WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the DuckTales Season 3 episode "Quack Pack," which premiered Saturday on DisneyXD.
DuckTales has been expanding its shared Disney animated universe, steadily introducing more and more elements from the original Disney Afternoon block of characters and concepts. One of their biggest cameos yet happens in "Quack Pack," the second episode of the show's third season. Goofy has a substantial role in the episode, but it's also a very specific version of the character.
DuckTales just quietly made Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie canon by directly referencing the conclusion of the film and hinting at what became of Goofy and his son Max.
A GOOFY STORY
Goof Troop premiered in 1992 as a part of the Disney Afternoon block of animated shows. The show centered around Goofy returning to his hometown in Spoonerville to be a single father to his son, Max. It was a fairly conventional animated sitcom, with a lot of focus paid to Goofy's neighbor Pete and his family -- Peg, PJ, and Pistol. Much of the humor came from Goofy's inherently silly attitude and actions contrasting against the more conventional town around them.
The series was a moderate success, running for sixty-five episodes. The series was eventually followed up by a feature-length film in 1995, A Goofy Movie. The movie picked up on Max when he was in high school. Regarded as a troublemaker by his principal, Goofy decides to take his son on an impromptu road trip to bond. But this throws off Max's plans to meet his crush Roxanne at a party watching the latest concert by the pop star Powerline, so he lies and tells her it's because he and his father are going to be at the concert in person -- forcing Max to scramble in an attempt to trick his father to actually taking him to Los Angeles. The film -- and to a lesser extent the direct-to-video sequel An Extremely Goofy Movie -- became a cult hit for a generation of fans, and have been hinted at in previous episodes of DuckTales.
NOW IT'S CANON
During "Quack Pack," the Duck family is trapped inside a fake reality that's similar in convention an animated sitcom-like Goof Troop. One of those kinds of elements is that they have a wacky neighbor character, here revealed to be Goofy. On top of wearing the same distinct outfit and bowtie that he wore during Goof Troop, he also reveals that his career as a photographer -- the same job he had in A Goofy Movie. While talking with Donald about trying to have the "perfect" moment with his family, Goofy gives him some advice about finding the joy in the small, unexpected times one can have with their family.
Goofy then shows Donald his wallet, which is full of pictures of Max as he grew up. Among the pictures in the wallet are shots of Goofy and Max as they appeared in Goof Troop. There's also one of a young Max dressed as Powerline for Halloween, revealing just how long Max was a fan of the musician. Powerline had been confirmed to exist in the DuckTales universe, as Dewey and Della sang "Stand Out," one of the character's songs from A Goofy Movie, in a previous episode. The final picture shows what appears to be a teenaged Max dressed in a tux, standing next to Roxanne -- his crush from A Goofy Movie, who ended that film giving Max a kiss.
The ending of the episode even reveals that Goofy was not created for the situation, and is actually real within the DuckTales universe. This not only confirms that A Goofy Movie is canon with the rest of the universe, but that Max and Roxanne stayed together -- at least for a little while -- following the conclusion of that film. It's a sweet beat and a hint that Max may be fully grown up by this point, opening up the possibility of seeing him and his own family down the line.