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Western Animation / Garfield Specials
(aka: Garfields Halloween Adventure)

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A series of 12 animated TV specials based off the popular comic strip Garfield. All of them (except the first two, which were animated by Mendleson/Melendez Productions, famous for the Peanuts and Cathy specials) were animated by Film Roman, and all of them were broadcast on CBS between the years of 1982 and 1991.

The specials use the same voice actors and animation style, at least from Garfield in the Rough onwards, as the animated series Garfield and Friends, though there is no official word on whether the specials and series are set in the same universe.

The specials are as follows:

  • Here Comes Garfield (October 25, 1982): After a series of vignettes introducing our fat cool cat, Odie is locked in a dog pound, and Garfield must save him.
  • Garfield on the Town (October 28, 1983): Garfield falls out of the car on a visit to the vet, and ends up being reunited with his mother. Won an Emmy in 1984.
  • Garfield in the Rough (October 26, 1984): Garfield, Jon and Odie go camping. Unfortunately, a killer panther is there... Won an Emmy in 1985.
  • Garfield's Halloween Adventure/Garfield in Disguise (October 30, 1985): Garfield and Odie go trick-or-treating, and while doing so, wind up at a haunted house. Won an Emmy in 1986.
  • Garfield in Paradise (May 27, 1986): Garfield, Jon and Odie go on vacation in the cheapskate's version of Hawaii.
  • Garfield Goes Hollywood (May 8, 1987): Garfield, Jon and Odie attempt to win a talent show contest for people and their pets.
  • A Garfield Christmas (December 21, 1987): Garfield and Odie go with Jon to spend Christmas on the farm where Jon's family lives. Re-edited in 1991.
  • Garfield: His 9 Lives (November 22, 1988): An epic hour-long special where we see past and future reincarnations of Garfield (or Garfield's "Lives") . Based off a graphic novel. Has its own page.
  • Garfield's Babes and Bullets (May 23, 1989): A Deliberately Monochrome special that dramatically parodies Film Noir. Based off one of the vignettes from His 9 Lives that didn't make it to the above special... and when it became by far the most popular vignette of the book version, the animation team decided to give it a dedicated special. Won an Emmy in 1989. Has its own page.
  • Garfield's Thanksgiving (November 22, 1989): While Garfield is put on a diet much to his horror, Jon invites Liz over for Thanksgiving and attempts to cook the food. It doesn't end well.
  • Garfield's Feline Fantasies (May 18, 1990): Garfield has a variety of imagination sequences Affectionately Parodying various films, including one where he portrays a treasure hunter named "Lance Sterling," a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones.
  • Garfield Gets a Life (May 8, 1991): The final special — Jon attempts to add some excitement into his life, and in the process, meets a woman who he really hits it off with, but this gets Garfield worried.

All twelve were issued on four DVDs and three book collections in 2004 and 2005:

  • Garfield as Himself: Collects Here Comes Garfield, Garfield on the Town and Garfield Gets a Life.
  • Garfield's Holiday Celebration: Collects Garfield's Halloween Adventure, Garfield's Thanksgiving and A Garfield Christmas. The book edition was originally released in 1997 as Garfield's Jolly Holiday 3-Pack.
  • Garfield's Travel Adventures: Collects Garfield in the Rough, Garfield in Paradise and Garfield Goes Hollywood.
  • Garfield Fantasies: Collects Garfield's Babes and Bullets, Garfield's Nine Lives and Garfield's Feline Fantasies. Unlike the other collections, it was released on DVD only and did not have a companion book release.

The Garfield Specials provide examples of:

