MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

Disney’s A Goofy Movie celebrates its 30th anniversary this month and is credited with adding layers to a character that had up to that point been present on the big and small screen for well over a half a century.

Goofy, voiced by the character’s long-tenured performer Bill Farmer, embarks on a fishing trip in an effort to bond with his now teenaged son Max.

Their trip takes a turn in the wrong direction after Max secretly alters the map they had been following to lead them to Los Angeles and a concert by his favorite pop star Powerline where he hopes to meet up with his crush Roxanne.

In typical Goofy fashion, a plethora of misadventures occur along the way, but in a change of pace, a number of emotional and heartfelt moments do as well.

The voice behind the younger Goof is veteran voice actor Jason Marsden who was hired for the role after the film’s creative team decided to age Max up from his younger portrayal in the tv series Goof Troop in which the character was voiced by the late Dana Hill.

“For the film they wanted like an organic, teenage boy sound and that was my shtick back in the day, and still is at fifty years old,” recalled Marsden. “They had me read and our director Kevin Lima liked what I did and here I am.”

He explained that the film felt special at the time because he felt lucky to be working but then quickly realized the process was unlike his work on shows like Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears.

“I knew it was different because I was used to working in half-hour animation where you go into a booth and work with a bunch of people and you’re done in four hours, but for a feature film it’s a very different process,” Marsden explained. “Bill Farmer and I recorded pretty regularly for a couple of years, and the time and care it took for the performances showed me like ‘Oh, this is for real.’ I didn’t know if it was anything special per se, I just knew it was a different process because it was for a feature film as opposed to television.”

Marsden realized the film was special when he watched it for the first time in theaters and said it “didn’t feel like a goofy movie, it just felt like a movie… which happened to have Goofy in it.”

He referenced his favorite scene in the film which involved Goofy and his neighbor Pete relaxing in a hot tub at the Neptune Inn where the two families stay for a night.

“That was like a grounded conversation between two dads about their kids, and it’s not something that I think people expected to see Goofy in with all the shorts that he did; it was very zany and physical comedy, and to empathize with him in this stage was different and people loved it,” he explained. “Credit where credit is due to Kevin’s direction and Bill’s performance as well.”

Though Marsden said he views the film differently as he’s grown and become a father himself, he explained that he connected with Goofy even during filming.

“I empathized with Goofy anyway when I recorded it because I had such a hard time being so mean to him,” he remembered. “If I talked to my parents like that, I’d have been grounded for months, and Goofy is just this sincere, earnest person so I recognized that right off the bat.”

Marsden also explained that fans tell him frequently about how their perceptions of the film changed over time.

“I hear that a lot from fans of the film who watched it as a kid and they identify with Max and it’s like ‘Come on Goofy. He just wants to go to a concert,’” he said. “Then they get older and then become parents themselves and they’re like ‘Come on Max. he just wants to spend time with you.’”

A Goofy Movie, as Marsden stated, is one that “stands the test of time,” and its popularity will continue as it is passed along from generation to generation.

“We all rewatch films when we get older, especially our favorite ones, and they all shed a different light on things as we evolve and mature, and it’s definitely in that category,” he explained. “Also, people love it enough to show it to their kids, and now it’s been thirty years so there’s grandchildren involved and they’re loving it. I think it’s one of those that will continue to thrive.”

Marsden spends a lot of time working at pop culture events and conventions where he says he gets to hear from fans about how they connect to roles of his in projects such as A Goofy Movie, Hocus Pocus, Spirited Away, Step by Step and others which he says does allow him one specific benefit.

“I totally admit I have a huge ego, and I love the attention,” he jokingly confessed. “It’s fantastic, especially as an actor you’re not in the living rooms or in the theaters watching the content with people, so it’s extremely gratifying to go to an event and people line up to tell you how great you are and how your work has affected their lives, I very much enjoy that.”

He also touched on how some fans share even deeper reasons for connecting to his work.

“A lot of people are like ‘I had a tumultuous relationship with a parent but got along through this movie’ or ‘I had this illness but watching Spirited Away got me through that’ and that sort of connectivity is totally valuable,” he added.

