Little Yellow Riding Hood (The Garfield Show)

"Little Yellow Riding Hood" is the 32nd episode (33rd in Europe) of Season 1 of The Garfield Show.

Plot
At a picnic area, Odie finds a lost baby wolf, so he takes him home, unaware that the mother wolf is following them.

Why It Doesn’t Deserve a Ride

 * 1) It's an 11-minute Garfield torture episode.
 * 2) Odie is completely stupid in this episode. He sees that a baby wolf is lost and starving and instead of trying to find food suitable for the baby wolf to eat, he decides to let him have the entire cheesecake. Couldn't Odie have at least taken a slice to feed to him instead of the entire cheesecake? Not to mention, had the baby wolf been lactose intolerant, it would have made him sick.
 * 3) * Yes, Odie is portrayed as a stupid dog, but this episode took it way too far.
 * 4) As everyone leaves the park, Odie then decides to bring the baby wolf home by sneaking him into the picnic basket. This leads to the mother wolf following them to the city. An animal like a grown wolf walking around an urban landscape like a city is extremely dangerous.
 * 5) Jon is at his absolute worst in this episode as his flanderization has gone too far. He immediately blames and punishes Garfield for eating the cheesecake despite showing no signs of him doing so.
 * 6) * While Odie took the cheesecake, it was established that Garfield was taking a nap. How could he eat the cheesecake if he is asleep?
 * 7) * He even threatens to have Garfield walk 20 miles home (which he doesn't luckily) had he eaten it.
 * 8) * The line "Odie would never do anything that sneaky". Has Jon didn't learned his lesson from the events of "The Curse of the Were-Dog"? (big shock, that is another bad episode)
 * 9) * Later on, Jon even has the gall to taunt Garfield with his "porterhouse steak" dinner while Garfield gets "Kitty Krunch" cat food, and then tells them, with a sinister grin, "That's all you're getting for the rest of the month. I'll bet Odie would enjoy that yummy piece of steak".
 * 10) * If that wasn't bad enough, when the mother wolf eats the steak, Jon immediately blames Garfield, well.. again.
 * 11) Liz is pointless in this episode and serves absolutely no purpose.
 * 12) The same montage showing the mother wolf chasing Jon and Garfield is shown twice, with the first time serving as nothing but filler.
 * 13) The baby wolf, while cute, somewhat eerily resembles Furball from mh:besttvshows:Tiny Toon Adventures, or simply looks like a reject from that show.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Garfield, Liz, and the baby wolf are likable.
 * 2) * Garfield isn't fully flanderized and is closer to his original personality.
 * 3) * Odie becomes more likable as the episode progresses and he does show guilt for his actions.
 * 4) Although unintentional, the mother wolf chasing Jon does somewhat serve as comeuppance for his actions but at the same time, it doesn't do justice for Garfield as he is also chased.
 * 5) Good Ending: The baby wolf reunites with his mother wolf and Jon finds out that he was the one that ate the cheesecake. He then proceeds to apologize to Garfield.

Trivia

 * 1) In this episode, Garfield's voice is slightly higher than normal.
 * 2) This is the second time in the series where Garfield gets blamed for eating something after being threatened by Jon to not eat it, following "Curse of the Were-Dog".