    open/close all folders 
    General 
  • Animated Adaptation: Apart from these being based off the strip itself, many of the specials, especially the early ones, featured gags and lines adapted from original Garfield comic strips. His 9 Lives is an adaptation of (some of) the original graphic novel, and Babes & Bullets is an adaptation of the originally-prose story from His 9 Lives
  • Art Evolution: When watching the specials in order, you can see how Garfield has evolved over the years. The first two specials have Garfield drawn in his early 80's style. He still is for the first few scenes of Garfield in the Rough, then the eyes slowly get larger during the rest of the special. And by Garfield Goes Hollywood, he has the look he has in Garfield and Friends.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
    • A Heterosexual Life-Partners (then again, Odie's seen crossdressed twice in Garfield In Hollywood) version. Garfield recurrently treats Odie shabbily, but Odie himself clearly cares for Garfield deeply as a friend, and Garfield, though he would never care to admit it, is often nice to Odie back; curling up to sleep beside Odie for the latter's comfort when Odie is apparently doomed to be put down in Here Comes Garfield (and then going on to attack the dogcatcher to save him towards the film's end), giving Odie his fair share of the candy in Garfield's Halloween Adventure, and bartering with The Creator to give Odie nine lives back as well at the end of Garfield: His 9 Lives are all prominent examples.
    • Garfield in the Rough deserves its own mention, especially since this applies to both Odie and Jon. Garfield, a chubby house cat usually too out of shape to even hunt mice, leaps onto the back of an escaped panther, biting and clawing it in order to protect Jon and Odie from harm. Garfield doesn't take down the beast (in fact, at best he just made himself the panther's target), but he ultimately bought time for the park rangers to arrive and tranquilize the panther before any real harm was done.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Garfield has a Running Gag of saying "nice touch" when something thematically appropriate (Dramatic Thunder upon the closeup of a spooky mansion, for example) occurs.
  • Breather Episode: Garfield Goes Hollywood, Garfield's Thanksgiving, and Garfield Gets a Life, all of which are more laid back compared to the rest of the specials. There's no moments that are explicitly Played for Drama or see the characters in genuine danger, and similar to the comic strip and Garfield and Friends, are more gag-focused.
  • Cool Old Lady: Jon's Grandma, who appears in both the Christmas and Thanksgiving specials. In the Thanksgiving special, she immediately arrived at Jon's house to assemble a full meal for him and his date, including her cutting through a frozen turkey and turning it into croquettes.
  • Darker and Edgier: While the original Garfield comic strip, as well as and Friends, are Gag Series with No Fourth Wall, the specials tend to be much more dramatic. Halloween Adventure in particular.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The entirety of Babes and Bullets, the Krazy Kat scene of His 9 Lives, and the first scene of In the Rough.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The two earliest Garfield specials, Here Comes Garfield and Garfield on the Town are a time capsule of the nascent years of the franchise.
    • Garfield is drawn in his early-80's style for both specials – he rarely walks upright and doesn't have big feet when he does. The production of Here Comes Garfield is actually the reason why Garfield's design would change in the comics and later specials — Jim Davis wanted to open with Garfield dancing but the animators struggled because Garfield had been designed with small, cat-like feet. The next special, Garfield on the Town, still used the four-footed art style but notably Garfield is able to stand on two humanoid feet now when necessary.
    • The first two specials were animated by Mendelson/Melendez, who created the Peanuts specials, but directed by Phil Roman. Due to the demands of the studio also working on the Peanuts specials in the same window, it was decided that Phil Roman would form his own studio, Film Roman, to take on the work for future Garfield specials and later the Garfield and Friends TV show. While a lot of the same people worked on the rest of the animated series, there are noticeable changes in the presentation and style of the later specials that make them more in keeping with the look and feel of Garfield and Friends, not the least of which was Garfield's character design shifting to the extremely recognizable look he has to this day.
    • Here Comes Garfield is the only cartoon where Jon isn't voiced by Thom Huge, instead being provided by longtime television actor Sandy Kenyon.
    • The soundtrack is also significantly different — later specials and Garfield & Friends would use combination of synth-classical and synthpop. Here Comes has a swing jazz soundtrack with several songs performed by Lou Rawls. While later specials would always include a Lou Rawls song to open the proceedings, Here Comes Garfield featured multiple songs performed by Rawls. Notably, all of the specials and Garfield and Friends featured the same music team of Desirée Goyette (who performed the film vocals and many of the female voices in the franchise) and Ed Bogas (who was only missing for the last special).
    • A number of the other specials, and G&F, featured unique storylines that didn't overlap with the comic itself, which went on to become its own beast. Here Comes is largely sourced from a number of strips during the early 80s era of Garfield, stitched together to make one story.
    • Additionally, the third act of Here Comes is a lot more melancholy than many other Garfield works, and focuses around the idea that Odie is going to be put down by the City Pound for want of an identified owner (as Jon has no idea how much trouble they're in) and features Garfield reflecting on how they met and comforting Odie while he's cold. The scene feels a bit ridiculous today — obviously Odie isn't getting put under — but in 1982 Odie's Plot Armor wasn't guaranteed and so the sequence worked better. On the Town deals with the bittersweet reunion of Garfield with his family and learning that he doesn't fit in, but it's comparatively much lower stakes than the idea of one of the main cast dying.
    • Garfield himself is not nearly as much of a pun-master as he'd become in later shows, instead being much more of a Straight Man to the goofiness happening around him; there's also more of an emphasis placed, especially by the soundtrack, on him being a "cool cat".
    • For some even earlier installment weirdness, technically Garfield was first animated for a mostly live action special called The Fantastic Funnies👁 Image
       in 1980 produced by Mendelson/Melendez, which highlighted several contemporary strips and would briefly display examples of their humor in animated form. In addition to Garfield having a rounder design and Jon having a rounder head and different colored clothing, Garfield is voiced by Scott Beach who gives a very different performance to the rotund feline than Lorenzo Music would bring. Ironically, this was the first time Thom Huge would voice Jon Arbuckle.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Garfield. Under that lazy, cynical, self-absorbed exterior, there's quite a golden heart. He deeply cares for Odie and Jon, in his own way, and demonstrates it a few times.
    • In Garfield in the Rough, he attacks a killer panther to try and protect them. He's also a really good dancer.
    • In Halloween Adventure, Garfield learns too late, after jumping into water, that he is unable to swim, so Odie saves him. Once back on dry land and once they rediscover their bags of trick-or-treating candies, they head home, where, in repayment, Garfield does something he considers "totally out of character for [him]" and "a great sacrifice on [his] part": he gives Odie his half of the candy.
  • Manchild: There's a few hints that part of Jon's nerdy nature is because of this. Most blatant in the Christmas Special; he and his brother Doc Boy love a children's book about Binky the Clown saving Christmas so much that they make their father read it to them each year, despite being grown men, and at one point they try to wake their dad up directly after midnight so they can celebrate Christmas Morning as soon as possible.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Many of the specials featured a character (usually the villain) drawn in a more realistic style compared to the other characters. Examples include the dogcatcher from Here Comes Garfield, the panther from Garfield in the Rough, and the old man and the pirates from Garfield's Halloween Adventure. The latter is especially made creepy by the fact that he also has five fingers on each hand, unlike the other characters who have four.
  • Novelization: All the specials (except Garfield: His 9 Lives, which already was one, and Garfield's Feline Fantasies, which was adapted into a storybook) were adapted into small graphic novels. The art in them tended to look hurried, even though in many cases the stories became more fleshed out.
  • Running Gag: Every single special has a moment where Garfield turns to the camera and says "Nice touch." These moments occur after some impressive effect that generally helps emphasize the tone of the scene: for example, in Garfield's Halloween Adventure, he does this after seeing the Dramatic Thunder behind the haunted house.
  • Shout-Out: Plenty. These are Garfield cartoons, after all. See the individual folders for details.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Garfield between On the Town and In the Rough. A gang of cats he accidentally pissed off attacks his family? He hides. A panther attacks Jon and Odie? It's go time.
    Here Comes Garfield 
  • Animation Bump: Garfield's dancing at the start is a notably more complex and smooth animation sequence than the rest of the special. A Behind the Scenes segment in 1982 promoting the show shows the amount of work put into the dancing sequence as the animators wanted Garfield to move more like a slow, fat person than a cat. This included filming Desirée Goyette and modeling the animation to match her choreography [1]👁 Image
    .
  • Bowdlerization: A strip of Garfield throttling Jon, like many others, was animated into a throwaway gag. However, due to the request of CBS, the throttling was changed to Garfield grabbing Jon's cheeks and shaking them violently. Jon's line "I'm so happy to own a cat, I could just throw up", is also shortened to just "I'm so happy to own a cat".
  • Brick Joke: In the second act, Garfield breaks down the front door upon being impatient with waiting for Jon to let him in and the door falls onto Jon. Around the end, when Garfield and Odie return home after escaping the pound, Jon is seen screwing the door back in, which Garfield and Odie break down again.
  • Dogs Love Fire Hydrants: When Garfield, Odie and the other dogs and cats flee the pound, one of the dogs at one point stops to sniff a fire hydrant.
