Interview: "Not Just a Goof" Filmmakers Christopher Ninness and Eric Kimelton on the New Documentary, Run-Ins with Susan Egan, and That One "Atlanta" Episode

Just in time for the 30th anniversary of A Goofy Movie, a new original documentary called Not Just a Goof has arrived on Disney+. A rough cut of the independent-produced film first screened on a DVC Member Cruise last year and, since then, fans have been excited for the chance to see this exploration of the cult classic’s creation — and the impact it’s had since.

Recently, we had a chance to chat with the filmmakers behind Not Just a Goof: Christopher Ninness and Eric Kimelton. Check out our full interview below (or listen to it on the latest episode of the Laughing Place “On Balance" Podcast).

Benji Breitbart: First of all, what's it like to see your film on Disney+ — and in the top 10 trending? That's got to be a little wild as someone who grew up watching the other things that are on Disney+, such as A Goofy Movie.

Christopher Ninness: Yeah, it's totally surreal. This is an exciting time to talk with you because we have yet to talk to anyone post release of the film. So it's fun that people have started to watch it and we're not afraid of spoiling as much anymore.

But it's totally surreal. And I keep telling everyone, we're both overwhelmed, but the word I keep thinking of is just “gratitude." I'm just so thankful for the opportunity to work with a friend who cares about this movie as much as I do and to be able to tell the story.

BB: This movie tells your story of why you fell in love with A Goofy Movie. On an emotional level, what do you think it is that made A Goofy Movie resonate? Why do you think now it is so ubiquitous to the point it is up there with all the Disney animated classics that we know and love?

Eric Kimelton: I think because it's a universal story. And it's about growing up as a kid. It's about the relationship with your parents. It's about fitting in with your peers at school, especially in high school.

That's something that kids now can relate to. They're in school. They have parents. So it's this cyclical sort of evergreen story.

And the cool thing about A Goofy Movie is that you can relate to it at two different times in your life: as a kid and then, if you're older and you can see more from Goofy's perspective as the parent… There's definitely multiple layers there, which I think stands the test of time.

CN: It's a human story. And I think what we tried to get across in our documentary is that it's an incredibly human story. And it's being told by these people who care deeply and they're pulling from their own lives.

And I think that is what resonates, like Eric said.

BB: It's one thing to be a fan of this movie or have it resonate with you, but it's another thing to make a leap to make a documentary about it in a way. This isn't just a making of featurette — this is a full documentary that explores the film's complete journey from conception to the legacy it has today. How did that process happen?

EK: Well, we initially started out wanting or thinking we were going to make the film about the fandom, because Chris and I were a part of that fandom.

CN: Well, because when we started, Disney+ had just launched and they had some really great documentaries available. It was Into the Unknown, but they had the Don Hahn documentaries like Howard Ashman [Howard] or Waking Sleeping Beauty.

And since then, they've come out with even more like Light and Magic or The Imagineering Story. And they're all really fantastic. And Eric and I just thought, like, “Well, I wish this existed for our favorite Disney movie."

No one's ever done a true deep dive that felt like that understood A Goofy Movie. No one's talked about it in a very real sense. It kind of lives in this weird cult status and, if you talk to someone who knows about A Goofy Movie, they instantly light up and they generally are like, “I love that movie, too!" But it was important to Eric and I that we made a film that wasn't just a making of featurette.

We wanted it to be honest. We wanted it to have its own emotional arc, if possible. Is that something we could do? Can we present the story in the way that we had been presented the story when we talked to Kevin [Lima]. Going to Kevin and doing the first interview is what changed the idea from being about the fandom into being a movie for the fandom, because he had the tapes.

I mean, we didn't know that before we went to interview him. That was just this special surprise that he kind of threw out at the last minute. We were all going to dinner and he's like, “Hey, I have all this footage." And I think Eric and I just started to weep. What's this tape that says Tevin Campbell “I2I?" Like, what is this?!

And, you know, he's like, “Why don't you just take all the tapes and go through it and make the best film you can?" And that was a real moment where the project totally just changed completely.

BB: You not only got to work with Kevin Lima, but Don Hahn came on board this project. He has a unique place where he was involved with Disney Animation at the time and on this film, but he's also a documentarian in his own right… How did bringing someone like that on to the film change this whole sort of experience for you.?

EK: It got a lot more real after Don got involved. Kevin sent him a link to the film once Chris and I were pretty good with the edit. In the presentation of it, and it took a little bit, but then Don watched it. I think we got kind of lucky because one of the things that we found out after, talking to Don, that his daughter, one of her favorite movies is A Goofy Movie.

