Garfield's Thanksgiving

Once again, Garfield proves he can pull off more in 25 minutes than movies that take 4 times that long. It's Thanksgiving and Jon loves to make a huge deal of it. On a trip to the vet (keep a lookout for Orson the Pig in the waiting room) he manages to pluck up enough courage to ask out Dr. Liz on a date. Amazed? Well she actually accepts, how crazy is that? If only she knew what she was getting in to.

Jon doesn't plan the Thanksgiving dinner very well. He's got NO clue how to work a kitchen. And he's on the verge of blowing his big chance with Liz. But Grandma Arbuckle comes to the rescue. And so John, Liz, Garfield and Odie sit together at the table for lovely evening in which Jon actually manages to impress Liz. Well, will wonders never cease?

This TV special is one billion times what the poor Garfield movie is.

'Garfield's Thanksgiving' is overall a lesser holiday special for everybody's favourite cranky orange tabby, but it's still solidly entertaining, thanks to a number of good laughs and some subtlety when it comes to the sentiment. The characters are as engaging as they've ever been, with Garfield (voiced by the eternally amusing Lorenzo Music) an irascible hoot as always.

He starts Wednesday off in typical style, demanding that Jon (voice of Thom Huge) fix him a big breakfast. He's in a good mood until he realizes that today he has an appointment at the vets'. He doesn't look forward to it, but Jon does, of course, since he's so madly in love with the veterinarian, Liz (voice of Julie Payne). Liz finally relents and agrees on a date, so Jon invites her to Thanksgiving dinner. He's in danger of botching the whole thing, but gets some last minute help from an appropriate source. Garfield, meanwhile, must go on a diet (horrors!).

There are some hilarious sight gags (such as when characters are holding their breath), and the eleventh hour arrival / assistance of Grandma (voiced by Pat Carroll) ensures some real liveliness. She stole much of the show in "A Garfield Christmas", and does the same thing here. Jon is as hilariously awkward as he's ever been, and there's a great series of gags when he's modelling outfits for Garfield. He also threatens to send Liz to sleep when he stalls for time by regaling her with Thanksgiving history. Odie (voice of Gregg Berger) is as endearing as ever.

The best jokes revolve around the talking scale; they're more for adults than kids, who won't understand the references, but they are priceless.

Overall, a likable, pleasant special, worth watching for any Garfield fan.

Seven out of 10.

Like all of the old Garfield specials televised before the Saturday morning cartoon show this videotape is hard to come by. I ordered it on eBay and received my copy today. I watched it with my girlfriend's two daughters (aged 9 and 2) and they loved it. They were brought up on the glitz of Disney computer animation but were very entertained by this archaic cartoon.

The jokes are classic, even if some of them are more for adults than children. I laughed uncontrollably during the Orson Welles joke when Garfield was on the talking scale. I highly recommend picking this tape up and watching it with your kids -- neither you nor they will be disappointed.

It's the day before Turkey Day, Jon takes Garfield to the vet for an appointment and he has a crush on Dr. Liz Wilson. The cat is recommended to go on a diet for once as it becomes kind of a nightmare for our hero as Jon invites Liz over for Thanksgiving dinner as he try to impress her as fast as possible to make her his girl.

Not as strong as some of the other specials especially my favorite ones being "Christmas" and "Halloween" but still a worthy part of the on-going Garfield specials of the 80's. The story is not too bad but does have a touching moment where everyone is at dinner enjoying their meal with a quality song, Pat Carrol does co-star as a guest as Grandma from the Christmas Special as she returns here.

The first time I saw this special, my main takeaway was that I found the material to be thin compared to A Garfield Christmas (a very deft mix of pathos and comedy). A few years ago, I tried again, and was able to appreciate the end result more on its own merits.

The Thanksgiving special is closer in tone to the comic strip, especially Garfield's weight battles (the scale, the vet, etc.), with the only attempt at sentimentality coming during the dinner sequence (which, similar to one moment in the Christmas installment, has a maudlin song which feels like it was originally meant for some other project). In theory the decision to lean into less warm-and-fuzzy elements, and to double down on Jon's stupidity, could alienate a viewer, but the writing never goes so far as to seem mean-spirited. The late addition of Grandma (the always delightful Pat Carroll) gets the tone just right, and is a strong example of how to add in a character without getting in the way of the strip's familiar dynamics.

To reply to an earlier comment about the vet - I would say it's made very clear that she does not go along with Jon out of coercion; indeed, she happily ignores his tantrum and only after he has collapsed does she casually accept his invitation. She goes on to mostly keep the relationship, if one can call it that, casual, with the biggest sign of progress on Jon's part being that she agrees to another dinner a whole year away. If we want to read into the relationship that much, then I'd suggest the brief double take a viewer might do when they realize the same voice actress (Julie Payne) also played Jon's mother - a very Freudian element for a fun family experience.