It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)

I initially thought I might have seen a little bit of this on TV some time in the 2000's but, more than likely, I think what I actually saw was Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales, as this hasn't been aired since before the annual Peanuts specials moved from CBS to ABC. Regardless, I've known for a long time that there are other Christmas-related Peanuts specials besides the classic one that started it all, but it wasn't until just a couple of weeks ago that I actually tracked them down to watch. Since I always like to put up at least one review for Christmas, and I've already done both A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Garfield Christmas Special, I figured now would be the perfect time for this. This was the first Christmas-themed special to be made since the original in 1965 and also marked the end of an era, as it was the last of them to premiere on CBS (the next one, 1994's You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown, debuted on NBC and after that, there wouldn't another one made for television until 2002), so it does have some historical importance, despite being one of the specials that few have heard of. Going into it, I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near the level of some of the classics of the 60's and 70's or to have the same emotional weight as A Charlie Brown Christmas, but I also didn't expect it to be so scattered and utterly unremarkable either. This special not only has virtually nothing in the way of a story, as it's cobbled together from a number of different plots and vignettes from the comic strip, but there's also nothing that makes it stand out for any significant reason, good or bad, and, save for the last third of it, it's not all that funny either.

Like I said, there is no one story that makes up this special; instead, it's a number of minor episodes strung together with no through-line other than the Christmas holiday. These include: Charlie Brown going around town, trying to sell Christmas wreaths, even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet at that time; Peppermint Patty not liking the idea of having to read a book over Christmas vacation and her and Marcie attending a performance of Handel's Messiah, which Patty writes about at school the next day; Snoopy acting as a sidewalk Santa; Charlie Brown and Linus trying to explain to Sally the true meaning of Christmas but getting nowhere with it; Charlie Brown attempting to scrounge up the $25 necessary to buy Peggy Jean a pair of gloves as a present; and, save for Charlie Brown and Linus, the kids participating in a Christmas play, which involves Patty stuck with playing a sheep and Sally as angel with one line that she, inevitably, manages to foul up.

Despite being in his mid-70's by this point, Bill Melendez continued to direct not only most of the Peanut specials, including this one, but, that same year, he also co-directed Frosty Returns, the "sort of" sequel to the Rankin-Bass classic from the 60's. He was still an active producer on both those he did direct and those he didn't, and the switch from made-for-television to direct-to-video was hardly a factor to him in that regard. It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown would be far from one of his last projects, as he would keep on working on both animated specials and even Peanuts-related video games, right up to his final years in the late 2000's.

Charlie Brown (voiced by Jamie E. Smith) is the focus of only a couple of the vignettes in this special and, in both, he has his usual run of bad luck. In the opening, he's attempting to sell Christmas wreaths door-to-door but keeps running into problems: people either call him out on it not even being Thanksgiving yet, slam the door in his face, take a wreath as a "free sample," or, in the case of Franklin, admonish him for adding to the over-commercialization of the holiday. Apparently, Charlie Brown's attitude towards that latter idea has changed significantly, as when Franklin asks him if he doesn't get that that's what he's doing, he answers, "Not until I sell one." Sally tries to help him but she ends up making things worse, first by exaggerating the quality of the wreaths and then being brutally honest about them when Charlie Brown gets onto her for her lying. Later on, Charlie Brown tries to buy Peggy Jean a pair of gloves as a present but, unfortunately for him, they cost $25, which he doesn't have. He goes through all sorts of trouble, selling his Joe Garagiola signed baseball and massive comic book collection (neither of which the local kids are impressed with), and does manage to get the money... only to then find that Peggy Jean has bought herself a pair of gloves. Not wanting to waste the gloves, he ends up giving them to Snoopy. In the other stories, he attempts to teach Sally the true meaning of Christmas, to no avail, and listens to her practice her lines when she's cast as an angel in the school play. He's there for the performance, but leaves after she blurts out "hockey stick" rather than,"Hark!", as she was supposed to and embarrasses herself badly.

Despite her brother now being a bit more amiable to the idea of commercializing Christmas, Sally (voiced by Mindy Ann Martin) is still the one of the two who doesn't know the true meaning of the holiday. When she offers to help Charlie Brown with selling the wreaths, she initially tries to do so by lying, telling a potential customer that the wreaths, "Were made from the famous forests of Lebanon." But, when he admonishes her for it, she decides to be brutally honest at the next house, asking the potential customer, "Would you like to buy a Christmas wreath made from some junky old branches my brother found in a Christmas tree lot? You wouldn't, would you? I can't say I blame you." She then decides the wreaths need better packaging and attempts to sell them by bringing Snoopy along and hanging them on his nose. Later, Sally is writing a theme for English class about the true meaning of Christmas and makes her feelings about it very clear, as she writes that it's all about getting stuff, that, "Christmas is getting all you can get while the getting is good." Charlie Brown tries to tell her that she means "giving" but she continually blows him off whenever he brings it up. She then makes out a Christmas list for Santa Claus and, after admitting she doesn't know how to spell her own brother's name and puts down "Sam" because she knows how to spell that, she decides instead to write to Mrs. Claus, whom Charlie Brown tells her is sometimes referred to as Mary Christmas. Linus later tries to read to her the story of Christmas from the book of Luke but, every time he tries, she ignores him and rattles on about having to shop for her brother. Eventually, Linus gives up and Sally wonders, "Is that it? I always thought the Christmas story was longer than that." Despite his better judgement, Linus continues trying to educate Sally after she complains about not understanding the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, but gets nowhere with that as well. Finally, she's cast as an angel in the school play and feels she only has to say the line, "Hark," after which "Harold Angel" is to sing. She repeatedly rehearses and memorizes her line, right up to her moment in the play, only to say "hockey stick" and send the audience into hysterics with laughter and getting everyone in the play angry at her.

Peppermint Patty (voiced by Phillip Lucier) and Marcie (voiced by Lindsay Benesh) are the focus of the first story told after the credits. Patty is aggravated with having to read a book over Christmas vacation and, after calling Charlie Brown for suggestions about how to get out of it, she thinks she's managed to do so by watching a movie version of A Tale of Two Cities on TV. However, she then says, "The only parts I didn't understand were the parts about the shampoo, soap, and the coffee," with Marcie informing her, "Those were the commercials, sir." In trying to get out of reading, Patty tells Marcie that her grandfather once told her that her head would fall off if she read too much, prompting Marcie to hold onto her head while she reads, and then, she builds a snowman, saying that if she doesn't, no one else will and he deserves the right to be given life. Later, Patty has forgotten which vacation is coming up, as she now thinks it's Thanksgiving, and when Marcie sets her straight, Patty wonders how she's supposed to read one book when she can't remember the one she read for Thanksgiving, to which Marcie says, "Duck, sir. Easter is coming." After that, the two of them attend a performance of Handel's Messiah, during which Marcie stands with everyone else during the hallelujah chorus, only to end up folded up in the seat, with her feet sticking out behind the cushion. The next day at school, Patty is writing about the performance, only to learn that neither she nor Marcie know what Handel's first name was. Taking a guess, Patty puts down "Joe Handel." When the school play rolls around, Patty opts to star as the Virgin Mary, only to ignore Marcie when she tells her that she's already been cast in the role and to learn about it in class from the teacher. As if she weren't already irked, she then finds out that she has to be a sheep, and later takes it out on Charlie Brown, calling him to ask if Mary ever wore glasses and getting mad when he doesn't know what Mary she's referring to, making him wish he could be a wrong number for once. While Marcie does okay in her role, Patty is a complete mess in her sheep costume, both before and during the play: tripping over a curb on the way over to the theater, bleating so loudly during a scene between Marcie and Franklin that the latter can't hear her, and, like Sally, blowing her "lines" and barking and meowing, causing the audience to burst out laughing.