And Don, you know, he would tell you that, even like when she was growing up and Don produced The Lion King, she'd be like, “Well, what about A Goofy Movie?" And so it was just kind of funny. And he definitely opened doors for us that we wouldn't be able to.

And there's just an instant respect when Don reaches out to someone. He's so humble and nice as well. And I think like he when you think of a quintessential Disney good guy, Don Hahn is definitely that.

CN: We refer to him on the project many times as the dog father of the project, because he's just I mean, he was a real champion and supporter. And it never got normal for us, by the way. Every time you're in a meeting with Don Hahn, you're staring at the screen. You're like, “How did we get here? This is amazing to have any time with him at all."

And he's so wise and he shares his experiences and what he thinks and even his critiques. He gives a note and you're like, “Yeah, I'm going to listen to the guy who made The Lion King." I'm going to do that.

BB: Yeah, it's a general good rule of thumb… Ever since this project got on my radar, every time I would see Don, [this project] would come up — sometimes not in the most organic ways. But he was a huge supporter of it, which was neat to see. It's nice to see someone like that who's had such success support storytellers like yourselves who have just have such a connection and made a great documentary in its own right.

CN: Yeah, yeah, it's crazy.

BB: So I first saw the film aboard the Disney Vacation Club Member Cruise and saw it in the Walt Disney Theater with other Disney fans and with Bill Farmer there. What was it like to see the film premiere in a manner of speaking at a place that is such a Disney fan mecca?

CN: Terrifying.

EK: Yeah.

CN: That was the first time we'd ever screened it publicly. And you're sitting backstage and Don is like, “It's going to be OK. These people all want to see it, they're excited to see it."

It's a pinch yourself moment, you know, because A Goofy Movie is so much bigger than people realize. Like there's such a fan, like a real genuine love for A Goofy Movie. I think that that made us feel a little bit more comfortable knowing like, “OK, well, Kevin Lima has done a lot of the hard work that people love this movie." So they want to see him and they want to see Kevin tell his story. And that definitely makes it easier to digest.

EK: Yeah, it was terrifying, though, like Chris was saying. Because this was like the key demographic that would be watching our film. If we let them down, we don't have a movie.

CN: So, yeah, I think Disney saw it as kind of a test screening, really. Is there an interest here? How will it play? What will the response be? — before they were interested in acquiring or licensing it from us.

BB: Well, it got a great response… but if it didn't, you were stuck with these folks another three days on the ship and there was nowhere to go. That’s what I would have been worried about.

CN: They’re throwing waffles at us.

BB: Yeah, but it became the talk of the cruise and it became this great viral moment for you guys in that it became this almost like this mystic project that people wanted to see and I think really built a lot of anticipation.

CN: The moment that like I remember from the cruise that just blows my mind… I still think about it today is, we were in the lobby just outside the theater, and Susan Egan came up to me. She was the voice of Meg in Hercules, and she was like, “I love your guys's documentary." And I froze up and I think I just said back to her, “I love you. You're a hero."

Like, this is crazy. And then I think she made a comment on my shoes. I was wearing these Powerline shoes for good luck and she goes, “Your shoes are no Air-Hercs."

And I was like, “Am I dreaming?" This is totally surreal. Doesn't make any sense. What is life anymore?

BB: Now that the film is out and you have probably spent a lot more time thinking of A Goofy Movie than anyone who hadn't worked on the film in this world, how does it affect your own relationships, your understanding of parents and children? As Disney fans yourselves, what do you think Disney fans have taken away about family?

EK: That is a deep question.

BB: Yeah, I guess we're talking about cartoons here —

CN: We are talking about cartoons, but that's the thesis of the film. Why can a character as silly as Goofy mean so much, right? We say it right up top. It has a deep resonating connection with people.

Goofy, like of all the characters that could have been picked from Disney, Goofy is not the one you run to to think that he'd be a great father figure. At this point in time, when A Goofy Movie is made, he's being electrocuted and shot into the sky. It's the worst idea for a father, honestly.

EK: It's in his name, he was a goof.

CN: But I think everyone can see a parent as goofy. I have an eight month old daughter and the way I act around her already, my wife is like, “Oh, you are becoming the quintessential dad. Your jokes are terrible. You're always like making silly voices."

And it is inevitable. Like, a kid will always see a parent as goofy to some degree, I think. And that makes it incredibly relatable.

EK: And I think, the other thing is, if you really dissect A Goofy Movie, there's no real villain in the film. It's just Goofy and Max. And the villain is the conflict and tension in their relationship, which is very human because, yeah, we have some villains within our lives or foes or antagonists. But most often, it's just the relationship itself that is the antagonist and the ups and downs of that. So I think that is probably one of the most human things about A Goofy Movie.

