Where Were Peg and Pistol? A Canon Analysis of the "Divorced Pete" Theory
Throughout my time in the Pete fandom, I have noticed one particular theory resurface whenever the topic of A Goofy Movie comes up. Since Goof Troop prominently featured Pete's entire family — his wife Peg and daughter Pistol — their complete absence from both A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie has naturally led fans to speculate about their whereabouts.
One of the most popular interpretations proposes that, sometime between the end of Goof Troop and the events of A Goofy Movie, Pete and Peg legally separated or divorced, with Peg taking custody of Pistol. Under this theory, Pete is a divorced father throughout the films.
While the films themselves never explain Peg and Pistol's absence, later statements from A Goofy Movie director Kevin Lima provide a surprisingly straightforward answer.
Before getting to those, however, I would like to examine the arguments most commonly used to support the divorce theory and consider whether they hold up against Pete's established characterization and the broader canon.
I have always found the theory unconvincing, both from a character-writing perspective and from the available evidence. Although Peg and Pistol's absence certainly raises legitimate questions, I do not believe it necessarily points toward an unseen divorce. This analysis is my attempt to examine the evidence as objectively as possible and determine whether Pete's family is, in fact, still canonically intact.
Credit also goes to the Disney Wiki for being among the first to seriously examine this topic in Peg Pete's trivia section. Their work greatly helped me organize the available information and track down several important sources.
Short answer?
Pete and Peg are still together.
For those interested in the full analysis, the text is below.
Examining the Arguments for the Divorce Theory
Before presenting the evidence that supports Pete's marriage remaining intact, I'd first like to address the main arguments commonly cited in favour of the divorce theory. With the exception of Peg and Pistol's absence from the films themselves, these points are largely interpretative rather than explicit, relying on inferences rather than direct confirmation from the story.
1. Pete's Aggressive Parenting and P.J.'s Increased Submissiveness
Pete's harsher, more controlling parenting style toward P.J. in A Goofy Movie is often interpreted as a consequence of a failed marriage. Likewise, fans have noted that P.J. appears more anxious and fearful of his father's anger than he did in the comparatively light-hearted television series, arguing that this reflects the emotional aftermath of his parents' separation and his fear of losing the only parent still living with him.
Counterargument
One detail that is often overlooked is P.J.'s role in helping Max hijack the school assembly at the beginning of A Goofy Movie. Although the film never explicitly connects the two events, it is entirely plausible that Pete's unusually strict treatment of P.J. later in the story is a direct punishment for this very incident. Such a reaction would fit naturally with Pete's authoritarian, "under my thumb" approach to parenting.
Viewed from this perspective, P.J.'s anxious behaviour requires no additional explanation involving divorce. He may simply feel guilty about what happened at school and be trying to regain his father's approval after getting into serious trouble.
More importantly, the basic dynamic between Pete and P.J. had already been firmly established in Goof Troop. P.J. regularly addresses his father as "sir" and is frequently made to perform chores whenever Pete wants to avoid work himself or teach his son what he considers "valuable life lessons."
The series also establishes Pete's strict expectations long before the films. In the pilot episode, "Everything's Coming Up Goofy (Forever Goof, Part 1)" (S01E01), P.J. explains that he is not allowed to remove the comic books his father bought him from their original packaging. He also remarks that if he ever breaks the toys Pete buys for him, "he's history."
Taken together, Pete's aggressive parenting and P.J.'s submissiveness remain entirely consistent with the relationship already portrayed throughout Goof Troop. If anything, A Goofy Movie simply places their established dynamic under greater emotional pressure. The film itself even provides a plausible catalyst for Pete becoming temporarily stricter than usual. None of this necessarily indicates that the two are coping with the aftermath of a divorce.
2. The Flashy RV
Pete's enormous luxury RV — complete with extravagant features such as its own bowling alley — is sometimes interpreted as the stereotypical purchase of a man going through a midlife crisis or attempting to prove that he is "winning" after a divorce.
Counterargument
This interpretation overlooks the fact that Pete's taste for flashy possessions predates the films by quite some time.
In the Goof Troop episode "O, R-V, I N-V U" (S01E08), Pete attempts to build a similarly luxurious RV himself. While the project ultimately ends in disaster, it clearly establishes that this sort of over-the-top vehicle already appealed to him well before A Goofy Movie. Similarly, another RV can be seen in "You Camp Take It with You" (S01E05).
Likewise, Pete already owns an expensive car and a large boat moored outside his house. Wealth, status symbols, and conspicuous displays of success have always been central parts of his personality. Purchasing an extravagant RV therefore carries little symbolic weight on its own — it is exactly the sort of thing Pete has always enjoyed.
