Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

When I was a kid, my grandmother ran a driving school and it worked out of the same office as my mom and uncle's shared insurance office (in other words a family business right in Manhattan). I would sit around without too much to do, except that there was always this short, Motor Mania, on a VHS tape - students had to watch a video as part of the class to get their licenses (still do fyi in New York state) - and I would watch it many, many times to the point where I could recite it by heart. But it wasn't simply boredom and it being the only cartoon-centric thing available (there was also a Phil Donahue special about drunk driving I watched too, but I digress) - this is genuinely brilliant comedy AND as information.Is it exaggerated? Well, yeah, it's a cartoon! But it doesn't mean that there isn't a sense that someone like "Mr. Wheeler" out there (it's a Jekyll and Hyde scenario where a nice guy, "Mr. Walker", leaves the house and as soon as he's behind the wheel he turns into a hideous, rage-filled MONSTER). It's narration over a lot of mad incidents that happen to "Mr Wheeler" as he goes about on the road getting into accidents, getting impatient and horrible while in traffic, and other nightmare scenarios.What makes it so effective is that its a well-paced and quick movie, except that there is a beat where it shows how the monster Wheeler can be an ass even while being slow on the road (at one point he drives slowly as a giant back-up is behind him honking relentlessly), and that the comedy comes from a very real place, almost too real. If you've been in a family where this kind of thing was normal - having family members who get so mad behind the wheel and anxious even as they have been driving their whole lives and can/should know better - it's relatable. It's not something that is out of place to show at a driving school, even as it has its share of gags, all leading up to Wheeler's (relative) demise In other words, it's a great pre-driving ed for a pre-pubescent, and aside from the personal connection to it it's among the finest work Disney studios did at the time.

I first saw this cartoon when it was part of a cartoon compilation episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, narrated by Professor Ludwig Von Drake. It stars Goofy who plays a Jekyll and Hyde-type character named Mr. Walker and Mr. Wheeler. When he is walking about any but his car, he is a kind and benevolent man. But, when he takes behind the wheel, he turns into a crazy, wild driver.It is an interesting cartoon short, hilarious to see Goofy act in an ominous and scary demeanor as he crashes into other cars and yells at people in fits of road rage. It's also a lesson to be learned - everybody should drive defensively.The animation is colorful and brilliant and the plot is full of laughs and entertainment. An enjoyable one featuring Goofy.Grade B

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.Even the most mild mannered pedestrian becomes afflicted with MOTOR MANIA when he gets behind the steering wheel of a car.This little film is not only humorous - in a bone-jarring sort of way - but it also deals with a serious problem: emotional drivers who are a danger to everyone else on the highway. This was the first of Goofy's car safety cartoons and would later be followed by FREEWAYPHOBIA NO. 1 and GOOFY'S FREEWAY TROUBLE (both 1965). John McLeish narrates in his best documentarian manner.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a storm of naysayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

NOTE: CONTAINS BRIEF SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND INFORMATIONDisney here combine two themes to create this cartoon. One is their version of the classic Jeckyl/Hyde story, the other being an exaggerated account of motorists when in their cars. The comedy is brilliant, the animation is superb, and although the cartoon is not the greatest thing since sliced bread, it is certainly one to look out