The Top 5 scariest Garfield Cartoons

The title is unfortunately not a joke

Garfield has largely faded from the cultural spotlight in the 2020s, and  Chris Pratt’s voice does not do him any favors. However, during the 1980s and early 1990s, Garfield was a true pop culture powerhouse, rivaling characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny as one of America’s most recognizable cartoon animals. The comic strip was a massive success, the television specials and Garfield and Friends were on a roll, and Garfield merchandise was everywhere. With that level of popularity and creative freedom, Garfield’s stories were often much more experimental and ambitious than many people might remember today. The franchise was willing to explore different genres, tones, and unusual concepts, creating a sandbox where almost anything could happen—including surprisingly dark, suspenseful, and even genuinely scary stories.

In this article, I will be counting down the top 5

5) Here Comes Garfield

For the most part, Here Comes Garfield really isn't a scary special at all. In fact, the original 1982 TV special is essentially a tighter, more heartfelt, and more condensed version of the 2004 live-action Garfield movie. That said, the third act has an undeniably unsettling atmosphere. Like in the live-action film, Garfield gets himself thrown into the city pound, but unlike the movie, Odie is already there and is scheduled to be euthanized the following morning. The emotional impact comes less from outright fear and more from a mixture of dread and sadness, as the audience realizes just how serious the situation has become. Even the dog catcher has an intimidating presence that adds to the tension without becoming overtly villainous. Fortunately, the story doesn't linger in despair for long—Garfield breaks Odie out at the last possible moment, leading to a satisfying and genuinely heartwarming happy ending.

4) Nighty Nightmare

The Garfield and Friends episode “Nighty Nightmare” certainly lives up to its name, as what begins as a silly episode gradually escalates into something far more dark and bizarre. The dream sequence starts with a cheeky song, but as Garfield grows bigger and bigger, the situation slowly transforms into full-blown kaiju and disaster movie territory, with Garfield consuming all the food in town. Things become even more absurdly serious when the National Guard is called in to deal with the crisis, attempting to keep him satisfied by feeding him endless amounts of lasagna while also filling the Grand Canyon with chicken gumbo as a backup plan. As the situation continues to spiral out of control, Garfield goes on a rampage through the city searching for “more food,” recreating the classic King Kong scenario as he climbs a skyscraper—except instead of swatting away attacking planes, he simply eats them. Then, the episode pushes into almost cosmic horror territory when Garfield is abducted by aliens, who reveal that they used a “hunger ray” to make him endlessly hungry and fatten him up so their entire planet could eat him for Thanksgiving dinner. 

Fortunately, just as the nightmare reaches its strangest and most terrifying point and Garfield begins to panic, he wakes up relieved to discover that it was all just a dream.

3) Garfield in the Rough 

Funny enough, my first exposure to the Garfield classics was Garfield in the Rough. Thankfully, it was balanced out by being part of a collection that also included Garfield in Paradise and Garfield Goes Hollywood—both as comic collections and as TV specials on DVD. Compared to the more comedic and relaxed adventures Garfield is usually known for, Garfield in the Rough feels almost like a suspense thriller, with the escaped panther providing the majority of the tension. What makes the panther so effective is the buildup throughout the special: viewers only get brief glimpses of it at first, along with radio news reports, warnings from local authorities, and frightened eyewitness accounts from the forest animals. By the time the panther finally appears to attack Garfield, Jon, and Odie, the suspense has been building for so long that the adrenaline reaches its peak, making the climax feel much more intense than a typical Garfield story. Fortunately, the danger is resolved when the rangers arrive and tranquilize the panther, allowing everyone to make it out safely and bringing the adventure to a satisfying conclusion.

2) Garfield’s Halloween Adventure

Predictably enough, a Halloween special usually needs to bring some scares, unless the goal is simply to make a slice-of-life story about trick-or-treating. Unfortunately for Garfield, his night of trick-or-treating takes a terrifying turn for the worse in Garfield’s Halloween Adventure. Despite the special’s early attempts to establish a spooky atmosphere, it doesn’t really begin as anything too frightening. Then the mysterious old man in the log cabin appears, and suddenly the mood shifts completely, leaving viewers with a sense of dread. It is revealed that the old man was once a cabin boy for a group of pirates who buried treasure in the area a century ago, and that the pirates are destined to return that night to reclaim their loot—even though they are now long dead. After the old man escapes in the very rowboat Garfield and Odie’s arrived in (making off with their candy in the process), the pirate ghosts soon make their appearance. Their ghastly skeletal designs and eerie presence are pure eighties kid high octane nightmare fuel, creating an image far more unsettling than anyone would expect from a Garfield special. 

Thankfully, the story ends on a triumphant note as Garfield and Odie escape in a thrilling chase and recover their stolen candy when they return to shore. However, the special still manages to get one last laugh at Garfield’s expense. As Garfield tries to stay awake late into the night to enjoy his candy while watching television, the old man suddenly appears again on the broadcast, hosting a “pirate movie marathon.” Garfield immediately “nopes” out of the situation, and goes straight to bed—ending the adventure with a hilarious final bit of insult to injury.

1) Lab Animal 19-GB

If these past examples are any indication, Garfield in the 1980s was far more experimental and creatively ambitious than many people might expect. Because of that, Garfield’s Nine Lives feels like the perfect sandbox for exploring different genres and concepts beyond the usual comedy. However, Garfield’s seventh life, “Lab Animal 19-Gb,” stands out as arguably the scariest thing the franchise ever produced. The segment begins with a cat trapped inside a government research facility, undergoing some mysterious medical experiment. The unsettling atmosphere is heightened by the fact that even the scientists themselves admit that their work feels like something “out of a horror movie.” When the cat escapes to avoid being dissected, the tension only increases as he is spotted by a guard with a deeply unsettling expression before managing to flee in a helicopter. He is later pursued by attack dogs, but once again narrowly escapes. However, the true nightmare moment comes when the cat suddenly begins to mutate, transforming into a dog in a scene that feels straight out of a classic werewolf movie. The segment ends with soldiers searching for the missing cat, only for the horrifying twist to be revealed: he has become a dog and is hiding in plain sight among the very search dogs looking for him. One other interesting detail is that the cat in this segment bears an uncanny resemblance to Oliver from Oliver & Company, which was released around the same time in November 1988. There is no known connection between the two, so it is just an eerie coincidence. But for me, the similarity still adds to the strange atmosphere surrounding one of Garfield’s darkest and most unusual stories.

Conclusion

But perhaps the scariest thing Garfield has ever faced was… Chris Pratt voicing him. (And to be fair, I like Chris Pratt—the problem is that he simply isn’t Lorenzo Music). But in all seriousness, its a shame I couldn’t add more to the list.

Unlike kids today, I grew up on the classics… and that includes Garfield. Scary moments, like sad moments, are sometimes inevitable when making good fiction. These unsettling moments only make me appreciate classic Garfield even more. More than just loving lasagna and hating Mondays, Garfield became an icon because he interacted with the environment and changed situations around him, for better or worse, as he always would. As for me, I will stick to rewatching the specials and rereading the classic comics