We all love the classic Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis.
The lasagne-loving cat, humanised with his opinionated and sardonic personality, serves up much hilarity with his daily interactions with his owner Jon, the postman, and dog Odie.
Director Philippe Vidal, who has overseen the four seasons of the French-American CGI animation, shed light on why they homed in on Garfield for the series.
“It was an amazing situation,” Vidal says in his French cadence.
“I have known Garfield since I was a teenager (recalling a toy his then girlfriend gave him). One day about five to six years ago, I was with my producer talking about projects and new ideas. I saw a comic book of Garfield on his table and asked: ‘What about Garfield?’ He said it could be tricky getting in touch with Jim Davis.”
When they got in touch with Davis – he loved their interpretation of Garfield for the TV series and gave the nod to the series, with him also executive producing it too.
On the distance factor and whether it was a challenge for them, Vidal laughs: “We worked closely even though we had an ocean between us. Thanks to the internet, it was possible to bridge the distance between the two studios in this French-American collaboration.”
Before chatting about the series and how it has grown, he talks about Garfield: The Lion Queen, an animated special with Africa as the backdrop.
“When I was a kid, I always loved Africa and was amazed by the animals. It is a big fascination for the European kids. When we were thinking of new shows, I thought, why don’t we bring it to Africa with a wild animal story. My producer loved the idea and we started talking to Jim Davis and he loved the idea. And it was like magic.”
He continues: “The story deals with a country that doesn’t exist in Africa. We wanted to put most of the animals we love in Africa and we started building from scratch. So I really wanted it to be very human. I know there is this humanity that is very strong there. It is part of the things we wanted to include. It was a very exciting project to work on. It came along very smoothly. I hope that people in South Africa will recognise the Africa they love.”
Commenting on how The Garfield Show has mushroomed with its characters, he says: “I think the series now has more than 1 000 new characters – something that has never been done on television. We wanted people to be surprised all the time. We have been bringing in different places and ended up with something like 600 to 700 backgrounds.”
On how they capture Garfield in the series, Vidal points out. “He is more a human character than a mischievous one. He has all the human failures, but also a positive side. Even if he is lazy, he will always do good things in the end.”
Shedding light on their more popular characters, he reveals: “It is very funny. People love Vito, the owner of the pizza place that Garfield and Jon like to go to. It is the kind of place Garfield has always dreamed of. This character was inspired by co-writer Mark (Evanier), who has a friend with a pizza place in America. Some of the kids love Mrs Cauldron, voiced by June Foray. She is the one who used to do voiceover work in Bugs Bunny. Fifty years on, she is still doing witch characters. Also popular are The Evil Space Lasagnas.”
Having just put the fourth season to bed, Vidal says they are taking a hiatus before resuming with the fifth season.
In the meantime, little ones will delight in seeing Garfield in Africa. Scared out of his wits by spiders, he encounters lion cubs and comes up with a makeshift solution to his craving for lasagne in the jungle.
• Garfield: The Lion Queen airs Saturday on Cartoon Network at 10am and next Tuesday, 5.30pm.