''Garfield in the Rough'' is a 1984 American animated
television special
A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
based on the
Garfield
''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as ''Garfield'', it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his hum ...
comic strip. It once again featured
Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. The special was first broadcast October 26, 1984 on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
.
It has been released on
VHS,
LaserDisc and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
home video.
This is the third of twelve
Garfield television specials
The Garfield television specials are a series of twelve half-hour long American animated television specials based on the ''Garfield'' comic strip of the same name created by Jim Davis. All twelve specials were directed by Phil Roman, written by ...
made between 1982 and 1991. In this special, Garfield, Jon and Odie go camping.
Storyline
Garfield is living in a boring, black and white world, claiming that all the color has gone out of his life (which explains the subtitle at the beginning: "Please do not adjust your sets; all the color has temporarily gone out of Garfield's life"). Jon agrees that all the color has gone and suggests a vacation as a remedy. The color suddenly comes back into Garfield's life. He is excited that Jon wants to take him and Odie on
vacation
A vacation (American English) or holiday (British English) is either a leave of absence from a regular job or an instance of leisure travel away from home. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances or for specific festi ...
, where he imagines himself in places such as
Acapulco,
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. After realizing that each destination has its drawbacks, Garfield cheerfully concludes it doesn't really matter where they're actually going for their vacation, because in any case they won't be staying home. This joy is short-lived once Jon announces that they're going
camping
Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more na ...
, but Jon forces Garfield to go.
After a long, exhausting journey (from Garfield's point of view), the trio arrives at the campgrounds to check in, while Garfield immediately takes a dislike to one of the camp rangers for insulting him. After a few shenanigans at their campsite, including placing a live fish in the coffee pot, Jon finally gets his new "super deluxe"
tent set up, although the result doesn't really match the ad --- "The tent looked bigger in the advertisement," Jon glumly muses. Unlike Jon, who is very enthusiastic about it, Garfield doesn't take to the outdoors, stating that "it would be greater if it were inside". As night falls, the trio listen to a music program on the
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
, which is interrupted by a
news bulletin
Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a news, current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in ...
about a
panther
Panther may refer to:
Large cats
*Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis''
**'' Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards.
*** Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in So ...
that has escaped from a local
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
earlier that morning and been reported in the
Lake Woebegone area. Right after this news on the radio, the announcer says: "We now return to our regular broadcast of ''fun'' music." (It then plays "So Long Old Friend" from the
first Garfield TV special.) Believing the news, Garfield is terrified and wants to leave, but Jon assures him that Lake Woebegone is miles from their location and that they're perfectly safe. Following the announcement, Jon sings an old campfire song that his mother used to sing called "Camping is my Life" (while Garfield and Odie endure his
banjo playing) before the trio goes to bed. After they go into their tent, from a vantage point on the nearby hilltops, the panther comes out and growls as it eyes their campsite.
The next day, Odie wakes Jon up at the crack of dawn by licking his feet. This sends Jon rolling down the hill into the lake while still in his tent with Garfield in tow. At Garfield's suggestion that he "go and play with something poisonous", Odie runs into the nearby woods, passing a sign that reveals the woods to be Lake Woebegone, where the panther is lurking. The
forest ranger
A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a law enforcement person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks.
Description
"Parks" may be broadly defined by some systems in thi ...
s are hunting for the panther, and attempt to warn Jon to
evacuate, but after finding no one there, leave a note and move on. This proves unfortunate as a gust of wind kicks up after they leave, tossing the message into a recently extinguished
campfire
A campfire is a fire at a campsite that provides light and warmth, and heat for cooking. It can also serve as a beacon, and an insect and predator deterrent. Established campgrounds often provide a stone or steel fire ring for safety. Campfires ...
, where it burns up. Despite not hearing a man-eating beast growling in the night, Jon does find out that Garfield and Odie (to a lesser extent) have eaten all the food for the week, except for the
dried fruit
Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to th ...