  • Dramatic Thunder: Done when Garfield comes up to the dog pound that Odie is held in on a rainy night, followed by Garfield saying "Nice touch."
  • Extremely Rude Awakening: Garfield tries to wake Jon up... first pulling his blanket off him, then opening up one eye, then tap-dancing on his head, and when none of these works, he grabs Jon by the cheeks and shakes him until he wakes up.
    Jon: STOP!
    Garfield: Good morning, sunshine! And welcome to another fun-filled day with your favorite pet!
    Jon: I supposed you want breakfast.
    Garfield: That'd be great!
    [Garfield runs off]
    Jon: I'm so happy to own a cat.
  • Kick the Dog: Hubert, after getting annoyed by Garfield and Odie, calls the pound on them, leaving out the key detail they are his neighbor's pets. He essentially sentenced Jon's animals to be euthanized out of petty spite.
  • News Monopoly: Variant — a bored Garfield tries to watch TV but finds the exact same car commercial on every channel.
    Man: You know, Pleasure Motors—(click) You know, Pleasure Motors is conveniently located right here in Downtown—(click) Of course, if you can't make it to our Downtown location, we have new locations under construction in Midtown—(click) Uptown—(click) And in the loop. (click) At Pleasure Motors, your business is our pleasure—(click) Our pleasure is your business—(click) And our pleasure is none of your business!
  • Pilot Episode: Effectively. It was the first outing of Garfield as an animated enterprise with an eye toward doing more if the public was receptive, and as a result, there's a lot of the weirdness one would expect out of a pilot, as detailed in Early-Installment Weirdness in the previous folder.
  • Pounds Are Animal Prisons: There's a depressing scene of Garfield and Odie trapped and alone in such a pound.
  • Retcon: In this continuity, Lyman is Adapted Out, and Jon is instead shown to have brought Odie home himself when Garfield was a kitten. This would be maintained in His 9 Lives.
  • Shout-Out: Several:
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: When Garfield and Odie come home from the pound, Jon assumes that they were out all night singing on the fence and chasing cars while he was home worrying himself sick about them. They assure him they were do that.
  • Take Me to Your Leader: Parodied, as Garfield plays with the food on the table (in a direct adaptation of the December 28, 1980 strip):
    Garfield: Take me to your leader, earthling, or I will atomize your face!
  • Title Drop: Garfield does this when he decides to rescue Odie from the pound:
    Garfield: Look out, pound, here comes Garfield!
  • Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: Garfield and Odie are taken to the pound. Odie is thrown into the back of an animal control truck where the bars are more than wide enough for him to slip through. Later, when Garfield and Odie are in the pound, all the cage bars are wide enough for even Garfield to walk out, but nobody seems to notice.
    Garfield on the Town 
  • Agony of the Feet: After Raoul kicks Garfield in the rear to get him through a hole he got stuck in, he hops by Garfield, nursing his injured foot.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Despite his family being scornful of him for being too scared to fight the Claws later in the special, Garfield does stand up to Ali Cat alone in their first encounter, and he's even intimidating enough to scare Ali Cat away. It's only after Ali returns with dozens of other cats for backup that Garfield (quite wisely) runs away.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The end. Garfield finds his way back to Jon and Odie, but due to hiding in the battle with the Claws, he's been more or less forbidden to come back to the restaurant and implicitly even come near his family, including his long-lost mother, again. Though it's implied that Garfield's mother is checking up on him to see how he's doing. She's also apparently in the audience for Garfield's act on the fence in the intro to Garfield Goes Hollywood.
  • But Now I Must Go: At the end, Garfield is ordered by his grandfather to leave and go back to his own home with Jon and Odie. Before he goes, Garfield's mother does conciliate him that his life with Jon is much easier and more comfortable than their lives in the abandoned Italian restaurant.
  • Dirty Coward:
    • Despite being the one who caused the climactic battle between his family and the Claws, Garfield himself spends the entire fight attempting to hide.
    • It's also implied that Ali Cat is this at heart. Despite's Garfield's obvious lack of street smarts, Ali is still too scared to fight him one-on-one in their first encounter, only seriously coming after Garfield when he has the entire Claws gang backing him up.
  • Fangs Are Evil: One of the cats in the Claws has elongated fangs, to the point you may think they're a saber-toothed cat.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Ali Cat can present himself as civil and reasonable when he wants to, but it's clearly just him trying to get what he wants the easy way. When he's refused, he's quick to turn violent.
  • Good Parents: Garfield's mother. Even though she lives in an impoverished side of town with their extended family, she proves to love her sons dearly despite Garfield being a Jerkass and Raoul being sick. When the Claws demand Garfield for provoking them, she refuses to give him up as they attack the restaurant. After her father exiles Garfield from the family, she consoles him by explaining it's for the best and parts ways with him on good terms. After Garfield returns home, his mother visits him one last time to make sure he's safe and sound.
  • Grumpy Old Man: Garfield's maternal grandfather is The Patriarch of the family, being quite strict about the family tradition and reprimands his grandson for not being a mouser. After the climactic battle with the Claws, he is disgusted with Garfield's cowardice and firmly exiles him from the restaurant.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Garfield's grandfather bluntly telling him to go home is undoubtedly harsh, but it's not hard to see where he's coming from. The family's restaurant took serious damage in a fight against the Claws to protect Garfield — a fight Garfield didn't participate in. Besides, as Garfield's mother points out, he's just not cut out for their lifestyle and wouldn't enjoy it.
  • Look Behind You: Garfield's brother Raoul distracts Ali Cat during a fight by saying "Ain't that Haley's Comet?"
  • Mood Whiplash: Mother and son happily reunite, but then she points out he's gotten fat since since she saw him last, leading to an annoyed "Hey!" from him.
  • Nice Guy: Garfield’s brother Raoul is about as nice to Garfield as their mom is and alongside her is the only cat sad to see Garfield leave.
  • Parents Know Their Children: Garfield's mother immediately recognizes him, whereas it takes him a few moments to realize who she is.
  • Pun: After Raoul sees Garfield for the first time, he remarks he's never seen anything that's part cat and part house before, concluding that Garfield must be one of those housecats he's heard about.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Garfield's family succeeds in driving away the Claws but at the cost of their home (an abandoned Italian restaurant) being vandalized and broken into and some of the family members having been injured in the battle. None of the cats except Garfield is happy with the results of the battle.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Most of Garfield's family appeared only in one week of strips and Garfield On The Town without ever being mentioned again (except for his mom, who showed up in one other strip).
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: When Ali Cat has the upper hand on Garfield, the latter tells his shadow, "Looks like it's just you and me now, shadow", but his shadow just gets the heck out of dodge.
  • That Was Not a Dream: After being found, an exhausted Garfield is brought home and tucked into bed. Waking up the next morning, he wonders if any of the story's events even happened in the first place. Just as he convinces himself it was all a dream, he glimpses his mother in the window.
  • Villainous Gold Tooth: The leader of the Claws, Ali Cat, has a gold tooth. His gang intends to hunt down and harm Garfield.
  • Villain Song: The Claws sing about how bad they are👁 Image
    when they approach the abandoned Italian restaurant Garfield's family lives in while trying to find Garfield with the intent of harming him.
    Garfield in the Rough 
  • Absurdly Sharp Claws: The panther can rip open a tent and tear off a portion of Jon's shirt with just one swipe of its claws.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The comic adaptation adds a few extra scenes.
    • During Garfield's meeting with Billy and Dicky, an additional sequence has Garfield actually giving them his name, and the trio get into a discussion on what foods are around to eat.
    • After the panther is dealt with, Garfield meets Billy again, who suggests he stay at the lake, but Garfield declines.
    • The final scene takes place after the main cast returns home, where Garfield and Odie play-attack Jon when Jon suggests going camping again the next weekend. It's followed by Garfield hearing scratches at the front door and opening it to see what appears to be the panther, back for revenge... but it turns out to just be a tiny kitten. Finally, Jon asks what they thought about the trip, only to get play-attacked again.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Garfield dives off the tree he had climbed and onto the panther's back just as the latter has Odie and Jon within striking range.
    • The rangers arrive right when the panther has Garfield at its mercy, shooting it with a tranquilizer dart.
  • Call-Back: At one point, Jon turns on the radio set, and after a We Interrupt This Program report about the panther, "So Long Old Friend" from Here Comes Garfield starts playing. (After the announcer had said "We now return to our regular broadcast of ''fun'' music.")
  • Camping Episode: Garfield, Jon, and Odie go on a camping trip, only to be attacked by a panther that had escaped from a zoo.
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: When they hear the news about the escaped panther on the radio, Garfield immediately suggests packing up and going home. Jon shrugs him off, saying they're miles away from Lake Woebegone (when they're right next to it), and even when the forest critters tell Garfield that the panther is in the area, Jon continues to ignore him.
  • Curb-Stomp Cushion: Garfield leaps onto the black panther's back to keep it from killing Jon and Odie. Due to the great size difference between a housecat and a leopard, the larger feline easily shakes him off, but he still distracts it until the park rangers arrive.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The first scenes of the special are deliberately done in black and white to represent the color having gone out of Garfield's life.
  • Do Not Adjust Your Set: The special opens with one of these, saying it isn't necessary — the color has just really gone out of Garfield's life.