From a storytelling perspective, the RV primarily serves another purpose altogether. It exaggerates the contrast between Pete's lavish vacation and Goofy's far more modest road trip, making Max's embarrassment feel even stronger by comparison. More importantly, it reinforces one of the film's central themes by tempting Max to equate flashy material success with happiness and personal worth.
In other words, the RV tells us far more about Pete's established love of excess — and the story's thematic goals — than it does about the state of his marriage.
3. "It's My Last Night of Babysitting and I'm a Free Man!"
The opening scene of An Extremely Goofy Movie is often cited as one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the divorce theory. As P.J. prepares to leave for college, Pete celebrates by proclaiming, "It's my last night of babysitting!" and declaring himself "a free man." Some fans interpret this as an indication that Pete had been raising P.J. alone following a divorce from Peg.
Counterargument
On closer inspection, however, this interpretation is far less convincing than it first appears.
To begin with, it conflicts with Pete's established characterization throughout the Goof Troop era. Several episodes show that Pete enjoys having P.J. around — not necessarily out of sentimental affection, but because he constantly recruits him for chores, yard work, and other tasks Pete would rather avoid himself. Likewise, in A Goofy Movie, Pete stresses the importance of spending time with P.J. as part of strengthening their father-son bond, even if his version of quality time often doubles as free labour.
Against that backdrop, Pete suddenly wanting P.J. out of the house makes surprisingly little sense. Since Peg handled the majority of the day-to-day parenting in Goof Troop, Pete would gain relatively little from becoming an "empty nester." If anything, he would be losing a reliable helper for all the jobs he dislikes doing himself.
More importantly, the divorce interpretation overlooks one of Pete's defining personality traits: he consistently hides genuine emotion behind bluster, sarcasm, and exaggerated bravado. Throughout Goof Troop, Pete rarely expresses affection or vulnerability directly. Instead, he masks uncomfortable feelings with jokes, boasts, or theatrical overconfidence.
His reaction to P.J. leaving home fits this pattern perfectly.
The scene itself is carefully constructed around the contrast between Pete and Goofy. While Goofy openly admits that he is heartbroken about Max growing up and leaving home, Pete immediately undercuts the sentiment with jokes about finally being "free" and no longer "babysitting."
Since P.J. is already a young adult leaving for college, the term "babysitting" is clearly not meant literally. Instead, it comically reduces parenthood to an obligation, allowing Pete to present himself as relieved rather than emotionally affected.
Seen through the lens of Pete's established characterization, this reads less like a sincere statement and more like emotional deflection. Rather than admitting that his son leaving home saddens him, Pete retreats into his familiar performance of the loud, emotionally guarded father. Significantly, his remark, "I can't miss you if you won't leave," subtly betrays the very feeling he is trying to conceal. The joke only works because it acknowledges that he may, in fact, miss P.J. after all.
From a narrative standpoint, Pete primarily functions as Goofy's foil throughout this sequence. The film requires Goofy to embody parental attachment and vulnerability, while Pete provides the comedic opposite. His exaggerated celebration of P.J.'s departure therefore serves the emotional rhythm of the scene rather than offering reliable information about his family life.
It is also worth noting that, if the writers genuinely intended to imply a divorce, this would be an unusually indirect way of communicating such a significant development. The theory asks the audience to infer a major off-screen life event from a comedic exchange that can already be fully explained by Pete's long-established personality.
Finally, Goof Troop itself reminds us not to take Pete's bluster at face value. In "Axed by Addition" (S01E03), Pete openly admits that he does not mean everything he says when he is putting on a show — including things like threating to kill someone.
Taken together, Pete's dialogue in An Extremely Goofy Movie tells us considerably more about how he expresses his emotions than it does about the state of his marriage.
Evidence That Pete's Family Is Still Intact
Having addressed the most common arguments in favour of the divorce theory, we can now turn to the evidence that supports the opposite conclusion.
Unlike the previous points — which rely primarily on interpretation — the following evidence includes direct statements from the filmmakers, official Disney material, and Pete's established characterization throughout Goof Troop.
1. Direct Confirmation from the Director
Perhaps the strongest evidence against the divorce theory comes from A Goofy Movie director Kevin Lima himself.
When asked directly on Twitter whether Pete and Peg had divorced between Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie, Lima gave a remarkably straightforward answer:
"They didn't."
When asked about it again four years later, Lima replied with:
"Nope"
Within fandom, statements made by a creator outside the work itself are often referred to as Word of God. While audiences are naturally free to interpret a story however they wish, it is difficult to imagine a clearer authorial answer than this one.