Those are the members of the Peanuts gang who have the most to do; everyone else's roles are either little more than small, incidental parts or cameos. Linus (voiced by John Christian Graas) appears at very beginning when he tries to get Sally to go sledding with him in a box down a snow-covered hillside, only for her to decide against it and cause him to fall over in it. He tries it again, only to fall backwards instead of going forwards, and when he finally gets it right, he goes careening down the hill and ends up crashing beside a small pine tree, the box landing atop it. As mentioned, Linus also attempts to teach Sally about the true meaning of Christmas a couple of times but gets nowhere with it, and he and Charlie Brown attend the play and witness her epic fail firsthand. Yeah, as you might have noticed, this is an instance of Linus not being completely aggravated and annoyed by Sally's presence, as he often is, even going as far as to walk her to the theater and eagerly wait for her moment. She, in turn, never fawns over him like usual. As for Lucy (voiced by Marnette Patterson), she has no role here at all. All she does is walk by and get annoyed by Snoopy when he's dressed up as a sidewalk Santa at one point, suggest to Charlie Brown that he should sell Snoopy when he's trying to scrounge up the money to buy Peggy Jean a gift, and, at the very end, attempt to force Linus to move out of a beanbag chair so she can sit in it, only for him to throw something she said before back at her, forcing her to stomp off in anger.

Franklin (voiced by Sean Mendelson) appears during the opening as one of Charlie Brown's potential customers for a wreath and tells him that he's adding to the over-commercialization of the holiday. He also appears in the Christmas play as Gabriel and has a scene with Marcie, only for Peppermint Patty to blot out Marcie's lines with her loud bleating. (Given that this special was produced right after It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown, I'm just glad Franklin didn't do any rapping.) Violet (voiced by Deanna Tello) appears a couple of times, initially as the first person Charlie Brown tries to sell a wreath to, only for her to tell him it's not even Thanksgiving yet, and in the one scene with Lucy and Snoopy. Deanna Tello also voices Patty, another would-be customer who tells Charlie Brown the same thing, and Peggy Jean, whom I'd never heard of until I watched this and, therefore, I was utterly confused by the idea of Charlie Brown actually being lucky in having a girlfriend. I also didn't think she was much of a girlfriend if she thought his name was "Browny Charles" but then, I read up that she appeared in the comic strip before and when Charlie Brown met her at summer camp, he was so flustered that he called himself that. I thought it was actually kind of interesting that they would keep continuity with a story that wasn't actually adapted into animation itself. And Frieda (voiced by Brittany M. Thornton) appears as a wreath customer who swipes the one wreath right out of Charlie Brown's hands, saying that she loves free samples.

Sad to say but, if you're diehard fans of them, you're not going to get your fill of Snoopy and Woodstock (voiced by Bill Melendez) here, as neither of them are focused on very much. In fact, Woodstock is never seen by himself but rather, with two or three other birds he's friends with, playing chamber music inside a snowman's hat and randomly dancing outside with Snoopy, using candy-canes from Charlie Brown's Christmas tree as actual canes. Snoopy, as I've already mentioned, also ends up having his nose used as a hanger for the wreaths by Sally and is also seen as a sidewalk Santa, who not only rings a bell but also has a small horn that toots loudly, much to Lucy's aggravation.

This is a prime example of something, Peanuts special or otherwise, that has no business existing, as it's just 23 minutes of virtually nothing. On a technical level, it's just fine. It looks good enough, with plenty of nicely-drawn, snow-covered exterior scenes, bright colors, and more than enough Christmas iconography, and being made in the 90's, it also sounds much better than many of the specials of the past, with the music being especially well-done. I also like how it touches on ideas such as the irritation of having to do schoolwork over a break and whatnot but, by the end of it, all you've done is watch a bunch of randomness with nothing to connect it other than the basic idea of Charlie Brown and the gang having a number of misadventures around Christmastime. There's nothing wrong with it having no real plot to speak of and just being a series of vignettes, as that can be used to describe a number of Peanuts-related material, but since there's no main plot that it's all hanging from, which you usually do get, you might find yourself wondering what the point of it all is. And as far as comedy goes, it's not all that funny, save for some moments during the play that do genuinely make me laugh, so it hardly can be called truly worthwhile in that regard, either. As usual, let's now go through it and see just how vapid and random it is.

When it begins, you see Linus pushing a cardboard box up a snowy hill, with Sally trailing behind him. Reaching the top, the two of them crawl into it and Linus tells Sally to lean forward and jiggle her feet so they can slide down the hill's other side. Sally, however, decides against it and crawls out, causing Linus to fall forward in the box and face-plant in the snow, to which she says, "If I'd have known you were only going that far, I would've stayed in." Linus then tries again by himself, pushing the box back up to the top of the hill and climbing in. He attempts to put it in "fast-forward" but it slides backwards this time and overturns on top of him. The third time he tries it, he manages to go bounding down the hill's right side but it ends up out of control and crashes at the bottom, the box landing on top of a small tree there. Lucy and Sally are standing there and Lucy, ignoring the fact that her brother just almost killed himself, comments, "I think they look better when they have a little star or an angel on top." It then switches to Charlie Brown, as he goes around trying to sell wreaths door to door. He first goes to Violet, who tells him that it's not even Thanksgiving yet and says that, by the time Christmas comes around, the needles will be falling off. Charlie Brown's advice? "Don't hang it near the turkey." He gets the same reaction when he tries to sell one to Patty, asking her if she'd like to buy a "Thanksgiving wreath" instead. After Franklin briefly lectures him about adding to the over-commercialization of Christmas and Frieda takes one of his wreaths as a "sample," Charlie Brown laments that nobody has a harder time than him selling the wreaths, with the next person whose house he visits slamming the door on him with enough force to send him hurtling backwards into the snow. That's when Sally, who thinks he's going after those "big holiday bucks" lends her help. That leads to her trying to sell the wreaths with an outrageous lie, saying they're made from the forests of Lebanon and adding, "If you buy two, we'll throw in an autographed photo of King Solomon." Of course, after Charlie Brown gets onto her for this, Sally decides to be brutally honest about the wreaths at the next house, and when the door is slammed in their faces, she tells him, "See? Your way doesn't work either!" Following that, Sally decides that the wreaths need better packaging and ways to show them off, so she brings Snoopy with her to hang them on his big nose. After that, there's a moment where Linus passes by a snowman, when he hears what sounds like chamber music emitting from it, though he's unable to find where it's coming from. It turns out to be Woodstock, who's under the snowman's hat, and that leads into the opening credits.