  • The Dreaded: The news of a killer black leopard that escaped from the zoo puts the populace on edge. Garfield finds that it's been terrifying the local wildlife as well, with Billy Rabbit and Dicky Beaver fleeing for cover at the mere mention of it.
  • Escaped Animal Rampage: An inexplicably hostile panther prowls the woods where Jon, Garfield and Odie have set up camp.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Jon dismisses the panther as a threat since they're nowhere near Lake Woebegone... having somehow missed the sign saying that they've camped right on the lake.
  • Game Face: Just like a real cat, Garfield arches his back and shows his teeth when he prepares to take on the panther.
  • Herbivores Are Friendly: Billy Rabbit and Dicky Beaver are two friendly woodland critters whom Garfield mingles with.
  • I Have a Family: Garfield thinks he's being approached by a predator when he encounters Billy Rabbit and makes several pleas to not be eaten. One of his claims is lying about having a wife and nine kids.
  • Imagine Spot: Garfield pictures himself in several exotic destinations when Jon announces that they're going on vacation.
  • Instant Sedation: Somewhat averted; the park rangers are able to shoot the panther with a tranquilizer dart (just as it's about to pounce on Garfield), but while the sedative does its thing pretty quickly, there is a tense moment when the panther is still able to crawl to Garfield and nearly tear his stomach open.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Garfield himself. Though normally selfish and lazy, and initially running to the top of a tree in fear to get away from the panther, he doesn't even hesitate to dive from the tree onto the panther's back and claw away at it when it threatens the lives of both Jon and Odie; while he doesn't defeat the panther, he does manage to buy enough time for the park rangers to tranquilize the panther without anyone getting hurt.
  • Knight of Cerebus: The usual lighthearted comedy of the franchise instantly stops whenever the ferocious black panther is involved. It's even drawn in a realistic style as opposed to the rest of the characters, just to show how it means business.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: After most of an episode cowering in fear of the escaped panther, Garfield goes into near-Papa Wolf mode to distract it when it menaces Jon and Odie.
  • Mocking Music: A broadcast about a vicious black panther that's escaped from the zoo is followed with:
  • Monochrome to Color: The special uses this in its intro, as the title character bemoans how boring life at home is (with a Do Not Adjust Your Set warning). It switches to color when Jon suggests that they go on vacation.
  • Naturally Huskless Coconuts: Averted. Garfield's Hawaiian vacation fantasy shows a palm tree growing green coconuts.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: The panther was designed with more realistic features as opposed to the more cartoonish look of most animals in the franchise.
  • Panthera Awesome: The escaped panther is a deadly threat and is never played for humor.
  • Realistic Species, Cartoony Species: Played straight with the panther (the realistic to everyone else's cartoony), making it look downright terrifying.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: This is Garfield's reaction to hearing that an escaped panther has been spotted near the area where he, Odie and Jon are camping, though Jon isn't having any of it, thinking Lake Woebegone is miles away (when it's actually right where they're camped). Inverted big-time later when said panther actually does attack the camp site. Initially, Garfield is able to escape, but when he sees Jon and Odie in trouble, Garfield attacks the panther.
    Garfield: That's it. Pack it in. We're going home. I don't wanna be a panther snack.
  • Super-Persistent Predator: The panther, which attacks Jon, Garfield and Odie at their campsite and smashes the driver-side window of Jon's car with its head (taking two tries to break it), then turns to go after Garfield after he drops on its back and claws and bites the panther.
  • This Is My Human: When a panther threatens Jon and Odie, Garfield bares claws and teeth and leaps on it. It doesn't do much but it does give time for the rangers to sedate the panther. Odie and Jon are grateful and Group Hug Garfield.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The panther lacks the same anthropomorphic, innocent wit of the other animals. It then nearly slashes Jon after breaking his car window and decimating his shirt before trying to hunt down Garfield, making this a rare instance of a villain that creates dramatic violence in Garfield-related media. It's even all but said to have caused a death off-screen.
  • The World Is Just Awesome: Garfield has a moment of stunned appreciation for the beauty of nature... before remembering that there are wild animals around who might want him for a snack.
  • You Won't Like How I Taste: When he encounters Billy Rabbit, Garfield assumes that he's run into a predator and pleads not to be eaten. One of the things Garfield claims to avoid being eaten is that he is high in cholesterol.
    Garfield's Halloween Adventure/Garfield in Disguise 
  • Adaptation Expansion: The Halloween book adds a subplot about Garfield stealing a ring from the treasure chest (which is why the ghosts chase him down to the docks per the cartoon), and then adds a bit where they appear at his house to chase him some more until he returns it.
  • Agony of the Feet: Garfield's initial plan to get inside the Old, Dark House is for him to kick down the door and have Odie scout the place out. Garfield injures his foot doing this.
  • ...And That Little Girl Was Me: After telling the story of the pirates and seeing that Garfield doesn't believe him, the old man tells him to "Belie-e-e-eve it, my friends.", then adds that "The pirates had a ten-year-old cabin boy. I was that boy."
  • Anti-Sneeze Finger: Odie does this to himself while hiding from the pirate ghosts in a cupboard with Garfield, to try to stop himself from blowing their cover with an Ill-Timed Sneeze. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
  • Aside Glance: Garfield's Ignored Epiphany prompts one from Odie, who also shakes his head.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: During the "Scaredy Cat" song, Garfield and Odie prepare to laugh at two different ghosts of this type (whom they think are just kids in costumes), only to find the first is actually a Bigfoot-like creature and the second is apparently a real ghost.
  • Bravado Song: Garfield sings a song called "Scaredy Cat", which is about how he may be a lazy slob, but he's not a coward. Various times throughout the song, he comes across trick-or-treaters who turn out to be real monsters and he and Odie run in circles before dashing away as an offscreen backup singer chimes in, "The one thing he's not is a scaredy cat!"
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In-Universe. When Garfield says he hates Binky, Binky responds with a shocked expression.
  • The Cabin Boy: The only living member of the pirates who buried treasure a century ago is the former cabin boy, now a hundred-and-ten year old man who lives in a creepy manor.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Garfield as a pirate threatens to kill Jon, but won't on account of him being the only one who changes his kitty litter.
  • Captain Colorbeard: Garfield is dressed as "Orangebeard the pirate captain".
  • Costume-Test Montage: Garfield tries out many costumes during the "What Should I Be?" song while getting ready for Halloween before choosing a pirate costume.
  • Dirty Coward: The old man who tells Garfield and Odie the story of the ghost pirates sneaks out and steals their boat, not even offering a chance for them to get on it.
  • Dramatic Thunder: When Garfield and Odie approach the haunted house, thunder and lightning ensue.
    Garfield: Nice touch.
  • Dressed to Plunder: The special has Garfield and Odie going out Trick-or-Treating dressed as pirates, Garfield wearing a pirate hat and sporting a peg leg, while Odie has a bandana, single earring, and striped shirt, and being who he is, starts off with a peg on every leg. The ghostly pirates they run into later show more of the usual fashion sense, just more dead and decayed.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Binky the Clown makes his first on-screen appearance, before his physical debut in the strip (he was first mentioned in March 1985, a little over seven months before the special aired, but wasn't seen until September of '86) or Garfield and Friends.
  • Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Odie glances toward the camera and shakes his head at Garfield when the latter expresses his greed for the loads of candy he'll receive from the houses at the opposite side of a river.
  • Exact Words: As the boat gets caught in the current, Garfield tells Odie to "put out the oars." Odie immediately throws the oars overboard.
  • Expressive Shirt: Garfield, upon seeing the old man and screaming aloud, the skull on his pirate hat screams as well.
  • For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Garfield is showing Odie that the other trick-or-treaters are just kids by pulling a monster mask off one kid. But the next three turn out to be real monsters, with the third person Garfield unmasks (a long-nosed person with sharp teeth) revealing their mask is identical to their real face, and the fourth person, a Bedsheet Ghost, turns out to be an actual, invisible ghost underneath. Subverted with the second person unmasked — it's a hairy monster, but they're also in a Bedsheet Ghost outfit.
  • Ghost Pirate: A bunch of them are the main antagonists.
  • Halloween Special: In which Garfield and Odie go out trick-or-treating and end up facing pirate ghosts.
  • Heroic Dog: As Garfield and Odie jump into the lake to escape the evil ghosts chasing them, Garfield quickly sinks under and is swept away by the current (he can't swim). A frantic, whimpering Odie immediately dives underwater to find him and pulls him to safety. As they reach the shore, Garfield tells him with complete sincerity "I owe you one, old buddy". It's especially touching considering that Garfield is always ridiculing and tormenting Odie — he only even brought him along for trick-or-treating in order to get more candy for himself — yet Odie didn't hesitate to save him.
  • Horror Comedy: The special plays its horror elements surprisingly straight, but it's still ultimately Garfield, which means that it has plenty of snark and slapstick to go around.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Garfield insists that he is not a scaredy cat, only for him and Odie to shriek like little girls when they discover the truth about some of the trick-or-treaters.
  • I Ate WHAT?!: When Garfield finds a bowl of what he thinks is something like lasagna, he eats it, prompting Jon to ask since when he did he like pumpkin innards.
    Garfield: Ptooe! Since never!
  • Ignored Epiphany: Flagrant:
    Garfield: Wait a minute. Am I being too greedy? Should I share my candy with those less fortunate than me? Am I missing the true spirit of Halloween?... Naaaaah! Mine! All mine! Mine, I tell you!
