For Whom the Bulls Toil

Language

English

Preceded by	Followed by
Father's Day Off	Father's Week-End

For Whom the Bulls Toil is a 1953 Goofy short set in Mexico.

Synopsis[]

The short begins when a large crowd is sitting in a huge stadium. A blimp with the letters XLNT flies over the stadium. A matador is shown, and a bull comes running out of the stables. The matador waves his cape and the bull charges over to it.

Meanwhile, Uncle Joe (Goofy) is seen driving down a rural gravel road. He stops to see that there is a bull, which he mistakes for a cow, sitting in his path. Joe gets out and tries to shoo "Bossy" away, but the bull won't budge. Some Mexican villagers look on in amazement. Exhausted from the effort, Joe takes out his red handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his face. The bull notices the red handkerchief and starts running like mad. The Mexican villagers shout "Ole!" Joe then manages to get going and drives into town.

When he arrives, the Mexicans all greet him and dress him up as a matador. Joe, feeling special, then walks out into the middle of the stadium. A sheet of paper that shows Joe's picture and says that he is the matador falls down on the ground by Joe and he sees it. "Fighter of the bull? Me? OH NO!" he shouts, and then runs into the bull's stable by mistake. Lighting a match, he sees the bull, runs out, and screams. Joe tries at all odds to escape the bull. For example, he climbs into the crowd, but they throw him back into the bullring. Joe climbs onto a pull, but gets tangled onto the bull's horn and the bull swings him around.

By now, poor Joe has had enough and hops into his car and tries to drive away, but the strings on his suit are still tangled. So, he is pulled back into the stadium, colliding with the bull so hard that it actually pushes the entire stadium to the right. We then see that the bull was knocked unconscious and Joe is showered with sombreros. At the end, Joe is driving home with his sombrero souvenirs and he comes upon a bull (or so he thinks). He sneaks behind it and quickly drives off. This bull, however, is actually a cow.

Trivia[]

In real bullfighting, the matador actually sticks a sword in the bull, eventually ending up killing it. This is never shown in the cartoon.
The bull charges at Joe because of his red handkerchief. Real bulls do not react violently to the red color of the matador's cape, but rather to the movement of the cape. Nevertheless, it is still a common misconception that bulls are driven mad by the color red.
When this short was incorporated into the Disneyland anthology episode "The Adventure Story", Goofy's role here was referred to as "Uncle Joe", in keeping with the episode's framing device of Goofy showing his son their family history album.
During airings on The Ink and Paint Club, several scenes were deleted due to supposed stereotyping of Mexicans, which include a telephone call between two Mexicans, when a Mexican looks at Goofy and watches in amazement as he tries to shoo away a bull, when the Mexican farmers shout "Ole!", etc.