After the credits, we get into the story with Peppermint Patty and her not liking having to read a book during Christmas vacation. She first complains about it to Charlie Brown over the phone, asking him if he knows how to get out of it, and then, she thinks she doesn't have to read the book, A Tale of Two Cities, because she just saw a movie of it on TV, though she thought the commercials were part of it. She tells Marcie that she's afraid to read because her grandfather said that her head would fall off if she read too much and Marcie offers to hold her head from behind while she reads. She proceeds to procrastinate further by building a snowman outside, with Marcie telling her she's weird for going on about how, as the snowman's creator, it's her duty to bring him to life. Finally, Patty randomly now thinks it's Thanksgiving vacation rather than Christmas and frets about she can read something for the latter when she doesn't remember what she read for the former. We're not done with her and Marcie yet, though, as they're then attending a performance of George Handel's Messiah, with Marcie telling Patty that everyone stands during the section with the hallelujah chorus. Come that time, everyone is standing and Marcie does the same, standing on her seat, only to get caught up in the seat when the cushion flops back on her. Patty grumbles about how Marcie always embarrasses her, no matter where they go. The next day at school, Patty is writing about the performance, when she asks Marcie about Handel's first name. Marcie admits that she doesn't know it, forcing Patty to guess, and she decides to refer to him as "Joe Handel." Following that, we see Snoopy dressed up as Santa Claus, ringing his bell like he's collecting for the needy. Lucy and Violet walk by him, the former complaining how they're going to have to listen to the bell every time they walk by, while Violet wonders if he could make some other noise. Snoopy does just that, as he pulls out a toot-horn and squeezes it. Lucy comes back by, this time with Linus, and tells her brother to ignore Snoopy, when he toots at them and causes them to tumble into each other in surprise. Lucy then storms up to Snoopy and accuses him of not being a real Santa, which he retorts by shoving the tooter in her face. She walks away, and Snoopy is now confronted by Sally, who also accuses him of not being real. She asks him where all of his helpers are and then, Woodstock and two of his friends walk by, each carrying a sign that reads "HELP." Sally responds to this with, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen!" Linus, once again, hears music coming from a snowman, and this time, he lifts the hat up to see Woodstock and three of his friends playing chamber music underneath.

Next, we have Sally writing her theme for English class on the true meaning of Christmas, only for Charlie Brown to see that she's writing about how it's all about the joy of getting. He tries to tell her that it's actually about "giving" but, both times, she ignores what he says, groaning, "Like, wow," the second time, prompting him to walk away. After that is the moment where Sally is making her Christmas list and, after her brother is stunned to learn she doesn't know how to spell his name, she quizzes him about Santa Claus and his wife, the latter of whom he tells her is sometimes called Mary Christmas. Sally decides to write to her instead, scribbling, "Congratulations on deciding to keep your own name." In the next scene, Snoopy takes a candy-cane from the tree and does a little number with it, twirling it like a cane and dancing. Sally notices that all of the tree's candy-canes are gone and Charlie Brown tells her to look outside. When she does, she sees Snoopy, Woodstock, and two other birds dancing with the candy-canes. Sally then asks Linus to tell her the origin of Christmas, saying she doesn't see what all the fuss is about, save for the notion of getting presents. Linus tries to read to her a passage from the second chapter of Luke (namely, the very one he recited on stage in A Charlie Brown Christmas) but, every time he starts reading, she cuts in, complaining about shopping, that she hasn't gotten Charlie Brown anything for Christmas yet, that she doesn't want to spend a lot of money, and she wonders if she could get him something for free. Linus collapses in the chair from exasperation and Sally comments on how she thought there was more to the story of Christmas. Following a fade to black, Sally is still with Linus, when they hear the Twelve Days of Christmas playing over the radio. Sally comments that she hates that song and asks Linus what a calling bird is. He tells her that it's a type of partridge and reads a passage from Samuel I alluding to its significance. Sally's response? "If I get socks again for Christmas this year, I'll go even more crazy!" Linus then tells her that he once read that Albert Schweitzer hated the idea of Christmas gifts because he didn't like having to write "thank you" notes, but Sally can asks is who Albert Schweitzer was. (Truth be told, I didn't know who that was, either.)

Charlie Brown is in a shop, asking about a pair of gloves for a girl he likes, but when he's told that the gloves would cost $25, he asks if he could buy just a thumb instead. At home, he talks to Sally about it, who accuses him of being a cheapskate and suggests he put it on his credit card. He tells her doesn't have one and Sally says, "So long, Peggy Jean." He then talks with Linus and Lucy about it, and while Linus tells him that Peggy Jean will like anything he gives her if she really likes him, Lucy chimes in with, "If you don't give her exactly what she's expecting, she'll hate you for the rest of your life." After showing her the gloves, Lucy suggests that Charlie Brown sell Snoopy, who blows a raspberry at her. Lucy then says, "I take it back. He's probably only worth 50 cents." Unable to get the money, Charlie Brown is content with just standing and looking at them in their glass case, only to be told that he's fogging up the glass. He then tries to sell his baseball that's signed by Joe Garagiola, only for the kids to show up at his booth to ask if it's the bus stop, if they can get change for a dime, and if he has a Billy Jean King autograph instead. Next, he decides to sell his comic book collection, which is quite extensive, and still, a would-be customer asks, "Are these all you have?" Despite these setbacks, Charlie Brown manages to get the $25 and is about to buy the gloves, when Peggy Jean shows up and shows him a new pair of gloves she just bought for herself, much to his dismay. He later tells Linus what happened and that he decided not to give her something she already had; he gave them to Snoopy instead. (Side-not: I just realized that he hadn't yet bought the gloves when Peggy Jean showed him the ones she just bought for herself. Why would he have a reason to still buy those he was planning on getting for her?)

Now, we get to the last story, which revolves around the Christmas play, and for me, is where this special finally picks up after the chain of randomness it's been up to this point. It really makes me wish that the entire special had been this story, as seeing the Peanuts characters deal with memorizing lines, being forced into parts they're not crazy about, and completely messing up during the actual performance is much more entertaining than just about anything else we have here. Some would argue that making the play the focus of the entire special would be stepping on the toes of A Charlie Brown Christmas but, while the idea of their putting on a play was a big part of that story, it was also about so much more, whereas this could have been an opportunity to simply have some silly fun with this plot. Plus, we never got to see the actual play in that special but rather, just the rehearsal, so it could have easily been its own thing.

In class, Peppermint Patty mentions to Marcie that she's going to ask their teacher if she can play Mary in the upcoming Christmas play, completely ignoring Marcie telling her multiple times that the teacher has already asked her to play the part, instead going on about how great she would be. She only learns the situation when she asks the teacher and, incredulously, she exclaims, "Mary never wore glasses!" Later, at home, she calls Charlie Brown to ask him about it and, after getting irked when he doesn't know what Mary she's referring to, she complains about Marcie being able to play the part and that she's stuck playing a sheep, making Charlie Brown regret having ever picked up the phone. After that, Sally announces to her brother that she's going to be an angel in the play, telling him that she only has to say, "Hark!", and then, according to the script, Harold Angel will start to sing. She continuously memorizes and practices her line, dreading the possibility of forgetting it while out on stage. Charlie Brown suggests she could make up something if she did forget, but when she puts "hey" out there as a possible replacement, he tells her it's not very biblical. Finally, she asks him to look at the script while she recites her line one last time and he tells her that she has it, before heading out while wearing her angel wings. As she leaves, she tells her that he and Linus will be in the audience. (Incidentally, during all of these scenes between them, Charlie Brown is messing around with a hockey stick for apparently no reason. Keep that in mind when the play comes around.) While Linus walks Sally to the theater, she heads backstage when she gets there, and Linus and Charlie Brown take their seats, Marcie and Patty, dressed in her sorry-looking sheep costume, head there as well. Patty complains the whole way and trips and falls forward when they hit a curb. Marcie asks, "Slouching towards Bethlehem, huh, sir?", and Patty groans, "I can't stand it!"

