Toby the Showman

This generous collection includes 46 of the 48 shorts that starred Goofy between 1939 and 1961 (but none of the great Mickey-Donald-Goofy films from the mid-'30s). The "How to Ride a Horse" sequence in The Reluctant Dragon (1941) set the pattern for many of these cartoons. An elegant narrator (artist John Ployardt) explains a sport that Goofy attempts to demonstrate. The character that animator Art Babbitt described in a 1935 lecture (quoted in the DVD bonus material) as an easygoing dimbulb gave way to an enthusiastic but spectacularly maladroit figure. One of the funniest entries in the series, "Hockey Homicide," contains several studio in-jokes: dueling stars Icebox Bertino and Fearless Ferguson, and referee Clean-Game Kinney are named for artists Al Bertino, Norm Ferguson, and director Jack Kinney.

Scrappy and Oopie, though little boys, happily celebrate the return of beer after fourteen years, with the help of brew-guzzling gnomes, apparently from the "Rip Van Winkle" story. They leave an allegorical "Prohibition" figure (ugly old man in stovepipe hat) stripped and chased off.

Color clash in the barnyard.

The height of the world-wide Depression: A dingy place for transient funny animals to flop. Flophouses ceased to be a source for amusement by the middle 1930s (though one appears in a tragic scene in Famous' FINNEGAN'S FLEA (late 1950s)).

In this one, the boy character is getting ready to go to Sunday school with his dog. On the way, he encounters bullies not to mention a stereotypical Italian in a manhole.

Toby the Pup organises a Halloween celebration. Some witches and elves join the party.

A Columbia Scrappy cartoon released October 6, 1933.

A Columbia Scrappy cartoon released May 31, 1932.

Goofy goes fishing with his best friend, Wilbur, a grasshopper.

Scrappy tries to rescue his dog, Yippy from a mean dog catcher.

Maisie is a secretary. We watch her dashing to work, then sitting through a typical day, reading novels and eating candy. But that's all prelude, as she lives to shop, particularly for hats. She tries on a wide variety of hats, but her heart is set on #36, which she's told must be special ordered. She orders it, and we switch to the hat workshop, where we see the designers, all of them clearly insane. Number 36 is let out long enough to whip one up for Maisie.

Three mice run, cavort, sing and dance around in the stores and restaurants a big city at night. They wind up in a café for an early-morning snack and stocking up on food provisions before they return to the safety of their den beneath a man-hole cover in the street.

Chilly Willy is dying of thirst in the desert- how he got there is unknown- and sees a sign for a hotel.

On a tuna boat, Chilly gives a dog a hard time by stealing the fish that he catches.

Chilly tries to borrow some coal from the ski resort Smedley works at, but Smedley stops him.

Woody is getting his hair cut at the local barber when suddenly, said barber walks right out on him (it's his lunch break)...

While walking past a pet shop, a dog catches Woody's attention, Woody buys him, names him Duffy and takes him home., Woody lives at Mrs. Meany's Boarding House and no dog are allowed, so Woody goes through many attempts to sneak Duffy in under Mrs. Meany's nose.

Woody and Fink Fox are teamed up as buddies roaming the Western Plains.

Toby the Pup organises a Halloween celebration. Some witches and elves join the party.

A Columbia Scrappy cartoon released November 7, 1935.