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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Short Subject: Tennis Racquet (1949)



Goofy plays tennis.


And it’s a heck of a lot more fun than watching him play basketball.  This is a return to ‘Hockey Homicide’ form with several areas for gags.  This time the announcer is a character in the short and there’s some great fun in him using the microphones simultaneously and as a shaver, and his voice has energy and presence.   Him interacting with the crowd by asking for the score and who won and accidently plugging into the one guy’s radio is also hilarious.

The players are great with having two different styles of tennis play early on for contrast, playing close to nest, and playing off the gardener who just goes about fixing up the court with grass seeds, a garden hose, and, much to the pain of the players a tree and a rake.  Great use of slow motion with the rake though even if the crowd is looking the wrong way when the ball is returned.  The ending with Little Joe doing being the exact opposite of a good sport is funny, with very well timed music, as well as both he and Big Joe getting tossed into the trophy by the net; although there the Goofy yell seems late to me.   

I watched this short a lot as a kid, it came on a Goofy sports VHS, and I loved it then and I still do today.  It’s funny, it’s fast-paced, and I like the palette change of having the Goofys all be brown instead of the usual black, it helps this short distinguish itself from the others just by look alone.  All in all a good short and worthy of several re-watches.  

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