Following the success of shows such as Ducktales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers in the late 80s and early 90s Disney found themselves with a void to fill. This time period in broadcast became known as the Disney Afternoon and featured many other series that tried to capture the audience the original two shows garnered. Darkwing Duck and Talespin eventually joined the line-up in 1990 and 1991 with Goof Troop not very far behind.

Just like Ducktales and Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop brought a classic Disney character (Goofy) back into the spotlight. The concept with this show featured Goofy and his son, Max, moving to Spoonerville to live life in suburbia. Joining the father and son team is Pete, his wife Peg and children PJ and Pistol. Fans of golden Disney animation may remember Pete (or Black Pete) as Mickey's nemesis, though in Goof Troop he plays Goofy's old friend (kind of) and neighbor. It's a little bit of a stretch considering the history of the character but everybody needs a makeover now and then I suppose, though he's still a pretty rotten guy.

Much to the delight of fans everywhere, shows like Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, and now Goof Troop have been released on DVD. Unfortunately unlike the prior two, Goofy's series doesn't get a boxed set or even sequential episodes. Instead the show's first volume finds itself being released with a whopping three. Why Disney would choose to do one series as a full set and another as separate volumes with random episodes is beyond me. It's nice to be able to go back and see the show again, but without continuity and more episodes there's not a lot of point.

The episodes included in this first volume are "Slightly Dinghy", "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape", and "Shake, Rattle & Goof".

For those that are uninitiated to the show's premise and who the characters are, starting out by watching "Slightly Dinghy" may be a little confusing at first. There's not much of an introduction to the show or what's going on, so you pretty much get tossed right into the thick of things. In this particular episode Max hears about a treasure at the bottom of the ocean and gets it into his head that he, PJ, and their fathers need to go on a fishing trip. Problems ensue when the group encounters an angry little fish driving around in a big mechanical shark. The episode is pretty funny and riddled with the slapstick comedy that the show was well known for.

"Wrecks, Lies & Videotape" was a fun episode that featured Max trying to videotape Goofy hurting himself. The whole point behind it was to submit the video to an America's Funniest Home Videos-like show in order to win a vacation to Hawaii. Things go awry when Pete volunteers to help Max in his quest. Naturally you know that Petey's going to be looking out for his best interest instead of Goofy's.

The last episode on the disc, "Shake, Rattle & Goof", has the boys trying to start their own rock band. Goofy tries to chime in with his ukulele, but finds himself manning the camera for their video instead. Peter hates the music, but his wife won't let him tell them that they suck so he comes up with the alternative plan of sending a tape to Suave Records instead so that a professional can break it to them. As usual though, things don't seem to work out as the planned.

I have to admit that I'm pretty torn with this review. On one hand, I really liked Goof Troop when it was aired and the episodes featured on this disc are pretty good. But on the other hand only getting three episodes feels like a slap in the face, especially considering that they are even out of sequence from their airdates. A season box set would have definitely been much more appreciated since the show doesn't deserve this kind of treatment.

Originally broadcast back in 1992, Goof Troop is presented with a 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio. The show's image quality is on par with other Disney TV releases from the time period. That means that the quality is better than you'll find on an old VHS tape but nowhere near as nice as you'd expect a modern transfer to look like. There is a lot of grain and speckle in many scenes plus a fair bit of aliasing. At some points colors are vibrant and natural looking but at others they seem to have faded out. In other words it looks like there was little to no touch up involved with the original print.

When it comes to a show that aired on TV back in the 90s you can't really expect much more than a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. The quality here proves to be decent enough with a fair amount of presence in the audio and no distortion or dropout to speak of. That being said there isn't a lot of directionality or oomph to the track. I have to say that I forgot how "lame" the theme song was but fortunately the voice acting is just as good as I remembered from my younger years. The disc comes with English and French languages and subtitles for the hearing impaired.

A few Disney Sneak Peaks are all that you're going to see on this disc for bonus content. Of course, that's not really a "special feature" at all is it?

I was thrilled when Ducktales and Rescue Rangers came out on DVD in box sets and really had hopes that the rest of the Disney Afternoon would follow suit. Unfortunately my hopes were squashed as soon as I realized the way that Goof Troop was being presented. The episodes on the disc are good enough but the fact that there are only three, they are out of sequence, and chances of getting a complete collection are probably non-existent at this point really puts a damper on things. It's because of this that I'm going to only recommend a rental of the DVD for fans of the show and a skip it for everybody else. Goof Troop was a hilarious and charming show back in the day and it really deserved better than this. Rent It

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