Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that "Garfield and Friends" was a bad show, far from it. But even though "The Garfield Show" gets a lot of criticism, especially in comparison, while "Garfield and Friends" is almost considered a classic these day. I think that "The Garfield Show" is also a very good animated television series, only in its own way.
Of course, "The Garfield Show" has its flaws. The animation could have used some additional work, Garfield's mouth moving while he speaks does look odd at times, some jokes are pretty childish even for the children's show, and the 4th wall jokes are overused (though I will elaborate on that later). I'm not denying that. But there are many good things about it too. Very good things.
Here are some of the things that I really liked about it:
- Smooth and often subtle use of dark humor and comedic sociopathy (mostly coming from Garfield), with a heavy dose of dry sarcasm. Though it is often said that "Garfield and Friends" had more edge, "The Garfield Show" still did a pretty good job, while still keeping the show appropriate for the intended audience. A good example of that can be found in 1x2 "Orange and Black". In that episode, Garfield decides to go trick and treating for Halloween, and disguises himself as Catzilla, a tiger-like beast that has recently been added to the local zoo. While Garfield is out that night, Catzilla escapes from the zoo. Garfield later gets to his house and sees Catzilla sneak in, but before he can react, the animal control catches him, mistaking him for the real Catzilla, and take him to the zoo. While in the cage, Garfield proclaims: "I'm not Catzilla, he's in my house, about to chop up Odie and that guy who cooks my lasagna!"
Another good example, though more of a satire than dark humor, can be found in the episode 2x24 "Parrots Blues". It is about an intelligent and talkative but pessimistic parrot that keeps informing random people about various bad news, soon resulting in the entire neighborhood feeling heavily depressed. Jon and Garfield confront the parrot about that, wanting to know how it ended up being that way. The parrot leads them to the TV and turns on the news program that it regularly watches. The camera slowly moves away from the TV and on to the Garfield, Jon and the parrot as the news start.
The anchor starts the news with: "Good afternoon. It's four o'clock and I'm still depressed by the six o'clock news. Our top headline: today in the world, this h
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Garfield says multiple times that he cannot be understood by people, but Jon, the Witch, and if I remember correctly Vito has heard and responded to things Garfield has said. In the comics I know Garfield can't speak and rather acts loudly but in the show what are the rules??
Does anybody know the name of this episode from The Garfield Show? Garfield watches a scary vampire movie where the vampire has puffy cheeks. Then, Jon gets his wisdom teeth removed, which causes him to have puffy cheeks, so when he gets home Garfield gets scared and basically locks him in a coffin. Please, if anybody can track down this episode, tell me.
https://preview.redd.it/fq0q3gp6x4f31.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b009b9f0f132b206e8dff851e956c96b4bfe0ee
Garfield has accumulated quite a few ridiculous feats over the years. If we treat all his strips as canon, who is the strongest character he can beat?
Highlights and some other stuff I found on the garfield website
Strength:
Picks up Jon and stuffs him into a kitty container
Is able to bite through steel, clinging onto an ice cream van
Smashes numerous objects when they disrupt his nap time, including an ice cream truck
Causes his house to collapse by slamming a window shut
Launches Odie skywards with a punch. Claims to have sent him to the moon.
Tosses Nermal into the sky, with the intention of throwing him to the moon.
Durability:
Speed:
When properly motivated, can exceed the speed of sound
Can move FTL over short distances
Stomach feats:
Eats a ton of food in a short amount of time without any visible effect
Toonforce:
Incinerates Jon after eating a chilli pepper
[Bends r
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Artifact is mentioned twice in this article.
#1:
>“With Bunny Kingdom, Treasure Hunter and Monster Carnival I was looking for more drafting,” Garfield suggests. “With Half Truth I was looking for a trivia game that didn't intimidate players.”
>
>This effort has ventured outside of cardboard, with Garfield working on several digital games over the years. One of the most recent and prominent is Artifact, the much-anticipated digital card game based on the highly popular multiplayer PC game Dota 2.
>
>“In general I like working on paper games much more than digital games because of the number of people involved and time it takes,” Garfield says. “Digital design allows some radically more complicated mechanics, but often the simpler mechanics work better and it is easy to use the computer as a crutch.
#2:
>The format has also generated controversy in both the real and virtual worlds, with accusations of requiring players to spend money to hunt for particular cards and the constant ‘power creep’ that eventually makes older cards less viable against newer sets. (Artifact was heavily criticised for its “pay to win” reliance on purchasing cards and packs, leading to a significant drop-off in players just months after release.)
>
>Other concerns surround the way that a game such as MTG’s ‘meta’ - an evolving list of card combinations, play styles and deck types determined by the community - can be dominated by a relatively small number of the game’s cards, forcing players to learn how to build a Magic: The Gathering deck in a particular way to remain evenly-matched in tournaments and fork out for the valuable cards needed.
P.S.: I love the intro:
>Nobody wants to play the games of Richard Garfield more than Richard Garfield.
>
> “What often drives my game design for publication is games that I would like to play but can't find,” Richard Garfield says.
