Crime and Nourishment is an episode from the second season of Garfield and Friends.
Synopsis
Garfield's picnic basket is stolen by strange underground creatures who use Italian food as currency.
Plot
Garfield, Jon and Odie are having a relaxing day at the park. Garfield charges toward the picnic basket; to his shock, he finds Jon foresaw what he would do and put a padlock on it. He goes to play catch with Odie and tells Garfield not to let anything happen to the picnic basket...or else. Garfield wonders what he meant by that and imagines being forced to eat only raisins for the rest of his life via a courtroom case. So, he decides to wait it out with a nap.
While Garfield sleeps, a little green creature comes out of the tree he is resting under and takes the basket back into the tree with him. Garfield catches a whiff of the lasagna and sees what happened. He knows Jon will not believe him, so he decides to get the basket back. He goes down a long flight of stairs and discovers there's an underground city of little green people. He looks around for the basket until one of them gives him some money for food. He goes to a restaurant; despite having the cash, the waiter kicks him out.
He runs into the one that took his basket and corners him. The creature confesses that he deposited it in the local bank and explains that Italian food is the currency of his kind and money is actual food to them. They go to the bank where they find the basket. Garfield grabs it and eats a lasagna, forgets that they consider it to be currency. He runs out with the people chasing him; he slows them down by tossing some of the lasagna out while they all rejoice in the riches he gave them.
He makes it back to the park and seals the entrance. Jon and Odie come back and find the basket to be empty. Garfield knows Jon would not believe what he went through and shows him the money the creatures gave him. Rather than spend it on actual food, he shoves some bills in Jon and Odie's mouths, then eats some himself.
Characters
Main characters
Major characters
- Underground Person #1 (voiced by Gregg Berger)
Minor characters
- Jon
- Odie
- Underground Person #2 (voiced by Thom Huge)
- Underground Waiter (voiced by Jim Davis)
- Underground Person #3 (voiced by Thom Huge)
- Underground Banker (voiced by Gregg Berger)
- Underground People at Bank (voiced by Gregg Berger, Jim Davis Thom Huge, and Lorenzo Music)
Trivia
Cultural references
- The underground people resemble The Smurfs.
- Upon arriving at the underground city, Garfield notes that he's "not in Kansas", referencing The Wizard of Oz.
Music