Motor Mania

Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: June 30, 1950
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:

In this cartoon a particularly civilized type of Goofy, an “average man” called Mr. Walker, changes into a Mr. Hyde-like wildman called Mr. Wheeler, once he sits behind the wheel of his car.

‘Motor mania’ is a quite disturbing film about road manners, it even becomes nightmarish when we watch cars bark at a helpless pedestrian. It is as moralistic as it is funny. And it remains somehow strikingly relevant today, making it an original classic within the Goofy series.

‘Motor Mania’ is the only Goofy cartoon in which our hero is depicted as an unsympathetic and even evil character. But by now Goofy had lost all his former persona. He had changed into a random citizen, so it works very well.

‘Motor Mania’ forms another step in the evolution of Goofy into the American everyman. By now Goofy had replaced Donald Duck as a representative of the American citizen. Donald Duck had been the average citizen in the 1940s, but at the end of the decade his role had been diminished, evolving into a straight man for the antics of Chip ‘n Dale, the little bee and such. Jack Kinney’s Goofy took over, cumulating in the typical 1950s everyman, George Geef, in ‘Cold War‘ from the next year.

Watch ‘Motor Mania’ yourself and tell me what you think:

This is Goofy cartoon No. 25
To the previous Goofy cartoon: Goofy Gymnastics
To the next Goofy cartoon: Hold That Pose