Garfield's Thanksgiving

Garfield's Thanksgiving is a 1989 American animated television special based on the Garfield comic strip. It once again featured Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield.^[1] The special was first broadcast November 22, 1989 on CBS and was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards. The events of the special take place during the second season of Garfield and Friends. It has been released on both VHS and DVD home video. On overseas DVD copies of Garfield's Holiday Celebrations, this special is replaced with Garfield in the Rough.

This was the tenth of twelve Garfield television specials made between 1982 and 1991.

Plot

Garfield checks the calendar date one morning and discovers that he has an appointment with the vet that day. When he removes the date hoping to make Jon forget, he notices that tomorrow is Thanksgiving and instantly demands Jon to buy the food for Thanksgiving dinner. Jon Arbuckle agrees, but takes Garfield to the vet on the way home from the supermarket, making him panic.

While at the vet, Dr. Liz Wilson examines Garfield, while Jon tries to talk her into going out on a date with him. Liz reports Garfield is "healthy as a horse" but, out of concern for his weight, is putting the cat on a strict diet, to Garfield's dismay. Jon threatens to suffocate his way through the rest of the visit until Liz says she'll go out with him. When Garfield and Jon simultaneously faint, an exasperated Liz agrees to the date out of annoyance, and Jon invites her to his house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Back home, Jon is excited that Liz is coming over, but Garfield is absolutely miserable at being put on a diet. After eating half a leaf of

The next morning, Garfield is even grumpier than usual, but Jon pays him no mind as he begins preparing the

In the kitchen, Jon is faced with a still frozen turkey and admits defeat in his attempt to cook dinner. Garfield manages to convince Jon to call Grandma, who arrives seconds later and shoos Jon out of the kitchen. As Jon distracts Liz by giving her a history lesson about Thanksgiving (and Liz dozes off), Grandma proceeds to cook the meal: she cuts the still-frozen turkey into slices with a

• Lorenzo Music as Garfield
• Thom Huge as Jon Arbuckle
• Gregg Berger as Odie
• Julie Payne
  as Dr. Liz Wilson
• Pat Carroll
  as Grandma

Songs

• "Make Thanksgiving One Whole Meal" by Lou Rawls
• "It's a Quiet Celebration" by Desirée Goyette

Book adaptation

The book adaptation, which retains the original title "Garfield's Thanksgiving," deviates in the following ways:

• Odie and the scale are not involved in Garfield's torment, and Jon – too deliriously happy about having Liz over for Thanksgiving dinner – is ignorant to the fact that Garfield is in misery. Garfield is also weak and suffers from insomnia, resulting in a sleepless night.
• Garfield does more and even worse things to sabotage Jon as payback for not being able to enjoy the meal, adding dish detergent to the vegetables and salt to the pumpkin pie, slyly adding with the latter that "the Devil is making (him) do this." When Garfield sees the ruined food after he is taken off the diet, he declares, "What have I done?"
• More of Jon's ruined Thanksgiving dinner is shown. In the end, the turkey did not thaw, the sabotaged vegetables are bubbling from the detergent, and the pie he made is burnt. Jon is also the one to decide to call Grandma without needing Garfield to offer the idea.
• At the end, there is no mention of any new diets. Odie and Garfield simply sit comfortably with their full bellies as Jon sees Liz out the door, the three agree unanimously that they have Grandma to thank.

Production

• Created by Jim Davis
• Written by Jim Davis and Kim Campbell
• Original Music by Ed Bogas and Desirée Goyette
• Produced and directed by Phil Roman
• Recording Engineer Gary Clayton

References