  • Ill-Timed Sneeze: Odie sneezes at the wrong time while he and Garfield are hiding in a cabinet from some pirate ghosts. The sneeze is not only loud enough to attract the ghosts' attention, but it's powerful enough to blow the cabinet doors right open. With sheepish grins, Garfield and Odie close the doors again, and Garfield says, "Maybe they didn't see us..." Cue the Scare Chord as the pirate ghosts come through the cabinet!
  • Immediate Self-Contradiction: WBOR is said to be an easy viewing and easy listening station, before it goes into the Binky the Clown Show, which is loud and boisterous.
  • I Want My Mommy!: Garfield shouts this, when, after Odie puts out the oars in their rowboat (as in, drops them off the boat and into the water), they start drifting downriver.
    Garfield: We be at the mercy of the sea, matey! Topside! Topside! Batten the hatches! Trim the mains! Slip the sheets! Flibber the giblets! I WANT MY MOMMY!!!
  • Literal-Minded: Garfield orders Odie to "put out the oars". Odie throws the oars off the boat.
    Garfield: I'd make him Walk the Plank if I had one.
  • "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Garfield tries to do this, but finds it doesn't work very well:
    Garfield: Halloween is my middle name! Gar-Halloween-Field... Oh, well.
  • Mistaken for an Imposter: Done while Garfield and Odie are out trick-or-treating, and Garfield removes the mask or sheet from another trick-or-treater in order to assure Odie that they're just kids in costume. The first time, he's right — it's just a kid in disguise. The second time... it's a scary monster disguised as Bedsheet Ghost. The third time... a monster wearing a mask that looks just like its face. The fourth time... a Bedsheet Ghost with, well, nothing under the "bedsheet".
  • Network Sign Off: Inverted when the TV started rebroadcasting with The Binky the Clown Show, waking up Garfield.
  • Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: One of the costumes Garfield tries out was a robot astronaut hobo clown.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: The old man is drawn to look more realistic (and was possibly rotoscoped) than the usual design of the characters from the comic strip, and even has five fingers on each hand.
  • "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Garfield and Odie each give one after the latter blows their cover with an Ill-Timed Sneeze.
  • Pirate Episode: Combined with Halloween Special — on Halloween night, Garfield dresses like a pirate to trick-or-treat and gets Odie to come along with him for the sole purpose of getting twice as much candy. The two come to a haunted house inhabited by an old man who was the cabin boy of a band of pirates in his youth, and tells them that the ghosts of the pirates are expected to arrive for their treasure at any minute, then flees from them in Garfield's rowboat, leaving Garfield and Odie to face the ghosts alone. With help from Odie, Garfield safely makes it back home, and rewards Odie for saving him by giving him his rightful share of the candy.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: If the old man was telling the truth about being there when the pirates hid their treasure, he'd be 110 years old.
  • Scare Chord: Two happen when the old man first appears and the pirate ghosts burst through a cabinet after Garfield and Odie.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Garfield and Odie both scream in a very high pitch during the song "Scaredy Cat", whenever they come across trick-or-treaters who are not what they appear to be. This also doubles as Hypocritical Humor, because just before making the discovery, Garfield continuously sings that he may be a lot of things, "but the one thing I'm not is a scaredy cat." They do it again in the haunted house when, after warming themselves by the fire, they look behind themselves, see the old man and realize they aren't alone.
  • Shout-Out: While digging around in a chest for costume supplies, Garfield finds balls of string and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.
  • Skewed Priorities:
    • Played for laughs in a scene right after the opening credits — Garfield has just woken up again and thinks to himself that first he needs to get a costume, then he needs to get a sack to hold all the candy he'll be getting that night... then inverted when he remembers what he really needs to do first:
      "First... first you gotta get up."
    • Later, Garfield is more concerned that he lost his candy and it's past his bedtime than that pirate ghosts are coming to get them. (He also laments losing the boat, but that was a valid worry giving that it was their only mean of escape.)
  • Talk Like a Pirate: Garfield gladly indulges in this as Captain Orangebeard. Even first mate, Odie the Stupid, tries the growling version ("R-arr!").
  • Tempting Fate:
    • "But the one thing I'm not, is a scaredy cat..."
    • After Odie inadvertently gives himself and Garfield away to the pirate ghosts by sneezing, they make a half-hearted attempt to hide again as Garfield says, "Maybe they didn't see us..."
  • Trouble Follows You Home: In the comic book adaptation only, Garfield and Odie have just escaped the haunted island and the ghosts pursuing them. As soon as they open their front door, the ghosts jump out at them and chase them up a tree. Garfield doesn't know what they want, but Odie realizes that they've come for a ring that Garfield swiped from their treasure chest back at the island. Garfield drops the ring into the palm of one of the ghosts, and they swirl out of existence.
  • Waxing Lyrical: As Garfield rummages through a chest to find costume pieces, among the things he tosses out are "strings, sealing wax and other funny stuff."
  • Your Television Hates You: At the end, Garfield is too wired to sleep and opts to watch TV. He sees the old man from the island hosting an all-night pirate movie festival. Turning off the TV, Garfield suddenly decides he's very tired and turns in.
    Garfield in Paradise 
  • Adaptation Expansion: The comic adaptation adds a couple of extra scenes, including the High Rama Lama calling "Wanda" to bring food to everyone during his first talk with Jon, and a scene where Pigeon calls that the waves are really good, leading to the High Rama Lama calling for a beach party, including hollering for "Wanda" to bring food again and scolding Monkey and Odie when they try to join in on the surfing instead of working on the car.
  • Appease the Volcano God: The volcano. However, it rejects the usual virgin sacrifice common to this trope when it throws out Princess Owooda when she attempts a Heroic Sacrifice. What the volcano really wants is a vintage 1950s car that contains the spirit of the Cruiser, who appeased it the first time.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the climax, the ghost of the Cruiser and his car emerge from the volcano and drive into the sky towards Heaven.
  • Beach Bury: In one scene, Garfield buries Odie in the sand, up to his ankles... and upside down (in a scene reminiscent of an August 1980 strip👁 Image
    ).
  • The Blind Leading the Blind: Monkey, the dumbest of the Ding-Dongs, and Odie fix up Jon's rental car.
  • Call-Back: A trumpet version of the song "So Long Old Friend" from Here Comes Garfield plays after Odie's Disney Death, causing Garfield to start saying the lyrics.
  • Cargo Cult: Jon, Garfield and Odie come across a native tribe that worships a '57 Chevy and its driver, "The Cruiser", who drove into a nearby volcano as a sacrifice. When they learned English, it was from beach movies👁 Image
    .
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: When the volcano begins erupting, Garfield looks and the camera and smiles while saying "Nice touch."
  • Chekhov's Volcano: The volcano, which rumbles menacingly during the group's drive and then threatens to erupt in the climax.
  • Cutting Corners: Jon's attempts at an affordable vacation backfire miserably. Booking third class leads to a barely functional flight with broken down seats and abusive staff ("When you travel, you pay for respect!") and their destination is a low-grade motel that at least has a pool...with no water in it, and close access to beach...by a helicopter.
    Jon: This isn't what I bargained for.
    Garfield: Oh, you "bargained" or it, all right.
  • Disney Death: Odie and Monkey in the end, when they drive Jon's rental car into the volcano, leading to everyone thinking they're dead and mourning them... until they climb out a minute later, much to everyone's delight.
  • Empty Swimming Pool Dive: Occurs, albeit unintentionally — Jon's laying on the diving board over the empty pool, and said board breaks underneath him.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Owooda attempts this, but the volcano won't let her, sending her tumbling back down the mountain. Monkey and Odie appear to pull one when they drive the car over the volcano's edge to appease it, but they manage to climb out.
  • Human Sacrifice: The island princess (and her cat) is sent to jump into an erupting volcano. Her rather cynical father comments that it doesn't so much appease the spirit of the volcano as it "plugs up the hole." Turns out the volcano is more interested in the convertible Jon rented.
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: A Great Gildersleeve-style sleazy salesman type shows up as a hotel clerk and then a car rental agent successively, prompting the lines, "You look familiar." "I have a brother in the hotel business."
    Garfield: Racket is more like it.
  • Lost Tribe: Played for Laughs with the Ding-Dongs. They're an isolated culture—or rather, they were isolated until they met "the Cruiser," a James Dean lookalike, in 1957. The Cruiser introduced them to the American pop culture of that era (beach movies, rock 'n roll, and the like), and the Ding-Dongs never progressed past that point, so they still talk, act, and generally live like it's the 1950s, which humorously isolates them even further.
  • Medium Blending: The fireworks spurting out of the volcano in the flashback are clearly live-action stock footage.
  • Mundane Solution: Brought up after Odie and Monkey's (seeming) Heroic Sacrifice:
    High Rama Lama: Aw Monkey, ya big lug. What did you have to go and do that for, ya crazy galoot? We could have just shoved the car in.
  • New Jobs As The Plot Demands: The same person who looks suspiciously like Frank Nelson is both a hotel clerk and a car rental agent. He claims they're separate people, but Garfield isn't buying it.
    Nelson-type man: (as the rental agent) Yeeeeeeeeeeeeehs?
    Jon Arbuckle: You look familiar.
    Nelson: I have a brother in the hotel business.
    Garfield: Racket is more like it.
  • Not This One, That One: Inverted. Stranded in a tribal village, the chief calls for his daughter and her cat to meet his guests [Jon and Garfield]. The first girl and cat they see are rather homely, but then the real daughter and cat emerge, both of them significantly more attractive.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: To get around the airline rule against pets in seats, Jon makes Garfield wear clothes but otherwise look like himself.
