What makes this more than just any other cartoon series? What makes it better? What stops this writer, who is normally disinterested in cartoons, smile and enjoy it, rather than turn it off like any other example of the type except for the 'Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show'? Is it the warmth that people feel for Garfield the cat, Jon Arbuckle and Odie the dog? Is it the musical content, the occasional existentialism, or even the bursts of surrealness that creep in around the edges? Maybe it's all of those things and more, with some points taken away for the non-Garfield segment that is 'Orson's Farm'.
Reviewing 'Garfield and Friends', it's fascinating to see just how much they pushed the edges of what a kids cartoon series was supposed to be. There are musical segments, whole minutes pass by with Garfield stuck hanging from a branch, dream sequences, bursts of angst from the hapless Jon, and yet it somehow exudes a wonderful and warm sense of family. Well, it is a show based in the hit comic strip of Jim Davis, after all, the only strip that is even vaguely comparable to 'Peanuts', and it is built around an unconventional family. Even 'Orson's Farm' (aka 'US Acres') is build around a family too, and another unconventional one too.
The humour embedded in this show is lovely, even in 'Orson's Farm', which segment is always just a bit less sophisticated than the bracketing 'Garfield' bits. It's far more subversive than you might expect too, with jokes thrown in at levels you would never have been aware of as a child. Most of those jokes wouldn't land without the stellar voicework of Lorenzo Music, though. That guy was created to play a fat, greedy and laconic cat with a sketchy conscience. Thom Huge too was a magnificent Jon, pulling off the melancholic goofiness of the misfit that lives on the edge of some bizarre alternate universe of nervous collapse.
Looking back at the early episodes, highlights include 'Box O' Fun', in which Garfield imagines some adventures while playing with a cardboard box, 'Up A Tree' in which Garfield is stuck up a tree, and 'Nothing To Sneeze At', in which Jon has a terrible first date with Liz the sarcastic veterinarian. Those are all segments with a minimum of plot, and they all excel. Plot is what you bring on when you don't have characters! Bring on the existentialism, people, or bring on lasagna. It's a great little show, and it will be fun to work through the whole thing.
O.
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