A Goof Troop Christmas: Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas is a half-hour Christmas special spun off from Goof Troop. It was originally broadcast as part of a one-hour special in syndication on December 5, 1992, in which it was accompanied by the classic shorts Up a Tree and The Art of Skiing, and a behind-the-scenes look at some of Disney's animated features. It was broadcast as a prime-time special again the next year, this time accompanied by the shorts On Ice, The Hockey Champ, and Toy Tinkers.[1]
Synopsis[]
The special's opening sequence finds Goofy and Max setting up their outdoor Christmas decorations, and Goofy is naturally having a hard time doing so. He ends up getting his head stuck in a giant plastic Santa, trips over some of the reindeer decorations, and winds up catapulting the thing across the sky. Pistol comes outside and, seeing Goofy flying through the air, thinks that Santa Claus has come early.
Later, Pete is decorating an ugly-looking artificial tree, explaining to Pistol that the reason why they do not have a real Christmas tree is because he does not want to be anything like Goofy, who does have a real Christmas tree. Goofy and Max then show up on Pete's front door, with Goofy offering to donate one of his many light-up snowmen to Pete. Goofy plugs the light-up snowman in, but after he leaves, Pete tries to yank the cord out, which results in both Pete getting electrocuted and his house's power being shorted out.
Fed up with Goofy's decorations shorting out his electricity and wrecking his house every year, Pete announces to his family that they're spending Christmas in Asprin, Colorado. The next morning, right before Pete's family leave on their vacation, P.J. suggests bringing Max on their vacation with them, since Max is not thrilled about having to help Goofy put up their decorations, but Pete cruelly refuses. Max goes up to his dad and asks if, instead of their usual Christmas traditions, they could do something different this year, like taking a vacation in Asprin. Goofy is not sure he wants to break from their standard traditions, but he decides that if it means that much to Max, then they will go to Asprin.
That night, Goofy and Max arrive at their cabin in Asprin, unaware that there is a hungry bear in the area. The bear hides inside the cabin, disguising himself as a bearskin rug, only to have Goofy sit on him. The bear gets up and starts chasing Goofy around the cabin. In an attempt to grab a rifle, Goofy ends up grabbing a mop instead, but when the bear chews on that, it somehow blows up inside his head, and the bear runs out of the cabin, coughing up smoke. After that, Goofy goes to get his Christmas decorations out of his car, and then starts setting them up while singing loudly. This awakens Pete, who is resting in another cabin up on the hill nearby. Pete goes to his window and yells for the singer to shut up, but he ends up slipping out of the window and rolls down the hill until he crash-lands in front of Goofy's cabin. Goofy is surprised to see that he and Pete are neighbors up here like they are back home, while Max is annoyed to find that Goofy brought all of his Christmas decorations on their vacation.
The next morning (which is Christmas Eve), Pete has caught the chills from his accident last night. Peg goes to answer the door, and Goofy and Max come in. Goofy wants to take Pete's family out for sledding, but Pete declines, so Peg, P.J., and Pistol go without him (but not before Goofy accidentally knocks Pete out with his toboggan). Goofy, Max, Peg, P.J., and Pistol all go sledding down a nearby hill, during which they end up encountering the bear again. The bear chases after them in an attempt to eat them, only to end up involuntarily on the ski slopes. Goofy and the others, on his toboggan, end up going right through the roof of Pete's cabin right when Pete was finishing a jigsaw puzzle.
That night, Goofy brings Pete's family to the front of his cabin, where he has decorated a 100-foot fir tree with 693 strings of Christmas lights. Goofy allows Pete to turn the lights on, but the lights quickly short out, and the tree then catches fire and then falls on Goofy's cabin. The fire spreads to Goofy's car, and Goofy is just able to save Max's Christmas present before the car is reduced to ashes. Pete laughs at Goofy and Max's expense, but Peg invites them to spend Christmas in their cabin, to Pete's dismay.
At Pete's cabin, Goofy gets to work making dinner for everyone. But when he goes outside to get some ingredients out of Pete's car, the bear follows him back inside. When Pete comes in and sees the bear, he and Goofy immediately rush out of the kitchen, taking only the pressure cooker with them, while the angry bear is left to eat the remaining food in the kitchen. While putting the pressure cooker in the fireplace, Goofy decides that they should sing Christmas carols, but nobody else wants to. Despite that, Goofy then starts performing "The Reindeer Dance", making a reluctant Max join in. During the song, the pressure cooker eventually explodes and blows up the cabin. Pete furiously screams at Goofy that he has ruined Christmas for everyone, even Max. Goofy sadly goes out "to get some fresh air", after which Pete and his family start opening their presents. Max then opens his present that Goofy saved from their burning car earlier and sees that it is a framed photo of him and Goofy together. This convinces Max to go out into the blizzard outside and find his father, and Pete's family eventually joins him.
Out in the blizzard, the group finds Goofy after falling off a cliff. They dig him out, drag themselves to a nearby cave, and warm up by a makeshift fire. Goofy admits that it is always getting harder to make Christmas special for his son, but Max admits that he still loves his father. Just then, the bear shows up again, as it turns out they are in his cave. Fortunately, Max starts singing and dancing the Reindeer Dance, and everyone, even the bear join in on the song. After the dance, the families and the bear sit around the fire singing "Silent Night", during which Goofy and Max wish each other Merry Christmas, and Pete says that next year, he and his family should just go to the Bahamas instead.
Songs[]
- "Deck the Halls"
- "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"
- "Reindeer Rumba"
- "Silent Night"
Memorable quotes[]
Peg: Pistol, why don't you come help me? You know how your father hates Christmas. Pete: I do not! I just hate decorations. |
Trivia[]
- This episode's premiere date coincided with Walt Disney's 91st birthday.
- Pistol's line "Don't have a cowbell, man," is a parody of Bart Simpson's old catch phrase, "Don't have a cow, man." (Ironically, Disney now owns The Simpsons.)
- For some reason, this is the only episode of Goof Troop that is not available on Disney+.
- In this special, Pete says "Every Christmas that Goof's decorations wreck my house and suck up all the electricity!" Later, P.J. asks Max "Your dad's gone ballistic again, huh?" as though P.J. knows from past experience how Goofy always behaves around Christmastime. This would imply that Goofy and Max have lived in Spoonerville for many years, when they only first moved into town back in the premiere episode, "Forever Goof". This is an existing continuity error that persists throughout several other episodes of the series, in which cases the events of the series premiere are either forgotten or ignored. But in the specific case of this special, one could say that it simply takes place at least a year or so after the events of "Forever Goof".
References[]
- ↑ The Wonderful World of Disney Television, by Bill Kotter. 1997, Hyperion.
External links[]
- Disney Wiki: Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas
- Christmas Specials Wiki: A Goof Troop Christmas: Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas
- A Goof Troop Christmas at the Internet Movie Database
- A Goof Troop Christmas at the Big Cartoon DataBase