  • Percussive Maintenance: Exaggerated. After Monkey and Odie spend all day trying and failing to get the car running again, all it takes to finally get it to start is Odie giving the engine a light tap with a hammer.
  • Plane Awful Flight: The special opens with Jon, Garfield (and Odie stowing away in a suitcase) taking a plane to a tropical island. While the airline is established as friendly and classy, it all deteriorates the moment Jon is revealed to have only paid for third class, being met with not-so-chipper-anymore stewardesses ("Your seat is in the rear with the rest of the slime!") broken down seats, non-functioning safety belts, and turbulence that sends them bouncing into the ceiling. Garfield's thoughts on the matter:
    "Whoever said getting there is half the fun should be dragged out into the street and shot."
  • Plug the Volcano: When the Paradise World volcano starts erupting. The village chief's daughter decides to sacrifice herself (and her unwilling cat) to prevent the island from being destroyed, and Jon asks the chief if it's to Appease the Volcano God.
    High Rama Lama: "No. Uh, plugs up the hole."
  • Shark Fin of Doom: Subverted — Garfield panics when he sees what looks like a shark fin while he's floating on the water, but it just turns out to be Odie with his ears arranged to look like a shark's fin.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Frank Nelson spoofing his The Jack Benny Program persona.
    • Referring to the room that Jon and company have rented, the cheapest, most run-down flea-trap room in the entire hotel as the ... wait for it... "Jack Benny suite."
    • Garfield imagines himself as Don Ho at one point, while the character named "The Cruiser" seems to be a cross between James Dean and The Fonz.
    • Even though Jon's car rental is a 1957 Chevy, the red and white colors and trim and the fact that the car is apparently possessed are more likely to evoke comparisons with a certain 1958 Plymouth.
    • The chief of the Lost Tribe of the jungle (voiced by the one and only Wolfman Jack) is the High Rama Lama, and the tribe itself is called the Ding-Dongs; put together, that's "Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong," a song from the 1950s.👁 Image
  • Stupid Sacrifice: At the climax, Odie and Monkey have apparently driven the car to their death in the heart of a raging volcano. The High Rama Lama points out they could have simply stopped the car, gotten out, and pushed the car in. Subverted on two counts: first, Odie and Monkey actually survive, having apparently bailed out of the car shortly after it started to fall in, second, Monkey mentions "we gotta work on those brakes", suggesting that they had tried to stop the car but couldn't.
  • Suddenly Voiced: During his "Garfield Ho" Imagine Spot, Garfield's mouth actually moves rather than the Internal Monologue he normally uses.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The special has Princess Owooda resembling Liz and her cat resembling Arlene.
  • Take That!: In the "Garfield Ho" fantasy, Lenny, the MC, says that Garfield Ho had just completed a stint in "Lost Wages, Nevada"!
  • The Unintelligible: Pigeon, the short islander with glasses, speaks only in a fast-talking 1950s slang. Also serves as a Punny Name since Pidgin is a form of language used by peoples who don't have a common language.
  • You Get What You Pay For: Jon wanted a more affordable tropical vacation, so he chose a poor man's Hawaii, called Paradise World, but the hotel is shoddy, the pool doesn't have water, and there's only one car available at the car rental. Averted as Jon, Garfield and Odie still manage to have fun time. The vintage convertible is beautiful and runs perfectly, and their meeting with the tribe provided an adventure that likely would have been worth much more than if Jon had decided to pay for a proper Hawaiian vacation.
  • You Look Familiar: In-universe: when Jon and his pets go to rent a car, the car dealer, who looks like Frank Nelson, looks a lot like the motel manager, also looking a lot like Nelson, prompting Jon to say this very phrase to him.
    Car dealer: I have a brother in the motel business.
    Garfield: Racket is more like it.
    Garfield Goes Hollywood 
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: In the comic adaptation, the Lemon Sisters (a set of singing chickens in the "Pet Search" national finals) have bright yellow feathers, fitting their name. In the cartoon, they have white feathers instead.
  • Adapted Out: The comic adaptation leaves out a sequence with another contestant at the "Pet Search" national finals, "Miles the Jazz Canary". He places fourth, while the Lemon Sisters are fifth (in the comic, they place fourth and no fifth-place contestant is named).
  • Brick Joke:
    • When Jon, Garfield and Odie enter Pet Search, they see a roller-skating bear as one of the acts. Later, there is a man named Herbie who spent 18 years training his pigeons to tap-dance, but when he presents them, they immediately fly away...and, to add insult to injury, the roller-skating bear skates into the scene and knocks into him.
    • Later, when Jon happily says that there's only one more act after theirs, Garfield comments that with their luck, it would be a dog that plays five instruments at once. Take a guess what the last act of the show was. (Although, he got disqualified because he was actually a human in a dog suit.)
  • Celebrity is Overrated: Parodied by Garfield himself. As Jon trots out the usual justifications for this trope, such as forgetting who they are and about the little people, Garfield welcomes all that in his usual snarky manner. It's still played straight with Jon though, as really, he's afraid that his pets will forget about him.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: Jon, Garfield and Odie win the local level of "Pet Search" by virtue of being the only act that doesn't get booed when the host has the audience rate the performances, with the audience instead remaining dead silent.
  • Is There a Doctor in the House?: At the "Pet Search" talent show, there is an old woman who is trying to make her pet bird, which is most likely dead, perform tricks to the audience. After realizing what's going on, the old woman asks this question.
  • Pet Contest Episode: Garfield and Odie enter a local TV talent show called Pet Search, where the winners can go on to the national finals in Hollywood. Garfield and Odie win handily due to the low bar set by the other contestants, but in Hollywood, the competition is extremely stiff, and their tango act is placed second after a cat who sings opera.
  • Shout-Out: Garfield has a dream sequence in which he imagines himself in The Wizard Of Oz, Royal Wedding, and Singin' in the Rain. He also fancies himself as Esther Williams and himself and Odie as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
  • The Show Goes Hollywood: Naturally, as Garfield, Odie, and Jon put together an act for the talent show Pet Search that gets them to the national finals in Hollywood.
  • Sudden Anatomy: When the announcer says that a dog can play five instruments at once he grows an extra finger to emphasize this, which disappears seconds later.
  • The Television Talks Back: Garfield, Jon and Odie are watching Pet Search, where this trope happens twice: one when they learn about the U$1000 prize ("One thousand dollars?" "That's right, one thousand dollars!") and again when they learn about the trip to Hollywood ("I can't believe it!" "Well, believe it.").
  • Sore Loser: Garfield does not take losing in the Finals well.
    Garfield: We've been robbed! I demand a recount! The Judges were paid off!! Ripoff! We've been rooked! Call Ralph Nader! We've lost everything!
    Jon: We really haven't lost anything Garfield. We're still a family. We still have each other.
    Garfield: Big Fat Hairy deal!
  • Vocal Dissonance: Being voiced by Thom Huge, Jon has a surprisingly good singing voice. It makes his supposed dorkiness particularly during his Wizard of Love act hard to believe even with the ridiculous Elvis clothes. Then again, his tepid reception was likely because the contest was for his pets (Jon tells his pets that they were great, to which Garfield retorts that Jon was awful), and he does manage to woo over women in the specials.
  • Went to the Great X in the Sky: After breaking Jon's guitar, Garfield says it "went to the big tuning fork in the sky".
  • Your Mom: The special begins with Garfield trying to tell jokes while standing on a fence. After getting hit in the face with a pie, he yells "Your mothers wear army boots".
    A Garfield Christmas 
  • Adaptation Expansion: The comic based on the special adds a few extra scenes, such as:
    • Turning Doc Boy's one use of "Don't call me Doc Boy!" into a Running Gag.
    • Doing the same with Garfield's Mad Libs Catchphrase of "Whoever invented (insert phrase here) should be drug out into the street and shot".
    • Adding a bit of Jon wrapping Christmas presents at home before they get in the car (wherein Garfield wraps Odie as a present to try and give him away).
    • Replacing Jon's walk through the snow with the pets with a sequence of him doing chores (to his annoyance) with his dad and brother.
    • A bit of Grandma whacking Jon, Dad and Doc Boy each with a spoon (Jon for taste-testing, Dad for having his feet on the table and Doc Boy just because) as they're getting dinner ready.
    • A scene of Dad threatening violence against Mom over her remark about why they didn't just put the star on the tree before putting the tree up.
    • A bit of Garfield doing a Gift Shake (lifted directly from the comic strip), followed by Jon and Doc Boy heading to bed (including a case of the "Don't call me Doc Boy" Running Gag), Grandma saying she'll be up a little longer and then Jon and Doc Boy in bed and Mom coming in to say goodnight.
    • Expanding on the scene of Odie making Garfield's present (instead having him try and fail to put the post of it into the base, and then get distracted by a sound made by Garfield throwing a corncob and going to investigate, allowing Garfield to drill a hole into the base and then assemble the gift himself).
    • Jon and Doc Boy walking into the room yawning on Christmas morning because someone turned their alarm clock off (and their dad implying he was responsible).
  • Adaptational Intelligence: Odie, normally known for his lack of brains, spends the special gathering miscellaneous stuff from around the farm and then single-handedly crafts a present for Garfield (a backscratcher) out of those items. Subverted in the comic adaptation, where Garfield is the one who makes a hole in the base and then assembles the whole thing for Odie while the latter is investigating a noise Garfield had made to distract him.
  • Dance Party Ending: The last minute or so of the special involves the whole family dancing to "A Good Old-Fashioned Christmas".
  • Dreadful Musician: Doc's attempt at playing "Oh Christmas Tree" on the piano in the 1991 version of the special. The rest of the family visibly cringes, and Grandma knocks him out of the way to spare them after less than a minute.
