| Here Comes Garfield | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation |
| Directed by | Phil Roman |
| Produced by | Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez |
| Written by | Jim Davis |
| Starring | Lorenzo Music as Garfield |
| Music by | Desirée Goyette and Ed Bogas (music and lyrics), Lou Rawls and Desirée Goyette (vocals) |
| Country | United States |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Release date | October 25, 1982 |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
Here Comes Garfield is a half-hour animated television special based on the Garfield comic strip. It featured Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. The special was first broadcast October 25, 1982 on CBS. It has been released on both VHS and DVD home video.
Contents |
Garfield and Odie are outside harassing a neighbor's dog when the owner Hubert calls the pound to capture Odie. When the dogcatcher arrives, Garfield flees, but Odie is too stupid to run away and is captured. Garfield decides to go home, but when he attempts to warn Jon about Odie, Jon thinks Garfield is just suffering fleas and Garfield gives up telling Jon, but realizes how boring life is without Odie around, so that night, Garfield decides to rescue Odie. However, Garfield is caught and thrown into the pound, and learns from a cellmate that Odie is going to be put to sleep in the morning.
During the night, a depressed Garfield remembers through flashbacks of the all good times he and Odie had playing together and how sad his life would be without him. The next day, Odie is taken down the hall to be euthanized. Later, a girl arrives at the pound for a pet and chooses Garfield. Garfield realizes his plan to escape with this and when the cell opens, Garfield runs out the door instead of the girl. The girl just watches in shock as the rest of the dogs escape the way Garfield did. Garfield leads the dogs on a stampede towards the dogcatcher carrying Odie. Garfield and the dogs eventually rescue Odie and break down the pound door, with the knocked-out dogcatcher on it. As the pets run home, Garfield and Odie knock down the front door down while Jon is attempting to fix it after Garfield and Odie knocked it down from the beginning. In the end, Jon bets that Garfield and Odie did things in the night while he worried about them, and Garfield and Odie agree.
There was a soundtrack for Here Comes Garfield released on LP and cassette on Epic Records. It featured songs from and inspired by the television special. Some of these tracks were re-released or re-recorded on the Am I Cool or What? CD.
"So Long Old Friend" is also referenced in Garfield in the Rough and Garfield in Paradise.
The animation for this first Garfield special and the second one, Garfield on the Town, came from the famous Peanuts cartoon team of Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, giving them a look similar to the Peanuts cartoons. All future specials and the popular Garfield and Friends TV series were animated by Film Roman studios. Also, Jon was voiced by Sandy Kenyon, which his voice would later be taken by Thom Huge.