''Motor Mania'' is a

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

released by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

on June 30, 1950. In this madcap motoring animation,

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...

(during his "Everyman" period) transforms into a

Mr. Hyde Dr. Henry Jekyll, nicknamed in some copies of the story as Harry Jekyll, and his alternative personality, Mr. Edward Hyde, is the central character of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''. In the story, ...

-type split personality, when he gets behind the wheel and provides the lowdown on how to ''not'' drive safely.

Plot

The cartoon shows how the character, as the pleasant, friendly, and good-natured "Mr. Walker" who "wouldn't hurt a fly nor step on an ant", undergoes a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like change in personality to the violent "Mr. Wheeler, motorist" when he gets behind the wheel of his yellow car. As Mr. Walker, pedestrian, he's polite, safe, and good-natured while as Mr. Wheeler; he is very mean, reckless, and predatory. Upon reaching his destination in town (he apparently only wanted to buy a newspaper) and leaving his automobile, he reverts to the mild-mannered Mr. Walker, whereupon he is the victim of other motorists' unsafe (and sometimes even predatory) driving habits. However, once he returns to his car, he becomes Mr. Wheeler, motorist, again, seeking to impose his own will upon traffic, to the point of blaming the tow truck which hauls him away for his slow pace after his own auto accident, and breaks the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

by telling the narrator, while educating him (and the

) on safe driving habits with, "Aw, shaddap!"

The car

The car that Goofy drives is a yellow

Lincoln-Zephyr The Lincoln-Zephyr is a line of luxury cars that was produced by the Lincoln division of Ford from 1936 until 1942. Bridging the gap between the Ford V8 DeLuxe and the Lincoln Model K (in both size and price), it expanded Lincoln to a second ...

convertible. Although not every detail is correct on the cartoon car in relation to the original, its deep, growling sound is unmistakable.

Historical significance

*This is first Goofy cartoon to have Goofy redesigned, with a lack of both floppy external ears and frontal teeth. It was also the first to use a jazz remake of the theme song used in Goofy shorts prior. *Was used as an army commercial film in 1955. *This cartoon reveals that

road rage Road rage is aggressive or angry behavior exhibited by motorists. These behaviors include rude and verbal insults, yelling, physical threats or dangerous driving methods targeted at other drivers, pedestrians or cyclists in an effort to intimid ...

is not a recent phenomenon, but also an issue recurring with each generation of drivers. *Due to its subtle topicality, it and two 1965 Goofy cartoons about

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

safety, '' Freewayphobia#1'' and ''

Goofy's Freeway Troubles This is a list of Animated cartoon, animated short films produced by Walt Disney and Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1921 to the present. This includes films produced at the Laugh-O-Gram Studio which Disney founded in 1921 as well as the anim ...

'', have been shown in driving schools across the continent. *This short was awarded the Buyer Trophy for the best film on traffic safety. *In ''

D-TV ''D-TV'' was a series of music videos created by The Walt Disney Company and produced by Charles Braverman and edited by Ted Herrmann which premiered on May 5, 1984, by taking hit songs of the past and putting them together with various footage of ...

'', clips from this cartoon were set to the

Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

' "

I Get Around "I Get Around" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys and the opening track from their 1964 album '' All Summer Long''. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the autobiographical lyrics describe the group's reaction to their newfound f ...

". *Mr. Walker makes a cameo reading a newspaper in Toontown in ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...

''. *In the ''

House of Mouse ''Disney's House of Mouse'' (or simply ''House of Mouse'') is an American Animation, animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation that originally aired for three seasons on ABC and Toon Disney from January 13, 2001, to ...

'' episode "Max's New Car", after getting banned from getting a car from Goofy,

Max Goof Maximilian "Max" Goof is an animated character who is the son of the Disney character Goofy. He first appeared in the 1951 short "Fathers Are People" as Goofy Jr., and later appeared in the 1992 television series ''Goof Troop'' as Max Goof, a pret ...

also showed clips of this cartoon (with altered audio) to prove how Goofy was a 'responsible' driver.

Home media

The short was released on December 2, 2002, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: The Complete Goofy''.

Voice cast

* Goofy:

Pinto Colvig Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Co ...

* Narrator: John McLeish

References

1950 films 1950 animated films 1950s Disney animated short films Goofy (Disney) short films Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films Films directed by Jack Kinney Films produced by Walt Disney Films scored by Paul Smith (film and television composer) Animated films about automobiles 1950s English-language films {{Disney-animation-film-stub