After a long period living in Los Angeles, Marsden found a new home in Nashville after connecting with a woman in Studio City whose best friend, ironically enough, was dating actor James Marsden (no relation). He began travelling to Music City with her during the holidays and felt a sense of belonging instantly.

“I think I got caught up in the very fast pace, every man for himself mentality of Los Angeles, especially in the film industry, and it was very slow here,” he recalled. “Everybody’s the same and no one’s special. The music scene is insane. I’m watching people pour their guts out on stage for like no cover where in LA you pay twenty bucks to wait in line for an hour before you even get in the club. I just loved it and the visits got longer and longer and more frequent until I sold my house in LA and I’ve been here eleven years.”

After settling in Tennessee’s capitol, Marsden discovered a new role: hosting a live variety show. He started the gig as a birthday present for himself.

“When I turned forty, I was only here a couple of years, and I had already befriended a lot of musicians and comics and artists because Nashville’s more than country music, it’s a little bit of everything,” he recalled. “I had stumbled upon these Dean Martin Show collections, and I just devoured them. I was like ‘Man, that looks like so much fun. I could do that. I could be Dean Martin for a second and invite my friends to come and perform and make it a party.’”

The first show was such a success that the owners of The Building in Nashville asked Marsden back for several more before losing their lease.

“I did like five of them and when they lost their lease, it was so specific to that space what I do, I couldn’t just do it in like a theater with a stage and an audience,” he said. “It had to have like this cabaret sort of setting and there wasn’t a lot of venues around here like that, so it got put off to the wayside.”

The show aptly named the “Mars Variety Show,” was revived as a YouTube show during the COVID-19 pandemic, though it too was moved to the back burner as a result of life happening until recently.

“Still, it was in the back of my mind and then I saw the venue at Eastside Bowl over in Madison and they have an old diner within the structure… It had the aesthetic I was looking for, so I talked about it and did it again for my fiftieth birthday,” said Marsden. “That was in January, and we have dates every other month through November.”

Audiences can expect live music, standup comedy, poetry, live art, alternative acts, circus, burlesque. Marsden stages the show so that acts appear at various spots in the venue. He does so to try and keep the audience from being on their phones or having conversations during the acts.

“I’m in the room working the room: it’s kind of like being stuck in a pinball machine, you never know what’s going to happen at any moment,” he explained. “I’m trying to demand the audience’s attention for that ninety minutes. It’s a relentless good time. I’ll rest on that trademarked phrase.”

Marsden said his goal for the show is to grow to be a fixture in Nashville and showcase local artists like the Opry, Music City Roots and Whiskey Jam. Each edition of the “Mars Variety Show” has a different theme. The theme for the next show on Thursday May 1 is “Off Broad.”

“It’s sort of a play on Off-Broadway meaning Lower Broadway Nashville there are tons of bands playing Lower Broadway and they mostly do covers which appeases tourists, but there are artists on Broadway who are more than that,” explained Marsden. “I have a few of those in the show including Charles “Wigg” Walker, who does the Soul Brunch show at Acme Feed and Seed, Alli Keck who I discovered when I was walking one of these little smaller side bars and she went on to be a Voice contestant, so it’s celebrating performers who play Lower Broadway in Nashville who are more than just the covers that they play.”

In addition to his variety show, Marsden is also featured in the Disney+ documentary “Not Just A Goof” which celebrates the 30th anniversary of “A Goofy Movie” and delves into why it is so popular with fans as well as how it became what it is.

He admitted that it’s hard for him to reflect on the film because it’s present to him all the time, though he explained that he does feel a great amount of pride.

“I’m very proud of this project,” he said. “I’m proud to be associated with it. I’m grateful that I’m still in touch with a lot of the people that worked on it. I love my relationship with Bill Farmer. I grew up being a Disney fan, so looking from the outside, it’s pretty wild that I grew up and became friends with Goofy or Goofy’s son rather. It’s pretty awesome.”