The Garfield Movie – Misses The Appeal of its TItular Cat

The Garfield Movie is the first theatrically released fully animated Garfield film based on the Garfield comic strips created by Jim Davis. Garfield (Pratt), the world famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is kidnapped from his home and thrust into his greatest adventure yet. After an unexpected return from his scruffy street cat/long lost father Vic (Jackson), Garfield and his canine fried Odie (Harvey Guillén) are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a high stakes heist. The film is a mixed bag that mostly misses the point and appeal of its titular character. While a completely harmless viewing experience likely to please kids and families, it is sure to leave everyone else with a bland taste in their mouths.

As middle of the road as the film ultimately is there’s still much to like about The Garfield Movie including the animation which is for the most part very solid with a cartoon look akin to the comics. While most of the humour is aimed primarily at children, there are definitely some nice jokes in there for adults as well. The film very much has its heart in the right place, finding moments with its characters that are genuinely sweet and pretty touching. More on some of the voice cast later, but there are some inspired voice performances here particularly from Nicholas Hoult, who’s honestly providing some unrecognizable voice work as Jon, and Ving Rhames as an old Bull who delivers the biggest laughs and is responsible for the films with its funniest moments.

Continuing with the voice cast, while no one actor phones in their performances or is necessarily bad, some are still better than others. Pratt has been getting plenty of hate for his voice work as the titular character (unlike The Super Mario Bros. Movie where his voice actually worked for the character) and while his performance is not as bad as some have made it out to be, it is definitely not his best either. Pratt is just not the voice one would associate with a fat grumpy cat, and he pales in comparison to Bill Murray’s previous work as the character. He has his moments but if a sequel were to be made, he definitely needs to do something different the next time around. Meanwhile, the film’s marketing heavily advertised Jackson and Snoop Dogg as cats and honestly, that idea is so much funnier on paper than in execution because Snoop is hardly given anything to do while Jackson is underutilized and just isn’t given the best material to work with.

In the end, where the film ultimately suffers is as an adaptation of Garfield. The opening minutes are fun and perfectly capture everything Garfield should be. It is simple and sweet, but as soon as the random heist plot is introduced and carries on for the rest of the film, it truly suffers and could never recover. While a heist plot can be fun, it feels out of place in a Garfield film and the situations they get themselves into just aren’t all that amusing after haven seen it all countless times before. The film mostly moves by at a good pace, but it can’t help but feel a little stretched out at 101 minutes, especially when the plot is so barebones. Ultimately, Garfield would seem like a relatively easy character to bring to the big screen but now three films in, not a single one fully captured the magic of the comic strips.

In the end, The Garfield Movie is as harmless and watchable as it is generic and forgettable. That being said, there is still more than enough here for kids, making for a perfectly fine trip to the theater for a family, but others can probably skip this one and sleep soundly at night. It is simply not the type of animation that lends itself to being enjoyed or watched by adults which is perfectly fine. Though it easily could have been a lot worse, it also should have been so much better.

still courtesy of Sony Pictures

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/