Once at the theater, Patty frets about how she can't remember her lines, with Marcie telling her that all she has to do is go, "Baa!" Patty wonders if Laurence Olivier ever had trouble remembering his lines, while Sally keeps practicing her line of, "Hark!" The play starts and Marcie and Franklin head out to do their first scene, leaving Patty behind to continue complaining about being stuck playing a sheep. In the scene, Franklin, playing Gabriel, says his lines to Marcie, but when she goes to do her dialogue, Patty, who's suddenly in the scene, baas so loudly that Franklin then tells her, "I am Gabriel, Mary, and I couldn't hear you because of the sheep." They get plenty of applause for that, though, as the curtain draws back. Backstage, Patty is still fretting about not remembering her lines, with Marcie, again, having to tell her that she just has to go "baa." The next scene comes up and Marcie drags Patty out to the stage. She recites her line, "And there were shepherds in the field watching their flocks by night," but Patty gets so nervous, she forgets the type of animal she's supposed to be and blurts out, "Woof! Meow! Moo! Whatever." The audience erupts into laughter and Patty, completely embarrassed, sings, "And a partridge in a pear tree," as Marcie drags her offstage with her shepherd's cane. In the audience, Charlie Brown and Linus wait for Sally's part, and it comes after the dancing sheep (which are kept off-screen). Sally walks out onto the stage, stands in the spotlight, only to say, "Hockey stick!" instead of, "Hark!", despite the fact that she had been memorizing that one line repeatedly backstage. While everyone else laughs at her, Charlie Brown and Linus are utterly confused as to why she just said that.

Back at home, Sally can't over her massive goof, ranting to Charlie Brown, "I said 'hockey stick!' Why did I say 'hockey stick?' All I had to say was 'hark,' and I said 'hockey stick!' I ruined the whole Christmas play! Everybody hates me! Moses hates me, Luke hates me, the Apostles hate me! All fifty of them!" Charlie Brown is then talking on the phone with someone, telling them that he left after Sally's blunder, adding how she gets everything mixed up and that she thought someone named Harold Angel was going to sing. The doorbell rings and Charlie Brown answers it to find a red-haired kid standing outside. The kid says, "Hi. Is Sally home? My name is Harold Angel." Yes, I'm dead serious about that. The special ends with a random scene where Linus is watching TV while sitting in a beanbag chair and Lucy tries to make him move. They have this exchange: "Remember when we were siting around the Christmas tree, opening our presents? That's when you said it." "That's when I said what?" "It was beautiful. You said, 'Why do we have to be nice to each other only on Christmas? Why can't we be nice to each other every day?'" Lucy storms off in irritation, as Linus intones, "Joy to the world."

The best thing this special has going for it is the music, which is made up of new versions of some of Vince Guaraldi's classic themes, like Linus and Lucy and Christmastime is Here, done and arranged by David Benoit (it's actually the first time Guaraldi's music had been heard extensively since It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, the last one he composed before his death). Benoit also comes up with some pieces of his own, including some subtle, instrumental versions of classic Christmas songs like Oh, Christmas Tree and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, as well as a very nice and festive jazz arrangement for the opening credits, which really sounds like something you would have expected Guaraldi himself to have composed. All of this material sounds very appropriate for a Peanuts cartoon set around this time of year, with the reworkings of the classic themes sounding better than they have in a long time, and you could easily find yourself listening to it by itself.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is far from one of the worst Peanuts specials but it definitely ranks as one of the most unimpressive or memorable. While it looks and sounds good, especially in regards to the music, and the voice acting for the characters is pretty spot on, there's nothing about it that makes it stand out, as it's just a series of random scenarios and stories that are strung together, with the only constant factor being that they take place around Christmastime. Save for the story of the Christmas play at the end, which could have easily made up an entire cartoon in and of itself, it's not all that funny either, with some attempts at humor falling flat or making you go, "What?", like the Harold Angel gag at the end. All in all, it's completely harmless, and since it's only 23 minutes long, watching it will hardly put a big dent in your schedule, but I would only recommend it for the most diehard of Peanuts fans. You'd really be much better off sticking with the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas instead.

Garfield's Thanksgiving (1989)

If there's one holiday that was destined to get the Garfield treatment, it was Thanksgiving. While he also fit well with both Halloween and Christmas, a celebration that revolves almost entirely around a big meal just fits him like a glove. Oddly, though, this was one of the later Garfield primetime specials and the last one to be centered around a holiday (I guess Valentine's Day and Easter works with the Peanuts but not with Garfield). And, like all of them aside from A Garfield Christmas Special and Garfield's Halloween Adventure, I never saw it until late 2018, early 2019, when I felt inspired to check them all out after reviewing the two I was most familiar with. If you've seen the reviews of the Halloween and Christmas specials, you'd know that I really liked both of them, so the question is, "Does Garfield's Thanksgiving measure up to their standards?" Well, it's certainly funny and charming, as Garfield should be, and it boasts some of the best animation you'll ever see in any of the classic 2-D cartoons, but on the whole, it's not quite on the level of the other holiday specials. It's still very enjoyable but it doesn't really embrace or encapsulate the essence and meaning of Thanksgiving like the Halloween and Christmas ones did with their respective holidays. It mainly serves as an excuse to see Garfield struggling with a diet, Jon finally getting a date with Dr. Liz Wilson, and the return of Jon's grandmother, who was such an awesome character in the Christmas special.

After getting Jon out of bed to make him breakfast, Garfield is horrified to learn that he has an appointment at the veterinarian later that day. Tearing the page off the calendar to make Jon forget, he then discovers that the next day is Thanksgiving. Looking forward to all of the food that comes with it, Garfield has Jon go to the grocery store and stock up on all the necessary supplies. Unfortunately for him, Jon remembers his appointment with the vet and takes Garfield there on their way home. Dr. Liz Wilson examines Garfield and comments that, while he's healthy, he's also far too fat and needs to be put on a diet, much to his chagrin. At the same time, Jon, as usual, tries to ask Liz out on a date and she only gives in when he decides to hold his breath until she says yes and nearly asphyxiates himself in the process. Ecstatic, Jon invites her over to the house for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Jon may be happy about the prospect of Liz coming over but Garfield is cranky and miserable due to his diet, and his mood doesn't get any better when he learns that Jon has Odie watching his every move to make sure he sticks to it. Now, Garfield has to deal with having to mind his food intake on Thanksgiving, of all days, while Jon has no clue how to cook a big dinner for himself and Liz.

