WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

OllieSuave-007 A narrator tells the story of the racetrack, where a bunch of Goofy lookalikes bet on various horses, some through dirty tricks. Goofy himself is the rich guy in this one, betting on a posh horse. Just about the funniest thing in the cartoon are the names of the horses. Other than that, much of the cartoon is just a lot of narrating and horse-betting - not much of a laughable cartoon here.Grade D

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "They're Off" is a 6.5-minute cartoon from 1948, so this one will have its 70th anniversary next year and it from the glory era of cartoons of course. The words in the title are usually spoken at the beginning of a race at the racetrack, but this one here is not about cars, motorbikes or even boats, but about horse racing. It is another of these "educational" short films starring Goofy and I must admit I quite like these indeed. This one here is probably not among my very favorites from the series, also because horse racing was never too high on my priority list, but they gave it a nice and entertaining (as always) execution I guess, by including fun references about the horses, jockeys, viewers in the stands and of course the gamblers as this is one of the most popular betting sports and apparently also was over half a century ago. As usual in these, all the characters are played by Goofy lookalikes and this also adds a certain humor to it. Of course, it is a Disney production. Good watch overall. I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out.

MisterWhiplash They say a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Well, I saw this cartoon maybe five times or so when I was about 11 or 12 (I had a period where I watched and re-watched a bunch of Disney cartoons, mostly older ones), and to THIS DAY when I watch any horse race, whether an actual one or in a movie or whatever, I think about 'OLD MOE vs SHAPSHOT' because of this damn cartoon.I credit the narration above all; there are a bunch of good gags - how can you not have horses doing wacky things involving cheating and slipping up and getting up on legs that horses usually don't do during a horse race in real life - but the instructional part of it I think fits really well. It's a big race and a sports event, so without someone giving us the play by play (in a 7 minute short with variations of Goofy that are poor and rich) it might not work as well. Luckily, lightning seemed to strike with this one (not kidding, this is really entertaining).

TheLittleSongbird A very good start to the 1948 series of Goofy shorts. It is not one of Goofy's or the How to...series' best, with the narrator not voiced by John McLeish a bit of a shock. The narrator still does a very good job, very droll and commanding, but lacking McLeish's more sardonic and thoughtful approach. Even with this change, as said before They're Off is still immensely enjoyable. The animation is vibrant and flows well from frame to frame, and the music is lush and lively with some witty sound effects. The narration still manages to entertain with some funny interaction- the gem has always been that Goofy often does the exact opposite to what the narrator says- and also to teach, I know next to nothing about horse-riding/racing and I learnt a good deal from They're Off. The gags are funny and well-timed, Goofy takes on multiple character roles again- except with a more dramatic rather than physical approach- and excels hugely and the fact that the horses had their own individual character was very nice. Overall, even if you don't know much about the subject, seeing as it's Goofy you're guaranteed to have some degree of fun, I certainly did. 9/10 Bethany Cox