Garfield Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The Garfield Show (Fr. Garfield et Cie) is a French/American CGI animated television series that premiered in France on France 3 on December 22, 2008. English-language episodes started airing on Boomerang UK on May 5, 2009. Following a Halloween sneak preview, it premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2009 at 10:30am.

Synopsis[]

Garfield is a lazy, selfish, overweight, orange tabby cat whose main hobbies are chilling out, sleeping, watching TV, eating pizza and having fun... but yet he has a heart of gold and if at first he shows his usual self centered side, thanks to his engenuity he manages to save the day and gets even Odie out of trouble.

Premise[]

The Garfield Show is mainly about Garfield's usual antics and frolics, usually in function of his laziness and gluttony. It focuses on his quirky misadventures (more bizarre ones than from previous incarnations), while always highlighting the fat cat's love for lasagna. Garfield lives with his owner, Jon Arbuckle, and his owner's dog, Odie, in a detached two story house (as opposed to the one story house in the comics and other animated appearances). Often Garfield has to solve problems that he himself causes, yet always tries to skive off, and actually solves them in the end. The only absent comic strip characters are Irma (aside from a depiction in "The Caped Avenger Rides Again!"), Grandma Arbuckle, and Binky the Clown.

Much like the original series, Garfield began breaking the fourth wall more often as the series progressed, such as asking for the script for the episode, talking to the audience, behind-the-scenes drama, and mentioning cartoon traditions, such as instant healing. One difference from the original series, is that the series also started gaining continuity plots and story arcs. Morals and songs were occasionally added to the stories as well.

The show is described as "Everyone's favorite wise-cracking, lasagna-loving feline Garfield is back with his best friend Odie."

Production[]

Garfield headerimage

Based on the American comic strip Garfield, the series is executive produced by Garfield creator Jim Davis and co-written and voice directed by Mark Evanier, who also wrote most of the episodes for the previous series. Returning from Garfield & Friends are the voice actors Julie Payne and Gregg Berger as Odie and Liz. Frank Welker and Wally Wingert reprise their roles from the CGI films as Garfield and Jon, due to Lorenzo Music's death back in 2001, and Thom Huge's retirement that same year. Audrey Wasilewski and Jason Marsden also return from the CGI films as Nermal and Arlene. Also returning is David Lander, reprising his role as Doc Boy Arbuckle from A Garfield Christmas. The show is produced by Dargaud Media. The show is directed by Philippe Vidal and the music is done by Laurent Bertaud and Jean-Christophe Prudhomme.

Being primarily a French production, the show had its premiere in France in December of 2008, almost a year before it managed to get a deal with Cartoon Network for airing in the United States. As such, with Cartoon Network usually a season behind with their showing of the episodes, French viewers had access to new episodes of the series almost a year before English-speaking viewers did.

The first three seasons were first run on Cartoon Network from 2009 to 2012, with reruns later airing on Boomerang. Boomerang premiered the fourth and fifth seasons from 2015 to 2016. A sixth season was under discussion;[1] according to Jim Davis, Garfield Originals was made as the sixth season of The Garfield Show.

Music[]

Music 1: Music 2: Music 3: Music 4: Music 5: Music 6: Music 7: Music 8: Music 9: Music 10: Music 11:

Episodes[]

The Garfield Show
Main article: List of The Garfield Show episodes
Season Episodes Start Date End Date
1 52 02/11/2009 23/12/2009
2 52 13/12/2010 06/12/2011
3 52 04/09/2012 05/10/2012
4 54 06/10/2015 02/09/2016
5 4 24/10/2016 24/10/2016

Reception[]

The Garfield Show has received mixed reviews. The series has a 6.0 user score on Metacritic indicating mixed reviews.

Common Sense Media gave the show 3 stars out of 5, saying "Infamous cat's antics are fun, if not exactly message laden."

Kevin Carr of 7M pictures gave the show 2 stars out of 5 stating that the animation felt unpolished compared to the direct-to-video movies and that the show was full of "throwaway stories" because it "aims for a more kid-friendly presentation of the fat feline." He concluded his review stating he preferred "old-school cel animation as the week-to-week series CGI looks too much like cheap video game emulations, but I’m not the target market of these things".

Justin Felix of DVD talk gave the show 2.5 out of 5 stating that "The Garfield Show isn't some great work of art, but it efficiently delivers cartoon animal fun that little kids would probably enjoy. The animation is a tad rudimentary and clunky at times, but it's good enough to pass muster for cartoon fare of this type."

