Southern Fried Nostalgia & Fandom: Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985) Review

Having been born in the late 1970s and growing up as a child in the 1980s, I've always been a huge fan of the popular American comic strips Peanuts and Garfield and their various television and holiday specials for as long as I can remember.

As a now 40-something pseudo-adult and a huge 80s nostalgia nerd, your favorite blogger has quite a physical media collection of many of these classics, some of which I watch as an annual tradition around the holidays -- including the subject of this article.

The 1985 holiday special Garfield's Halloween Adventure, directed by Phil Roman and written by Garfield creator Jim Davis, is the fourth of twelve Garfield television specials created between 1982 and 1991.

The special would go on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1986, along with another outstanding Garfield special, Garfield In Paradise (1986). It was also adapted as a 64-page illustrated children's book in 1985 by Random House Publishing Group, originally under the title Garfield in Disguise, but later re-titled Garfield's Halloween Adventure.

The special premiered on CBS television on Wednesday, October 30, 1985 at 8:30 PM EST following the annual showing of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966). This blogger was nine-years-old at the time.

The holiday special was then, and still remains to this day, one of my favorites to watch around my favorite holiday of the year. Garfield's Halloween Adventure is an interesting combination of humor and horror.

Sadly, unlike the ever-popular Peanuts specials shown on holidays, Garfield's specials are not shown on network television as much these days. However, you can find them on some streaming services and sites like YouTube.

Thankfully, I have a personal copy of Garfield's three holiday specials for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas on DVD in my home media collection to rewatch every year or two out of tradition and nostalgia.

The story beings with our favorite lazy, lasagna-scarfing animated feline, Garfield, asleep under his blue blanket in his cat bed when the television station morning broadcast starts the early morning off with the Binky The Clown Show. The ever-annoying Binky (voiced by actor Thomas Huge) wakes Garfield unceremoniously with his loud catchphrase: "HEEEEY KIDS!"

Fun fact: this is the first introduction to the character Binky The Clown in the Garfield universe. Binky's first comic appearances were on Monday, September 15, 1986 (shown in an ad) and Wednesday, September 17, 1986 (in person). The character would go on to play a prominent recurring role on television in the CBS Saturday morning cartoon series Garfield And Friends (1988 - 1994).

We all float down here, Garfield; and you will too!

Garfield (voiced brilliantly by the late Mr. Lorenzo Music, who portrayed the beloved character in animation from 1982 - 2001) is easily annoyed by Binky, who starts out making our favorite lazy fat cat do jumping jacks in his abrupt early morning haze. This annoyance is short-lived when Binky informs his audience that its now Halloween and tonight was the opportunity to get large sums of candy.

This leads into the first of four short lyrical songs in the holiday special, "This is the Night" performed beautifully by the late composer Louis Rawls as the intro to the holiday special plays.

All the music and lyrics to the short songs in the special were written by composers Desiree J. Goyette and Edgar "Ed" Bogas.

Desiree Goyette sang and composed songs for every Garfield television special between 1982-1989. Also serving as a voice actress, Miss Goyette provided the voice for several characters throughout the specials and the Garfield and Friends television series where she voiced Nermal the kitten. In 1993 she married fellow composer, Edgar Bogas.

Edgar N. "Ed" Bogas served as musical composer for both Garfield and Peanuts television specials from 1977 to 1989. He was also the composer for the Ralph Bakshi films Fritz the Cat (1972) and Heavy Traffic (1973), as well as several video games. He is perhaps best known for composing the popular music for Pinball Number Count (or Pinball Countdown) on the American educational children's television series Sesame Street, which was sung by The Pointer Sisters.

Following the opening song, Garfield muses about how simple Halloween is compared to other holidays....which this blogger happens to agree with him on.

The first act begins the next morning with our favorite orange tabby becoming very excited about trick-or-treating that day. So excited that he breaks out into random chants of "Candy! Candy! Candy! Candy!" and has to constantly steady himself. He encounters his owner, Jon, (also voiced by Thomas Huge) carving out a Jack-O-Lantern and practices scaring him, with easy success....then again Jon Arbuckle is not much of a baseline for masculine bravery.

Jon, you need to make it look more like this!

In his increasing greed for more candy -- which as we shall see grows throughout the whole first two acts of the special -- Garfield also tricks his fellow fur baby, Odie, into thinking dogs are required to help other cats trick-or-treat and give almost all of their candy to them, save one piece of candy for the dog. Odie being....well, Odie, is excited at the idea of the meager reward for essentially being an extra body.

Garfield and Odie then head up to the attic to find costumes in an old trunk. After considering a number of options with another awesome short song "What Shall I Be?" sung by Lorenzo Music along with a montage of various Halloween costumes, Garfield decides he and Odie will become pirates -- a role that Garfield more than gets into.

The first act ends with Jon making observation that the two of them look ridiculous, but then happily provides them with a pair of sacks for trick-or-treating. This ends with Garfield plundering the remains of Jon's lasagna before walking off scene.

