After enduring a lousy, third-class plane trip to Paradise World, Jon Arbuckle and Garfield (who had to be passed off as Jon's son while on the plane) find that the place is the complete antithesis of Hawaii. Instead of first-class accommodations and white, sandy beaches, they find themselves in a rundown motel where everything falls apart at the slightest touch, there's no water in the pool, the nearest beach is not within miles, and the desk clerk does nothing to hide the fact that he's a con artist. As it turns, Odie is also along for the bumpy ride, as he stowed away inside Jon's suitcase, and when they get fed up with the hotel, they decide to rent a car and take a trip to the nearest beach. They rent the one car they can find, which turns out to be a very nice Chevrolet Bel Air and they head out to the beach. After some fun in the sun, they're about to go somewhere else, when the car begins to drive by itself, taking them to a native village inhabited by the "Ding-Dongs," a tribe forever stuck in the 1950's due to having learned English from watching a bunch of surf movies and also from the influence of a 50's teen rebel-styled visitor known only as "the Cruiser." The Cruiser drove a car just like their rental and the villagers immediately begin worshiping it. During their stay, the chief, Rama Lama, who speaks perfect English, introduces them to his daughter, Owooda, and her cat, Mai-Tai. Needless to say, Jon and Garfield become enamored with these native beauties, but this romance may be destined for a tragic end, as the volcano becomes restless and Owooda says that she and Mai-Tai must sacrifice themselves in order to stop the impending eruption.
As in Garfield in the Rough, Garfield (voiced by Lorenzo Music) has to put up with a lot of crap when Jon drags him along on the trip to Paradise World. First, he has to endure being dressed up as Jon's son in order to sit with him on the plane, complaining, "What am I, a piece of luggage?" He holds up his tail and adds, "What's this, a handle? If that's the way you feel about it, why didn't you just stick a stamp on my face, cancel my bottom, and mail me to Paradise World?" Second, he's put through a bumpy, third-class flight to the place when he'd rather be taking a first-class trip Hawaii. Third, once they arrive at the motel, they find that the place is in complete shambles and the desk clerk full-on admits that their brochure lied about the place being close to the place and that he's a con artist. Once they get into the room, they find that Odie stowed away inside Jon's suitcase, prompting Garfield to grumble, "Well, this is just ducky. One minute, I'm sitting happily at home minding my own business, next thing I know, I'm traveling third class with a fourth-class owner to a fifth-class motel to sleep with a sixth-class mutt." When the motel pool turns out to have no water in it, they rent a car and drive out to the beach, which is when Garfield starts to actually enjoy himself, as he effortlessly floats in the water, explaining, "Fat floats," and buries Odie in the sand up to his ankles (face-down, mind you). But, after only being there for a little bit, he decides he wants to leave, since he's really hot because of his fur, and suggests they go for some cruising. But, instead of cruising, their car takes them to the village of the Ding-Dongs, where they initially think they're in trouble; fortunately, the villagers worship their car and they get in good with the village chief, whom Garfield takes a liking to. He takes even more of a liking to Mai-Tai, a village cat who's actually happy he doesn't do much besides eating and sleeping, since she finds the constant activity of the other villagers to be monotonous. But, no sooner are they getting acquainted than Mai-Tai's owner, Owooda, the chief's daughter, reveals that she and Mai-Tai must sacrifice themselves in order to appease the volcano, which is threatening to erupt. Garfield, however, doesn't have many qualms about letting them do so, telling Mai-Tai, "It's been real. Write when you get a chance," and when Jon says he can't believe they're going through with it, Garfield says, "Well, better her than us." But, when the car is the one that ends up getting sacrificed, seemingly along with Odie and Monkey, the village idiot, Garfield is sad about having apparently lost his buddy. But, of course, they're both fine and are hailed as heroes, with Garfield closing the special out with, "I love happy endings. Why don't we do this again next year?"
