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"Halt! Officer Odie orders you to stop and help!"
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The Automated, Animated Adventure is the first segment from the seventy-third episode of Garfield and Friends.
Synopsis
When Jon wants to make a cartoon series about Garfield, an animator uses the opportunity to demonstrate new computer animation.
Plot
At the Arbuckle residence, Jon thinks of the idea of a cartoon show about a cat. He asks Garfield to model for him. Garfield does various non-cat like poses, prompting Jon to go find a picture of a typical cat. Jon, Garfield and Odie go to Mr. Sprocket's Animation Studio to show Mr. Sprocket the idea. Mr. Sprocket expects the character to do extraordinary things; when Jon tells him what the cat actually does, he tells Jon that children do not want to watch shows about cats. Mr. Sprocket offers to show Jon the animation studio. Jon thinks that they still draw with artists before Mr. Sprocket reveals that only have a computer for that job. Jon asks if the cartoons are better and gets a negative answer. Mr. Sprocket goes to the computer, where hands appear and drag Garfield into a glass case to digitize him.
He appears on a screen as a computer image. Mr. Sprocket changes Garfield's appearance, with Jon and Odie dislike the alterations. Jon asks Mr. Sprocket to change Garfield back, much to Mr. Sprocket's annoyance. In a scenario, Garfield is shown with choppy, slow animation before Mr. Sprocket fixes it. Mr. Sprocket tells Jon that he will show him how to make Garfield more interesting. Garfield appears in space as "Space Feline", a futuristic cartoon about a cat saving the galaxy from martian marauders. He is shot at before he goes to his own giant laser which has no batteries. The laser is destroyed as Garfield starts to flee from the martians. Jon orders that Garfield be changed to another cartoon, which Mr. Sprocket heeds.
He changes Garfield to a scenario in the jungle, with Garfield as an explorer. After Jon realizes that Garfield is in a lost valley, Mr. Sprocket reveals that dinosaurs are in the scenario. Garfield flees, before Jon begs Mr. Sprocket to change it again. Mr. Sprocket suggests different cartoons before Jon tells him that he just wants a cartoon about a normal cat. The machine starts to break down as different scenarios play while Mr. Sprocket tries to stop it. The machine's arms pick up Mr. Sprocket and put him in the glass case. The machine eventually explodes with Garfield outside the computer. Jon phones the police. When the police come, they can find no trace of Mr. Sprocket as Jon tries to tell him he has become a cartoon. A policeman tells Jon to go home as they will phone him if they find anything.
Jon complains that the police did not believe him before realizing that the idea for the cartoon was not that great. As they walk past, two children are watching a cartoon from in front of a TV shop. They are bored at the cartoon as Mr. Sprocket is revealed to be in the cartoon as he runs from a dinosaur.
Characters
Major Characters
Minor Characters
- Announcer (voiced by Gregg Berger)
- Uncle Ed (mentioned)
- The Buddy Bears (cameo appearance)
- Cop (voiced by Brian Cummings)
- Firefighter
- Boy (voiced by Thom Huge)
- Girl (voiced by June Foray)
Trivia
- The plot of the episode would be reused, in updated form, for "The Non-Garfield Show".
Cultural References
- When Garfield is being reformatted into a new cartoon look, among the models used are Felix the Cat, Bart Simpson from The Simpsons, and He-Man from Masters of the Universe.
Garfield as He-man.
- At one point, Mr. Sprocket proposes making "Baby Garfield" as part of "the newest trend in cartoon shows". This alludes to the then-current trend of spin-offs featuring younger versions of classic characters, such as Muppet Babies (which was mentioned in a previous episode), Tom and Jerry Kids, and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
- There would later be a line of merchandise featuring baby versions of Garfield.
- Some of Mr. Sprocket's cartoon proposals allude to Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The first is Scooby-Doo, while the second is based on Cattanooga Cats.
- This is a first for the show to showcase different types of animation.
