Maximilian "Max" Goof is the son of Goofy. He first appeared in the 1951 short Fathers Are People, as Goofy Junior, and remained a regular in subsequent Goofy shorts of that era. His modern iteration, redesigned and renamed "Max Goof", first appeared in the 1992 animated TV series Goof Troop. Since then, Max has appeared in several features, usually alongside Goofy.

In the 1951 short Fathers Are People, Max Goof was originally referred to as Goofy Junior. He continued to appear under this name in Goofy shorts of that era. The name Max Goof was introduced in the 1992 animated TV series, Goof Troop.

Max Goof, the son of the Disney character Goofy, made his debut in his modern form in the 1992 animated series Goof Troop. Previously known as Goofy Junior, Max became a central character in this series, where Goofy is portrayed as a single father.

Max Goof stands out among Disney characters due to his direct parent-child relationship with Goofy, unlike Huey, Dewey, and Louie who are Donald's nephews. Max is the only child in a single-parent family, with Goofy as the sole parent. The identity of Max's mother remains undisclosed. It's speculated that Goofy Junior, a character from Goofy's earlier cartoons, may have influenced Max's character creation.

Max Goof, also known as Goofy Junior, has shared screen time with Goofy in various animated features. These include Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie, The Spirit of Mickey, Disney's Sing-Along Songs, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, An Extremely Goofy Movie, House of Mouse, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. He also appeared in Bonkers and DuckTales (2017).

Originally known as Goofy Junior, Max Goof debuted in the 1951 short Fathers Are People. His design was based on the Goofy Junior character from the Goofy cartoons. In 1992, he was redesigned and renamed 'Max Goof' for the animated TV series Goof Troop. Unlike most characters in the Mickey Mouse franchise, Max's design has evolved to show him aging, transitioning from an 11-year-old to a teenager or young adult in later appearances.

Max is unique in that he is Goofy's son, as opposed to a nephew akin to Huey, Dewey, and Louie's relationship with Donald. Some Goofy cartoons during his Everyman years depicted Goofy as being a father to a red-nosed Goofy Junior. This character served as a prototype for Max, and this was confirmed in Goofy's Greatest Hits that both characters are in fact the same. In some early concept art for Goof Troop, it appears that it was planned that Max's hair would be red and wouldn't have ears, just like his early Goofy Junior design, but his design was later changed to more resemble Goofy. One notable aspect is that Max has appreciatively aged, in a fashion, during the course of his appearances, which is uncommon among most characters in the Mickey Mouse franchise. At the time of his introduction, he was around 11 years old but is usually presented as a teenager/young adult in his later appearances.

One of Max Goof's most notable traits is that not only is he an only child in a single-parent family, but that said parent is a single father. The identity and fate of Max's mother have never been divulged, as the very subject of her was never brought up at all in Goof Troop or any of its related media. This distinct lack of official information about her has led to much speculation and debate among fans as to who she may be, and what might have happened to her. Officially, when asked about Max's mother, Disney Guest Services once declared there to be "no definitive answer" as "who Max's mother is and where "Mrs. Goofy" went", leaving her fate to ultimately remain an unsolved mystery.

Max's personality has evolved as the character has aged. As a child, he is shown to be very close to his father, but as he grows, he becomes embarrassed by his father's antics. In the Goof Troop show, there were times he would get suckered in by Pete and his get-rich-quick schemes, only to come around towards the end. Max is often told that he is very much like his father, and his response is always along the lines of "Please don't say that" or "I wish you didn't say that". In spite of the denial, Max's mannerisms echo Goofy's sometimes including Goofy's laugh, scream, and clumsiness. As a teenager and young adult, Max is portrayed as calm, cool, and struggles to keep his father's goofiness as far away from him as possible. At one point, Max's personal issues towards Goofy led him to shut him out from his life. However, his selfish actions of trying to be distant from his father kept him from understanding the importance of putting his family and friends' needs before himself.

Goofy Junior is a character from a series of Goofy cartoons from the 1950s. He is portrayed in these cartoons as the son of Goofy, and is widely believed to be the inspiration for Max Goof. Unlike Max, Junior's mother has been shown, though only from behind. He appears to be a fairly typical boy of the time period and is usually seen spending time with his dad. He is usually referred to by his father simply as "Junior", but at one point was referred to as George by his father in "Father's Day Off".

The modern iteration of Max Goof first appeared in Goof Troop, in which he is 11½ years old. At the beginning of the series, he moves with his father from a trailer park to Goofy's hometown of Spoonerville. He and Goofy live right next door to Pete and his family. Despite Pete's relationship with Goofy being mostly antagonistic, Max almost instantly becomes best friends with Pete's more genial son, P.J. At school, Max is somewhere in the middle of the popularity scale, with him and P.J. mostly trying to survive the ups and downs of junior high school. Though he is sometimes embarrassed by Goofy's antics, he is still very close to his father. In some ways, Max is comparable to Pete, as Max is often involved in cunning schemes to get away with things or do something the easy way. But unlike Pete's more selfish schemes, Max usually means well and has a good heart in the end.

By the time of A Goofy Movie, Max has grown into a high school-aged teenager who is very embarrassed by Goofy, with his greatest fear being that he will end up becoming like his father. The film features Max's love interest, Roxanne, and his attempts to impress her. The rest of the film revolves around Goofy's attempts to bond with Max during the trip. Max finally reveals his crush on Roxanne to Goofy, and how he lied to her. Goofy begins to understand that Max is growing up, and admits that it happened so fast that he missed it. The two somehow manage to make it to Los Angeles and are able to sneak on stage with Powerline where they dance with the latter. When they return home, Max goes to Roxanne and apologizes for lying, as he just wanted her to like him. To his surprise, Roxanne reveals that she had already liked him for who he is and because of his unusual laugh. Max then takes the opportunity to introduce Roxanne to Goofy.