Gerard Baldwin

By this point in the history of the specials, Phil Roman was no longer directing them by himself, relying on several co-directors to pick up the workload. In the case of this special, he had three. Gerard Baldwin had directed over 160 episodes of The Bullwinkle Show, episodes of George of the Jungle, had worked as a co-director on Yogi's First Christmas, had done a handful of Smurfs specials, and would go on to do several episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures. While this was the only time he ever worked on Garfield, that wasn't the case for Bob Nesler and John Sparey. Nesler had directed a couple of the segments of Garfield: His 9 Lives and had also acted as co-director with Roman on Garfield's Babes and Bullets, which was released earlier in 1989. He went on to co-direct Garfield's Feline Fantasies the following year and some episodes of Garfield and Friends. Sparey also co-directed His 9 Lives and Babes and Bullets and, besides going on to co-direct Feline Fantasies with Roman and Nesler and some episodes of Garfield and Friends, he would also be the sole director of Garfield Gets a Life, the last of the specials and the only that Roman had no hand in directing.

Garfield (voiced by Lorenzo Music) is up to his usual mischief to here: he wakes Jon up early in the morning to make him breakfast and, once he's finished, decides to substitute his "early mid-morning nap" for kicking Odie off the table. But then, he spots the calendar and discovers that Jon is taking him to the vet later that day. This horrifies him, as he explains, "The vet thinks she knows what's good for me. Good for her, but that's bad for me, because what's bad is good for me, but if I go to the vet and that's bad, she'll prescribe what's good for me and that's not good!", and tears off the page of the calendar, making Odie eat it. But then, his horror turns to elation when he discovers that the next day is Thanksgiving, meaning he'll get to partake in the "tradition" of stuffing himself with food. He reminds Jon about it and they drive to the supermarket to stock up on the necessary ingredients for the feast. Garfield's ecstasy doesn't last long, though, as Jon didn't forget about the appointment and takes him to the vet on the way home. There, while Jon tries desperately to get a date with Dr. Liz Wilson, Garfield has to endure her physical examination of him. When she's done, she proclaims him to be healthy, which has him singing her praises, but when she then says that he's going to have to go on a diet, he starts yelling that she's a quack. While Jon is happy when Liz finally breaks down and agrees to come to Thanksgiving dinner with them, Garfield is absolutely miserable when they get home, as all he gets is half a leaf of lettuce for dinner and then finds that Jon has Odie monitoring him, ready to blow a whistle whenever he attempts to cheat on his diet. After enduring an evening of the scale calling him Orson Welles due to his weight and Odie stopping him from chowing down on some cookies, Garfield is especially cranky the next day, and decides that if he can't enjoy Thanksgiving, no one can, and puts garlic powder on the vegetables Jon prepares for the meal.

After "helping" Jon pick out something to wear to dinner, Garfield is, once again, inspected by Liz when she arrives, as she doesn't want him to become anemic. When he acts out every single symptom of vitamin deficiency that she lists off, Garfield's misery turns to relief and joy when Liz decides to forget the diet and have him do some minor exercise for the time being. He kisses Liz and celebrates that he's free to eat, only to then remember that this meal is shaping up to be a disaster, as Jon has proven not to know the first thing about making a Thanksgiving dinner. Going into the kitchen and finding that the turkey is still frozen, Garfield gets Jon to call his grandmother, who promptly arrives and takes control of things. While Jon "entertains" Liz out in the living room (i.e., bores her to tears), Garfield watches as Grandma works her magic and soon, she has his mouth watering. Once she finishes the dinner and discreetly leaves, they all enjoy the meal she left for them, with even Garfield getting into the tradition and spirit of joining hands with everyone. After it's over and Liz has gone home, Jon tries to get Garfield and Odie to join him in a walk to work off some of the food, only for the latter to be revealed to now be as fat and listless as Garfield usually is. Jon puts him on a diet and Garfield gets a little payback by blowing the whistle and making him do pushups.

Jon Arbuckle (voiced by Thom Huge) is his usual dorky self, desperate for a date self here. After being woken up early in the morning by Garfield and Odie in a military fashion in order to make them breakfast, he and Garfield head to the grocery store in order to stock up on the necessary foods for Thanksgiving. On the way home, he takes Garfield to the vet, partly because he has an appointment but also so Jon can have an excuse to ask Dr. Liz Wilson out on a date. She turns down his repeated requests for a date and makes it abundantly clear that going out with him would be the last thing she'd ever do, but then, he gets desperate and threatens to hold his breath until she says yes. He comes close to suffocating and actually faints, which is when Liz, more out of annoyance than pity, agrees to date him and Jon promptly invites her to Thanksgiving the next day. So happy is he that he almost leaves without Garfield, and despite the cat's hostile attitude about being forced to go on a diet, Jon tells him that nothing is going to spoil his good mood. That's when he gets started on the big dinner and it becomes apparent that he doesn't know the first thing about cooking such a meal: he didn't thaw out the turkey the day before he was to prepare it, he didn't prepare the stuffing ahead of time, he rubs his own skin with a stick of butter rather than the turkey's, and roasts it at 500 degrees instead of at 325 for five hours, given that Liz is due over in three hours. As for the vegetables, he simply puts them all in a pot and pours water over them, thinking he's done. Determined to impress Liz and win her over, Jon shaves (cutting himself while doing so) and goes through a menagerie of different outfits to wear, before deciding on just a typical suit and tie... unfortunately, he forgets to put pants on and, when Liz arrives, answers the door in his boxers. Once he's got his pants on and lets Liz in, he checks on the dinner and finds that it's a complete disaster, meaning that Liz will likely never talk to him again. Garfield, after a lot of hints that Jon doesn't pick up on, finally gets him to call his grandmother, who shows up and throws him out of the kitchen while she whips up the meal. Jon attempts to entertain Liz by waxing philosophically about the meaning of Thanksgiving, which only proceeds to call her to doze off several times, and it's only salvaged when Garfield informs them that dinner is ready. After the nice meal, Jon gets a kiss from Liz, who promises to show up there next year. Jon is content with this and is thankful for, above everything else, Grandma.

Dr. Liz Wilson (voiced by Julie Payne) can't make it clear enough to Jon that she doesn't want anything to do with him. In her office, she repeatedly tells him to call her "Dr. Wilson" rather than just Liz,  refuses to call him anything other than "Mr. Arbuckle," refers to his asking about the weather as a personal question, and the first time he asks her for a date, she bluntly responds, "I'd sooner die." After several more rebuffs, he decides to hold his breath until she says yes, though she's not the least bit impressed, instead diagnosing Garfield as being too fat and prescribing a diet. It's only when Jon faints that Liz breaks down and agrees to a date, saying, "I can't stand to see a dumb animal suffer." When he invites her to Thanksgiving dinner at his house, Liz figures that, if nothing else, they won't be seen in public together... and then, Jon mentions the upcoming weekend but she immediately shoots that down, telling him not to push his luck, and she also has to remind him to take Garfield with him when he leaves. Arriving at his house the next day, Liz is initially greeted by Jon in his boxers, and when she's finally let in, she smells something that turns out to be the dinner he's cooking (which doesn't encourage her). Examining Garfield again, she decides to take him off the diet and suggests light exercise instead, which gets her a kiss right on the mouth from the cat. Next, she has to endure Jon's thudding, boring philosophy and history lesson on the meaning of Thanksgiving, which causes her to nearly doze off several times, but once dinner is ready, she's quite impressed by it, unaware that it was Grandma's doing. Once they're done eating, Liz thanks Jon for inviting her and agrees to return next year, adding, "I'll be here before the meal, but after the history lesson." She gives him a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

