Garfield Gets a Life (1991) Online

As a child of the 80s, I grew up on the Garfield of the mid-80s-mid 90s: the Christmas special, "Garfield and Friends," and the like. I never saw this special before, and after seeing it, I knew this was Garfield as I know and love him.

This special is featured as the third episode on the DVD "Garfield as Himself." I took home the DVD from my video store job to watch the weekend before it came out. I watch it at work on Saturdays, and this one always cracks me up.

Jon Arbuckle needs a life. His days are filled with invigorating tasks like counting ceiling tiles and organizing the sock drawer. So he tries several approaches to meeting women--renting at a video, doing laundry at the laundromat, going to the beach ("I can't seem to find my muscles!"), and even going dancing to DISCO music. All fails, and he takes Garfield to a self-help group for people without lives, run my Lorenzo, a guy who sounds like a televangelist on TV, and a little timid man in person. There, he meets Mona, and actually gets a life, while Garfield...well, doesn't.

This special is pretty funny. I have only seen several other Garfield specials--the Christmas one, Garfield On the Town, and Here Comes Garfield (both are also on the DVD), plus I watched the cartoon series non-stop for 7 years (and in reruns now). At 21, I find the humor to be quite refreshing and silly. Garfield is sarcastic, and his point of view is classic. I love the voice--Lorenzo Music is so hard to compete with. It's a shame he isn't around to have done the voice for the movie (which I still haven't seen yet!). I think what makes this work is the animation--it has the best animation of the DVD specials. The other two look like Peanuts specials from the 1970s (same producers from the Peanuts cartoons on the two other DVD specials). Not that its a bad thing, but the animation certainly took a huge overhaul.

My favorite parts are the disco scene ("Wave your paws/Shake your tail"), where Jon finds out that disco died ("What? When?"), the self-help group session when Garfield gets paired up with a loser, and Garfield clinging to the back of the car window in a parody of the famous suction-cup plushes from the 80s. Remember those? But for me, the topper was the laundromat, where Jon hits on a woman by saying about her panties "I couldn't help but notice your little frilly thingy. Are you a ballerina?" and the woman says sarcastically "Why yes I am. I couldn't help but notice the teddy bears on your boxers. Are you a dweeb?" while Garfield smiles and says sarcastically "Why, yes he is!" Classic!!!

This is a good special. I highly recommend picking up "Garfield as Himself" on DVD to see it (it will probably be the only place its available, if only to rent. It's a cute diversion, and I think its worth every moment. It certainly helped me feel better!

In this TV special Jon is the one who needs a life. The highlight of his day is counting the tiles on the ceiling and rearranging his sock drawer. Not content with this forever, Jon takes Garfield to a self help group in order to meet people. How many people will be interested in a loner 20-something who's best friend is a cat?

After several failed attempts at getting a girl, including one cringeworthy dance scene that rivals David Brents' fusion of Flashdance and MC Hammer in The Office (Disco's dead?, says Jon), he is more than shocked to find a cute girl who is as much as a jerk as himself.

Naturally, they get on but Garfield is worried that John will forget about him and prefer having kids to a cat. Fortunately Jon's new girlfriend is allergic to cats.

With slicker animation than past TV specials, this feels like a longer episode of Garfield and Friends.

On an ordinary day, Garfield and Jon Arbuckle are more bored than before.

Jon Arbuckle finds out that he doesn't have a life. And decides to do something about it by making better use of himself like going to night clubs and finding a woman to be with.

Unfortunately he doesn't have what it takes as he still thinks Disco was still in style, and gets a beating when flirting with women. Garfield accompanies him and just watches him fail every time.

So Jon Arbuckle decides to get some help at a Social center to learn how to be an out standing guy and what not. But will it really be worth it? This is pretty much a Jon Arbuckle TV movie, but the sarcasm of Garfield and performances of Frank Welker makes this one worth viewing. The last of the Garfield TV movies but it's still a memorable one.