In stark contrast to Garfield, Jon (voiced by Thom Huge) is often trying to look on the bright side of things, not seeming to understand that this crappy vacation is a perfect definition of, "You get what you pay for." He's hesitant to admitting that they're sitting in third-class and, when he finally has to say it out loud, the stewardess treats him with complete disrespect when she tells him where his seat is. As they walk back there, he moans, "Why can't I get any respect, Garfield?", to which Garfield answers, "When you travel, you must pay for respect, my friend." Upon sitting down, he tells Garfield that he should enjoy flying, as it's a, "Smooth and comfortable way to travel," but Garfield points out the vomit bags. When they arrive in Paradise World and their luggage is basically dumped off the plane right next to them, Jon remarks, "Hey, that's service for you!", and Garfield grumbles, "Jon, you'd look on the bright side of a train wreck! That was no service, that was assault and battery on our suitcases!" It's only when they get to their motel and he sees how awful the place is and what a slime-ball the desk clerk is that he realizes this vacation is a bust, a notion that's further driven home when the pool turns out to have no water in it. Deciding to be in control of their own destiny, Jon rents a car and he and the pets drive out to the beach, where they finally manage to have some fun. But, they're not there too long before Garfield makes it clear he wants to leave and he and Odie persuade Jon to take them cruising. That's when the car brings them to the village of the Ding-Dongs and is promptly worshiped by the villagers. They then meet Rama Lama, who tells them the legend of the Cruiser, who came to their village in the 50's, taught them the ways of the world, and who sacrificed himself and the car to the volcano in order to save them. While Jon doesn't know what to think about this, he's more than happy when he's introduced to Owooda, the chief's lovely daughter, and the two of them immediately become smitten. But, that doesn't last long, as the volcano begins to threaten another eruption and Owooda says she and her cat must sacrifice themselves in order to stop it. As despondent as he is about it, Jon doesn't do anything to stop her, but then, it turns out the volcano wants the car, and just like Garfield, Jon is quite sad when it looks like Odie and Monkey were sacrificed along with it. But, that turns out to not be the case and Jon takes them back to the village as the tribe celebrates.
The desk clerk (voiced by Frank Nelson) at the motel Garfield, Odie, and Jon stay at is immediately shown to be a skeevy, untrustworthy con artist who, when Jon asks which way the beach is, responds with, "What beach?" Jon then asks, "This is the seaside motel, isn't it?", and the clerk answers, "Mr. Arbuckle, what's in a name?" Jon brings up that the brochure mentioned easy access to the beach and the clerk answers, "By helicopter, maybe," and lets out an obnoxious laugh, before telling them of the pool out back, neglecting to mention that it has no water. And, unfortunately, when the boys decide to rent a car and drive to the beach, they have to deal with this guy again at the car rental agency. He claims that the motel clerk is his brother but whether or not that's true or if it really is the same guy is never made clear. Regardless, he gives Jon the same kind of run around with this exchange: "We'd like to rent a car." "But, what kind of a car would like?" "What've you got?" "We have one car." "Then, why did you ask me what I would like?" "Well, I was hoping you wanted that one." Before he shows it to them, he mentions that it's a vintage model, with a few "personality quirks," but when they see how lovely it is, they take it without any question. This character is built around Nelson's popular persona on Jack Benny's radio and television shows, complete with his smarmy, "Yeeeees?" greeting. More to the point, when Jon mentions that they have a reservation for the cheapest room, the clerk mentions, ""Oh, that would be the Jack Benny suite."