  • Dream Intro: The special starts with Garfield waking up on Christmas morning to Jon in an elf costume, leading him to the tree with a trail of lasagnas, and presenting him with a gift-giving machine that can read his mind and generate whatever he's thinking of, followed by the opening credits. After that, Garfield wakes up for real and finds Jon telling him it's the day before Christmas and they're going to the family farm for the holiday.
  • Fire-Breathing Diner: Garfield has a little taste of Mom's sausage gravy, unaware that Grandma secretly put chili powder in it. Fire inevitably flares up from his mouth, but Garfield thinks the gravy is perfect anyway.
  • Gift Shake: In a scene only in the comic version, Garfield reenacts a scene from the December 23, 1982 strip:
    "Wonder what this could be?" (shakes it) "Gee, I hope it's for me." (tinkle tinkle) "Gee, I hope it's for Odie."
  • Homemade Sweater from Hell: Jon gets a Christmas sweater that flows far past the tips of his fingers. Downplayed though, in that he isn't shown having any problem with it.
  • If I Do Not Return: When Garfield's taking the star to the top of the tree, he tells Jon "If I'm not back in an hour, send a banana cream pie after me."
  • Not So Above It All: Garfield spends most of "Can't Wait Till Christmas" grousing and snarking, but he eventually gets caught up in the song and sincerely joins in. Upon realizing this, though, he resumes looking sour.
  • Officially Shortened Title: The title card and copyright listing for the special refer to it as A Garfield Christmas Special. However, the DVD packaging and book adaptation, including the book's own copyright listing, shorten the title to just A Garfield Christmas.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: Jon and Doc's father is not keen on the family tradition of reading "Binky: the Clown Who Saved Christmas" every year, particularly since his sons are now adults.
  • Orphaned Punchline: In the scene where the Arbuckles finish decorating their Christmas tree and have to put the star on, Dad asks why they can't just put the star on the tree first and then put the tree up, to which Mom replies by saying that "it just wouldn't be Christmas" if they did that. In the special itself, no response is given to that line, but in the Comic-Book Adaptation, Dad replies "One more remark like that, and you'll see stars, woman."
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: This:
    Jon: Doc Boy! How's my favorite brother?
    Doc: Don't call me Doc Boy. And you've probably forgotten I'm your only brother.
    Jon: Oh. ...You're right.
  • Parental Bonus: There's a scene near the end where Garfield presents Jon's Grandma with a bundle of letters written by her (now deceased) husband when they were courting. Grandma reads the first letter aloud:
    Grandma: "My darling, if the sea were of ink and the sky of parchment, I could not begin to write my love for you." (laughs softly) "When next we meet-" (pauses, reading silently) Oh... (puts a hand over her mouth, chuckling) Oh, my.
    Jon's Mom: Well, what does he say, Grandma?
    Grandma: (quickly folds up letter, crossing her arms) It is inappropriate for a lady to talk about her romances, my dear.
  • Saving Christmas: One Arbuckle family tradition is Dad reading Binky: The Clown Who Saved Christmas.
  • Scare Chord: One occurs when Garfield realizes just how high up he is on top of a Christmas tree.
  • Tempting Fate: While Jon, Garfield and Odie are out walking in the snow, Jon talks about the "beautiful scenery". Garfield, who's walking with only his tail sticking out of the snow, grumbles about "What scenery?" and continues on to say "In fact I'd go so far as to say things can't much worse than-" before getting cut off by banging his head into a water pump. He then lampshades it by adding "I gotta quit saying that."
  • True Meaning of Christmas: At the very end of the special, Garfield declares what he feels is the true meaning of the holiday (though he doesn't outright call it that, instead opening with "Permit me one sentimental moment here."):
    Garfield: "Christmas: it's not the giving, it's not the getting, it's the loving. There, I said it. Now get outta here."
  • Why Are We Whispering?: Garfield does this, a monologue variation. "...Why can't they come here where my warm bed is? And why... am I whispering?"
  • You Just Had to Say It: When Garfield, Jon, and Odie are walking through deep snow:
    Jon: This is what it's all about, right, boys? Hard work, crisp weather, and beautiful scenery.
    Garfield: [with only his tail showing] What scenery? I think somebody turned the lights out. In fact, I'd go so far as say things can't get much worse than...
    (Garfield collides with a water pump)
    Garfield: I gotta quit saying that.
    Garfield's Thanksgiving 
  • Adaptation Expansion: While it also loses a few moments, the comic adaptation adds a few extra scenes not in the special.
    • Garfield tries waking Jon by smacking a pair of skillets together before resorting to the loud music. It does work, but he feigns still being asleep to not, as he remarks in an aside, give Garfield the satisfaction of waking him up.
    • Garfield and Jon's trip into the grocery store is shown.
    • When bedtime arrives, Garfield pretends to be lethargic from his half a day on the diet so Jon will carry him to bed and he spends all night awake after Jon suggests he try not thinking about food.
    • Garfield's ruining of the dinner is changed so he puts dish soap in the vegetables rather than an excessive amount of garlic powder and adds Jon trying to make pumpkin pie, which Garfield ruins by oversalting the canned pumpkin while Jon's back is turned.
  • Artistic License – Animal Care: Liz puts Garfield on a diet that includes lettuce. Cats are obligate carnivores, so lettuce wouldn't be healthy for him.
  • Always Need What You Gave Up: Garfield sabotages Jon's attempt to make Thanksgiving dinner, reasoning that if he can't enjoy dinner because of his diet, then no one can. Then Liz says he can forget the diet.
  • Balloon Belly: Garfield and Odie both have massive stomachs after Thanksgiving dinner.
  • Breath-Holding Brat: Jon holds his breath until Liz says she'll go out with him. She eventually agrees after Jon faints from holding his breath in because she "can't stand to see a dumb animal suffer."
  • The Cameo: Orson Pig from U.S. Acres appears in the waiting room at the vet.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Jon while prepping a Thanksgiving turkey reads the instruction "Rub skin with butter" as applying butter to his own skin rather than the turkey's.
  • Costume-Test Montage: Jon goes through a serious of outfits to try to find one to impress Liz when she comes over for Thanksgiving Dinner. Garfield rejects each outfit with a raspberry until Jon dresses "as himself" in a simple suit and tie (but forgets his pants).
  • Covers Always Lie: The cover of the comic adaptation shows Grandma Arbuckle at the dinner table, just as angry as everyone else as Garfield eats most of the meal by himself. Not only does Grandma leave before dinner starts, just like in the special, she is one of the few characters in the franchise to never get angry at Garfield.
  • Diet Episode: Liz orders Jon to put Garfield on a diet during one of their regular vet visits, which he, obviously, is already upset about. He's even more upset because it's the day before Thanksgiving.
  • Even the Dog Is Ashamed: There's a quick shot of Garfield covering his eyes in embarrassment after Jon (who waited until the last moment to even begin preparing for his Thanksgiving dinner date with Liz), instead of rubbing butter on the turkey skin, rubbed it👁 Image
    on his own skin.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Garfield rejoices when Liz takes him off the diet, before he remembers that Jon botched up in prepping the Thanksgiving dinner and he helped in ruining it further.
    Garfield: I'm free! I'm free! I can eat! Oh, joy! Oh, rapture! Oh, no!
  • Forgotten State of Undress: After Jon gets dressed, he walks out to the front door, only to discover (when Liz points it out) that he'd forgotten to put on pants.
  • Glad I Thought of It: Thanksgiving dinner is seemingly ruined, so Garfield tries to get Jon to call his grandmother since she's the only one who could potentially salvage things for everyone. Unfortunately, none of the hints he's giving Jon are getting through to him. So finally, Garfield shoves a picture of Grandma Arbuckle in his face.
    Jon: I know! I'll call Grandma! Jon, you're a genius!
    Garfield: ...If he had a brain, he'd be dangerous.
  • Goofy Print Underwear: When Jon unwittingly comes to the front door without pants on, Liz can't help but comment on it: "Nice polka dot boxer shorts."
  • Here We Go Again!: Liz decides that maybe Garfield can be taken off his diet and just get more exercise instead (and just in time for Thanksgiving dinner). After dinner Jon notices how bloated and lethargic Odie appears, and wonders if he should be put on a diet.
  • If I Can't Have You…: A non-romantic example. Garfield is put on a diet the day before Thanksgiving, and thus he's not looking forward to what is usually his favorite holiday. When Jon isn't looking, he puts a bunch of garlic on the vegetables that Jon just threw into a pot without cutting, saying something like "If I can't enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, nobody will!" in a rather evil-sounding tone. He eventually regrets it after Liz lifts his diet, the reason why he did it since he had to suffer going on a diet during Thanksgiving.
  • Inflating Body Gag: Jon continues flirting with Liz while she's taking Garfield's blood pressure, and this distraction results in her accidentally inflating Garfield with air—first just his hand, then his entire body.
  • Lethal Chef: Jon clearly didn't do any research into how to cook a turkey before the big day, as he failed to notice that his recipe called for baking a thawed turkey for five hours until three hours before dinnertime, which is when he took the turkey out of the freezer. Then he prepares the vegetables by simply throwing them into a pot and pouring water on them, without bothering to cut them first.
  • Literal-Minded: The turkey recipe says "Rub skin with butter". Jon then says "I don't know what good that will do, but okay," and rubs his own skin with it.
  • Micro Dieting: Liz the vet puts Garfield on a severe diet the day before Thanksgiving that includes getting half a leaf of lettuce to eat for lunch.
  • My God, You Are Serious!: While Grandma Arbuckle is making Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen, Jon is distracting Liz until dinner is ready by telling her about the entire history of Thanksgiving. Liz thinks he's kidding until he starts going into detail about the holiday, causing her to realize that he isn't.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Garfield attempts to sneak from three cookie jars, but Odie comes out of each one blowing his whistle, and with each size, the whistle becomes a higher pitch. Garfield chalks it up to his diet causing him to hallucinate.
