Soccermania

''Sport Goofy in Soccermania'' is an animated television special produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for The Walt Disney Company. It originally aired May 27, 1987, on NBC. During its television debut it was preceded by a mockumentary showing past Goofy cartoons of him getting everything wrong, and leading into the cartoon special where the audience is finally shown a competent, athletic Goofy.

The special also marks the animated debut of some characters from the Donald Duck universe originating from the comics, including the Beagle Boys, Gyro Gearloose and Little Helper, although in the case of the last two having only a brief cameo appearance.

Plot

Huey, Dewey, and Louie request Scrooge McDuck donate $1.49 to buy a championship trophy for their new soccer team, which Scrooge gasps is very expensive. Scrooge gives an old trophy of his he thinks is worthless, but the boys pass the curator of the Duckburg Museum, who appraises it as an artifact worth a million dollars. To win back the trophy, Scrooge is now made to sponsor his nephews. They buy a soccer ball from a sporting goods store owned by a surprisingly athletic and agile Goofy, who ends becoming the team's coach when the nephews' teammates are shown as ragtag misfits, but the "McDuck Greenbacks" come together under "Sport Goofy"'s patient coaching and sharpen their soccer skills.

Since the trophy's value makes front page news, the Beagle Boys are aware of it, and seek to enter the soccer tournament as well, but since they are out of shape and do not know anything about soccer, they resort to cheating. A series of sports news montages are shown how the soccer tournament has been progressing. When the Beagles see the Greenbacks won the semifinals, they think Goofy is a problem and kidnap him. The team is disheartened by the loss of their team captain, but resolve to go on without him. Despite the excellent playing by the team members, the Beagle Boys engage in their cheating and a nearsighted referee keeps declaring the Beagles' goals legit, ending the first half with a score of 10–0. Back at the hideout, Goofy is firmly tied to a chair although he attempts to cleverly escape. As one of the Beagle Boys' is watching TV, Goofy removes a sock and uses his bare foot to grab a knife. The knife almost slips but Goofy uses his toes to catch it - before alerting the goon. Goofy quietly escapes the Beagles' hideout and gets to the field for the second half, which encourages the Greenbacks into incredible playing that not even the Beagles' cheating can counter, causing a comeback of 10–10.

When the enraged Beagles resort to outright physically assaulting Goofy, Scrooge finally makes the referee wear his glasses, causing the referee to cry foul and set up a penalty shot. The field is cleared save for Goofy and the Beagles' goalie, but Goofy is still dizzy from the beating he is trying to regain his balance. The Beagles' captain secretly places a bomb in the ball, and orders a Beagle to push the red button on the detonator when Goofy is ready to take his shot. The Beagle is so uneducated that he keeps pushing the green button, causing Sport Goofy to easily make the penalty goal past an overconfident goalie, thus the Greenbacks win 11–10. All of Duckburg rejoices except for the Beagles, whose angry captain pushes the red button causing the ball to explode and send all the Beagle Boys into a waiting police van. Now that Scrooge has his trophy back, he donates it to the Duckburg Museum (after making sure it's tax-deductible), and joins the McDuck Greenbacks in their championship photo.

Voice actors

* Tony Pope - Sport Goofy
* Will Ryan - Scrooge McDuck, Jeeves, Beagle Boy #2, and Gyro Gearloose
* Russi Taylor - Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Grandma Duck, and TV Chef
* Jack Angel - Beagle Boy #1
* Philip Proctor - Beagle Boy #3, and Museum Curator
* Chick Hearn - The Announcer

Production

This cartoon was the first original Goofy cartoon produced since ''Freewayphobia'' and ''Goofy's Freeway Troubles'' in 1965. Production on the short was announced in 1985 by Ed Hanson, Vice President of Disney Animation, alongside the announcement of what would become ''The Prince and the Pauper''.

''Soccermania'' also marks the first time Russi Taylor voices Huey, Dewey, and Louie (taking over the role from Clarence Nash) and Grandma Duck (taking over the role from June Foray). ''Soccermania'' is one of the few Disney cartoons of the time where Uncle Scrooge wasn't voiced by Alan Young, but instead was voiced by Will Ryan.

''Sport Goofy in Soccermania'' was Darrell Van Citters' last production with Disney. He worked for Warner Bros. Animation for a couple years, before forming his own animation company, Renegade Animation. Joe Ranft and Tad Stones wrote the story. Ranft went on to work for Pixar (and eventually returned to Disney when Pixar was contracted to do films for them), while Stones went on to work at Walt Disney Television Animation, which was concurrently in production on ''DuckTales'', another pairing of Uncle Scrooge and his nephews. This cartoon was also the first piece of Disney animation upon which Kevin Lima, future director of ''A Goofy Movie'', would work. During Goofy's dream sequence, moments of the 1946 short, ''Double Dribble'', can be seen.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sport Goofy In Soccermania
1987 animated short films
1987 films
1987 television films
1987 television specials
1980s American television specials
1980s animated television specials
1980s sports films
Films about ducks
American association football films
Animated crossover films
Films directed by Matthew O'Callaghan
Goofy (Disney) films
Films with screenplays by Joe Ranft
Films scored by John Debney
Scrooge McDuck
1980s English-language films
1980s American films
English-language sports films
Walt Disney Animation Studios television specials