Benny's Biggest Battle

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.

Pluto is infatuated by a pretty lady dog, but she sighs for Prince, a circus wonder dog she sees on a poster.

Mrs. Goofy leaves for the day leaving the house in the hands of her husband, Goofy. Goofy is confident that he can handle the day's household chores but he keeps making typical goof-ups while attempting them. His first mistake is sending Junior to school on a Saturday. At first, he just makes small blunders but, of course, they keep escalating to the point where his house is flooded, scribbled on, set on fire, invaded by firemen and policemen alike, and, basically, an utter disaster area when the wife returns.

Cinderella has faith her dreams of a better life will come true. With help from her loyal mice friends and a wave of her Fairy Godmother's wand, Cinderella's rags are magically turned into a glorious gown and off she goes to the Royal Ball. But when the clock strikes midnight, the spell is broken, leaving a single glass slipper... the only key to the ultimate fairy-tale ending!

Casey is upset about having struck out his last chance at bat but his wife suggests they have a son to follow in their dad's footsteps. Eventually, a child is born but, to Casey's dismay, it's a girl, not a boy. His wife suggests they try again several more times but each time, it's still another girl. Casey is depressed but his pals tell him that in spite of everything, they still make a powerful baseball team. Casey likes the idea and accepts. However, the day of the big game, he is nervous that one of them will strike out and attempts to make the last home run himself disguised as one of his own daughters.

Pluto is playing with a ball in the park when he mistakes a bubble gum machine for it. He tries briefly to get a gumball from the machine when a bee flies into the machine and carries a gumball off to his hive. Pluto goes after the hive and knocks it down; it's full of gumballs, which he eagerly scoops up and begins chewing. The bee returns and is understandably upset; he tracks down Pluto, but Pluto manages to defend himself with gum bubbles for quite a while. The bee manages to wrap the gum from one bubble around Pluto's legs, hobbling him. Finally, the bee flies into Pluto's mouth; Pluto blows a giant bubble around the bee, and when it explodes, they both fly into the air and land in a flower patch; the bee finally manages to sting Pluto (and, being a cartoon bee, lives through it).

Minnie Mouse knits a sweater for Pluto. When she puts it on him, Pluto does whatever he can to try to get it off, eventually shrinking it to the perfect size for Figaro.

Donald is writing in his diary and narrating (in a rather sophisticated voice) about his romance with Daisy. She was able to snare him into a relationship in which they got to know each other better and Donald got to meet Daisy's family. Finally, Donald decides to marry Daisy but when waiting for her to arrive so he can pop the question, he falls asleep and has a nightmarish vision of what married life would be like (among other things that he'll be forced to do all the housework and be served a burnt T bone for dinner). Needless to say, the marriage is called off when he awakens.

Bandit Pistol Pete enters a lawless western town and robs a bank. The town is in desperate need of a sheriff. Enter wandering cowboy Goofy who notices a pretty girl being held up in a stagecoach robbery by Pete. Lovestruck and completely oblivious to Pete, he foils the robbery while getting to know the girl better. This earns him a reputation as a great gunslinger and he is challenged to apprehend Pete. Pete tries to get his revenge on Goofy but every attempt backfires due to Goofy's clumsiness usually directed unintentionally at Pete.

A little bird tries to fly too soon and lands in Pluto's water dish. Pluto saves it and returns it to the nest but soon the bird tries again. This time, Pluto decides to give flying lessons, first pulling the bird like a kite, then launching him with an improvised slingshot.

Beekeeper Donald catches Humphrey the bear raiding his hives. He complains to Ranger Woodlore, who assembles his bears and lectures them. Donald puts up a barbed wire fence, which slows Humphrey down a bit, but doesn't stop him.

Goofy is "Johnny Eyeball, Private Eye" who gets mixed up in a surreal whodunnit involving a classy dame, a cop, weasels, and the mysterious missing Al.

Goofy plays everyman again. He's an average working joe who demonstrates "the up on time/work on time/bed on time" routine while going from work to home every weekday. On Saturday night, however, he parties it up and attempts to get some rest the next Sunday but with his son around, it's impossible. He insists Dad take him to the beach and, although Goofy refuses, he ends up going anyway where he gets into all sorts of trouble mainly as the result of chasing his son all over the place. Worse yet, when he leaves, he falls victim to the world's biggest traffic jam. As a result of all this, he is relieved to go back to work the following week!

A coyote and his rather dim son stalk the sheep that Pluto is guarding.

Uncle Remus draws upon his tales of Br'er Rabbit to help little Johnny deal with his confusion over his parents' separation as well as his new life on the plantation.

As the narrator explains, educating children is one of the most important things today and the heroic man who takes on this role is "the school teacher" (Goofy, naturally). After taking role call, Goofy tries to teach the class but keeps having to deal with a mischievous trouble-maker named George who enjoys sneaking out of class to go fishing, eating the teacher's apple, squeaking chalk, making faces while teacher gives a geography lesson, and terrorizing the other students with his water pistol. In the end, George's mischief goes too far when he destroys the school with an exploding bomb and is forced to write "I will not bomb the school again" 100 times!