When I was really little, I always thought that "Garfield on the Town" was really funny. As I aged, I thought less of it. Of course, I like the thought of someone's reconnection with his roots (such as Garfield's growing up in an Italian restaurant). What's really cool to me nowadays is knowing that Garfield's voice artist was Lorenzo Music, who was also the original voice artist of Peter Venkman (Bill Murray's character) on "The Real Ghostbusters"*. In all, Music was a sarcastic, lasagna-loving cat hunting evil spirits! Anyway, this movie isn't really anything special, unless you look at it from the perspective of retracing ones roots.*Incidentally, Bill Murray provided Garfield's voice in the 2004 movie.

Garfield is one of my favorite comics, and as a 24-year-old woman, I do not remember the other Garfield TV specials, except for the holiday ones; my favorite is Garfield's Halloween Adventure. I did bought the DVD "Garfield as Himself," which features the three TV specials : Here Comes Garfield (the first Garfield TV special), Garfield on The Town and Garfield Gets a Life. And after watching all three, I found I love Garfield on the Town the most.In this special, Garfield falls out of the car, on his way to the vet's office, and gets lost in the inner city. He tries to make the most of it until he runs into a gang of unfriendly alley cats that call themselves the Claws. Garfield confronts the gang leader, who then calls for the rest of his gang, to which Garfield runs away and ends up in an abandoned restaurant where he is reunited with his long lost mother. The building they are in used to be "Mama Leone's" Italian Restaurant, which is Garfield's birthplace and also where he discovered a love for lasagna. Garfield's mother takes him to see the rest of the family including his tough maternal grandfather, as well as his sickly half-brother Raoul and his cousin Sly, who is the security guard on watch for the Claws. Garfield is appalled to learn that everyone in the family are mousers. The Claws have tracked Garfield down and have surrounded the building, demanding Garfield come out for offending them. I love the animation for this special. It came from the famous Peanuts cartoon team of Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, giving it a similar look to the Peanuts cartoons. I also like Lou Rawls and Desiree Goyette doing the songs. And one last thing: I think Garfield's mom is pretty.

One year since "Here comes Garfield".In "Garfield on the Town", Garfield has wrecked and cause his owner Jon enough trouble, that he decides to take him to the vet for punishment.On the way Garfield ended up getting out of the car when Jon turn to the next corner. Now Garfield is free to roam the streets as he please.One night, he decides to get something to eat from the dumpsters, only to find a punk cat who tells him he's invading his territory. Garfield shows him who's boss, but doesn't realize that the cat is part of a Gang of Cats called the Claws. Who soon become Garfield's new enemy.Garfield makes a run for it, and ends up in an old building, which he meets face to face with another cat, who turns out to be his long lost mother. Garfield was over joy to see his own mom again.In this TV movie, we learn a little bit of Garfield's family, and the day he was still a kitten. The animation is similar to the previous one and has some good voice acting. Hats down to Lorenzo Music.With plenty of emotional moments, humor, and songs. This is another must for Garfield fans.

Everybody's favourite overweight, lazy, cynical, lasagne-loving, Monday-loathing, orange-striped feline (one of many reasons why Garfield stands as such an unrivalled creation – have you ever seen such a unique combination of character traits?) received his second TV outing back in 1983 in this endearing tale of family unity and survival. Having been separated from his owner Jon Arbuckle and lost out on the streets of the city, where the local strays will defend their territory to the finish, Garfield has mixed experiences when he runs afoul with one particularly aggressive gang of moggies, only to be taken in and sheltered by another, much more lax group who, as it turns out, have a flesh-and-blood connection to him. But although his mother, who Garfield hasn't seen since his days as a kitten, is keen to welcome him, reservations soon arise as to whether or not our leading cat could ever fit in with the rest of his impoverished clan.Admittedly, I've never really found any instalment in Garfield's TV special canon to be quite as dazzling as his equivalent adventures in the series 'Garfield and Friends' – the stories there were a lot shorter, but usually managed to pack in a lot more wit, charm and imagination to boot (although 'Garfield goes Hollywood', which almost felt like it could have been an extended segment of 'GaF', came extremely close). That said, 'On the Town' is still a fun and timeless 30-minute delight, made memorable by its touching story, pleasant music, playful humour, and, most crucially of all, an utterly inspired back-alley showdown between Garfield and a taunting purple stray (which consists mostly of flailing about and sizing each other up back and forth – and Garfield's problems with his claws and his shadow come as brilliant touches). The animation too is as about as high in quality as you'd expect from a project of this nature – basic, but clean, rounded and very easy on the eye; an improvement on that used in his debut special 'Here Comes Garfield' (which still succeeded in terms of heart and story), and better even than a handful of his later adventures like 'In the Rough' and 'In Disguise'. There are some technical glitches which keep things from running completely smoothly, including a rather awkward moment where Garfield's grandfather is moving his head and finger like he should be saying something, but nothing at all comes out (I assume it arose from a slip-up in the editing department). Also, has anyone else noticed that when the purple cat sings, he sounds nothing like he does when he talks? Well, I guess it's the kind of minor detail which only someone as insecure and nit-picky as me would make that big a thing out of…after all, these Garfield specials never aimed to be anything more than an enjoyable, light-hearted exercise in charm and entertainment for all the family, and this one certainly gets that job done well enough, so why try to find a huge deal of fault with it? Besides, I really owe too much to Garfield for all the times he's made me smile throughout my lifetime – and 'On the Town' is no exception. It features Liz at her most devilishly catty. The flashback sequence is handled perfectly. And the last few moments are absolutely wonderful.Grade: A-