Mike Gencarelli of Media Mikes gave the show 3.5 out of 5 stating "it doesn’t compare to the classic Jim Davis cartoon but it is all we have right now."

The series has a 3.8 score on Metacritic touting unfavorable reviews. On IMDb, the show has a rating of 5.3 out of 10, and 5.2/10 on TV.com. 93% of Google users liked it. June Foray won the Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for her work on the show.

Video game[]

International airings[]

France[]

United States[]

Austria[]

  • ORF eins

Belgium[]

  • RTBF

Bosnia and Herzegovina[]

  • O Kanal

Brazil[]

  • Rede Record
  • Cartoon Network

Canada[]

  • Radio-Canada (French)
  • YTV (English)

China[]

  • Kaku BTV
  • CCTV 14 (Kids)

Hong Kong[]

  • TVB

Denmark[]

  • DR

Spain[]

  • Boing

Finland[]

  • YLE TV2
  • Cartoon Network

Germany[]

  • Cartoon Network
  • KI.KA

Greece[]

  • STAR

Hungary[]

  • Boomerang
  • RTL Klub
  • Cartoon Network

Indonesia[]

  • MNCTV
  • Cartoon Network

Ireland[]

  • TG4

Italy[]

  • Boomerang
  • Boing

Japan[]

  • Cartoon Network

Poland[]

  • Boomerang
  • Cartoon Network
  • Polsat

Portugal[]

  • Cartoon Network
  • RTP2
  • Boomerang

Philippines[]

  • Yey!

Romania[]

  • Boomerang
  • Cartoon Network

United Kingdom[]

  • Boomerang

South Africa[]

  • Boomerang

Serbia[]

  • Ultra
  • DexyTV

Sweden[]

  • Cartoon Network
  • Boomerang

Switzerland[]

  • TSR

Middle East[]

  • JeemTV

North Africa[]

  • JeemTV

Russia[]

  • Boomerang

Home video[]

Main article: Home Media of The Garfield Show

Streaming[]

  • Seasons 1-4 are available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
  • The first two seasons were available on Netflix from 2011 to July 1, 2017. Both seasons returned on March 15, 2018, with Season 4 premiering on February 1, 2019, and Season 3 premiering on November 1, 2020. The first two seasons were removed from Netflix on June 30, 2023.
  • The Garfield Show has two YouTube channels. The first one launched on September 3, 2009 and was removed at some point between October 2011 and March 2014.[2][3] The second YouTube channel was launched on July 24, 2015.[4] As of January 2023, it contains every episode of the series.[5]

Legal issues in Italy[]

After the broadcast of the second season in Italy, the Neo-Bourbon Movement and the Two Sicilies Parliament denounced the series for the Italian dubbing of Harry with a Neapolitan accent.[6]

Trivia[]

  • This was the first Garfield television series to be made in France. The second was Garfield Originals.
  • The French title "Garfield et Cie" means "Garfield & Company".
  • This is the second Garfield television series, and the first to feature computer graphics.
  • Pre-recorded dialogue, such as laughing and screaming, are often used for characters (particularly main ones).
  • The theme song is occasionally heard in episodes, mostly during chase scenes.
  • The series was featured twice on the 2012-2014 revival of Cartoon Planet, both times on holiday-oriented episodes. "Caroling Capers" was shown on the December 16, 2013 episode, and "Turkey Trouble" on December 19, 2013.
  • A photo of Garfield in his 1970s design can be seen several times in the show.
  • Several references to Garfield and Friends are made in this series. Among them are:
    • The movie Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage, originally mentioned in "Video Airlines".
    • The Klopman Diamond which was a running gag in the original show is mentioned several times.
    • Name That Fish, featured in "The Binky Show".
    • A verse from "Friends Are There", which appears on a mug in one episode.
    • Binky the Clown, who is mentioned twice in this series, both alluding to his absence.
      • In "Blasteroid", Garfield states that he is not allowed on the show. This was also mentioned on the show's official website.[Citation needed]
      • In "Cupid Cat", Garfield asks the audience if they remember Binky; he is skeptical that they do.

Gallery[]

Concept art[]

The blogger Erikolor was an artist for the show and has shown some of his work.

Places[]

Others[]

Miscellaneous[]

Modelling[]

The staff Pierre-Elle-Ferran was a 3D modeler for the show and has shown some of his work.

3D character modeling[]

Laurence Trouve, the show character modeler, has shown her work on her blog.

Season 4 concept art[]

The blogger Benoit Prevot was an artist for Season 4 for the show and has shown some of his work.

References[]

External links[]

Advertisement