My daughter Olivia – my co-creator on Heaven Sent – grew up loving The Goofy Movie. As a baby and toddler she watched The Lion King on a loop but when she found The Goofy Movie, that was it. She liked Simba. She fell in love with Max.
Max, son of Goofy, was Olivia’s first crush. To hear her tell it now as a 22-year-old Air Force airman, she remembers falling for his look and he was funny. He must have been real funny because I personally saw her watching that movie 20 times and she was cracking up with cereal milk pouring out her nose every time. I think a healthy part of her affection is owed to voice actor Jason Marsden, who would go on to have a successful career in animation (The Legend of Korra, Transformers: Rescue Bots), but she doesn’t know or care about that. Her first crush will always be Max Goof and he will always have a piece of her heart all to his own. And there’s no reason to be ashamed of it; Madame Noire agrees.
Cartoon crushes are real. There are a lot of guys who keep their copy of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in a vault so as to protect their precious Jessica Rabbit. I went ga-ga over the bare mid-riff of Jeannie on a Saturday morning in 1973 before cartoon Samantha twinkled her cute little nose and Bewitched my heart forever. Some people like football head ‘Hey, Arnold‘; others go for the deep barrel-chested growl of Goliath from Gargoyles. Mulan‘s Li Shang, Sailor Moon‘s Tuxedo Mask, Josie and every one of her Pussy-cats.
Those hips, Valerie; oh those hips!
— Len ‘Cruze’ Webb
HEAVEN SENT 