With Pluto and Donald Duck getting the bulk of the Disney
shorts in 1950 and the late 1940s, it does my heart good to see Goofy getting
into the mix again with Hold That Pose.
It is somewhat of a return to form for the Goof, mixing in elements of
the “How To” shorts that made him famous, but mixes in the same sort of silly
adversarial comedy that has been a staple of the recent Donald Duck shorts as
well. That combination is not
necessarily an easy one to make.
The skill Goofy is trying to learn in this one is how to
take photographs. Seems easy enough in
this day of point and shoot digital cameras, but back in the late 1940s/early
1950s, cameras required a lot of work.
That’s shown in the very beginning when Goofy goes to buy his equipment
and is forced to load down with a huge amount of stuff. You also see it when Goofy has to wind the
film in the camera.
If you have ever had an old film camera and wound the film,
you will roll on the floor laughing at this gag. I swear it took a full minute of a six and a
half minute short, but I didn’t mind, because the jokes were so funny. The camera mainly focuses on the window of
the camera where you see the indicator as to what number of pictures you have. Again, if you’ve had a film camera, you’ll
understand. Goofy winds past numbers,
thumbs up signs, lots of writing and much more, stretching more and more and
increasing the comedy as it goes along.
Once he finally gets outside, the omniscient narrator that
is present in so many of the “How To” shorts seems to disappear, as Goofy picks
a large slumbering bear as his target. Once
he settles on the subject of his composition, things unfold in a rather
predictable way. Goofy tries to take the
bear’s picture, he disturbs him, and hilarity ensues. What’s different about this is the way the
chase goes. We see the bear chasing
Goofy out of the woods, into an amusement park, through the city streets and
all the way back to his apartment.
It’s almost like there are two separate shorts at work
here. The typical “How To” model applies
in the very beginning, with the narrator juxtaposed with Goofy’s exaggerated
movements and gags and then a more traditional short with the bear chase. I don’t know if there was some kind of shift
or other change in the direction or if it’s simply a case of Disney not
straying far away from their formula of the day. Either way, the change in tone and style of
comedy actually detracts from the short.
Both pieces are funny, but they don’t compliment each other very well.
But the narrator does come back at the end of the short, although he should have at least one line in the middle of the short during the chase.
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