Here, he seems too self-assured and porfessional. Take, for instance, one of the first scenes where Goofy is seen stocking his sports store. He commands the balls and tennis rackets as if he has total control and knows exactly what he is doing. If his character had matched his previous shorts, the balls and rackets would have still ended up where they were supposed to be, but he would have probably destroyed half the store in the process.

The shorts also has a much more "cartoony" feel to it than "Mickey's Christmas Carol." But it would serve as a natural bridge from the traditional shorts to the (and I'll probably get into trouble for saying this) lower quality of Disney's first forays into television animation.

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