Uknighted Manganime Life is too short to watch bad anime

Before I start this review, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the subject of comic-to-animation, especially regarding older comics like Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible and even… yes, Garfield.

In most of these cases, animation conversions fails, losing most of the spirit of the comics. I’m not sure why. Maybe the whole transferring three or four panel comics to the animation medium doesn’t work as easily (regardless of what you AzuDai fans out there might say ^^;; ) or maybe adding voices to an otherwise silent cast didn’t work. (It ruined the Pink Panther, at least.)

Peculiarly enough, Garfield as an animated series just works. Starting off with “Here comes Garfield” in 1982, there has been made a lot of 23 minute animation specials right up to 1991 (or 1995, if you count the Garfield and Friends show.) A Garfield Christmas was made in 1987, and it’s this title I’m about to cover here.

And so it starts. Oddly enough, Lorenzo Music (the voice of Garfield , who unfortunately died in 2001) sounds a little off at the start, though I might just chalk that off to this being a dream sequence. Anyway, the show starts with Garfield dreaming about what he might consider to be the ultimate Christmas, mostly because it feeds upon his need to receive things. Curiously enough, I’ve never really seen him care about gems, as they’re pretty much inedible. But then, he’s always been more about indulgence than outright greed, so I stand corrected from my own statement.

Anyway, he naturally receives a huge-ass present, because everyone knows that size counts…. on Christmas presents (and hardness. And I’m sorry about the sexual innuendo. Won’t happen again… I think. ^^;; ) The gift, which disturbingly happened to resemble an electric chair — especially when the santa hat places itself on the head of whoever sits in it — is a rather curious device that is able to give the viewer anything they wish. And let’s admit it, who haven’t wished for something like that at SOME point in their lives?

Yep, it’s a Christmas special. It gets more sentimental later on, I promise.

Waking up a sleepy Garfield can’t be the most pleasant task in the world, but Jon seems to be able to do so with practiced ease. I guess it helps that Jon’s totally excited about heading off for the family for Christmas eve, so with much muttering and complaining, Garfield complies and they head off (with a song for the road.)

Safely arrived, it doesn’t take Odie long to start on whatever nefarious plans he’s got in store for whoever’s lucky enough to be the target. Knowing Odie, that can’t be good.

Christmas dinner, which was a pleasure. For all parts involved.

And with food in their bellies, the Arbuckle family gets started on the biggest task on Christmas eve (save for getting Garfield out of bed); the decorating of the Christmas tree. Naturally, being countryfolk means doing things the hardest way possible, so there was quite an amount of ruckus going on. Grandma, on the other hand, despite being the definitely spryest of the lot, seemed to prefer sitting in her chair grumbling, which suited Garfield just fine. However, when it was time to put the star on top of the tree, that’s when Garfield got the chance to show his qualities. (As they were.)

And the results…?

As the family celebrates the completion of the tree with some singing, Garfield once again hops over to Grandma’s lap for some quiet time. Appreciating the sentiment, Grandma goes into the story of Christmas eves passed, when her husband were still alive. This is where A Garfield Christmas goes somewhat sentimental, though hardly as corny as near the end. It’s a lovely scene, really.

After the singing session, it’s once again time for…. “Binky the clown saves Christmas”. It’s kinda neat how Jon and Doc-boy seems to take the whole “embarrassing dad” situation with great enthusiasm as he grumbles over still having to do this now that the boys are all grown up. And mom seems to be quite clueless about the whole situation.

Later that night, as everyone went to bed, Odie sneaks off into the night. Amazingly (as in ‘conveniently’) enough, Garfield also wakes up to see him sneak off into the barn. Sneaking after him as not to be discovered, he notices Odie building some contraption and foisting it off somewhere. Deciding that discretion is the better part of secrecy, he tries to sneak down, but ends up falling down and toppling over a box that earlier was his hiding spot. And falling out of the box and on Garfield’s head, a bunch of letters finds their way down.

Doc-boy’s pajamas is disturbing enough even before I realized that he’s pretty much wearing an adult size one. You can buy those in adult sizes?

Anyway, ’twas the next morning, and everyone was out and about, throwing themselves into the present pile. I have no idea what mom ended up getting, but aside from Doc-boy getting a toy plane, the rest (Jon’s and dad’s) seems to be pretty much novelty size clothing. Now, the hat I can understand, but why knit a sweather several sizes too large for a fully grown man?

Garfield had them all beat, though, when he uncovered the letters he found last night and subsequently handed them over to Grandma. As it turned out, they were old loveletters from back when they were courting each other, and, naturally, they brought many old memories to the surface and made old Grandma a very happy person. Not to be outdone, Odie stepped out to the podium and presented Garfield with the fruits of his nefarious labors; a back scratcher. This earned himself a hug from Garfield (awww) and so everyone rounds up the episode with a song. The end.

Final words:
Looking back at this and other Garfield cartoon specials, I realize that, no matter how bad the recent movies may be, I am grateful for their existance. They might very well be at least part of the reasons why all the old cartoons have gotten DVD releases. And, like I mentioned, neither this particular special, nor the others, will ever be known for their awesome animation. It’s certainly not bad, though, and despite some occational icky background art (especially in Garfield in the rough), the cartoons generally hold true to the original comic strip in spirit.

Thus, A Garfield Christmas definitely fits in among the general sentimentality that I like seeing in Christmas specials. Maybe it’s just the idea of spending this time with the family, eating perhaps the best dinner of the year and just relaxing that sits so well with me. It’s this sentiment that might not be readily apparent in the beginning of A Garfield Christmas (rather the opposite, in fact), but that’s the note it ends off on, and that’s why it’s a worthy watch this Christmas and all that may follow.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy new year.