"How to Play Football" is an American 7.5-minute color cartoon from 1944, the days of World War 2, which means this one is about to have its 75th anniversary. And if you know a bit about old (Disney) cartoons, then the title here perhaps tells you already that this is another "How to" cartoon starring Goofy and there are many, some about sports, others about certain situations in life. This one here is not about what we in Europe know as football, but about what Americans are referring to as American Football. And like many other times we have Kinney in charge as director and Colvig giving us his memorable voice. Contents-wise, some of the jokes are precisely about the sport and only work in a film like this while others could have worked with any other sport too, like the injured player scene near the end. There's some umpire trouble too, many collisions of coursen and critical decisions and what to du with these. Of course photographers and audiences are also part of this movie. For example early on when the commentator explains the rules we hear the audience (intentionally) so loud that you don't understand a word he is saying. Okay I must admit I did not enjoy this one as much as I hoped I could. One reason may be personal because I simply do not have any connection to or interest in American Football and this was definitely not helping matters. But I also found the jokes that are not necessarily linked to the sport not particularly funny. That's why I give it a thumbs-down overall from my subjective perspective. And I am saying this as somebody who usually likes these Goofy cartoons, he is definitely one of my favorite characters from the whole Disney gang, but yeah like I said in the title. Goofy is second fiddle here. You need to like, or even better love, the sport to appreciate this one. Liking old cartoons alone is not enough. Even in that case, you may want to skip the watch and go for something else. By the way, this one was Oscar-nominated, but it lost out to a Tom and Jerry short that year. Good choice by the Academy. Still the fact that it got in shows how popular American Football was back then as it was much more successful this way than basically all other Goofy "How to" shorts.
Review of How to Play Football