In the direct-to-video sequel to A Goofy Movie, An Extremely Goofy Movie, Max is a high school graduate and leaves for college with his best friends P.J. and Bobby Zimuruski. He hopes to start a new life for himself and partake in the College X-Games competition. Eventually, Max manages to distract his father by introducing him Ms. Sylvia Marpole, the college's librarian, who takes a romantic interest in Goofy and his love of the 70s and vice versa, while Max sneaks off to practice his skateboarding. When Goofy gets a date with Sylvia, he rushes off to tell Max, only to interfere with Max's practice which reveals that Goofy is an excellent skateboarder too to which everyone claps for him and Max (embarrased by what his dad did and jealous that his Dad is now getting the attention and not him) angrily and selfishly grabs his skateboard back from Goofy and tells him that he can't join his team because there's no openings and angrily leaves with PJ and Bobby. After the events of the X-Games, Max gives his father the trophy as an apology gift for his rude behavior and took back his disownment of him. From that moment on, Max no longer cared about running away from his father since he now learned that nothing is more important to him than having family and friends in his life.

Max features regularly in House of Mouse, where he is employed as the club's parking valet whilst still a teenager. The show would seem to take place after the events of at least A Goofy Movie, possibly even not too long after An Extremely Goofy Movie. Max is shown to be fairly level-headed, possibly the most level-headed of the group. Most of his appearances are minor and show him offering to park the various vehicles that pull up to the club. However, he features heavily in a few episodes. In the episode "Max's Embarrassing Date" showed Max trying to prepare for a date with Roxanne at the club. He worries that Goofy will go overboard trying to make them happy, so he goes to Mickey and friends for help. Ironically, Mickey and the gang go overboard and made things even more embarrassing for Max than Goofy's antics, so Goofy steps in, puts an end to this, and allows the couple to have some privacy.

In the computer-animated Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, Max has grown up into a young adult and is prepared to bring his girlfriend, a young lady named Mona, home for Christmas to meet his father, Goofy. Max worries that Goofy will embarrass him, and calls ahead to remind his dad about Mona's coming home with him. After Goofy picks up the young couple at the train station and brings them back to his house, Goofy shows Mona baby pictures of Max and unintentionally embarrasses Max with all his fatherly love. In the end, as Mona finds Goofy's quirks to be charming, Max decides to forget all about his embarrassment and join in the fun as it should be.

After a nearly sixteen year absence from any media, Max made a cameo appearance in the DuckTales episode "Quack Pack!". While Max does not appear in-person, he is described by Goofy to Donald and shown in many photographs that Goofy keeps inside his wallet. While showing the photos to Donald, Goofy recalls a time when he and Max once rode a roller coaster together at an amusement park, where Goofy had gotten stuck at the top of a loop-de-loop and had to be caught by Max, who swung him into a cotton candy stand to give him a soft landing.

Prior to 1992, Goofy's son Junior made only a few book appearances, most notably in the 1977 book Goofy Minds the House. With the onset of Goof Troop in 1992, Goofy's son Max rose to greater prominence, making far more appearances in book form.

From 1992 to 1997, Disney Adventures magazine published a total of thirty comic strips based on the Goof Troop animated series. Of these thirty, Max appeared in an impressive twenty-six comics, more than any other Goof Troop character. Like in the TV series, Max's main role in the comics was mostly to have fun and live life to its full extent. He would occasionally feel embarrassed by his father, but still loved him in the end.

A Goofy Movie was adapted into a 44-page graphic novel published in France. In July 1996, the first 14 pages of this graphic novel were translated into English and released in pocket size as A Goofy Movie Mini-Comic, which was included as a pack-in bundle with the movie's UK VHS release on June 2, 1997. On July 27, 2021, all 44 pages were fully adapted into English by Fantagraphics in Volume 1 of The Disney Afternoon Adventures.

Max is one of two playable characters in the 1993 Goof Troop video game for the Super Nintendo. Where Goofy is strong but slow, Max is fast but weak.

Max appears as a Support Hero in Disney Sorcerer's Arena. Max's gameplan revolves around stealing Helpful effects and Magic from his enemies with his skateboard and a Perfect Cast, and then redistributing his spoils throughout his entire team. Max additionally has unique synergy with Goofy and Powerline, granting bonus Helpful effects to his father and syncing up their dancing Abilities.

Max Goof is a playable character in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. Max Goof is Front-line Damage role hero. Max was added during 6th Anniversary Update as a special release hero, being available in Prize Wall event and giveaways. Max Goof performs and does pose like Powerline, plays on air guitar, and rides his skateboard to deal damage and apply debuffs to enemies.

Max is also a playable character in other such video games as the Goof Troop LCD game made by Tiger Electronics, the Goof Troop/An Extremely Goofy Movie-inspired PC game Disney's Extremely Goofy Skateboarding, and such sports-based console games as Disney Golf, Disney Sports Skateboarding, Disney Sports Basketball, and Disney Sports Football.

Max Goof made his theme park debut in the World According to Goofy parade in 1992. Following the premiere of Goof Troop, Max made regular appearances at the Disney theme parks. As of 2024, Max currently appears with Goofy as a meet-and-greet character at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Max and his friend P.J. are unique among Disney characters in that both debuted in animated shorts with a different look from how they would later appear in their more mainstream television appearances, both are sons (instead of nephews) of classic iconic Disney characters (Goofy and Pete, respectively), and both of them are shown to grow up and become adults over the course of their appearances.