Christmas Review – “A Garfield Christmas Special”

With one week left in the countdown, we bring you the
world’s most overmarketed fat cat.

Cast and Crew

Lorenzo Music as Garfield

Thom Huge as Jon

Gregg Berger as Odie

Written by Jim Davis

Directed by Phil Roman

Complete information is
available from this
IMDB
page
.


Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca.
This DVD release includes the Christmas,
Thanksgiving, and Halloween
specials.

Past TV reviews can be found here.

Original Airdate


This special first aired in 1987.

Synopsis

Jon and Odie drag Garfield out to the farm for a
good, old-fashioned
Christmas with Jon’s family.

High Point

Odie obtains the plunger handle.

Low Point

Garfield in general bugs me, as everyone responds to
Garfield’s
“dialogue” when he isn’t actually saying anything.
That’s true of all
Garfield stuff though; the one that bugs me the most
about this
particular special was his rather sudden change of
heart at the end.

The Review

A grumpy guy finds the Christmas spirit. Wow, that’s
original. I give it 3 out of 6.

The animation captures Jim Davis’ art style
well, but it’s
not terribly well animated. (There are colouring and
timing errors, a
tail drawn too close to the spigot to allow for a
body and the like.)
I give it 3 out of 6.

The story is amusing, but the change of
heart at the end is
just too sudden. I give it 4 out of 6.

The voice acting was pretty good. Lorenzo
Music was the
perfect voice for Garfield, Odie sounded just like a
real dog, and Jon
wasn’t too bad, either. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response was pretty good.
There were amusing
bits within the flawed package. I give it 4 out of
6.

The production was passable, but not
terribly impressive.
There were sound effect synchronization issues, a
lack of interesting
camera choices, and so forth. I give it 3 out of 6.

Overall, it’s an entertaining holiday
special, but not one of
the ones I occasionally pull out and watch in
mid-July. I give it 4
out of 6.

In total, A Garfield Christmas Special
receives 26 out of 42.