Goofy: Man or Dog?

As I’m sure you’re aware, Goofy is Disney’s favorite anthropomorphic cartoon dog and one of Mickey Mouse’s best friends. He is canonically the single father of his only son, Maximillian. He has starred in many classic Mickey Mouse short films, as well as A Goofy Movie and its sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie.
Goofy is a household name. I say this one adjective and you, reader, probably know exactly who I’m talking about. Not only is this because of Disney’s immense fame, but because of the superb characterization of Goofy. He’s a lovable, klutzy, goof of a toon whose design makes him all the more memorable. That is what a good character design does, after all. Not judging a book by its cover has no place in good character design.
Goofy’s identity is understood by his exaggerated personality. The slapstick comedy, his core gimmick, works due to the equally strong values put on his more kind and caring side. One of these friends—the cause of this age-old dilemma, in fact—is Mickey Mouse’s pet Pluto, a dog.
This scandal craved popularity in the mid-2010s, sparking angst art and continuous questions about why one dog was treated greater than the other. However, the difference between them is in Disney’s criteria for characters at the time of each’s creation. In creating characters for a short, there were animals and there were “funny animals.” Animals acted like regular animals, but funny animals like Donald Duck and
Mickey Mouse himself, acted like humans.
Pluto’s first appearance was in Mickey Mouse in Chain Gang as an unnamed Bloodhound leading the search for a prison escapee-Mickey. Yes, that is real. Pluto became Mickey’s lovable pet dog a few years later in a short called Moosehound. On the other glove, Goofy’s first appearance was as an audience member named Dippy Dog in 1932’s Mickey’s Review, where he and his signature laugh were born. His transition into the goof we know and love today developed through cartoons with the trio (him, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse) and Goofy’s How To series, which started premiering in 1939.
The significance of their beginnings is that these two dogs just so happened to gain popularity as animal and “funny animal” characters. If you want to go further in the philosophical debate, the animal and “funny animal” phenomenon could be akin to evolution, in human terms. The important thing to take away, though, is that Goofy’s identity is not of his humanized dog-like character design, but that of his easily identifiable personality, and especially his laugh.

Sources:
● SuperCarlinBrothers (2016, October 18). Goofy vs Pluto Explained [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/0zQ-Rs8HwOk