Sport Goofy in Soccermania

Sport Goofy in Soccermania is an animated Television Special produced by Walt Disney Company in 1987. Originally aired on NBC. During its TV debut it was preceded by a mockumentary showing past Goofy cartoons of him always getting everything wrong, and leading into the cartoon special where the audience is finally shown a competent, athletic Goofy who is the hero.

Plot
In the half-hour special, Huey, Dewey, and Louie ask for help from Scrooge McDuck for their new soccer team by requesting he donate $1.49 to buy a championship trophy. Scrooge, being his typical stingy self, goes into a rant of "A dollar forty-nine! That is a lot of money!" and instead give an old trophy of his he thinks is worthless, but the boys pass the curator of the Duckburg Museum who sees it is a rare artifact worth a million dollars, causing Scrooge to gain the reputation as a generous philanthropist throughout Duckburg. To win back the trophy, Scrooge is now made to sponsor his nephews, where he is taken to a sporting goods store owned by a surprisingly athletic and agile Goofy. Scrooge enlists the aid of Goofy, soon known by the nickname of "Sport Goofy", who ends becoming the team's coach when the teammates of Scrooge's nephews are shown as ragtag misfits. The team christened the "McDuck Greenbacks", come together under Goofy's patient coaching and sharpen their soccer skills, and register to compete in the tournament.

Unfortunately, the Beagle Boys know of the trophy's value, and sought to enter the soccer tournament as well in order to "walk away with the trophy, all nice and legal", rather than steal it. When one of the Beagle Boys comments they are out of shape and do not know anything about soccer, their leader says all they have to do is cheat. The tournament comes down to the McDuck Greenbacks facing the Beagle Boys in the finals; the Beagles decide Sport Goofy is a problem and kidnap him. The team is disheartened by the loss of their coach and team captain, but resolve to go on without him. Despite the excellent playing by the team members, the Beagle Boys engage in outright cheating and a nearsighted referee keeps declaring the Beagles' goals legit, ending the first half with a score of 10-0. Sport Goofy quietly escapes the Beagles' hideout and gets to the field for the second half. The return of Sport Goofy encourages the Greenbacks into incredible playing that not even the Beagles' cheating can counter, causing a comeback of 10-10.

When the enraged Beagles resort to outright physically assaulting Sport Goofy, Scrooge finally makes the referee wear his glasses and see what is happening, causing the ref to cry foul and set up a penalty shot with only Sport Goofy and the Beagles' goalie. The Beagles' team captain has secretly placed a bomb in the ball, and orders a Beagle to push the red button on the detonator when Goofy is ready to take his shot. Unfortunately, that Beagle is so uneducated he keeps pushing the green button, causing Sport Goofy to easily make the penalty goal past an overconfident goalie, thus the Greenbacks win 11-10. All of Duckburg rejoices except for the Beagles, whose angry captain pushes the red button causing the ball to explode and send all the Beagle Boys into a waiting police van. Now that Scrooge has his trophy back, he donates it to the Duckburg Museum, and joins the McDuck Greenbacks in their championship photo.

Voice Actors

 * Tony Pope - Sport Goofy
 * Will Ryan - Scrooge McDuck
 * Russi Taylor - Huey, Dewey, and Louie
 * Jack Angel - Beagle Boys
 * Philip Proctor - Gyro Gearloose
 * Chick Hearn - The Announcer

Production
This cartoon marks the first time Russi Taylor voices Huey, Dewey, and Louie, taking the role from Clarence Nash. Joe Ranft and Tad Stones wrote the story. Ranft went on to work for Pixar, while Stones would continue to work with Walt Disney Animation, turning the pairing of Scrooge McDuck and Donald's nephews into the animated TV series, DuckTales. Sport Goofy is one of the few Disney cartoons where Uncle Scrooge was not voiced by his classic voice actor of Alan Young, but instead was voiced by Will Ryan.

It was Darrell Van Citters' last production with Disney. He would eventually work on animation for Warner Bros. for a couple years, before forming his own animation company, Renegade Animation.