Your lasagna, or your life, Arrrrgh!

The second act begins as Orangbeard The Pirate and his first mate, Odie The Stupid (aka Garfield and Odie) heading out that evening with their pair of sacks to pillage the village (aka trick-or-treating). This scene leads into the brief pirate-themed short song, "Over The Raging Sea We Go" again sung by Lorenzo Music.

When passing several costumed kids Odie expresses fear, but Garfield assures him the scary characters they see are only children in costumes. This starts the final short song of the special called "Scaredy Cat" performed beautifully by Lou Rawls and Desiree Goyette.

This scene also begins to take us into the more supernatural realm of the story.

When the song begins, Garfield and Odie encounter other costumed people, only to realize through unmasking them they are not what they appear to be: a ghost's white sheet with giant monster feet beneath; a goblin mask with a real goblin underneath; and finally  another white ghost sheet with nothing underneath. These scenes -- as well as Garfield and Odie's hilariously comical reactions to them -- serve to set up the real supernatural main even that takes place in the third act.

In spite of those brief run-ins, Garfield and Odie are now well into trick-or-treating, with a short but awesome montage showing their bags getting heavier and heavier with their cavity-inducing "booty" as they cover every house in the neighborhood. 

The pair soon arrive at the docks where Garfield notices more houses across the river. After an all-too-brief moment of self-reflection where he questions that he's probably being too greedy -- then dismisses this suggestion -- Garfield decides that him and Odie are going to cross the river on a commandeered row boat to visit more houses for even more candy.

Once on the water, they get caught up in the current. When Garfield tells him to put out the oars, Odie misinterprets the command and literally throws the oars overboard, leaving their pirated boat adrift as the current takes Garfield and Odie downriver into the foggy night.

Garfield contemplating the meaning of his life.

The third act of the holiday special has Garfield and Odie adrift on the river. Garfield is wallowing in self-pity as he vows to never pretend to be something that he isn't....that is until Odie spots a small island ahead and Garfield instantly reverts to his pirate captain persona.

Their boat arrives at an abandoned dock near a run-down mansion that sits in the middle of the small island. They venture inside the home thinking it's deserted (this despite the fact the fireplace has an active fire), but are suddenly startled to find a creepy-looking old man sitting in an armchair.

To be fair guys, this dude would have scared me too.

The old man tells them that they picked a poor night to pay a visit, then relates a very creepy story to them.

According to the old man, exactly one hundred years ago that very night, a group of pirates pursued by government troops, landed on the island and buried their treasure beneath the floor of the mansion. But before leaving, they signed an oath written in blood to return for the treasure at midnight a hundred years later, even if it meant rising from the grave -- which, understandably would had to have been the case anyhow.

The old man finishes by explaining that the pirates had a ten-year-old cabin boy and that he was that boy (which would make him 110 years old by the way); also that he never took the treasure because they would have found him.

This is more than enough for Garfield and Odie who start to leave. Garfield asks the man if he wants to come too, but he has suddenly disappeared -- stealing their boat (and worse yet, their candy! GASP!) leaving Garfield and Odie behind to their fates.

A minute later, the grandfather clock chimes midnight, and Garfield and Odie watch as a ghostly ship materializes on the river and pirate ghosts emerge from the water. Garfield and Odie hide in an empty cupboard as the ghosts reclaim their buried treasure from the floorboards of the house. As he and Garfield quietly hide, Odie lets out a big sneeze alerting the ghosts to their whereabouts.

Now, I have to tell you, as a nine-year-old kid, this nightmare-causing scene creeped me the hell out!

Yeah this scene caused 9 year old me a couple of nightmares.

The duo, having been discovered, make a mad run for it, out of the house and onto the wooden pier; the ghost pirates in hot pursuit. Garfield and Odie jump into the river to escape, where Odie has to rescue Garfield (who loses his pirate captain hat in the current) as he cannot swim. The managed to drag each other ashore far from the island and the pirate ghosts -- who give up the chase for whatever reason.

Garfield and Odie are then delighted to find their boat with the candy still inside nearby, so all's well that ends well. Our two furry protagonists get their sugary booty and go home happily, and the pirate ghosts got their treasure -- although what use a bunch of treasure would be to ghosts is not certain. Oh well, it was still a cool little diversion into the supernatural for the story.

In the epilogue, Garfield repays Odie's for saving his life by reluctantly -- as a great personal sacrifice of his part -- giving him his rightful half of the candy.

"Good evening, my friends..."

Afterwards, Garfield turns on the television and sees the old man from before, now wearing his lost pirate hat, and hosting an all-night pirate movie festival. Instead, Garfield turns off the television and decides instead to goes to bed for the rest of the night with his sack full of candy.

Overall, this holiday special is a real trick-or-treat for the whole family and still holds up really well today. I highly recommend it, though small children should be prepared for the scary pirate ghosts.