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The Great Inventor is the third segment from the seventy sixth episode of the fifth season of Garfield and Friends.
Synopsis[]
Garfield tells the story of how lasagna was invented.
Plot[]
Garfield narrates how great inventors were inspired by their cats, citing examples like Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone to order pizza for his cat, Thomas Edison creating the lightbulb so his cat wouldn’t watch TV in the dark, and Benjamin Franklin’s pot-bellied stove design inspired by his cat’s insults. Garfield claims the greatest invention, lasagna, was influenced by a Roman cat named Cicero and begins the tale.
In Ancient Rome, 11 1/2 A.D., Cicero’s owner, Jonah, was an architect more passionate about cartooning. One day, while sketching comics instead of plans, a centurion caught him, and Jonah was thrown in the dungeon. Knowing his master couldn’t feed him, Cicero enlisted his friend Odious Maximus to help free Jonah. They sailed to Emperor Voracious the Great’s palace to appeal for Jonah’s release.
Emperor Voracious faced his own issue: no food satisfied him. After scolding a servant for unsatisfactory food, the emperor’s advisor reminded him that all royal chefs were thrown to the lions. Amidst this, Cicero and Odious were caught sneaking into the palace but managed to crash into Voracious, landing in a fountain. Cicero convinced the emperor that Jonah could cook the best meal in the kingdom, leading to Jonah’s release under the threat of being thrown to the lions if the meal was unsatisfactory.
With Cicero’s guidance, Jonah mixed his cat’s favorite foods and baked them. The emperor loved the dish, pardoned Jonah, and made him his personal chef, giving him time to draw cartoons. Jonah named the dish lasagnium. Garfield concludes by explaining that lasagnium, Latin for “a stewpot of mixed foods,” is now known as lasagna, and cheekily adds that lasagna is better than the lightbulb.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Garfield
- Alexander Graham Bell (voiced by Gregg Berger)
- Thomas Alva Edison
- Benjamin Franklin (voiced by Thom Huge)
- Cats (the Bell's one and the Franklin's one voiced by Lorenzo Music)
- Orson (television cameo and galley detail)
- Legionnaires, including palace guards and centurions (one of the latter voiced by Neil Ross)
- Advisor (voiced by Gregg Berger)
- Ancient Roman citizens, including Jonah's prison mate, architects, oarmen, and a palace servant
Trivia[]
- Most of the history presented in this episode is generally accurate. One exception was Alexander Graham Bell, who was Scottish-born.
- The insult "Go fly a kite, Franklin." refers to the famous Kite experiment Benjamin Franklin did perform in 1752.
- The pocket sundial Cicero used is similar to a real life version used by the Romans.
- Upon farewelling Jonah inside the dungeon, Cicero mentions the end of the Byzantine era which did occur 1442 years after the episode's setting.
- When Odious Maximus complains that he is not a horse, Cicero replies that he is not Ben Hur himself. It is a reference to a 1959 movie directed by William Wyler.
- Voracious mentions Marco Polo as he sent him to get Chinese food from China.
- The story about inventing lasagna in Ancient Rome has apparently been made up for the episode, however. The meal appeared in Italy during the Middle Ages, and the recipe was not set down before the early 14th Century.
- Orson's head is shown as a ship sculpture on the galley the convincts are handling.
- The majority of the ancient Roman soldiers seen in the episode move in one pace - by running in the Skip A running form. Only the centurion approaching Jonah for the first time moves in a standard walking gait.
- Despite lacking weapons (see below), the Roman legionnaires are otherwise depicted accurately in their service attire.
- Jonah's ideas to put hot dog stalls and an entertainer in a chicken outfit would reflect the colosseum being maintained in the primarily way baseball stadiums in the United States are run.
Goofs[]
- The palace guard, who spots Cicero and Odious Maximus crossing the wall, plays a bugle call on his simple valve-less trumpet. In reality, playing such a tune requires a trumpet with valves, which were designed long after the collapse of Ancient Rome.
- Cicero loses his yellow lip area when he crashes with Odious and the emperor into the fountain.
- Historical errors:
- The cartoon mistakenly refers to ordinary ancient Roman soldiers as "centurions". A centurion in the ancient Roman army was a commanding officer leading a military unit. Privates from the ancient Roman army are properly called "legionnaires".
- The ancient Roman soldiers throughout the episode appear unarmed. The legionnaires should be carrying spears, short swords, daggers, and large rectangular shields, while actual centurion would be equipped with a short sword, the same shield as enlisted men, and a vine staff as a symbol of authority.
- Marco Polo was born in 1254 AD, not during Ancient Rome.
- There were no pizza parlors during Alexander Graham Bell's time when he first invented the telephone.
- Televisions were not yet invented when Thomas Alva Edison invented the first light bulb.