Max Goof

**Maximilian "Max" Goof** is the son of Goofy. He first appeared in the 1951 short *Fathers Are People*, as **Goofy Junior**, and remained a regular in subsequent Goofy shorts of that era. His modern iteration, redesigned and renamed "Max Goof", first appeared in the 1992 animated TV series *Goof Troop*. Since then, Max has appeared in several features, usually alongside Goofy.

## Background

Max is unique in that he is Goofy's son, as opposed to a nephew akin to Huey, Dewey, and Louie's relationship with Donald, as well as a plethora of famous cartoon characters, Disney or otherwise. Some Goofy cartoons during his Everyman years depicted Goofy as being a father to a red-nosed Goofy Junior. Many fans believe that this character served as the inspiration for Max. In the poster for cartoons with Goofy Junior, Junior would look exactly like Max in the *Goof Troop* era.

One notable aspect is that Max has appreciatively aged, in a fashion, during the course of his appearances, which is uncommon among most characters in the *Mickey Mouse*franchise. At the time of his introduction, he was around 11 years old but is usually presented as a teenager/young adult in his later appearances. The reason for these age changes are not clear (this could be for the sake of character development for him and his father). The identity of his mother is also a mystery.

One of Max Goof's most notable traits in the Disney franchise is that not only is he an only child in a single-parent family, but that said parent is a single father. The identity and fate of Max's mother have never been divulged, as the very subject of her was never brought up at all in *Goof Troop* or any of its related media. This distinct lack of official information about her has led to much speculation and debate among fans as to who she may be, and what might have happened to her.

Furthermore, there is a widespread misconception that Goofy, in an episode of *Goof Troop*, once declared to Max that his mother is "up there amongst the stars," implying her to be deceased and Goofy himself to be a widower. However, this statement was never actually given in any episode of the show, having been likely born out of fan theories and hearsay. Officially, when asked about Max's mother, Disney Guest Services once declared there to be "no definitive answer" as "who Max's mother is and where "Mrs. Goofy" went", leaving her fate to ultimately remain an unsolved mystery.

## Personality

Max's personality has evolved as the character has aged.

As a child, he is shown to be very close to his father. He spent most of his time tagging along with Goofy during his father's shenanigans, however, as he grows, he becomes embarrassed by his father's antics. In the Goof Troop show, there were times he would get suckered in by Pete and his get-rich-quick schemes, only to come around towards the end.

It seemed, personality-wise, that P.J. was more like Goofy sometimes, while Max seemed more like Pete. Max has been in love with Roxanne and Mona.

Max is often told that he is very much like his father, and his response is always along the lines of "Please don't say that" or "I wish you didn't say that". In spite of the denial, Max's mannerisms echo Goofy's sometimes including Goofy's laugh, scream, and clumsiness.

As a teenager and young adult, Max is portrayed as calm, cool and struggles to keep his father's goofiness as far away from him as possible. However, his selfish actions of trying to be distant from his father kept him from understanding the importance of putting his family and friends' needs before himself. Therefore, it created mutual strains in the relationships he's made in his life. He is often seen trying to impress a love interest, most notably Roxanne. Sometimes, Max can be a bit cocky and arrogant. Like the time when he foolishly refused to heed his father's warnings about the Gammas' dirty tricks and cheating methods during the X-Games, completely ignoring the upcoming danger he and his friends are getting themselves into. Luckily, once it became clear that Goofy was telling the truth all along, Max finally realized his mistake of ignoring his father's warnings and should've listened to him when he had the chance. Mostly because he let his grudge towards his father's goofiness and dorky personality go to his head (even though Bradley set everyone up when he took advantage of it and cheated during the qualifiers so that Max could lose the bet). But despite all of those previous setbacks, Max was still able to make things right when he apologizes to his father through the jumbotron and finally came to fully accept him as a major part of his life as well as a big part of his family. After the events of the X-Games, Max gives his father the trophy as an apology gift for his rude behavior. From that moment on, Max no longer cared about running away from his father since he now learned that nothing is more important to him than having family and friends in his life. In *Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas*, he tried to run away from his father again when Goofy embarrassed him in front of his new friend, Mona. But after seeing how much Mona is having fun with his father, Max forgets about his embarrassment and runs back to join in the festivities. This clearly showed that Max has fully matured about his father ever since the incidents with Bradley Uppercrust at the college X-Games.

Max also showed his heroic side of his personality in the movies. Like for instance, he used the perfect cast technique to save his father from falling to his demise down the waterfall in the first movie. Then in the sequel, though he was only a few inches away from the finish line at the college X-Games, Max bravely risked his life to rush under the debris of the burning logo to rescue Tank, with some unexpected help from Goofy.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

He appeared in Sora and Friends: A Goofy Adventure!