Bradley Uppercrust III is the main antagonist of Disney's 2000 animated direct-to-video sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie. He is the leader of the Gamma Mu Mu school fraternity at the State college, and the five-time College X-Games "king". He is a selfish athlete, as he cares only for his own victory, no matter who gets left behind (or possibly even killed) in his drive to win. He accepts only the most skilled competitors for his team, excluding all others whom he dubs "clowns" or "losers".
Personality
Though his outward appearance presents an air of charm, charisma, and sophistication, Bradley's true nature is best described as self-centered, vain, rude, egotistical, and extremely arrogant, considering only himself a winner while viewing everyone else as losers. He is also an underhanded cheater, sabotaging his opponents' equipment both before and during sporting events.
Nonetheless, he also has the cunning wits and manipulative skills to keep everything and himself in check. Few know of his true behavior, as he has garnered much popularity and respect over the course of his college career, recognized by all on campus as a sports celebrity. When he wants something, he will try the diplomatic approach first, being an incredibly smooth talker able to butter up those he wishes to manipulate to his whim. He usually gets what he wants, but in the rare instances where his silver tongue fails him, he may, if pressed, lose his cool and reveal his crueler side.
By the film's climax, Bradley is so obsessed with winning the X-Games that he becomes perfectly willing to severely injure or even kill his opponents to ensure his victory. He also has no genuine loyalty towards his Gamma members. When Tank is ahead and could win the race for him, Brad just activates another cheat. But when that backfires and ends up trapping Tank in a burning X-Games logo, Bradley just takes advantage of the accident to continue the race.
Despite his more malicious side, Bradley is honorable enough to concede defeat (if not to just save face and keep his popularity and reputation intact): After Max beat him in the College X-Games' final round, Bradley congratulated Max, showing no ill will towards him despite their longstanding rivalry, and agreed to uphold their deal of being the winner's towel boy. However, Max called off their bet and left Bradley to be given his well-deserved comeuppance by Tank.
Role in the film
Bradley is first seen when Max, P.J, and Bobby were in a car and saw the Gamma house, where Bradley is seen on the front porch with crowds of other dogs surrounding him. When Max and the others were seen skateboarding, Bradley and the Gammas followed them to the Coffee shop. He offered Max to join their fraternity, only for his offer to be rejected when the Gammas picked on P.J. and Bobby. He quickly became Max's enemy and placed a wager about the X-Games; the losing team becomes towel boys for the winning team. Max accepted the wager. During class, he would often pick on Max (especially when Goofy came bursting in).
Later, while Max and his friends were practicing skateboarding, Bradley notices Goofy having good moves (though it was unintentional) and had Goofy join the Gammas. During the qualifying round, he placed a mini-rocket under Goofy's skateboard and while Max was skateboarding, he flashed a light into Max's eyes. And after Goofy decides to leave the fraternity to help support his son, Bradley had him thrown out, saying that the Gammas are "leaving" him (which really doesn't make much of a difference). As Goofy sneaks back into the house to return his Gamma badge, he overhears Bradley and the Gammas boasting of their plans to cheat in the competition.
During the X-Games, Bradley had the other members of the Gammas cheat for him to ruin the other teams' chances of winning. After Bradley's and Max's teams made it into the finals, he sent P.J. flying off in the sky to force the other team to forfeit. This unexpected turn of events causes Max to realize that Goofy was telling the truth about Bradley's cheating and that he was tricked by Bradley into disowning Goofy as his father, all so he could win the games and the bet for himself. However, Max was able to convince Goofy to come back, step in, help him beat Bradley, and win the X-Games while even apologizing for the horrible things he's done to him. During the race, Bradley attempted various cheats, including having his teammates blocking the road, moving a hay bale so the racers would go cross country, and having Tank throw him past the other team. Soon after, Goofy stumbled towards Bradley and bumped into them sending them both flying, briefly stunning them.