Although something of a child at heart, with loving animation even more as a young adult and still loving many childhood favourites (even more so with some), the broader my film taste and knowledge has gotten have found myself harder to please over-time. Have found that time has not been kind to some childhood favourites, but it has been kind to the ever funny and endearing Garfield, 'Garfield and Friends' and his numerous specials. With understanding the humour more and finding more to like and appreciate, actually like them even more now.

Having said that, 'Garfield Gets a Life' is for me not one of the best Garfield specials/television films, of which it is the final one. This is not meant in a bad way, it's still good and does the character justice, just that others, particularly 'Garfield in Disguise' and 'A Garfield Christmas Special', left more of an impression on me and stuck with me more. Found them, and pretty much the rest of the other specials/television films, funnier, more emotionally impactful, more memorable and more interesting story-wise, not saying that 'Garfield Gets a Life' isn't any of those things, we are just talking in comparison with the others. Regardless of whether it is one of the best or not (and for me it's a lesser effort, again comparitively) , it does deserve to be better known.

'Garfield Gets a Life' is slight in story, playing more like an extended television episode that would have fitted well with some tweaks in the writing on 'Garfield and Friends'. Perhaps it is a little too Jon-heavy, Jon has always been an appealing and likeable character and he is both here but Garfield and Odie have also always been far more interesting as characters and their material stronger.

As said, other Garfield specials are funnier, have more heart (though neither are in short supply certainly) and stick in the mind longer, the writing is generally fine but some of it for Jon could have had more personality perhaps.

With all of that being said, there is a lot to like about 'Garfield Gets a Life'. The animation is still as colourful as remembered with the generally smooth drawing, far from sparse backgrounds and attention to detail holding up really well, in terms of animation as far as the specials go it's to me one of the slicker-looking ones. The music is as ever pleasant and infectious.

One is not short-changed when it comes to the entertainment value, with the humour (pretty much all of it coming from Garfield) being wry and amusing. This is not something that was made with no soul or care either, while there is plenty of fun and affectionate atmosphere. Garfield is so easy to love and has great comic timing, while Odie is adorable. Can never get enough of their chemistry. Have no qualms with the voice acting, Lorenzo Music has never been bettered, or even equalled, as the voice of Garfield. Frank Welker also sounds like he is having fun.

In summary, good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I never hoped that this cartoon series would run out of ideas, hopefully...until I saw "Garfield Gets A Life." What started out as a typical classic, with cool music and good characters, but it turned out to be the worst. This must have been on the edge of the SEINFIELD Era of comedy. Let's face it, you can't make a cartoon out of nothing.

This should have been GARFIELD MEETS THE SUPPORT GROUP. Jon decides to join a support group to get "a life". Garfield also goes and that's where I'll stop. The supporting characters are NNOOTT FFFUUNNYYY!!! Even Garfield's humor doesn't make sense!!

How could they do this to Garfield??!!!

As a person with symptoms of Asperger's syndrome who has trouble establishing and maintaining relationships, one might think that I'd be able to relate to this 1991 Garfield special featuring Jon struggling with social interaction. But of the three Garfield specials on the Garfield as Himself DVD, I'd say this is the weakest. In it, Jon's life is dull and he's feeling bored. He tries to meet people, but fails to find any friends or girlfriends. Eventually he sees an ad for a school that could help him develop more personality, and there he meets a nice woman who has some of the same social problems as Jon. But the relationship won't develop much since, unfortunately, she's allergic to Garfield.

This special tries to find humour in what is dull, but the risk of that is that the special might prove more dull than funny. Although some of the humour here works, the sock talk at the beginning of the special is more dull than funny and the same can be said of Jon's dance, which goes on a bit too long. If you want to laugh at losers, I'd suggest 30 Rock with its main character Liz Lemon; that show manages to be funny without being boring in part because of its faster pacing, in part because of its colourful supporting characters. With Garfield Gets a Life, Garfield is a stronger character than Jon, but this special is a bit too Jon-heavy.

On a side note, it's interesting to note this special has a bit of Canadian content: Garfield watches a TV show with a Mountie, he finds another TV station which plays O Canada, and at the special school the teacher suggests his students learn Canadian English. Not bad.