A couple of other noteworthy Ding-Dongs are Pigeon (voiced by Gregg Berger) and Monkey (voiced by Nino Tempo). Pigeon is this little short guy with glasses, a mustache, a curly mat of hair on his head, and wears a tank-top and shorts, the latter of which are constantly drooping down and showing a bit of his butt-crack. I'm guessing he's supposed to be like the village shaman or something but, whatever the case, he talks in a virtually incoherent mixture of native speech and 50's slang. For instance, when he warns Rama Lama about the volcano's impending eruption and it wants the Chevrolet Bel Air, he says it like this: "Da' volcano no like the wahine, he like the five-seven. He no get him swift, he gon' boda' everybody!" And, when he goes to tell Monkey and Odie that they better hurry up with the repairs on the car, he says, "Hey, hey, hey, you buggas, make swift wit' da' wheels. Da' volcano like the car mos koshi or he gon' blow everybody out da' other side!" It's supposed to be quirky and funny but it tends to grate on my nerves. As for Monkey, he's the village idiot whom Rama Lama orders to fix the car. When he's first told to do so, he starts drumming on the hood and chanting in the natives' tongue, before Rama Lama raises the hood for him, and he's threatened with death if he doesn't get the car fixed by dark. He and Odie then spend almost the rest of the special trying to fix the problem, Monkey, at one point, saying he believes there's an evil spirit in the distributor cap when it sparks after Odie touches it. When he learns that the volcano is about to blow, he complains, "Well, that's just great. First off, I get told that if I don't fix the car, I'm gonna lose my head. Now, he tells me, if I don't get the car started in thirty seconds, I'm gonna lose my life, too!" With that, he and Odie do everything they can to fix the car and they manage to get it running and drive into the volcano's crater. Everyone laments their apparent sacrifice, but when they crawl out of the crater unscathed, Monkey commenting, "Boy, we gotta fix those brakes!", they're hailed as heroes and carried back to the village by the celebrating Ding-Dongs.
Owooda (voiced by Desiree Goyette) is only meant to be eye-candy and another of the many, many potential love interests that Jon has had in his sad existence. Unlike most women, she's actually genuinely smitten with Jon when she meets him, so much so that the two of them sing a duet about their newfound love as the sun sets behind them. Her cat, Mai-Tai (voiced by Julie Payne), also serves the same function for Garfield and is not at all put off by his extreme laziness, much to his surprise. Her reasoning is, "All the guys here ever do is surf and dance and play volleyball. That gets a little old after a while." But, when the volcano is threatening to erupt, Owooda tells Jon that she must throw herself into the crater, saying that it's written that only the sacrifice of the village's princess can appease the volcano... as well as the princess' cat, meaning Mai-Tai has to go through with it as well. Like I said earlier, while Jon is horrified at this, Garfield seems more than willing to let the girls go through with it, commenting that it's better than him and Jon having to do. But, fortunately, when Owooda is about to jump in with Mai-Tai, the volcano blows them both away with its rumbling, leading to the Pigeon figuring out that it wants the Chevrolet Bel-Air instead.
Animation-wise, there's nothing that noteworthy about this special, save for a moment of fairly fluid movement during the songs at the beginning, Hello, Hawaii, and in the middle, Beauty and the Beach, another when Garfield thinks he sees a shark, and instances during the climax; on the design spectrum, however, it's very well-done. As Garfield in the Rough did with the forests, this one does a good job of conveying the look and feel of a tropical resort island, with a lot of color, a lush feel to the palm tree-filled backgrounds, a richness to the white sands and deeply blue water, and the straw huts of the Ding-Dong village. Everything especially looks nice when there's a sunset in the background, like in Garfield's fantasy about being a well-loved entertainer, akin to Don Ho, in the actual Hawaii (in the close-ups of him singing, the background becomes a nice pastiche of water colors, with yellow and orange), and during Jon and Owooda's love song following their meeting, as they're given a lovely orange tinge in the color palette and, in the case of the latter, it has that lovely, late evening glow about it. There's also one really noteworthy image seen during Rama Lama's story of the Cruiser saving the Ding-Dong village, which is of actual firework blasts superimposed over the drawing of the volcano. However, as pretty as the special is, it also doesn't skimp on the shadier aspects of the trip, such as the crappy-looking third-class section of the plane they take and the rundown, sleazy motel they stay at. With details like missing chunks in the background's walls, holes in the carpet, and a lampshade and bedspread that look like they've seen better days, it adds a lot to the feel of the place when combined with the room's door falling in, the bed collapsing when Garfield jumps on it, and the pool lacking any water. The car rental agency is just as unappealing, with more cracks in the walls, frayed edges on them, and a back door that's hanging off the hinges.
