"I think we all saw that one coming, didn't we?" - Lorenzo Music as Garfield
Garfield and Friends: Volume One DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In the twenty-six years since its debut in June of 1978, Jim Davis' Garfield has become the most widely read comic strip in the world. Each day, the tubby feline appears in 2,570 newspapers, and on countless t-shirts, posters, and coffee mugs. This summer, he even starred in his own live action movie. The film didn't make much of a splash at the box office. The top cat shouldn't worry about it too much, though. Historically, even the biggest of TV stars have trouble bringing their talents to the big screen. Mary couldn't do it. Even Lucy couldn't do it. And no doubt about it, Garfield was a huge TV star, in every sense of the word.
Garfield arrived on TV in 1982 with the award-winning CBS animated special Here Comes Garfield. The special was a ratings success, leading to an almost yearly appearance by the lazy feline in additional specials. In 1988, he graduated to his own weekly Saturday morning cartoon, Garfield and Friends. The series was a big hit for CBS, running for seven seasons. The first two seasons of the show have now been collected on DVD in Garfield and Friends: Volume One.
Each episode consists of three main segments. The first centers on the adventures of the lasagna-loving cat (voiced by Rhoda's Lorenzo Music), his dumb doggie pal Odie (Gregg Berger), and their hapless owner Jon (Thom Huge). The middle segment, "Orson's Farm," is populated by characters from another Jim Davis comic strip creation: U.S. Acres. Orson (Berger) is a friendly pig who serves as the ringleader for a diverse group of farm animals: Wade (Howard Morris), a duck who wears an inflatable ring around his waist on the off chance that he might land in water, Roy (Huge), a cocksure rooster, Lanolin (Julie Payne), a snippy sheep, Booker (Frank Welker), a worm-loving baby chick, and Sheldon (Welker), another chick who never quite came out of his shell. The third segment of each episode features more of Garfield's exploits. In between the segments are short "Quickies" starring either the Garfield or the U.S. Acres characters.
In a typical "Garfield" segment, the languid cat is forced to rouse himself from bed in order to fight some nemesis. In "Peace & Quiet," his slumber is interrupted by a too-persistent birthday party clown. "Weighty Problem" finds him trying to outwit a talking bathroom scale that seems to have a mind of its own. A stray cat becomes a "Pest of a Guest" and threatens to take over the house until Garfield decides to take drastic measures. Other segments feature riffs on fairy tales ("Hansel and Garfield"), legends ("Rip Van Kitty"), and even movie parodies ("Nighty Nightmare"'s King Kong-inspired sequence).
At worst, the "Garfield" segments are merely pleasant and diverting. At best, the episodes can be laugh-out-loud funny. "Peace & Quiet," for example, has a gleefully manic pace, and the bizarre clown is an inspired foe for Garfield. The character is so successful that he eventually turns up several more times, including "Binky Gets Cancelled!" in which the entertainer's kiddie show is axed and he is forced to do house work for Jon. Other episodes feature sly pop culture references, but the series never quite reaches the giddy, media saturated heights that make The Simpsons and Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends such hits with kids and adults alike.
One major weak point of the series is the "Orson's Farm" segment. The characters in these portions of the show are less familiar than those in "Garfield." The weaker "Garfield" segment can coast along on the good will that we hold for Odie, Jon, and Garfield. "Orson's Farm" does not have that luxury. Surely that was the portion of the show when Saturday morning audiences headed to the kitchen to get another bowlful of sugary breakfast cereal.
As in the Garfield specials, each episode of Garfield and Friends contains a song or two co-written by Desiree Goyette, who also provides the voice of Garfield's dreaded neighbor, cute kitten Nermal. The songs aren't particularly memorable, but they are often perky and fun.
The twenty-four episodes that make up Volume One are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in slim plastic cases. The cover of the first case is decorated with a large portrait of Garfield, the second with Orson, and the third with Odie. The faces of the individual discs feature the same colorful portraits. The backs of the cases list the main segments included in each episode and include a tiny still picture from each. The three cases slide into a bright cardboard sleeve.
The simple menus are easy to navigate. Viewers can choose to "play all" episodes on a particular disc or can go directly to an individual episode. Scene selection menus allow viewers to hop directly to an individual segment or quickie. Unfortunately, the episode numbers on the backs of the cases do not quite match up with those on the discs. For example, disc two contains episodes nine through sixteen, and the episodes are numbered as such on the rear of the case. Pop the DVD into your player, however, and the disc's episodes are numbered one through eight. This isn't a serious flaw, but it does make it slightly harder for viewers to jump directly to the episode they want to see.
