"I hate mornings. I'd like them better if they started later." - Garfield in "Here Comes Garfield"
Garfield as Himself DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
On June 19, 1978, Jim Davis' comic strip Garfield first appeared in forty-one newspapers across the United States. Starring the titular overweight, insolent feline, his good-naturedly dumb doggie pal, Odie, and their owner nerdy owner, Jon, the strip struck a chord with readers. Within a few years, it had become a cultural icon, with t-shirts, books, posters, and other merchandise flying off of the shelves faster than Garfield could scarf down an entire lasagna. TV was the natural next step, leading to the premiere of Here Comes Garfield on CBS in 1982. That Emmy nominated special, along with Emmy winning Garfield on the Town (1983) and Garfield Gets a Life (1991) are collected on DVD in Garfield as Himself.
The fun begins with Here Comes Garfield. When Garfield (voiced by Rhoda's Lorenzo Music) and Odie aggravate their next door neighbor, the mean old codger calls animal control. Quick thinking Garfield is easily able to evade capture, but simple, trusting Odie gets captured and hauled to the pound. At first, Garfield relishes the thought of having the house to himself, but he soon realizes that life isn't as fun without his annoying pal. After a fortifying meal of lasagna, he goes to the pound to initiate a daring rescue.
If Here Comes Garfield's wistful, watercolor-esque visual style and its funky jazz score seem reminiscent of Peanuts cartoons, it is no accident. Like A Charlie Brown Christmas and the other classics of yore featuring the Peanuts gang, Here Comes Garfield was produced by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson. The special manages to be gently sappy (images of Garfield and Odie cavorting merrily in a huge pile of flowers) and slapstick-y (Garfield shakes Jon's head vigorously to wake him in time for breakfast). This animated Garfield is lumpy, like an ill-stuffed pillow, eating a pan of lasagna before curling up for a nap in the now-empty baking dish. The special does have moments of whimsical fun - one dog is impounded because it is impersonating a moose by wearing a moose head - but also features a semi-disturbing scene of Odie being taken away to the doggie gas chamber.
In Garfield on the Town, the tabby's laziness provokes Jon to take him to the vet for a checkup. Garfield creates havoc in the car on the way to the clinic, and finds himself accidentally flung from the car in a strange neighborhood. He runs afoul of The Claws, a tough gang of street smart cats, but is rescued by his long-lost mother, his brother Raoul (Cheers' George Wendt), and an odd assortment of his estranged relatives. When Garfield proves less than able to defend himself in the kitty rumble, his mother decides that her tubby son would have a safer, happier life back home with Jon and Odie.
Garfield on the Town has a greater tone of genial fun than Here Comes Garfield does. Garfield isn't quite as mean here. It also helps that the subplot involving his mom is so sweet, and that there isn't a threat of doggie euthanasia. Let's face it, even the THOUGHT of killing puppies tends to be a buzz kill. Listen closely to hear Moonlighting's Allyce Beasley as an alley cat.
In Garfield Gets a Life, the final special in this compilation, Garfield and Jon decide that Jon's life is too boring. To Jon, an exciting day involves counting ceiling tiles and organizing his socks. With the help of a book called How to Make Friends and Fool the Rest, Jon unsuccessfully sets out to "meet chicks" at a disco, the laundromat, the video store, the beach, the department store, and the park. After seeing a commercial for "Lorenzo's School for the Personality Impaired," Jon decides that maybe he could use professional help, so he enrolls in the school. There he meets a seemingly perfect woman (voiced by Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends' June Foray) who has one tiny flaw.she's allergic to cats.
This Garfield outing is perhaps the weakest one here. This is because the sweet tone that permeates .Town and is also evident in Here Comes. becomes lost here. The emphasis is on gags, and the gags don't always hit. Surely disco jokes and allusions to Charles Atlas ads were stale even in 1991, and they are even less biting thirteen years later. The overall look of this special is different, too, since Mendelson and Melendez are not involved.
The first two specials benefit greatly from the presence of several songs (including their title songs) performed by Lou Rawls. His smooth, deep sound is somehow a perfect match for Garfield. Desiree Goyette, who co-wrote the songs in all three specials, also performs numbers in the first two. B.B. King and The Temptations take over singing duties for Garfield Gets a Life. Rawls is listed in the credits for that special, too, but his contribution to the soundtrack is not immediately evident.
A single DVD holds all three specials and is housed in a keepcase. Viewers can choose to play all three specials, or can choose to watch an individual one. Choosing an individual special on the main menu brings viewers to that special's dedicated menu. From there, viewers can play the special, go to the scene selection menu, or view the language options. The simple menus feature title graphics from the individual specials.
