The Picnic Panic is the third segment from the eighty-sixth episode of Garfield and Friends.


In a musical episode, Jon, Garfield and Odie hold a picnic, which is soon invaded by a colony of ants.


One sunny Tuesday, Jon, Garfield and Odie take a little hike in the forest to a lake that all three of them enjoy. They managed to find a spot and set up picnic though they hope there are not any ants around. Meanwhile, a colony of ants have caught wind of the picnic and set to steal it.

Back at the picnic, Jon and Odie go out for a run while Garfield takes a nap. Before leaving, Jon warns Garfield not to eat anything until they were done running, which he promises. The cat resumes his nap, unaware the ants are taking the picnic. In his dream, Garfield is eating everything. He realizes the picnic was gone when he accidentally chewed the blanket. Knowing he will get blamed for the disappearance, Garfield chases after the ants to get the food back.

The ants proved to be smarter then him as they trick him into diving into the lake. Garfield then gets the scent of a pie in the bushes, only to stumble on a beehive. Once he evades the bees by hiding in a log, Garfield looks for the ants' base. He then finds an empty picnic basket and uses it to pretend he is food. The ants grab the basket, making Garfield think he has outsmarted them. The ants instead threw the basket into the stream.

As Garfield races down the stream, he sees it lead to a waterfall, where he almost drowned. Finally, he gave up and headed back to the site as the ants were celebrating their victory. By the time he arrived back at the site, Jon finds the food missing and initially blames Garfield for it. Garfield tries to tell him it was the ants that stole their picnic. Jon does not believe it until the ants grab him and throw him into the lake.

After getting out of the lake, the three are starving and Jon suggests heading home. Garfield instead stays behind to join the ants. Soon, he and the ants are stealing food from other picnics.


Major Characters

Minor Characters


Cultural References

  • The male camper's line of "That's the second biggest ant I ever saw" alludes to Get Smart.

Garfield and Friends