>>108585793I'm not going to read Polygon.
Goofy having a wife and kid is a bit of a weird history.
Back in the day they would have the "Modern Man Infomercials" which was a series of satirical shorts that went over the typical life of an American man in the 1950's. They used the dog people design that many generic Disney background or one-characters as a way to sorta emphasize the fact that what we were saying was the life of a generic every man including son and wife.
Later though they realized that Goofy somewhat looked just like these generic dog people and since he was popular they decided to use him as a form of marketing, but beyond that Goofy and his new persona George were virtually different to a point that for a while it was assumed that it was simply Goofy playing a part akin to a play. This isn't anything new, cartoon characters were frequently reimagined in new temporary roles in different environments whenever it suited the animators and writers. Daffy for example, isn't typically known to be a character particularly linked to space but Duck Dodgers was created as a persona to create fun scenarios around that character in space.
George Geef wasn't really seen as "canon" for a good chunk of history until the creation of Goof Troop and the Goofy Movie.
Once again, it was used as a marketing ploy of sorts to get invested in the new cartoon. The difference is unlike the previous shorts that were just meant to be funny one-off's that do not define the character as a whole, Disney decided to make this a permanent change.
