The star of many TV and holiday specials, his own movie and even his own show on TV back in the late 80s and early 90s; Garfield is pretty much loved by all. The fat orange cat is easily the most well known feline to grace any publication and nearly 30 years running he still appears in the comic strip section of every newspaper. While Davis doesn't really handle the artwork now, he still is the creator and the lead man behind all of his productions.

Given how merchandise-driven Davis is, it's no surprise that the Garfield and Friends show found its way to DVD. While the series itself ran for a combine total of 121 complete episodes, it was actually broken down into sections or sub-episodes if you will. The show consisted of adventures from both Garfield and Davis' other creation, U.S. Acres. The latter receiving a name change to Orson's Farm later in the shows' broadcast run.

Revisiting the material proved to be just as entertaining now as it was ten years ago when most of these episodes all aired. Saturday morning just isn't as good these days and during the time that Garfield and Friends was on children's cartoons were at their peak in terms of quality. Even going back to watch the show, I have to admit that I love U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm. I possibly enjoy it more than the Garfield skits. Wade the Duck was always my favorite character on the show and though he was only a secondary character I still get a laugh every time I see him tweak-out.

Four volumes have already been released housing seasons one through essentially the first half of season six but the fifth and final has just hit the streets. As this set comprises some of the last moments of the series, it's only natural that many of the episodes and quickies may seem a little long in tooth. There aren't any real "bad" skits here, but the script writers seemed to run out of ideas. Things got a little kookier with many of these episodes, but overall there are several great moments here. Old characters also make some returns to the show like Penelope and the Ants, and there are many continuing "story arcs" as well.

There are many great skits here that will get a laugh out of anyone and I recall several of these as personal favorites from when the show was broadcast. From the Garfield side of things there are several great "Quickies" in each episode. There are also some hilarious full-length ones such as "Arbuckle the Invincible", "Food Fighter", "Knights and Daze", and "Alley Katta & the 40 Thieves". As far as Orson's Farm is concerned some great ones are here as well. "Holiday Happening", "Mind Over Melvin", "Grape Expectations", and "Thing in the Box" are all pretty funny.

If you have been collecting these releases as they have been coming out then picking up the fifth volume is a no-brainer. If you were never able to see the series when it was broadcast but are a fan of the comic strip, then you owe it to yourself to pick these sets up. The show proves itself time and time again to be great fun for kids and adults alike without ever become controversial or dull. Many of the episodes here are a little more on the silly side than past seasons, but overall it's a great collection.

Garfield and Friends Volume Five is presented in much of the same fashion as the previous volumes. Some artwork adorns the bright colorful box and there are three discs containing all of the episodes. The first two discs hold eight episodes each while the last houses the final nine of the show. On the back of the mini cases there are images for the three episodes included on that disc. It should be noted that on the back of disc three the images for episodes 121 and 120 are reversed. Also even though U.S. Acres was changed to Orson's Farm, it's still listed as its original name on the back.

Just like the previous volumes, Garfield and Friends' fifth DVD release offers a presentation with the original 1.33:1 full frame ratio. For a TV show that is over ten years old the transfer looks pretty good, though probably not a whole lot better than it did back in the day. The image is very sharp, clean and vibrant, but there are a couple of flaws that pop up on the set. The video includes a few spots of grain and even some speckle here and there, a tad bit of aliasing occurs in some scenes and the picture looks almost too vibrant for its own good at parts. Overall though the show has been kept in great condition and is on par with previous volumes.

Just like the last four volumes of the show, this one is presented with Dolby Digital Mono for both English and Spanish. It sounds just like you'd expect a mono track to sound and even though we are used to better this day and age, it's acceptable audio quality for the material on hand. The set also gets English and Spanish subtitles.

With this being the last volume of the show I was hoping for some actual bonus material. Maybe something from Jim Davis talking about the show or about how he came up with the characters, but alas all that is available are trailers for Dr. DoLittle 3 and Like Mike 2.

Garfield has remained one of my favorite comic strips of all time and I used to have a ball watching this show when it aired on TV. Even now over ten years later I still had a great time revisiting the series. The material holds up extremely well this day and age and there's a certain "timeless" factor to many of the skits in this volume. If you've already picked up the previous volumes then grabbing this one is an easy decision. Recommended

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