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The Garfield Show

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The Garfield Show
GenreComedy
Adventure
Based onGarfield by Jim Davis
Developed byPhilippe Vidal
Robert Rea
Steve Balissat
Directed byPhilippe Vidal
Voices ofFrank Welker
Gregg Berger
Wally Wingert
Jason Marsden
Audrey Wasilewski
Julie Payne
ComposersLaurent Bertaud
Jean-Christophe Prudhomme
Country of originFrance
United States
Original languagesFrench
English
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes156 (aired) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersJim Davis
Robert Rea
ProducersKim Campbell
Marie-Pierre Moulinjeune
Mark Evanier (supervising)
Running time22 minutes (Two 11-minute stories in each episode)
Production companiesDargaud Media
Paws, Inc.
Original release
NetworkFrance 3 (France)
Cartoon Network (U.S.; 2009–2012)
Boomerang (U.S.; 2015–present)
ReleaseNovember 2, 2009 (2009-11-02) –
present

The Garfield Show (French title Garfield et Cie) is a French-American CGI animated television series that premiered in France on France 3 on December 22, 2008. English-language episodes started airing on Boomerang UK on May 5, 2009. English-Language episodes started airing on Boomerang Africa on November 7, 2009. It premiered on YTV in Canada on September 13, 2009 at 8:00am. The series then began airing weekdays at 2:30pm starting September 7, 2010. As of May 30, 2011, The Garfield Show was removed from YTV's schedule, but returned on September 6, 2011 at 1:10pm. When YTV revamped their schedule for early 2012, The Garfield Show was once again removed and it has not aired in Canada since. It premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2009. As of November 18, 2011, The Garfield Show was removed from Cartoon Network's schedule. It returned on September 4, 2012 for the third season. The series was removed from Cartoon Network's schedule again on November 2, 2012, three years after its debut on the network. It aired again from September 30, 2013 to May 2014. Boomerang started airing the series on February 4, 2013, with the fourth season premiering on October 6, 2015.

Based on the American comic strip, Garfield, the series is executive produced by Garfield creator, Jim Davis, and co-written and voice directed by Mark Evanier, who also wrote most of the episodes for the Garfield and Friends series. Returning from Garfield and Friends are the voice actors Julie Payne (Liz) and Gregg Berger (Odie). Frank Welker replaces Lorenzo Music (due to his death in 2001) as the voice of Garfield, and Wally Wingert replaces Thom Huge (due to his retirement that same year) as the voice of Jon Arbuckle. Also returning is David Lander, reprising his role as Doc Boy from the earlier Garfield prime-time special A Garfield Christmas Special (1987). The show is produced by Dargaud Media and Paws Inc.[1] The show is directed by Philippe Vidal and the music is composed by Laurent Bertaud and Jean-Christophe Prudhomme.

Plot

"Everyone's favorite fat cat Garfield returns to television in this new CG animated cartoon. To celebrate his 30th anniversary, every one of your favorite characters return too. Jon, Odie, Arlene, Nermal, and more return in the new series as well."[2]

The show features very loose continuity and is set in a different universe to the previous Garfield cartoon: Garfield and Friends however the show sometimes makes references to the previous one. Unlike the previous cartoon, Liz is now considered a main character and has official relationship with Jon to reflect their current status in the comic strip. The Garfield Show also reestablishes Arlene as Garfield's potential love interest, as in the comic strip, replacing Penelope from the previous cartoon; despite being touted as a main character, her actual role in the series is relatively minor.

The Garfield Show also features many new characters that are part of the regular cast such as Vito: an Italian chef whose cooking Garfield enjoys and Squeak: Garfield's mouse friend that lives in Jon's house (replacing Floyd from the previous show). Unlike Garfield and Friends the U.S. Acres segments are omitted and the characters from that comic strip make no appearances.

Development

The Garfield Show is a CGI series that started development in 2007 to coincide with the strip's 30th anniversary the following year premiering in France the following year.[3]

Following the previous animated series of Garfield that debuted in 1988, many of the crew members would return to work on The Garfield Show.

Lorenzo Music was replaced by Frank Welker in this series due to Music's death in 2001 while Wally Wingert replaced Thom Huge as Jon and Jason Marsden replaced Desirée Goyette as Nermal.

Characters

Further information: List of Garfield characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