Jon's grandmother (voiced by Pat Carroll) obviously proved to be so well-received when she appeared in A Garfield Christmas Special that they just had to bring her back in another special, even if it was only for a few minutes. When it's obvious that Jon's Thanksgiving dinner will be a bust, Garfield gives him the idea to call Grandma, who shows up on a motorcycle immediately after he hangs up the phone. She immediately takes charge, shooing Jon out of the kitchen so she can do what she does best. Once she's alone with Garfield, she comments that he's looking a little thin, before taking a freaking chainsaw to the turkey, slicing them up into what she calls her famous turkey croquettes, before adding some white sauce to them and put them into the deep fat fryer, which Garfield totally loves the sound of. Though Garfield isn't too fond of sweet potatoes, Grandma manages to win him over by pouring a cup of butter on them, followed by brown sugar and a ton of marshmallows. She then makes her "split-second" cranberry sauce before whipping out some pumpkin pie to finish things off. Upon setting the table, she tells Garfield she's going to slip out quietly, telling him that, if Liz blows things with Jon, she'll answer to her. She also tells Garfield to eat a piece of pie for her before heading out the door and driving off on her motorcycle.

Odie's (voiced by Gregg Berger) role in this special is very minimal. After helping Garfield to wake Jon up early in the morning and then getting fed the calendar page with Garfield's vet appointment on it, Odie mainly acts as a way for Jon to ensure Garfield doesn't cheat on his diet. When he first tries to get at the refrigerator, Odie blows a whistle on him, and when Garfield learns what's up, he attempts to beat on him but gets whistled on again. Later, when Garfield tries to get at some cookies, Odie pops out of the jar and blows his whistle, proceeding to do the same when Garfield looks in some progressively smaller jars of flour, salt, and sugar (his whistle gets higher each time pops out to match the shrinking size of the jars). After that, Odie doesn't do much other than act as a lapdog when Liz shows up the next day and take part in the Thanksgiving dinner with everyone else. At the end of the special, Garfield manages to get a little bit of payback when Odie is revealed to have stuffed himself to where he can barely move and Jon decides to put him on a diet as well. Garfield takes the whistle he was using earlier and starts blowing it, making Odie do pushups.

Though it's not much to write home about in terms of its look, as the story is set almost entirely within Garfield's home, so you don't see anything at all exotic or really lovely, like you do in other specials like Garfield in the Rough and Garfield in Paradise, or in the character conceptualizations, as by this point, they'd firmly established their signature look (this special is one that really feels like a longer than average episode of Garfield and Friends), one thing that makes Garfield's Thanksgiving stand out among most of its peers is how surprisingly good the animation is. Sometimes, it's the same, simple animation you usually get with these Garfield specials but, in many instances, it transitions into a very fluid and often energetic style. It's not Disney-level but it's still very above average for Garfield. I don't know if it was due to Phil Roman having three other people assisting him in the directing or if he had more animators working on it than he normally did, but the quality of the animation is one thing that really makes this short distinctive.

The special is also not hard up for comedy, either. The idea of Garfield being put on a diet is ripe for laughs in and of itself but when you have it occur the day before Thanksgiving and combine it with Jon trying to fix a big meal in order to impress Liz, it's absolute gold. The two funniest scenes occur in Liz's examination room and in the bathroom when Garfield decides to weigh himself. In the former, while Jon, after his upfront requests for a date have been shot down, holds his breath to try to make Liz break down out of pity, Garfield freaks out when Liz proclaims that he's going to have to go on a diet. Both of them talk over each other, Liz describing the details of the diet and Garfield ranting and protesting everything that she suggests he cut out, all while Jon's face has turned red and bloated and his head looks like it's about to explode. It ends with Garfield letting out an anguished yell while Jon lets his breath out with a groan and the two of them both faint at exactly the same time. It's absolutely hilarious. Later, at home, Garfield decides to weigh himself and steps up on a scale that's robotic and talking. Their exchange is priceless: "I'm RX2, your talking scale. I can tell you your weight, your fortune, or just about anything else you would like to know." "Okay, smarty pants, what's my name?" "Judging by your weight, you are Orson Welles." "Great, her voice chip with a cruel streak." "May I have your autograph, please?" "Oh, shut up. Why is everybody picking on me?! And what's wrong with being large-boned, anyway?" "I've seen all your movies." "Hey, how would you like to have your battery removed?" "I wouldn't like that, Mr. Welles." "It's not like I'm all that overweight! I... can still see my feet." "I've seen Citizen Kane eight times." With that, Garfield decides he's had enough and repeatedly stomps on the scale until it's crushed. As he storms off, the scale groans, "Rosebud," before giving up the ghost. This kind of reminds me of an episode of Garfield and Friends where Garfield pulls the plug on a sentient TV set that's been tormenting him and the way it "dies" is similar to how HAL 9000 goes out in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I find that gag to be a bit funnier but this is still good stuff all-around. There are other funny moments in the special and I'll get to them shortly, but these two scenes are the comedy highlights, for sure.

Like I said in the introduction, the one major flaw with Garfield's Thanksgiving that keeps it from being on par with the other Garfield holiday specials is how it doesn't really capture the essence and point of Thanksgiving itself. It certainly has more of the feel of the holiday and the season than something like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which looked and felt more like it was taking place in the springtime but, when it comes to what Thanksgiving is all about, it only has the one scene where we see them sharing their dinner, which is accompanied by Desiree Goyette singing a lovely song pertaining to it. Nice moment, but other than that, it's all about how Garfield is initially denied one of the things he loves most (food) on a day whose celebration is centered around a big meal and how Jon uses Thanksgiving as an excuse to get a date out of Liz. You could say that, by the end of it, both of them are thankful for finally managing to get what matters to them but that feels like grasping at straws to me.While Garfield's Halloween Adventure perfectly captured the spooky fun of Halloween, and A Garfield Christmas Special managed to get to the spirit and meaning of the season without being too saccharine about it, as well as touched on the more melancholy aspects of it, Garfield's Thanksgiving mainly just uses the holiday as window dressing and little else. It honestly comes off like they felt obligated to do Thanksgiving since they'd already done Halloween and Christmas, which is why I can't put it on the same level as its brethren.

