Garfield As Himself (TV)
Picture: C- Sound: C- Extras: D Program:
B+
With the release of the
new, yet disappointing Garfield the
Movie, Fox has decided to go back and collect three short Garfield films
and put them together in a single disc DVD collection called Garfield As
Himself. The three short films
include Garfield on the Town, Here Comes Garfield, and Garfield Gets a Life, which are all
based on the sketched in the earlier books from Jim Davis. These were originally TV specials, which
have not been on in quite some time and even Garfield the TV show has been off
the air for years, which might get it’s second wind with the new explosion
hitting because of the new film. Sadly
enough, the new film does no justice for the true Garfield, but hopefully
people will go back to the series and watch the lovable fat cat as he should be
seen… NOT DIGITAL!
I know as being a fan of
Garfield I was excited to see these since it’s been quite some time and having
them on DVD, well need I say more? However,
I was a bit disappointed with the overall presentation with this release and it
seems like a rush job to get the material onto DVD, which is not
acceptable. First we have the DVD
presented in the materials original 1.33 X 1 full frame aspect ratio, which is
lacking in much detail and the colors are all over the place. Usually it is harder to critique certain
animated features because colors can range just due to the artist and the
original source, which makes the presentation inconsistent, but the problem
here seems to be a poor transfer in general.
What you will quickly
notice is the color scheme is very bright and vibrant, which is fine, but
colors tend to bleed as well, especially the red’s and the orange on Garfield,
which bleeds into the black or other colors such as background blues or
greens. Audio is yet another problem as
the programs are only in mono, which is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, but contains a
lot of static and extra noise, especially once characters start talking, which
is a sign that this is a problem in the original source and that is in need of
cleaning before a decent transfer can be done of the audio track.
Most fans will just be
glad to have this material on a format like DVD, but might be slightly
disappointed with the overall presentation the lack of extras as well. This is a nice starting point for kids or
younger adults not familiar with Garfield, but this is not the stopping point
since a lot of other material exists out there as well for your entertainment
dollar.
- Nate Goss