  • Oven Logic: Jon turns up the oven to 500°F when the directions call for 325°F to cook the turkey faster. However, the turkey is somehow still frozen solid after three hours.
  • Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Garfield's talking scale mockingly mistakes him for Orson Welles, and claims to have seen Citizen Kane eight times.
  • Sequential Symptom Syndrome: Invoked by Garfield, when he fakes the symptoms of vitamin deficiency as Liz lists them off to get her to take him off his diet.
  • Shades of Suffocation: Jon holds his breath so Liz will want to date him. He turns red and collapses, upon which Liz finally caves in.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Citizen Kane reference, where the talking scale utters "Rosebud..." as it dies.
    • During the fashion montage, at one point Jon comes out dressed as Popeye.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: At the end, Jon, Garfield, and Odie, who can't understand each other, are all grateful for the same thing:
    Jon: Grandma.
    Garfield: Grandma.
    Odie: Woof! (presumably meaning, "Grandma")
  • Supreme Chef: After Jon fails to get Thanksgiving dinner ready, at Garfield's suggestion, he calls his grandmother to save the day, and boy, does Grandma deliver!
  • Thanksgiving Episode: Just as the title suggests, the special centers on Thanksgiving, with Garfield being put on a diet by his vet Liz the day before the holiday. Liz then comes over for Thanksgiving dinner, but after seeing Garfield reacting so poorly to his diet, she allows him to go off it for now. Meanwhile, Jon (with some advice from Garfield) has to call in his Grandma, who fixes up the ruined meal (which had turned out poorly due to a combination of his own poor skills and Garfield's sabotage of some of the side dishes, out of bitterness at not being able to enjoy it himself) with Garfield as her assistant, while Jon distracts Liz with a long-winded version of the history of Thanksgiving.
  • Weight Loss Salad: Jon puts Garfield on a diet the day before Thanksgiving. Garfield is served a single lettuce leaf. This exchange occurs:
    Jon: Here, Garfield, have some food. According to your diet, you get this.
    Garfield: That's it? That's all? Just one scraggly piece of lettuce?
    Jon: Oh, I'm sorry, Garfield, that's not what you get.
    Garfield: Well, I should hope not.
    Jon: You get half a leaf of lettuce!
    Garfield: That's better!
  • You Are Fat: RX-2, the talking bathroom scale from the comics strips, makes its animated debut. When Garfield asks the scale what his name is, the scale annoyingly "mistakes" Garfield for Orson Welles, and claims to be a huge fan and has seen Citizen Kane numerous times. This is definitely a crack at Welles' weight. When Garfield has had enough of the scale, he destroys it, and the scale just says, "Rose... bud..."
    Garfield's Feline Fantasies 
  • Bad Boss: Fat Guy thinks nothing of leaving Rameet to fall to his apparent death on the way out of the ancient temple.
  • Banana Slip: The main fantasy revolves around searching for The Banana of Bombay, the first banana to be used in this gag.
  • Captain Oblivious: Fat Guy's pet weasel keeps chewing on his clothes, but he fails to notice this.
  • Disappointed by the Motive: How Lance Sterling/Garfield feels about Nadia's motivation for stealing The Banana of Bombay; using it to open a fruit stand.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": We never hear the villain of the "Lance Sterling" fantasy get called anything other than "Fat Guy."
  • Fat Bastard:
  • Greed: Fat Guy's motivation for acquiring The Banana of Bombay is that he believes that it "belongs to the world," by which he means he intends to auction it off to the highest bidding country. Lance Sterling/Garfield is noticeably disgusted by this.
    Lance Sterling/Garfield: You low-born cur! How dare you seek to profit from the Banana of Bombay!
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Appropriately for a segment partly inspired by Indiana Jones, this is how the villains of the main fantasy save Rameet get defeated, albeit in a less fatal and more comical manner than the movies. Fat Guy and Nadia sought The Banana of Bombay, the very first banana to be used in the classic gag for financial gain. In the end, Lance Sterling/Garfield and Slobberjob/Odie use the peel to send Fat Guy, Nadia, and a group of monkeys plummeting into the Amazon River with that exact gag.
  • I Know Karate: In Garfield's fantasy, he and the villain each do this when they threaten each other:
    "Fat Guy": I would like you to meet my associate, Rameet. He doesn't smoke, drink, eat or sleep. He's been trained in the martial arts, you know. Judo, karate, tae kwan do, jujitsu, and machete-eating.
    Lance Sterling [Garfield]: Big deal. This is my associate, Slobberjob [Odie]. He doesn't think. He's been trained in macrame, bansai, origami, and he's nearly housebroken.
  • It Belongs in a Museum: The Banana of Bombay was stolen from the "Museum of Humor" several years before the fantasy takes place, so Lance Sterling/Garfield seeks to return it in order to prevent "the end of humor as we know it."
  • "Jaws" Attack Parody: Garfield tries to get at Jon's goldfish, only for the Jaws theme to start playing and for a shark to emerge from the fishbowl and scare Garfield.
  • MacGuffin: The Banana of Bombay, the first one to ever be used for the "banana gag," is what Garfield and Fat Guy are both pursuing in the "Lance Sterling" fantasy, with Garfield wanting to return it to the museum that it was stolen from, and Fat Guy seeking to profit off of it.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: After Lance Sterling/Garfield prevents them from accessing the map on the Holy Ankh, Fat Guy and Rameet follow our heroes around the world in order to steal the Banana of Bombay from them.
  • Mr. Imagination: The special focuses on Garfield's Walter Mitty-esque flights of fancy.
  • Raiders of the Lost Parody: The special had a scene almost exactly like the famous tile puzzle scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Shout-Out: The special references all sorts of things, such as Casablanca, Vertigo, Goldfinger, Jaws 1, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even Airplane!.
  • Standard Snippet: Garfield's final fantasy is Casablanca-themed, and even has Desirée Goyette singing "As Time Goes By" over it.
  • Straight Edge Evil: Parodied when the untrustworthy Fat Guy boasts that his "associate", Rameet, in addition to being trained in various martial arts (and apparently machete eating), doesn't smoke, drink, eat or sleep. Slobberjob/Odie, in response, has his skills prefaced with how he doesn't think. ("Most impressive.")
  • Two Halves Make a Plot: At the start of the main fantasy, Fat Guy and Lance Sterling/Garfield each have a half of The Holy Ankh, which contains a map to The Banana of Bombay, and meet in order to join the halves together. As soon as the Ankh is whole again, Lance takes it and runs.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nadia, while initially posing as a government agent sent to protect Lance Sterling/Garfield and Slobberjob/Odie from Fat Guy and Rameet, is really from a very poor country called "Moldavia", and seeks to steal The Banana of Bombay in order to promote tourism… by opening up a fruit stand. Lance Sterling is unamused by that last part.
    Garfield Gets a Life 
  • Be Yourself: While the trope name isn't explicitly stated, it can be inferred that Jon's learned this — towards the end of their date, he points out to Mona that they've had a wonderful time just talking together without having to rely on anything from the class they met in.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The special ends with Jon forced to break up with Mona because she's allergic to cats, but the two agree to stay friends and Garfield is pleased that Jon still sticks by him.
  • Catapult Nightmare: After his Nightmare Sequence, Garfield wakes up, sitting bolt upright in horror and clutching his tail after it got bitten in said nightmare.
  • Disco Sucks: Jon attends a club and disco dances. A guy yells at him, "Hey, jerk! Disco is dead!"
    Jon: Boy, you learn a dance, and then zango! Fourteen years later, they change it.
    Garfield: (glancing at the audience) Go figure.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Mona appears at the beach wearing a dark green two-piece bathing suit. She later mentions her encounter with the "dweeb" at the beach to Jon.
  • Endearingly Dorky: Is actually a plot point for Jon. His failures with women in the first half is due to him trying waaaay too hard to impress them. He's actually quite endearing when he is simply honest and open, which lands him a relationship (albeit a short-lived one) with Mona.
  • Enfant Terrible: In Garfield's nightmare sequence of Jon and Mona's married life, when they aren't watching, their infant son gets a nasty look on his face before outright chasing down Garfield and purposely biting his tail, causing him to wake up.
  • Moose and Maple Syrup: According to Lorenzo, the teacher, speaking Canadian is easy: You talk like you normally would, but sometimes, you add an "Eh?".
  • Nightmare Sequence: The special features Garfield having a nightmare that spurs him to try and break up Jon and Mona — as he pictures what life would be like if Jon and Mona got married and had kids, he also pictures their infant son pursuing Garfield with a nasty look on his face before finally catching and biting his tail.
  • Professional Voice Dissonance: When Jon decides to go to the Lorenzo School for the Personality Impaired to try to get a life, he's surprised to hear how calm Lorenzo is compared to the hyperactive portrayal in the commercial. Turns out it was a lip sync.
  • Secondary Character Title: The final special may be called Garfield Gets a Life, but the focus is surprisingly more around Jon. Even Odie gets Demoted to Extra in this one.
  • Self-Deprecation: In order to spy on Jon and Mona, Garfield sticks suction cups onto his paws and sticks onto the back window of the car, in a parody of the "Stuck on You" car toys.
    'Garfield: I saw this on the freeway once.
  • Shout-Out: The Show Within a Show Garfield watches features a Mountie that looks and sounds almost exactly like Dudley Do-Right.
  • Special Guest: This special featured songs by B.B. King and The Temptations.
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Video Example(s):

Jon's Grandma

After getting called in by Jon to help get the Thanksgiving dinner ready, Grandma gets to work on getting everything ready, and boy does her work show!

Example of:
Supreme Chef

★★★★☆ 4.33 (6 votes)

Alternative Title(s): Here Comes Garfield, Garfield On The Town, Garfield In The Rough, Garfields Halloween Adventure, Garfield In Paradise, Garfield Goes Hollywood, A Garfield Christmas, Garfield Gets A Life, Garfields Thanksgiving, Garfield Feline Fantasies, Garfields Feline Fantasies

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After getting called in by Jon to help get the Thanksgiving dinner ready, Grandma gets to work on getting everything ready, and boy does her work show!

How well does it match the trope?

4.33 (6 votes)

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