Kyle Burbank: I have something I need to ask you because, every time I've told somebody that there’s this documentary about A Goofy Movie on Disney+, they, of course, say, “Oh, that sounds awesome. I want to watch that." But then they bring up the Atlanta episode.

You mentioned that you started this project a while ago — so, when that episode comes out, are you like, “Oh, cool, this is one more thing we can put into the documentary?" Or are you thinking, “This might cause some confusion with what I'm working on?"

CN: That's a great question. I will say, I think there's a common misconception… They'll say “Atlanta did it first and Disney is just trying to capitalize on Donald Glover." And a few things about that. One, Disney didn't produce the documentary. They had no idea we had even made it until we showed it to them after the Atlanta episode, of course.

But we did start our project two years before the Atlanta episode aired. And the day it aired, Eric, Kevin and I got on a phone call with each other and we were like, “Oh, my God, what is this? This is incredible. A documentary about A Goofy Movie?"

And then we watched the episode and you realize that, “OK, this is a totally made up story," but it is we all agreed it's one of the best episodes of television we've ever seen ever. Like just hands down, it is just a glorious achievement in filmmaking and in television.

We couldn't believe it existed. I mean, it's mind blowing. And you sit there and we're like, wow, a goofy movie means so much to people that this new piece of art was like birthed into the world because it matters so deeply.

And the takeaway from us was, wow, even more of a reason to make this to tell the story to make because this matters. A Goofy Movie matters on this deep, possibly even deeper and more so than we had thought it did. Which was already, you know, at a tremendous amount.

EK: And we did decide pretty soon thereafter, when we're putting all the fan stuff together that, like what screams a fan more than dedicating a whole episode of your huge TV show to A Goofy Movie?

CN: We're huge fans of the Atlanta episode. It's hard to compare our doc and Atlanta. Objectively, like we just can't really do that. Our film does not discredit Atlanta in terms of what can be taken away from it. Like, the heart and soul of the message that Atlanta delivers is extremely valuable. So I keep thinking, like, “why compare the two?" You know, they're so wildly different, but I think there's room for both.

And art is extremely important. I think it's a gift that Atlanta even exists in that episode even exists. So we don't think of us as competitors with the Atlanta episode at all. We actually had footage from the Atlanta episode in our film for a while. But when it came down to licensing, it just became very complicated. So now we reference the Atlanta episode and show Donald Glover, but we couldn't actually show the footage from Atlanta. But we wanted to. That was definitely something we thought it was important to touch on and we knew we had to do that.

BB: Now, as filmmakers, obviously, you only have one favorite movie. But what do you want to tackle next? What do you have in the hopper that you can publicly talk about?

CN:  Well, thank you. First of all, it's very kind of you. Eric and I are just starting to kind of figure that out, but there's a story we want to tell. It's very different. It'll take place in northern Uganda, and it's a documentary. And we're going to go out there, I think, this summer to shoot it.

So it's a scopier movie, for sure, in terms of story and characters. But it is a documentary and it's a story very close to my heart. And I'm really excited to start leaning into that and to start tackling that.

But we're just I mean, really getting into it. We're really early into it. Yeah.

BB: Well, we look forward to hearing about it. You know, I was thinking about Don Hahn's non-Disney work and Leslie Iwerks’ non-Disney work. Sometimes those Disney documentarians can segue you into a great story that just you're introduced to them through their Disney work. But then you can get a whole other eye opening experience through some of their other stuff. So we look forward to seeing what that is, whatever your next chapter is as you move forward.

CN: Thank you. Yes, we were talking about possibly doing another Disney project, but it's important to us that we don't repeat ourselves… And in whatever project we do next, we want to make sure that it's coming from that same place, like we just care deeply about it.

BB: To wrap up, what do you hope that people, whether they're fans of A Goofy Movie or not, take away from your film?

EK: I think Chris kind of said it earlier that the overall message is that art matters and that there's a character as silly as Goofy can mean so much, especially to kids, because, you know, if it wasn't for A Goofy Movie, Chris and I wouldn't be here doing this. And that's because that film touched us at a really pivotal time in our childhood. So art can inspire people to express themselves.

And that's like the deeper message we're trying to say. Not only that, but, hey, let's get another Goofy something in the Disney universe made.

BB: Yeah, I keep trying to get Thomas Schumacher to make A Goofy Musical. I think that would be great. I think Broadway needs it.

EK: Keep asking for it!

CN: Keep asking for it. I agree with you. Wouldn't that be great?

Not Just a Goof is now streaming on Disney+.

To hear an audio version of this interview, check out the latest episode of the Laughing Place “On Balance" Podcast below.