The special starts off with Garfield attempting to wake Jon up to make him breakfast, asking him politely and saying that he'll allow him to go back to bed when he's finished. But, when he gets rebuffed and thrown off the bed when Jon rolls over, Garfield takes more drastic measures and sends him flying out of bed by playing loud martial music over a boombox. Garfield and Odie, the latter holding a pair of cymbals, march across his bed and Garfield, acting like a drill sergeant, demands that he get to it, declaring, "Rise and shine, Jon Arbuckle! Time to serve your nation as you serve your fellow man! Yes, it's time to serve him pancakes. Pancakes the size of Australia, and coffee. Yes, Jon, coffee. We wouldn't be the great nation we are today if it weren't for coffee. So do your patriotic duty, Jon Arbuckle, and fix... me... breakfast!" The two pets march out of the bedroom, Odie smashing the cymbals together before doing so, leaving Jon to ponder, "I wonder if people with goldfish have this problem." Later, after gorging himself on breakfast, Garfield decides it's time for his early mid-morning nap, but when Odie walks by, he decides it's time to abuse him instead and prepares to kick him off the counter. But, just as he's about to do it, he spies the calendar on the wall and sees that it reads, "Take Garfield to Vets today." Horrified at this, describing it as inhumane, he tears the page off the calendar, crumples it up, and shoves it into Odie's mouth. That's when he sees the page for the following day, which is marked as Thanksgiving. His horror turns to elation and he tells Odie, who's still chewing on the Wednesday calendar page, "Do you see that, Odie? Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. That's the day people celebrate having food by eating as much of it as possible... That's the day people try to eat every turkey, pumpkin, and cranberry on the face of the Earth. It's a tradition, and you know how I LOVE tradition!" Excitedly, he grabs the calendar and runs over to Jon, showing it to him. Jon says that they'd best go to the grocery store and stock up on the necessary foodstuffs for the meal. As the credits play, you see Jon pushing around a cart with Garfield, the two of them exiting the store with it stacked to the hilt with bags of food.

While on the way home, with the car filled up with the groceries, Garfield excitedly chatters about what he feels Thanksgiving is all about, namely a bunch of food, which he names off while stretching it in front of Jon's face, nearly causing him to lose control of the car. That's when Jon, to Garfield's surprise, takes a right, which isn't the way home. Jon tells him that they're going to the vet and Garfield screams in anguish, as the car swerves wildly down the street. The next scene is in the vet's waiting room (one of the people there has a pig on her lap who looks suspiciously like Orson from U.S. Acres, aka Orson's Farm), where Garfield is clamped on the top of Jon's head, shaking nervously. Liz calls Jon in and he carries Garfield into the examination room as if he were a piece of baggage, placing him on the table. As Liz checks Garfield over, Jon attempts to make small-talk with her, only to be rebuffed, with Garfield commenting, "I can see this relationship is off to a roaring stop." Jon then attempts to ask Liz out and is promptly rejected, while Liz takes Garfield's blood pressure and, in her distraction, pumps it until his paw is swollen to a massive size. As Jon continues his ill-fated flirting, Liz then does something that causes it to reverse, causing Garfield's body to swell up like a balloon while his paw shrinks down. He deflates completely when Liz puts her foot down and tells Jon she will never go out with him, which leads him to take drastic measures and hold his breath until she agrees. His face quickly becomes bloated and red and his eyes seem to be on the verge of popping out, which Liz ignores and, after checking Garfield's pulse, delivers her diagnosis and suggestion of a diet that sends Garfield into a fit. Once both he and Jon have passed out, Liz decides to throw Jon a bone and agree to go out with him. Jon is so ecstatic at this that he runs out the door, inviting Liz to Thanksgiving dinner, and almost forgets to take Garfield with him.

When they arrive back home, Jon walks through the door, happily singing to himself about having a date with Liz, while Garfield comes plodding in behind him, moaning, "Oh, woe is me. I've been put on a diet and I'm gonna die." Jon serves him dinner, which is just one leaf of lettuce in his food bowl. Garfield protests this and Jon, indeed, says that he made a mistake... he gets half a piece of lettuce. Irked, Garfield reluctantly eats the lettuce and stumbles over to a mirror, commenting, "Gee, I've been on this diet only ten minutes and I can tell I've already lost something: a sense of humor." Garfield sneaks into the kitchen and tip-toes over to the refrigerator, only to be surprised by the sudden sound of a whistle. Jon shows up and tells Garfield, who thinks he booby-trapped the fridge, that the one who blew the whistle was Odie, who's going to blow the whistle every time he tries to cheat on the diet. Grumbling, "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of in my life. I'm going to put an end to this charade right now," Garfield charges up a punch but Odie hits him with the whistle again, sending him twirling in the air and landing back on the floor in a heap. Jon tells Garfield he'll thank him for this some day but all Garfield cares about is telling Odie, who snickers at his predicament, that he's in for it. Later that night, following his bout with the scale that mistakes him for Orson Welles, Garfield heads back into the kitchen. Seeing no sign of Odie, he tries to go for some cookies, only for Odie to pop out of the jar and blow his whistle. Garfield quickly puts the lid back on the jar, but when he lifts the lids on some other jars of flour, salt, and sugar, Odie pops out of each of them and blows the whistle. After a few moments of battling with Odie here, including one instance where Odie pops out of three jars at once, Garfield groans, "The lack of food must be making me hallucinate." He tries one more time, and when Odie pops up and blows the whistle yet again, he gives up and runs out.

The next morning, Jon is greeted by a very cranky Garfield, who hisses and threatens him with his claws when he asks him if he slept well. Jon, however, isn't going to let his cat's foul mood ruin his day for him and heads over to begin preparing the meal. While he remains optimistic throughout it, as he goes through the cookbook, it becomes clear that Jon doesn't know anything about cooking a big meal. When he reads that he should have removed the turkey from the freezer at least 24 hours before cooking it, Jon writes that off as a "minor technicality" and dumps the frozen bird onto the counter. He then reads, "Remove giblets from cavity and stuff with one cup of prepared stuffing," and laughs, saying, "You can't believe everything you read." He manages to correctly follow the direction of placing the turkey in the roasting pan breast-side up but, when he gets to, "Rub skin with butter," he rubs the butter on his own arms and cheeks, leaving Garfield dumbfounded at his stupidity and causing him to facepalm. That done, Jon puts a piece of foil on the turkey, his idea of wrapping it in foil, and places it in the oven, deciding to cook it at 500 degrees rather than the recommended 325 given how Liz will be there soon. Getting to the vegetables, Jon simply tosses a bunch of random ones in a pot and pours some water over them, thinking that's all there is to it, commenting, "To hear Mom and Grandma talk, I always thought preparing a Thanksgiving meal was tough!" He leaves to go freshen himself up, while Garfield decides that, since he can't enjoy Thanksgiving because of his holiday, no one else will either, and covers the vegetables with garlic powder.

In the bathroom, Jon has his face lathered up and, as he prepares to shave, proclaims his manhood and that he's going to see to it that his relationship with Liz works out, saying that he's in control of his own destiny. He then cuts himself and Garfield comments, "Ever considered putting someone else in charge of your destiny?" In the next scene, Jon and Garfield are in the bedroom, as Jon tries to find something to wear to dinner. He asks Garfield for his opinion and tries on a large set of outfits: formal (top hat and tails, with a cane), semi-formal (a pink shirt and bowtie, with checkered pants and a winged cap), informal (a T-shirt and jeans, complete with a slumped posture similar to a lazy teenager), high-roller (a suit with cowboy boots and a hat), sporting (a tanktop, shorts, and tennis shoes), disco (goes without saying), hippie-style (he even holds up two fingers and says, "Peace,"), rugged individualist (a thick sweater with jeans), Popeye (literally, he comes out dressed as Popeye, with the enormous forearms to match), a ballerina, and a gorilla suit. Garfield blows a raspberry at all of these and, running out of clothes, Jon decides, as does Garfield, to just be himself. He puts on a suit and tie and Garfield gives him a thumbs up, only for him to then see that Jon that forget to put on pants. The doorbell then rings and Jon excitedly answers it, only for Liz to point out that he's in his boxers. Jon quickly shuts the door, runs back to the bedroom, and puts on pants, admonishing Garfield for not telling him about his little faux pas ahead of time. He also tells him to be nice to Liz and Garfield grumbles, "First, I have to be a fashion consultant, now I have to be an actor."