, and goes off on a tirade. Meanwhile, Garfield heads through the woods to "wait for the heat to die down". While there, he starts to appreciate the beauty of nature, until he meets two forest animals named Dicky the
Beaver and Billy the
Bunny
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...
who warn Garfield about the escaped panther, claiming it has already attacked other forest animals. Odie appears, after scaring all but Garfield away by accident, and the two eavesdrop on the two rangers passing by with a
tranquilizer gun
A dart gun is an air rifle that fires a dart. The dart is tipped with a hypodermic needle and filled with a tranquilizer, vaccine, or antibiotic. A dart gun containing a tranquillizer is called a tranquillizer gun ( also spelled tranquilizer, tr ...
, hoping to capture the panther. The first ranger wishes that he had a weapon more powerful than his tranquilizer gun to hunt the panther with, but the second ranger assures him that one of the tranquilizer darts will be enough to knock out the panther. Garfield and Odie decide that now is the time to collect Jon and leave before they are possibly attacked by the beast, and the two run all the way back to the campsite.
Upon their return, Garfield tries to warn Jon of the danger, but Jon doesn't understand the warning (as Garfield can't talk), insisting that they have dried fruit and refuses to move. Garfield tries desperately to convince Odie to get into the car, warning Odie that they will be dead if they don't leave right away. However, the full moon comes into view and shines down on the camp, revealing that the panther has now entered their campsite and is approaching the trio as they look on in horror. Garfield runs up a tree while Jon and Odie hide in the tent, followed by the Jon's car as the panther tears the tent to shreds and then manages to break into the vehicle by smashing through a window. Scared but not willing to watch his family being killed, Garfield leaps from the tree and takes on the panther, clawing at its head and neck, only to be wrestled off. Garfield gets back up as the now-enraged panther begins to menacingly stalk towards him and lunges at him in an attempt to kill him, until the park rangers enter the campsite and subdue the beast with a tranquilizer dart. Jon congratulates Garfield for being a hero. The rangers come by and tell Jon that they were heroes too for saving Garfield from the panther, because if they hadn't made it there on time or if the dart had missed the panther, Garfield, Jon, and Odie would have been killed. Jon then announces that he feels they have had enough adventure and recommends they break camp and return to civilization, much to Garfield's joy. The rangers return the panther to the zoo, while Garfield, Jon, and Odie set off for home with Garfield bragging over how he took on the panther, as well as struggling to say, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
Cast
*
Lorenzo Music - Garfield
* Thom Huge - Jon Arbuckle
*
Gregg Berger
Gregory Alan Berger (born December 10, 1950) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jecht from ''Final Fantasy X'' and the ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'' games, Grimlock from '' The Transformers'', Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter from '' ...
- Odie / Ranger #1 / Radio Announcer
*
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt Jr. (born October 17, 1948) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom '' Cheers'' (1982–1993), which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Em ...
- Ranger #2
*
Hal Smith - Dicky Beaver
*
Orson Bean
Orson Bean (born Dallas Frederick Burrows; July 22, 1928 – February 7, 2020) was an American film, television, and stage actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was a game show and talk show host and a "mainstay of Los Angeles’ small ...
- Billy Rabbit
*
Desirée Goyette - Girl Cats
Songs
* "Get Me Some 'R and 'R" performed by
Lou Rawls
* "
Jarabe Tapatío
''Jarabe tapatío'', often referred to as the Mexican hat dance, is the national dance of Mexico. It originated as a courtship dance in Guadalajara, Jalisco, during the 19th century, although its elements can be traced back to the Spanish '' zamb ...
" (instrumental)
* "When I'm Out in the Rough" performed by
Lorenzo Music and Thom Huge
* "So Long Old Friend" performed by
Desirée Goyette
* "Camping is My Life" performed by Thom Huge
* "The Music of Nature" performed by
Desirée Goyette
* "Run-Run I'm afraid" performed by Thom Huge and
Desirée Goyette
* "Panther Showdown" (instrumental)
* "Get Me Some 'R and 'R" (instrumental)
Awards
* 1985
Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Animated Program
References
External links
*
*
{{EmmyAward AnimationLessThanHour 1979-2000
Garfield television specials
1980s American television specials
1980s animated television specials
1984 television specials
1984 in American television
1980s American animated films
CBS television specials
CBS original programming
Television shows directed by Phil Roman
Film Roman television specials
Television shows written by Jim Davis (cartoonist)
Emmy Award-winning programs