Editing Goofy (section)

===Solo series===
Goofy next starred at his first solo cartoon ''[[Goofy and Wilbur]]'' directed by [[Dick Huemer]], first released on March 17, 1939. The short featured Goofy fishing with the help of Wilbur, his pet [[grasshopper]].

====The ''How to...'' series====
[[File:Disney drawing goofy.jpg|thumb|right|180px|[[Walt Disney|Disney]] drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941]]
[[Jack Kinney]] would take over the Goofy cartoons with the second short ''[[Goofy's Glider]]'' (1940).<ref name=Barrier/> Kinney's Goofy cartoons would feature zany, fast-paced action and gags similar to those being made at [[Warner Bros. Cartoons|Warner Bros]] and [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|MGM]], and possibly influenced by [[Tex Avery]].<ref name=Wells/> Kinney found Goofy to be "a nice long, lean character that you could move; you could get poses out of him, crazy poses". A sports fan, he would place Goofy in ''How to...'' themed shorts in which Goofy would demonstrate, poorly, how to perform certain sports.<ref name=Barrier>{{cite web|title=Jack Kinney interview (1973)|website=MichealBarrier.com|accessdate=September 5, 2022|url=http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Kinney1973/Kinney1973.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302101053/http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Kinney1973/Kinney1973.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2019-03-02}}</ref>

''How to Ride a Horse'', a segment in the 1941 film ''[[The Reluctant Dragon (1941 film)|The Reluctant Dragon]]'', would establish the tone and style of future shorts like ''[[The Art of Skiing]]'' (1941), ''[[How to Fish]]'' (1942), ''[[How to Swim (1942 film)|How to Swim]]'' (1942) and ''[[How to Play Golf]]'' (1944). Cartoon shorts like ''[[How to Play Baseball]]'' (1942), ''[[How to Play Football]]'' (1944) and ''[[Hockey Homicide]]'' (1945) would feature Goofy not as a single character but multiple characters playing the opposing teams. Animation historian Paul Wells considers ''Hockey Homicide'' to be the "peak" of the sports cartoons. Some of the later sports-theme cartoons, like ''[[Double Dribble (film)|Double Dribble]]'' (1946) and ''They're Off'' (1948) would be directed by [[Jack Hannah]].<ref name=Wells>{{cite book|author=Wells, Paul|year=2014|title=Animation, Sport and Culture|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=78–96|isbn=978-1137027627}}</ref>

Pinto Colvig had a falling out with Disney in 1937 and left the studio, leaving Goofy without a voice.<ref name="Hischak"/> Kinney recalls "so we had to use whatever was in the library; you know, his laugh and all those things. But he did have a hell of a library, of different lines of dialogue".<ref name=Barrier/> In addition, the studio had voice artist [[Danny Webb (American actor)|Danny Webb]] record new dialog.<ref name="Hischak"/> Kinney also paired Goofy with a narrator voiced by John McLeish: "He had this deep voice, just a great voice, and he loved to recite [[Shakespeare]]. So I suggested, my God, we'll get McLeish for a narrator, and don't tell him that he's not doing it straight. Just let him play it".<ref name=Barrier/> Colvig returned to Disney in 1941 and resumed the voice until 1967.<ref name="Hischak"/>

====The ''Everyman'' years====
[[File:Geefgoof.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Goofy in his "George Geef" persona in {{nowrap|''Cold War''}} (1951)]]
Disney had started casting Goofy as a suburban [[everyman]] in the late 1940s. And with this role came changes in depiction. Goofy's facial stubble and his protruding teeth were removed to give him a more refined look. His clothing changed from a [[casual attire|casual style]] to wearing [[business suits]]. He began to look more human and less dog-like, with his ears hidden in his hat. By 1951, Goofy was portrayed as being married and having a son of his own. Neither the wife nor the son was portrayed as dog-like. The wife's face was never seen, but her form was human. The son lacked Goofy's dog-like ears.<ref name="Lehman">{{cite book | last1=Lehman | first1= Christopher P. | title=''American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films and Television Programs, 1961–1973'' | chapter= The Cartoons of 1961–1962| year=2007 | publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|pages=27–28|isbn= 978-0-7864-5142-5| chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=WlEjmDkdc08C&q=Goofy+suburban&pg=PA28}}</ref> One notable short made during this era is ''[[Motor Mania]]'' (1950). Kinney disliked making most of these later shorts, stating "...those pictures were disasters, because I didn't fight it hard enough".<ref name=Barrier/> Goofy would also be given a formal name in these cartoons, George Geef.

Christopher P. Lehman connects this depiction of the character to Disney's use of humor and animal characters to reinforce social [[conformity]]. He cites as an example ''[[Aquamania]]'' (1961), where everyman Goofy drives to the lake for a boat ride. During a scene depicting a [[Multiple-vehicle collision|pile-up accident]], every car involved has a boat hitched to its rear bumper. Goofy is portrayed as one of the numerous people who had the same idea about how to spend their day. Every contestant in the boat race also looks like Goofy. Lehman does not think that Disney used these aspects of the film to poke fun at conformity. Instead, the studio apparently accepted conformity as a fundamental aspect of the [[society of the United States]]. ''Aquamania'' was released in the 1960s, but largely maintained and prolonged the status quo of the 1950s. The decade had changed, but the Disney studio followed the same story formulas for theatrical animated shorts it had followed in the previous decade. And Lehman points that Disney received [[Normative social influence|social approval]] for it. ''Aquamania'' itself received a nomination for the [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film]].<ref name="Lehman"/>