Lima also clarified that Peg and Pistol's whereabouts during the events of the films were intentionally left to the audience's imagination, encouraging fans to explore those possibilities through their own stories and artwork rather than treating their absence as evidence of a specific unseen event.
Lima also proposed to simply assume that Peg stayed at home and was taking care of Pistol.
Many of Lima's other responses paint a consistent picture: Peg and Pistol were absent not because the story implied a divorce, but because they did not serve the particular narrative the filmmakers wanted to tell.
It is entirely possible that both characters appeared in early drafts of the film before the story gradually shifted its focus toward the contrasting father-son relationships between Goofy and Max on one hand, and Pete and P.J. on the other. As that focus became more refined, Peg and Pistol would naturally have had far less to contribute to the central emotional arc.
Lima himself has acknowledged that this was ultimately a storytelling decision.
He elaborated further:
"AGM is a father son story. Pete and P.J.'s father/son trip (having to always one-up Goofy) is a nightmare mirror of Goofy and Max's emotional journey. Peg and Pistol muddied that intention."
In other words, Peg and Pistol's absence is best understood as a narrative choice rather than an in-universe statement about Pete's marriage. The films simply narrow their focus to two father-son relationships, leaving the rest of Pete's family off-screen because they were not essential to the story being told.
2. Disney Parks
Although only occasionally, Disney Parks have continued to acknowledge Pete's family life long after the release of the Goofy films.
One example comes from the Disneyland version of Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, where a construction wall featured an advertisement for a Toontown real estate agency run by Peg herself.
In addition, two Pete’s family photographs can be found inside Goofy's Playhouse (formerly Goofy's Bounce House) in Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland. Notably, the second photograph appears to be set during the same general period as A Goofy Movie, with Pete and P.J. wearing their film attire.
While these references are admittedly small, they nevertheless demonstrate that Disney itself has continued to associate Pete with his established family rather than presenting him as a divorced father.
3. Pete and Peg's Established Marital Dynamic
Perhaps the greatest weakness of the divorce theory is that it runs contrary to the relationship Goof Troop consistently establishes between Pete and Peg.
Far from portraying an unhappy marriage on the verge of collapse, the series repeatedly presents two people who understand each other remarkably well. Peg is under no illusions about the kind of man she married. She knows Pete is stubborn, selfish, loud, and frequently impossible to deal with — but she also chooses him every day, accepting his flaws while refusing to let him get away with them.
Likewise, Pete's affection for his family extends far beyond his usual bluster. While he often struggles to express genuine emotion directly, his actions repeatedly reveal that Peg and the children are among the most important things in his life.
Several episodes illustrate this dynamic particularly well.
In "Gymnauseum" (S01E51), Pete's rival Tan Roadster insults Pete's weight before attempting to flirt with Peg. Rather than entertaining the attention, Peg punches Tan in the face and proudly declares: "There's a lot of him, but he's all mine!".
Similarly, "Peg O' the Jungle" (S01E61) establishes that Pete and Peg have been married for twenty years. When Peg challenges Pete to prove that he still loves her, he ultimately rises to the occasion, much to her delight. The same episode also reveals that Pete carries a heart-shaped locket containing photographs of himself and Peg, tucked inside his jacket close to his heart.
Other episodes reinforce the same picture. Peg wants to gift Pete an expensive new car in "Window Pains" (S01E47). Pete regularly takes his family on annual vacations in "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape" (S01E17). In "Calling All Goofs" (S01E54), Peg casually mentions helping Pete peel the skin from his sunburn — an oddly mundane detail that nevertheless conveys the intimacy and familiarity of a long-established marriage.
Perhaps the clearest demonstration of Pete's commitment to his family, however, comes from "And Baby Makes Three" (S01E41).
After mistakenly hearing that Peg is expecting a third child, Pete's immediate reaction is not irritation or resentment, but responsibility. He panics, exclaiming that: "the lawn must be mown and the house cleaned up before the mother and the child arrives!". He immediately begins preparing the house, building a cradle and remodelling a room for the baby.
This is hardly the behaviour of a man longing to escape his family. On the contrary, Pete instinctively responds by trying to become the provider he believes his growing family will need.
More broadly, Goof Troop consistently presents Pete's family not as a burden, but as his moral anchor.
Whenever Pete drifts too far into selfishness or dishonesty, the quickest way to bring him back to his senses is to remind him that his actions could harm the people who depend on him. In "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape" (S01E17), for example, Pete ultimately abandons one of his schemes after realizing it could leave his family in poverty.
