The Garfield Movie review

THE GARFIELD MOVIE: 

ANIMATED THEATRICAL ADAPTATION OF BELOVED CHILDREN’S CHARACTER FEELS LIKE MONDAYS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Garfield and Friends (See what I did there?) in The Garfield Movie

 

            Garfield the Cat returns to the big screen in The Garfield Movie, a new CG animated adaptation of Jim Davis’ iconic comic strip of the same name. The character had already appeared on the big screen in live-action/CGI form with the 2004 Garfield movie featuring Bill Murray as the voice of the titular cat which also got a sequel in 2006, but let’s not get into that. 

            After the poor reception of the live-action films, I guess a new theatrical outing for the Garfield character was long overdue. Which brings us to Sony Pictures’ take on an animated Garfield movie (Surprisingly, not produced by their own animation studio) with Mark Dindal (Cats Don’t Dance, The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little) as the director and the vocal talents of…Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)) as the…voice of…the…lazy…lasagna-addicted…cat. 

            Yeah, just like when he was cast as the voice of Mario in the recent Super Mario Bros. movie, the internet was scratching their heads in confusion when it was announced that he would voice Garfield in the new movie. As awful as the Bill Murray movies are, he was at least a perfect fit for the voice of Garfield (And no, I’m not making any Ghostbusters comparisons here!) because he captured the lazy, sarcastic, couch potato personality of the character while Pratt’s just doing his usual shtick. 

            Well, after much…confusion and constantly seeing ads and trailers for it every time I went to the movies, I can say The Garfield Movie is better than the Bill Murray movies, but that’s not really saying much. That’s like saying a safe and forgettable kids movie is better than a giant dumpster fire. 

This is a very run of the mill animated feature filled with zany slapstick (Because kids!), cheap jokes, and an overabundance of smartphone talk and product placement including the infamous Olive Garden (Though their product placement makes much more sense here than it did in Sonic the Hedgehog, but I digress!). There are occasionally some amusing moments and the 3D animation does capture Jim Davis’ art style well enough, but the film itself just doesn’t leave much of an impression afterwards. 

The film follows Garfield living the best life with his human owner Jon Arbuckle (voiced by Nicholas Hoult-X-Men franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Favourite) and beagle dog best friend Odie. But when his estranged biological father Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson-Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles 1 and 2, Marvel Cinematic Universe) comes back into his life, Garfield leaves his lasagna-filled home and embarks on an outdoor adventure to help Vic pull off a big milk heist for a psychotic Persian cat named Jinx (voiced by Hannah Waddingham-Game of Thrones, Sex Education, The Fall Guy) in order to repay Vic’s debt with some father-son bonding and bickering along the way. 

The film also features the voices of Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission: Impossible franchise, Lilo & Stitch) as Otto, Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters (2016), Leo) as Marge, Brett Goldstein (Derek, Ted Lasso, Thor: Love and Thunder) as Roland, Bowen Yang (The Lost City, Bros, Wicked) as Nolan, Janelle James (Tom of Your Life, Black Monday, Abbott Elementary) as Olivia, Snoop Dogg (Bones, Starsky & Hutch, The Addams Family 1 and 2) as Maurice, the late Angus Cloud (Euphoria, Freaky Tales, Abigail) as Snickers, and Dev Joshi as Jon’s veterinarian girlfriend Liz (Who is barely in the movie BTW). 

Overall, The Garfield Movie may serve as a passable diversion for young viewers, but for fans of the comic strip and character this is yet another botched cinematic outing that never quite captures what made Jim Davis’ work so brilliant. Truth be told, I’m no Garfield expert but I did have some of the comic strip compilations as a kid so I have at least some idea of what the comics and characters are like. 

Garfield can be cartoony and wacky, but it’s also very laidback and subtle with a lot of its humor. It’s just a mild-mannered guy living with a lazy cat and a dog and the shenanigans that ensue, plus deadpan commentary from the cat. 

Instead of that, we get a grand adventure with Garfield and his dad trying to pull off a heist for an evil cat that feels very out of place for Garfield. However, as crazy as the Garfield and Friends animated series from the 1980s got with its storylines, it still retained the most crucial key element of the source material, the characterization of Garfield. 

The characters (even Garfield) move like the Hotel Transylvania characters with constant movement and zany slapstick because kids are in the audience. I know this is a film for young children, but seeing Garfield move crazily and cartoony when something “funny” happens to him does not match the character Jim Davis created at all, even Garfield’s depictions in the cartoon shows had a lot more dignity than this. 

Chris Pratt is a terrible pick for the voice of Garfield as much as I enjoy the man in other things, he’s just doing his same old shtick that doesn’t match with a fat, grumpy cat. Even when he voiced Mario, he at least gave him a Brooklyn accent which worked fine enough for that movie, here it’s like Pratt and the studio were trying to make Chris Pratt voicing animated characters a meme minus any sort of novelty to it. 

Most of the humor consisted of cheap slapstick and recycled kids movie jokes, but there were a few times where I chuckled specifically a handful of visual gags, character animations, and occasionally a funny line said. There is one in particular involving Jon on the phone with a bot after realizing Garfield and Odie are missing that genuinely got a laugh out of me and the animation on the evil cat is amusing to watch (Makes sense since it’s the same director that gave us Cat Yzma). 

Aside from some nice animation, a handful of laughs, and even a few heartfelt moments, The Garfield Movie is another misguided attempt at bringing the lazy cat to the big screen. Instead of a painfully horrendous adaptation like the Bill Murray films, this is a product placement-heavy, horribly miscast, and just unremarkable imitation of a great character that is technically better than the previous attempts, but that’s no recommendation and it will take more than a hilarious jab in a Zombieland movie for Pratt to redeem himself for it.