Garfield on the Town

This is a great story that really takes Garfield back to his humble beginnings in an Italian restaurant.

Garfield is separated from Jon after a battle NOT to visit the vet. Pretty soon he finds himself stranded in the middle of an urban jungle, filled with dangers hitherto unknown to him.

After running into a gang of surly alley cats, Garfield hides out in an old building, where he meets his long, lost mother! After a brief reunion and a trip down memory lane, he meets his large family, who are known for being "mousers" (not Garfield's type).

Later on, the evil cat gang finds Garfield, and a large fight ensues. The good cats win, and Garfield is faced with a dilemma: stay with his newfound family or go home. It has a good ending.

I give this movie a 7 out of 10. Go Garfield!

I remember watching this 1983 animated movie back in my childhood, so it was a nice thing to return to watch it again here in 2025.

Writers Jim Davis and Lorenzo Music put together a nice storyline and script with an entertaining and enjoyable narrative.

The voice acting in "Garfield on the Town" is good, and it is good to have the familiar voices of Lorenzo Music and Thom Huge voicing Garfield and Jon respectively. In addition, George Wendt and Allyce Beasley also lends their voices to the animated movie.

Having grown up with reading the "Garfield" comic strips, there is a great sense of familiarity and nostalgia with the art style and animation style seen in this 1983 animated movie.

If you like "Garfield", then this 1983 animated movie is definitely an enjoyable movie to watch.

My rating of director Phil Roman's 1983 animated movie "Garfield on the Town" lands on a six out of ten stars.

'Garfield on the Town' was my favourite Garfield film. I saw it when I was very young, and I always felt very sad when Garfield goes back to the place where he was brought up as a kitten, and he remembers everything about this place (and his mother) and recalls how it used to be and how it has now changed. It's a very emotional scene, and you really do get to see another side to Garfield beyond the funny comments and the laid-back attitude.

I don't think the film had too much more to offer, sadly, than this scene. At least, the rest of it is not very memorable. I first saw this when I was about five-years-old - when it was first on television. I saw it a few years after that, and besides the scene where Garfield visits his old place, I don't think it had much more to offer.

I cannot say whether or not I recommend it. I can just state that I did enjoy it, and it was a very memorable film to me.

Everybody's favourite overweight, lazy, cynical, lasagne-loving, Monday-loathing, orange-striped feline (one of many reasons why Garfield stands as such an unrivalled creation – have you ever seen such a unique combination of character traits?) received his second TV outing back in 1983 in this endearing tale of family unity and survival. Having been separated from his owner Jon Arbuckle and lost out on the streets of the city, where the local strays will defend their territory to the finish, Garfield has mixed experiences when he runs afoul with one particularly aggressive gang of moggies, only to be taken in and sheltered by another, much more lax group who, as it turns out, have a flesh-and-blood connection to him. But although his mother, who Garfield hasn't seen since his days as a kitten, is keen to welcome him, reservations soon arise as to whether or not our leading cat could ever fit in with the rest of his impoverished clan.

Admittedly, I've never really found any instalment in Garfield's TV special canon to be quite as dazzling as his equivalent adventures in the series 'Garfield and Friends' – the stories there were a lot shorter, but usually managed to pack in a lot more wit, charm and imagination to boot (although 'Garfield goes Hollywood', which almost felt like it could have been an extended segment of 'GaF', came extremely close). That said, 'On the Town' is still a fun and timeless 30-minute delight, made memorable by its touching story, pleasant music, playful humour, and, most crucially of all, an utterly inspired back-alley showdown between Garfield and a taunting purple stray (which consists mostly of flailing about and sizing each other up back and forth – and Garfield's problems with his claws and his shadow come as brilliant touches). The animation too is as about as high in quality as you'd expect from a project of this nature – basic, but clean, rounded and very easy on the eye; an improvement on that used in his debut special 'Here Comes Garfield' (which still succeeded in terms of heart and story), and better even than a handful of his later adventures like 'In the Rough' and 'In Disguise'. There are some technical glitches which keep things from running completely smoothly, including a rather awkward moment where Garfield's grandfather is moving his head and finger like he should be saying something, but nothing at all comes out (I assume it arose from a slip-up in the editing department). Also, has anyone else noticed that when the purple cat sings, he sounds nothing like he does when he talks? Well, I guess it's the kind of minor detail which only someone as insecure and nit-picky as me would make that big a thing out of…after all, these Garfield specials never aimed to be anything more than an enjoyable, light-hearted exercise in charm and entertainment for all the family, and this one certainly gets that job done well enough, so why try to find a huge deal of fault with it? Besides, I really owe too much to Garfield for all the times he's made me smile throughout my lifetime – and 'On the Town' is no exception. It features Liz at her most devilishly catty. The flashback sequence is handled perfectly. And the last few moments are absolutely wonderful.

Grade: A-

We all know how much Garfield hates going to the vet. So after wrecking Jon's house the fat cat is dragged, kicking and screaming, into the car. But even on the way there Garfield can't sit a peace. Until he falls out of the window and into the busy street.

He quickly learns that freedom from Jon and life on the streets isn't all fun and games. No one is kind to him, he's cold and quickly hungry. So when he dips into a smelly garbage can he's met with hostility from a punk alley cat.

Being house cat and used to home comforts, Garfield cannot match the aggression of this alley cat. More so when a hundred of them (looking more like the Critters from the movie of the same name, than alley cats) come after him.

Garfield takes refuge in an old building which just happens to be Italian Restaurant where he was born. There he meets him mother and the rest of his family. Tho he doesn't belong. And Garfield learns that his real family is Jon and Odie.

It's a very sweet natured story and the ending is cute and touching. There is a good reason why it won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.