Now fully dressed, Jon lets Liz in and when she does, she comments on a smell. Jon tells her it's the Thanksgiving dinner he's cooking up, which she feared was the case. He sees her to the couch while he heads into the kitchen to see to their meal. Meanwhile, Odie climbs up into Liz's lap and Garfield sits across from her on the couch. She decides to see how his diet's going, saying she doesn't want him to become anemic. She then lists off the various effects of vitamin deficiency due to dieting and Garfield plays up each one: listlessness (he acts like he has no energy), irritability (he swipes his claws and growls), nervousness (he shivers and looks around), twitching (he shakes his leg and arm), dementia (he makes one of the funniest expressions I've ever seen him make, with a witless "duh" sound to accompany it), and breathlessness (he holds his breath until his face turns red and lets it out loudly). Seeing all of this, Liz decides to take him off the diet and instead prescribe some mild exercise for the time being. Thrilled by this, Garfield gives her a kiss right on the lips and celebrates his ability to eat again, only to then remember the disaster that Jon has brewing in the kitchen. Speaking of which, Jon dumps the still frozen turkey onto the counter with a loud thud and laments to Garfield that Liz will never speak to him again because of this. Thinking for a bit, Garfield hits upon something and brings Jon the telephone. However, he doesn't get it, telling Garfield, "I can't feed Liz this." He then grabs a record entitled Biker Blues, Grandma's favorite record, but Jon thinks he means he should play it for Liz. Garfield grabs a heart-shaped pillow Grandma crocheted but Jon still doesn't get it, nor does he when Garfield hands him the sweater Grandma made for him the previous Christmas. Running out of patience, Garfield grabs a picture of Grandma and shows it to Jon. Finally, he gets the idea to call her, with Garfield commenting, "If he had a brain, he'd be dangerous."

While Liz is still waiting out in the living room with Odie, Jon calls Grandma, and as soon as he hangs up, he hears the sound of a motorcycle outside. Grandma comes through the door, wearing a leather jacket, ascot, and helmet, which she removes and declares, "Have cooking utensils, will travel!" She promptly shoos Jon out of the kitchen and gets to work making the meal edible. Out in the living room, Jon keeps Liz preoccupied by pondering the meaning of Thanksgiving, much to her bewilderment, while Grandma takes a chainsaw to the frozen turkey. Liz nearly nods off as Jon drones on about the pilgrims, when they both hear the sound of the chainsaw but Jon tells her it's just the dishwasher. Grandma finishes making turkey croquettes with the saw before slathering them in white sauce and preparing them for the deep fat fryer, which Garfield declares to be music to his ears. While Liz is still struggling to stay awake, as Jon talks about Abraham Lincoln officially proclaiming Thanksgiving to take place on the fourth Thursday of November and how they celebrate it in Canada, Grandma fixes her sweet potatoes, which manage to win over Garfield, who makes it clear he's not typically a fan of them. Jon starts talking about "Labor Thanksgiving Day" in Japan, while Grandma fixes her "split-second" cranberry sauce, covering Garfield's eyes with her hand and pouring the sauce in a bowl, telling him, "Too late; you blinked." She then gets to the piece de resistance, which is pumpkin pie, and puts it all together in an elaborate display that involves juggling before taking it over to the table and serving it up, prompting Garfield to make his trademark comment, "Nice touch." Grandma prepares to leave, telling Garfield to make sure that Liz knows she couldn't ask for a better man than Jon and that she'll have to answer to her if she messes things up. Garfield salutes Grandma as she walks out the door and rides off, commenting, "They just don't make 'em like that anymore."

By this point, Liz has now fallen asleep as Jon talks about what Thanksgiving is like in England, when Garfield comes in and tugs on his pants leg. He then smells the food and announces that it's all ready. Liz snaps awake, wondering where she is, and Jon leads her into the dining room, where she gasps at the sight of the lovely, well-set table. She tells him that she's impressed and he says that he is too. We then get a montage set to the song, It's a Quiet Celebration, by Desiree Goyette, as the four of them say grace before digging in. Jon, after pushing his hand away when he reaches over the table, slips Garfield a roll, while Liz gives Odie the corncob that he just licked. Garfield then slips Jon's plate out from under him when he isn't looking and polishes off all the food. After they've finished eating, they all join hands, including Garfield, who returns the gesture when Jon takes his. Following dinner, Liz heads out, telling Jon she'll join him again next year, and gives him a kiss on his cheek. Jon walks back into the living room and sees Garfield and Odie sitting on the couch, completely stuffed. After they all agree that they're thankful for Grandma, Jon tries to get his pets to join him in a walk to work off some of the food. It takes him a little bit, but Garfield is able to scooch himself off the couch, while Odie finds himself unable to budge an inch or even stand up on his legs. Jon is disappointed to see how Odie has become as lethargic as Garfield usually is and says that they'll have to put him on a diet as well. Odie groans at the sound of this, only to snap to attention when a whistle blows. Garfield jumps on the couch, wearing the whistle and a cap on his head, and orders Odie to give him ten pushups. Odie does so, as Garfield yells out the count, but looks more like a dog-shaped seesaw in how he's moving rather than someone doing pushups. Garfield asks, "Are we having fun yet?", before continuing the count, as the special ends.

Music-wise, Ed Bogas and Goyette don't do much that you haven't heard before in other specials, like a saxophone instrumental of Here Comes Garfield from the first special that you hear a couple of times and the electric guitar and light-hearted tinkling sounds that you often heard in the other specials, as well as in Garfield and Friends. That said, there are a few memorable themes, like the military piece that plays when Garfield and Odie wake Jon up early in the morning, this sincerely suspenseful piece for when Jon is holding his breath to make Liz agree to a date, a theme during some of Jon's dopey moments (notably when he starts cooking the meal and when he's boring Liz) that perfectly captures how clueless and dumb he can be, and an energetic, horn theme for Grandma that accentuates how much of an energetic, lively, motorcycle-riding old soul she is. There are only two songs: Make Thanksgiving One Whole Meal, by Lou Rawls, which is just a lively tune about how great a holiday Thanksgiving can be, and the aforementioned It's a Quiet Celebration by Goyette, which is more soulful and lovely and goes into the true meaning of the holiday. Like I said before, it sounds beautiful, but it's the only instance where this special acknowledges that idea and it feels like they put it in there because they felt like they had to.

Garfield's Thanksgiving makes for an enjoyable half-hour but, as you've seen, there's a reason why it doesn't get talked about as much as the other two holiday specials: it's just not as memorable or classic as Garfield's Halloween Adventure and A Garfield Christmas Special and doesn't embody its particular holiday the way those do, using it as little more than a backdrop for a couple of stories they could have done for any old special or episode of the TV show. But, despite that, as well as the very traditional art-style and character portrayals and the mostly so-so music and songs, the special still manages to be quite funny, the animation is really good and fluid, and it has the same old charm that makes all of these cartoons a joy to watch. In the end, I would advise you to check it out if you like Garfield, but not to hold it up to the standards of the more superior holiday specials.