Near the finish line, although Tank was in the lead, Bradley was unwilling to let anyone but himself cross the finish line and pulls out a remote control to activate one last cheat. To stop Bradley, Goofy throws his horseshoe at his face, but as Bradley falls to the ground, his chin hits the button that has Max and Tank blasted towards the X-Games wire and fabric logo, causing it to crash on top of them and set on fire. Ignoring the accident, Bradley continues the race but Max and Goofy help Tank escape. Goofy and Tank released themselves from the skateboard to give Max enough speed, and Max beats Bradley to the finish line, winning the competition.
In the end, Bradley conceded defeat, shook Max's hand, showed good sportsmanship, and even agreed to be Max's towel boy, but Max calls off the bet because Bradley has to deal with Tank. A furious Tank then turns on Bradley for betraying him and, as the race organizers watch, slingshots him towards the X-Games blimp flying overhead, puncturing it and causing the blimp to flail out of control. He wasn't seen again after this scene, but it is implied that he got expelled from the Gammas for cheating and endangering his fellow students during the X-Games.
Trivia
- Because Bradley is never seen nor mentioned again after being thrown into the blimp, it has been debated by fans as to whether or not he even survived the ordeal. However, given that this is both a cartoon world (whose inhabitants have survived much worse conditions) and a G-rated family film, chances are high that the movie did not kill him off, what with the absurdity of his final comeuppance being obviously played for comedic effect. Additionally it is highly unlikely that the race organizers, would allow Tank to kill Bradley.
- It's not entirely clear how old Bradley is or what college year he is in, but there are clues to both throughout the movie:
- He makes fun of Max, P.J., and Bobby for being Freshmen, and won the previous year's College X-Games, so he isn't a freshman himself.
- However, P.J. also boasts that he, Max, and Bobby plan to be the first Freshman team to win the X-Games, so Bradley couldn't have been a freshman during his victory the previous year, which also rules out his being a sophomore in the movie.
- Bradley is also the reigning champion of the College X-Games, and it's implied that he has won the X-Games more than once. Since no Freshman team had ever won before Max's team did, the youngest Bradley could have been when he won his first X-Games championship was a sophomore. If he won a second time in his junior year, that would put him in his Senior year during the movie.
- Although, it is also said that the Gammas had won all five College X-Games competitions from the years before when Max, P.J., and Bobby first enrolled at the college and won the sixth annual College X-Games. If Bradley had personally won all five of those years and was, at the youngest, a Sophomore in his first victory, then he would still be a Senior by the movie's time, but one who was also in his seventh year of college (suggesting that he may not be a full-time student, taking his time to complete his education the long way; he could even be a "lifer", trying to stay in college as long as possible in order to keep reliving his glory years with each X-Games victory).
- So, supposing that Bradley started college at 18, if he were a Senior in his normal fourth year, he would be about 21 during the movie's time. But if he had also won the first five years' X-Games and were instead a Senior in his seventh year, he would be about 24 years old.
- His last name is likely a play on the words "upper class" and "crust".
- Oddly, the subtitles/Closed Captions for the DVD, Blu-Ray, and all digital releases of the movie (Netflix, Amazon Video and Disney Plus) phrase his name as "Bradley Uppercrust the Third".
- When Goofy overhears Bradley and the other Gammas discuss their plan to cheat to win the X-Games, Bradley is seen with his head in front of a pair of horns. Combined with the scene's lighting shifting to a reddish hue (courtesy of the room's fireplace), this effect briefly gives Bradley a devilish appearance.
- Bradley is a rare Disney villain who doesn't fall, but rather, rises to his defeat.
- Like many other inhabitants of the Goof Troop world, Bradley—despite being a dog—is bare-skinned like a human instead of furred like a canine.
- When Goofy throws a horseshoe at him, it is shown to hit his jawline, causing him to lose a tooth. Yet, Bradley is shown to have somehow also received a black eye from it.
- Despite being the polar opposite to Max, Bradley serves as a lesson to him. If he hadn't allowed his father Goofy to come back into his life and gotten over his judgmental behavior towards him at the end of the movie, he would've ended up becoming just like Bradley himself.
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