  • Eddie Gourmand - a famous overweight food critic. His opinion on restaurants has a major impact on their success. He often crosses paths with Garfield, as they both enjoy Vito's cooking.
  • Dr. Whipple - a recurring antagonist who while helping others is usually out of his own gain. Garfield often foils his plans.
  • Professor Thaddeus Bonkers - a mad scientist who is really intelligent and yet really foolish as his inventions/discoveries always lead to disaster but he dismisses it as the world "not ready for his genius".
  • "Doc Boy" Doc Arbuckle - Jon's brother who owns a farm. Jon always teases him by calling him "Doc Boy" much to his irritation.
  • Squeak - a mouse that lives in Jon's home unbeknownst to Jon. Mice are the one thing Garfield doesn't like to eat so instead he friends him and all his mouse friends which often proves to be beneficial to Garfield.
  • Aunt Ivy - Jon and Doc Boy's bossy aunt that often harasses Jon whenever she comes to visit. She doesn't like anything and likewise it is hard to find anything that likes her.
  • Vito Cappelletti - an Italian chef who owns his own restaurant. Vito is a very ambiguous character either highly appreciating Garfield for saving his business often or determined to prevent Garfield from stealing his lasagna or pizza.
  • Harry - a stray cat that lives in Garfield's neighbourhood. Harry is another ambiguous character that is sometimes acts as Garfield's friend and sometimes antagonizes him.
  • Drusilla and Minerva - two annoying twins that like to dress up any animal they come across and usually Garfield falls victim to this. They are hinted to be either Jon's cousins or nieces but even they don't seem to know and claim that he's "some relative" of theirs.
  • Herman Post - the mailman that works in Garfield's neighborhood. Garfield often plays pranks on him for "delivering nothing but bills" much to his dismay however to his delight, he continues to get a higher salary for doing his job as other mailmen are too scared of Garfield to take his place.
  • Al the Dog Catcher - a clumsy dog catcher who is often fired for incompetence only to be rehired as seemingly no one else can do the job any better.
  • Pete the Dog Catcher - another dog catcher that sometimes acts as Al's associate. Usually they are hired together to catch Garfield and Odie.
  • The Evil Space Lasagnas - an alien race of living Lasagnas that try to conquer Earth but after witnessing Garfield's ravenous appetite for lasagna they are too fearful.
  • Hercules - a mean chihuahua "with a bad attitude" who is actually a troubled loner deep on the inside. He sometimes hangs out with Mademoiselle Fifi, the chihuahua belonging to Jon's boss.
  • Mr. Barker - Jon's former boss who commissions Jon's comics. He is a nice, yet often demanding, person.
  • Mr. Allwork - a lawyer and businessman who acts as an antagonist. He usually tries to come up with schemes to make him self richer but has a soft spot for his son Jack.
  • Esmeralda Brubaker - a museum curator who prioritizes science over any person's individual life. She'll stop at nothing to get what she wants and usually finds a way to do so legally.
  • Neferkitty - leader of an ancient tribe of cats that once tried to take over the world and were banished to another dimension. Garfield tricks her into entering the human world alone where she is forcibly adopted by Liz's annoying niece Heather who renames her "Fuzzbutton" much to her chagrin. Since then she swears vengeance on Garfield and Odie.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Garfield Show episodes
SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast airedNetwork
1262 November 2009 (2009-11-02)23 December 2009 (2009-12-23)Cartoon Network
22613 December 2010 (2010-12-13)28 June 2011 (2011-06-28)
3264 September 2012 (2012-09-04)5 October 2012 (2012-10-05)
4276 October 2015 (2015-10-06)2 September 2016 (2016-09-02)Boomerang
Special24 October 2016 (2016-10-24)

Cast

French voices

  • Gérard Surugue - Garfield, Additional Voices
  • Bruno Choël - Jon, Additional Voices
  • Gilbert Levy - Squeak, Additional Voices
  • Véronique Soufflet - Arlène, Dr. Liz Wilson, Additional Voices
  • Marc Saez - Nermal, Additional Voices
  • Philippe Bozo - Harry, Additional Voices
  • Eric Missoffe - Eddie Gourmand, Additional Voices

English voices

  • Frank Welker - Garfield, Eddie Gourmand, Cleaning Robot, Evil Space Lasagnas, T3000, Paddy, Additional Voices
  • Gregg Berger - Odie, Squeak, Harry, Herman Post, Omar the Genie, Additional Voices
  • Wally Wingert - Jon Arbuckle, Al the Dog Catcher, Hercules, Additional Voices
  • Jason Marsden - Nermal, Vito, Liz's Father, Pete the Dog Catcher, Professor Bonkers, Additional Voices
  • Julie Payne - Dr. Liz Wilson, Liz's Mother, Mom Arbuckle
  • Laura Summer - Drusilla & Minerva the Twins, Additional Voices
  • Audrey Wasilewski - Arlene, Gloria, Newscaster

Additional voices

Video game

A party video game titled The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna, was released in July 2010 for the Wii. It includes over 12 minigames and supports the Wii Balance Board and Wii Motion Plus. The game was critically panned for its short length, lack of interactivity and monotonous gameplay.[5]

Reception

Despite receiving more episodes than usual for an animated series, The Garfield Show has received mixed reviews. Common Sense Media gave the show 3 stars out of 5, saying "Infamous cat's antics are fun, if not exactly message laden."[6]

Kevin Carr of 7M pictures gave the show 2 stars out of 5 stating that the animation felt unpolished compared to the direct-to-video movies and that the show was full of "throwaway stories" because it "aims for a more kid-friendly presentation of the fat feline." He concluded his review stating he preferred "old-school cell animation as the week-to-week series CGI looks too much like cheap video game emulations, but I’m not the target market of these things".[7]

Justin Felix of DVD talk gave the show 2.5 out of 5 stating that "The Garfield Show isn't some great work of art, but it efficiently delivers cartoon animal fun that little kids would probably enjoy. The animation is a tad rudimentary and clunky at times, but it's good enough to pass muster for cartoon fare of this type."[8]

Mike Gencarelli of Media Mikes gave the show 3.5 out of 5 stating "it doesn’t compare to the classic Jim Davis cartoon but it is all we have right now." [9]

The series has a 3.8 score on Metacritic touting unfavorable reviews.[10]

References

  1. ^ "The Garfield Show – Studios". The Garfield Show Diary.
  2. ^ "The Garfield Show". TV.com. CBS Interactive.
  3. ^ "AWN Headline News". Animation World Network.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Evanier, Mark. "Why I Haven't Been Sleeping Lately…". NewsFromMe.com. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  5. ^ "The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna". IGN.
  6. ^ "The Garfield Show". commonsensemedia.org.
  7. ^ "7M Pictures - 'The Garfield Show: Pizza Dreams' DVD Review". 7M Pictures.
  8. ^ "Garfield Show: Odie Oh!". DVD Talk.
  9. ^ "DVD Review "The Garfield Show: Holiday Extravaganza"". mediamikes.com.
  10. ^ "The Garfield Show". Metacritic.

See Also

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