Disney films have a distinct way of always feeling in-time, a sensation the company understands and monetizes. A Goofy Movie (AGM) was released in 1995, and since its theatrical release, the film has continued to capture the hearts and minds of a cult audience of passionate fans. Among this array of fans is a core of Black millenials who hold the film in high regard due to its R&B soundtrack and relatable narrative. However, the moments of Black representation within the film are less interesting than how a Black reading becomes possible. What are the component parts of the film’s making when arranged in such a way that invokes an essential Black lifeworld? AGM affixes Blackness to its form not through any profound representation of race. Rather, considering its animators as technical performers, the dark history behind the American cartoon, and how Black music is used to not just make Blackness known but believable instantiate what Michael Gillespie terms, ‘film Blackness’ in Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film (2016).
A Goofy Movie (1995) Film, dir. Kevin Lima. s.l.: s.n.
2.
AllisonT (2015) Blackface, Happy Feet: The politics of race in motion capture animation. In: NorthD, et al. (eds) Special Effects: New Histories/Theories/Contexts. London: Palgrave, on behalf of the British Film Institute, 114–126.
3.
BanfieldW (2010) Cultural Codes: Makings of a Black Music Philosophy. Toronto: Scarecrow Press.
DavisA (2006) Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Woman in Disney’s Feature Animation. Eastleigh: John Libbey.
9.
DaweI (2013) American Splendor and the universal grotesque. In: Studies in Comics4(1): 43–57.
10.
DinersteinJ (2003) Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African Culture between the World Wars. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
11.
GiesenRKhanA (2017) Acting and Character Animation: The Act of Animated Films, Acting, and Visualization. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
12.
GillespieMB (2016) Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
13.
GoldmarkD (2005) Tunes for ‘Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
14.
GoldmarkD (2014) Drawing a new narrative for cartoon music. In: NeumeyerD (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 229–245.
15.
GonzalesM (2013) Bobby Brown’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ turns 25. Ebony Magazine, 15August.
16.
GouldSJ (1979) Mickey Mouse meets Konrad Lorenz. Natural History88(5): 30–36.
17.
KelloggJP (2013) The urbanization of the billboard top album and singles charts: How SoundScan changed the game. Meiea13(1): 45–59.
18.
LehmanCP (2001) The new Black animated images of 1946: Black characters and social commentary in animated cartoons. Journal of Popular Film and Television29(2): 74–81.
19.
LernerN (2010) Minstrelsy and musical framing in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In: Coyle R (ed.) Drawn to Sound: Animation Film Music and Sonicity. London: Equinox, 104–119.
20.
Mickey’s Mellerdrammer (1935) Film, dir. Walt Disney, s.l.: s.n.
21.
MooreT (1989) Bobby Brown: Is he the hottest new R&B singer. Jet Magazine, 3July: 22–25.
22.
PallantC (2011) Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation. New York, NY: Continuum.
23.
RamseyGPJr (2003) Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip Hop. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
24.
RoseT (2008) The Hip Hop Wars. New York, NY: Basic Books.
25.
SammondN (2015) Birth of an Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
26.
TaylorD (2020) Underdogs: How A Goofy Movie became Disney’s most unlikely sleeper hit. Vanity Fair, 8April.
27.
TurnerSE (2013) Blackness, bayous and gumbo: Encoding and decoding race in a colorblind world. In: CheuJ (ed.) Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Disability. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 83–98.
28.
Warren-ChowH (2017) Before and after Ghostcatching: Animation, primitivism, and the choreography of vitality. Screen Bodies2(1): 22–44.
29.
WillettsKR (2013) Cannibals and coons: Blackness in the early days of Walt Disney. In: CheuJ (ed.) Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Disability. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 9–22.