This pattern appears throughout the series. Pete often cares little about what others think of him, but he cares deeply about the welfare of his family. What truly frightens him is not being disliked — it is failing the people who rely on him.
That is precisely why Peg complements him so well.
She refuses to indulge Pete's worst tendencies, readily ordering him around or even sending him to sleep in the doghouse when he deserves it. At the same time, she clearly delights in the man he is beneath all the bluster. She affectionately calls him "Petey Pie," "Pudgy Poo," "Porky Pete," and "Porkbelly Pie," embracing the very qualities that others might mock.
Pete, in turn, flourishes under that acceptance. Peg's unwavering confidence in him continually encourages him to become a better husband, father, and person than he might otherwise choose to be.
As Peg herself beautifully puts it, Pete is her "knight in tarnished armour."
Rather than depicting a marriage headed toward divorce, Goof Troop presents one built on mutual understanding, complementary personalities, and genuine affection despite countless imperfections.
4. Family Movie Night
If the French Mickey Mouse comic Cent Ans de Cinéma (Inducks Code: F JM 95202) from the 1990s is considered part of the broader canon, it provides another interesting piece of supporting evidence against the divorce theory.
The story explicitly places itself on the 100th anniversary of the Lumière brothers' invention of the Cinématographe, which Mickey himself identifies as 13 February 1895. This dates the comic to 13 February 1995.
Meanwhile, several official pieces of merchandise indicate that A Goofy Movie takes place later that same year, while a calendar visible during the truck stop diner sequence places the events of the film in June 1995.
If the comic indeed precedes A Goofy Movie by only a few months, it seems highly unlikely that Pete and Peg would have separated during that brief interval — particularly since they are shown together as a happy family.
In fact, Pete is the one treating Peg and P.J. to an evening at the cinema.
While the comic alone cannot definitively settle the question of canon, it nevertheless aligns with the broader picture presented by the rest of the available evidence: Pete continues to be portrayed as a married family man rather than someone whose marriage has quietly dissolved off-screen.
5. A Goofy Movie Comic Adaptation
On 27 July 2021, Fantagraphics published the first official English translation of the 1996 French graphic novel adaptation of A Goofy Movie (Inducks Code: E GN 96-06).
Interestingly, this new English edition includes several deliberate references to Goof Troop that are absent from both the original French version and the film itself. One of the most notable occurs during the photo studio scene with Pete, where Goofy explicitly mentions Peg and Pistol by name while speaking to Pete.
The dialogue treats them as though they are simply back home during the events of the film, naturally implying that Pete's family is still living together.
As with Cent Ans de Cinéma, comic adaptations occupy a lower tier of canon than the films themselves. Nevertheless, they remain noteworthy as officially licensed material and, more importantly, they are entirely consistent with every other piece of evidence discussed throughout this analysis.
Final Verdict
At the end of the day, the divorce theory rests almost entirely on an absence: Peg and Pistol do not appear in A Goofy Movie or An Extremely Goofy Movie, and fans naturally tried to fill in the blanks.
The problem is that the theory has very little positive evidence supporting it.
The supposed signs of divorce — Pete's parenting style, P.J.'s behaviour, the extravagant RV, or Pete joking about becoming "a free man" — are all open to interpretation and have alternative explanations that fit both the films and Pete's established characterization just as well (if not better). None of these examples explicitly point toward a separation, and most require multiple assumptions before they can be connected to one.
By contrast, the evidence against the theory is considerably stronger.
The director of A Goofy Movie directly stated that Pete and Peg never divorced, further explaining that Peg and Pistol were absent because the story was intentionally focused on the contrasting father-son relationships between Goofy and Max and Pete and P.J. Additional official material — from Disney Parks references to licensed comics — continues to acknowledge Pete as a married family man. Most importantly, the Goof Troop series itself consistently portrays Pete and Peg's marriage as loving, resilient, and fundamentally stable despite Pete's many flaws.
Ultimately, the simplest explanation is also the one best supported by the available evidence: Pete and Peg did not divorce. Peg and Pistol were simply left off-screen because the films had no meaningful role for them within the story they set out to tell.
Sometimes a missing character is just a missing character — not the aftermath of an unseen custody battle.
Or, to borrow a principle often attributed to Sherlock Holmes:
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
In this case, however, the truth is not even particularly improbable.
Pete isn't divorced.
His family just wasn't invited into the script.
And considering that Peg has spent over twenty years successfully managing one of Disney's most stubborn, loud-mouthed, impossible husbands, the idea that she would suddenly throw in the towel — and miss the opportunity to keep bossing Petey around — may just be the least convincing theory of them all.