That leads into something I notice about this special: for a Garfield cartoon, it has some unusually crude and sleazy aspects to it. You don't usually see Garfield dealing with stuff like vomit bags, which he points out to Jon when he describes flying as "smooth and comfortable," adding, "Then, what are these little sacks for? The Easter egg hunt," and, when Odie is revealed to have stowed away inside Jon's suitcase, Garfield looks in it and, with wide eyes, comments, "You won't be so happy when you see what Odie did to your sport-jacket." Also, while it definitely could have been a lot worse, the really tacky color scheme of the motel's interiors, coupled with how rundown it looks, gives off quite a feeling of sleaze. That latter notion is compounded by the skeevy look of the desk clerk/car rental agent, especially with the golden chain, watch, and ring he wears, and how he's always wearing a shirt that's open, exposing his chest hair. In fact, even though he's not as unlikable a character, Rama Lama's open shirt and shorts add to this kind of "ugh" feeling. And then, there's Pigeon's butt-crack, which we see quite a bit since his shorts are constantly drooping down, as well as the sides and tops of his hairy cheeks. What's more, you see some other Ding-Dong's butt-cracks when they're bowing to and worshiping the car. Why was any of that necessary? It feels like something you'd see in a more adult-oriented cartoon like The Simpsons or King of the Hill, rather than Garfield.
When I first went into this special, I was really interested in seeing where it was going to go and what kind of antics Garfield would get caught up in while in "paradise." Again, there's just so much potential for this story, especially given how well the concept of him stuck on a camping trip worked out, and when this begins, we're off to a good start. Garfield has to put up with Jon dressing him up like a kid in order to get him on the plane, both of them deal with the many cons of flying third-class, including complete disrespect from the stewardess when Jon is forced to admit where they're sitting, and once they're in their seats, Garfield starts to panic over flying, "What's that? Sounds like a wing-cable fraying! Smoke! I smell smoke! Smoke! We're going down in flames!", before they've even taken off. Once they do take off, they're thrown around in their seats, with Garfield landing upside down on his head, grumbling, "Whoever said, 'Getting there is half the fun,' should be drug out into the street and shot," and things don't get any better when they arrive at Paradise World. Their luggage gets thrown off the plane with no regard for their belongings, they get to their motel and see what a dump it is and how all the advertisements lied about its proximity to the beach, and after they discover that Odie has tagged along, they find they can't even have a nice dip in the pool because there's no water to dip into. Deciding not take this lying down, the boys opt to go rent a car and drive until they find a beach... though they have to wait until after Jon pulls himself out of the pool when the diving board breaks beneath him, Garfield commenting, "Right. We'll do it right after his bones knit."
So far, the special is living up to its potential, and when they go to rent a car, you know that it's going to lead them to even more craziness, especially when the same sleazy hotel clerk is apparently doubling as a rental car agent. Much to their surprise and delight, the one car he has to rent is a lovely old Chevrolet Bel Air, and they drive it out to the beach, singing a 50's surfer style song as they go. When they finally get to the beach, they have the usual antics, like Odie scaring Garfield by making him think his ears sticking out of the water are a shark's fin (if he was like LL Cool J, he'd have a hat like a shark fin; few people will get that reference but I'm only interested in one, as I know he'll groan when he reads it) and Garfield, in turn, baiting him onto the shore so he can bury him in the sand, doing it to him face-down, with his feet being the only thing sticking out. I really, really wish they'd either spent the rest of the special at the beach, with scenarios like maybe Jon getting sunburned, or Garfield and Odie running into an actual shark or other sea creatures while out swimming, or better yet, since we're talking about Garfield, have them go to a crappy seafood diner with lousy food, something that we know Garfield wouldn't take sitting down (that would have also been a perfect opportunity to bring back that desk clerk character, confirming that it's the same person and not his relatives). They could have gone so many different ways but, instead, decided to go with the oft-used subplot of the characters running into a primitive tribe in the jungle.
