Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
A solemn narrator, in the tone of an educational film, sets out to explain the history and events of Olympic track and field, and Goofy demonstrates every one of them. The film opens with Goofy as an ancient Greek runner, carrying the Olympic torch across the countryside to light the flame. Then it moves through the events, each introduced by a title card styled like a red-and-black Greek vase painting, "Hurdler" and so on, showing the ideal classical athlete. The narrator calmly describes correct technique for the running events, the relay, the hurdles, the pole vault and the shot put, and Goofy demonstrates, finding a new way to come to grief each time, tumbling through the air in his running kit. He is completely committed and completely hopeless, and the narrator never acknowledges that anything has gone wrong. The tour of events ends with Goofy in the trophy area.
Why It Matters
- The gap between the narrator's earnest instructions and Goofy's disasters is the whole engine of the comedy, and it is tightly timed. Goofy, who never speaks a sentence, communicates everything through his loose-jointed body, and the athletic movements give the animators endless room for physical gags.
- It belongs to Disney's "How to" series, which Jack Kinney developed with Goofy in the early 1940s, starting with How to Ride a Horse and The Art of Skiing. The deadpan educational parody gave Goofy a new identity as a solo star and became one of Disney's longest-running comic formats.
Notes and Trivia
- The vase-painting title cards contrast the idealised Greek athlete with Goofy's actual performance, a visual joke that runs through the film.
- The short was later included in the VHS compilation The Goofy World of Sports (1992).
- See also: Mickey's Service Station (1935).