Motor Mania

Directed by

Jack Kinney

Produced by

Walt Disney

Written by

Milt Schaffer
Dick Kinney

Starring

Bob Jackman (uncredited)
Jimmy MacDonald (uncredited)
John McLeish (uncredited)

Language

English

Preceded by	Followed by
Goofy Gymnastics	Hold That Pose

Motor Mania is a Goofy cartoon released by Walt Disney Productions on June 30, 1950. In this madcap motoring animation, Goofy (during his "Everyman" period) transforms into a Mr. Hyde-esque split personality, when he gets behind the wheel and provides the lowdown on how not to drive safely.

Synopsis[]

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 change in personality to the violent "Mr. Wheeler" when he gets behind the wheel of his yellow car. As Mr. Walker he is polite, safe, and good-natured while as Mr. Wheeler; he is very mean, reckless, short-tempered and predatory. Upon reaching his destination in town 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 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 by telling the narrator, while educating him on safe driving habits, "Ah, shut up!"

Voices[]

Bob Jackman - Mr. Wheeler
Jimmy MacDonald - Additional Voices
John McLeish - Narrator, Mr. Wheeler (some lines)
Pinto Colvig - Mr. Wheeler laughs (archive sound)

Trivia[]

This is the first Goofy cartoon to have a fully-redesigned Goofy, with a lack of both floppy ears and front buck teeth. It was also the first short to use a jazz remake of the theme song used in Goofy shorts prior.
According to "The Goofy Success Story" from Disneyland, the in-universe explanation for the apparent disappearance of Goofy's ears is that, for this film, he had his ears tied above his head and hidden under his hat. The absence of his buck teeth is not further explained.
This cartoon was used as an army commercial film in 1955.
This cartoon reveals that road rage is not a recent phenomenon, but an issue recurring with each generation of drivers.
Due to its subtle topicality, it and two 1965 Goofy cartoons about freeway safety, Freewayphobia #1 and Goofy's Freeway Troubles, have been shown in driving schools across the U.S..
This short was awarded the Buyer Trophy for the best film on traffic safety.
Mr. Walker makes a cameo reading a newspaper in Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
A few clips from this short were shown in the House of Mouse episode "Max's New Car" (with re-dubbed audio) to prove Max's point about how Goofy was a "responsible" driver.
- At the beginning of the redubbed clips sequence of this cartoon shown in that House of Mouse episode "Max's New Car", Mr Wheeler's line of rudely telling off his neighbor before crashing his car in the rear has been changed; the line "Hey, Geef! Watch where you're going, stupid!" has been replaced with Mr Wheeler rudely telling said neighbor "Excuse me!" for unknown reasons while all his other lines of dialogue remain unedited, though likely to remove any connections to Goofy's "Everyman" alter ego George Geef.
The "motor mania" term was also used in The Wind in the Willows short in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad to explain Mr. Toad's obsession with motor vehicles and may have coined the term for this short.