I will give Jim Davis credit for trying to do something different with the Ding-Dongs by having them be primitive in terms of being forever stuck in the 50's due to the influence of the Cruiser. I can't say I've ever seen that before. But, that doesn't mean I find it that interesting or funny a concept. I get what they're going for, given the proliferation of beach movies in the 50's, as well as how cool cars such as the Chevrolet Bel Air and teen idols like James Dean, whom the Cruiser is modeled after, were considered to be back then, but I don't get much out of seeing the Ding-Dongs worshiping the car, intoning, "Chrome, chrome," with one native adding, "Bop-bop-be-bop," the story of the Cruiser and how he changed their lives, leading them to build a shrine to the Cruiser's car, and Pigeon's constant gibbering in 50's slang. I don't mind the characters of the Rama Lama and Monkey but, on the whole, I don't care for the Ding-Dongs and don't find them to be that funny. I could see how some would but it doesn't do it for me. I also don't find myself caring that much when it looks like Owooda and Mai-Tai are going to have to sacrifice themselves in order to keep the volcano from erupting again, one, because Owooda is little more than eye-candy and her relationship with Jon, even for this cartoon, comes off as shallow, and two, because not much is made of it regardless. Jon's the only who doesn't want it to happen and even he's not all that upset, with Garfield saying that he's glad it's the girls who have to do it and not them, and the reveal that the volcano wants the car, leading into Monkey and Odie apparently sacrificing themselves to appease it, has none of the impact of the previous specials' climaxes. Besides the fact that, by this point, I was pretty much done with the cartoon, and that you know no one's going to die here, the revelation as to what the volcano actually wants is a last-minute twist and there's no build-up to what happens with Monkey and Odie; it's something that simply happens and has no impact at all.
While they're not bad, I'm also not so big on the songs that Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette came up with this time around. That said, though, the opening song, which is this short jingle for the airline Garfield and Jon take, sung by Goyette, is pretty amusing: "With the golden promise of the sun, we're the gateway to vacationing and fun. We seat you, we feed you, but most of all we need you, otherwise, our flying days are done." Before they take off, Garfield has this fantasy about being a Don Ho-style entertainer who arrives in Hawaii on a raft, to the screaming delight of a bunch of lady cats, and, as the opening credits roll, he proceeds to sing this Hawaiian-style crooning song called, Hello, Hawaii, Can I Come Over? Or rather, Lou Rawls sings it for him, backed up by a female chorus of hula-dancing cats. It's an okay song, with Rawls' deep, smooth voice working well with this song about coming over to Hawaii and finding a hula girl to fall in love with, and he incorporates Hawaiian words and phrases into clever puns ("Mai tai, will be your tai, and you will be mahi, mahi, mahi,"), before ending it with a casual "aloha." On their way to the beach in their rental car, Garfield and Jon sing, Beauty and the Beach, which is done in the style of a 50's-style surf song and is all about what there is to love about the beach, as well as about how great the two of them will feel when they find a girl. The song is mainly sung by Lorenzo Music and Thom Huge, though Rawls can be heard going, "Bum, bum, bum," when it first starts up and he joins in on the singing at the very end when it finishes upon their arrival. And finally, you have the song, When I Saw You, which is this duet that Jon and Owooda sing on the beach as the sun sets behind them. The images that accompany it are nice to look at, and Huge and Goyette both sing really well (I've probably said before but I'll reiterate: Goyette has a very lovely voice), but it comes off as rather sappy and overdone, even for a cartoon like this, especially since the two of them just met literally about a minute before.
Naturally, the actual music score that Bogas and Goyette composed takes its cues from the vibe of the location, with lots of traditional Hawaiian sounds and flourishes, as well as an instrumental version of Hello, Hawaii, and 50's surf-style music for the scenes at the beach and the Ding-Dong village. You don't get much of the typical, bluesy-jazz music often associated with Garfield, save for at the beginning when they're on the plane, but you do get some appropriate, down-trodden music for when it hits Jon that the place they're staying sucks. The initial music for the Ding-Dongs is the traditional tribal drumming and tapping, there's a nicely airy, instrumental version of When I Saw You when Owooda confesses that she must sacrifice herself to the volcano, and the music involved with the volcano's impending eruption is nicely bombastic and menacing. So, all in all, the music score is one of the special's more successful aspects.
