Movie Review ~ The Garfield Movie

In grade school, our library was a sanctuary to explore new worlds and be introduced to classic characters from great literary minds.  It was also where we’d go and fight over who got to check out the most recent Garfield book.  I bet many of you reading this just had an image of what I’m talking about: that rectangular-shaped collection of the famous comic strip created by Jim Davis often centered around a theme.  Everything from Garfield Swallows His Pride and Garfield Tips the Scales to Garfield Life to the Fullest would be up for grabs during a library visit, so the race was on to get to that section.  

Now is the time to admit that desperate times called for desperate measures. I often went in before school to hide a volume behind Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (naturally) to ensure I had my reading material squared away for later in the school day.  When Garfield debuted in the comic strip pages in 1978, he quickly became a pop culture icon. The lazy, lasagna-loving tabby cat with a disdain for Mondays (join the club!) won hearts worldwide and quickly became a symbol for many 9-5ers who favored sleep over work. 

Over the years, Garfield had his own Saturday morning cartoons (starting in 1980) as well as Primetime specials and even a pair of films in 2004 and 2006 featuring the vocal talents of Bill Murray as the CGI cat.  There have been video games and direct-to-video features, and who could forget the Garfield phone?  I can’t; I still have mine somewhere around here.  In 2024, Garfield returns to the big screen in The Garfield Movie, directed by Mark Dindal and featuring Chris Pratt as the new voice of our notable kitty. Unfortunately, this latest installment feels as generic as a store-brand can of cat food and is a vibrant yet vapid attempt to rekindle the enduring appeal of everyone’s favorite feline.

In this new adventure, Garfield has barely made his first pizza order of the evening before addressing the audience and letting us know he has a whopper of a story.  With loyal canine companion Odie at his side, he begins to recount how he met Jon Arbuckle and joined his family after being callously abandoned in a rain-soaked alley as a baby by his scruffy street cat dad, Vic (Samuel L. Jackson).   Fate intervenes when the scent of a cheesy, mouthwatering pizza at a nearby restaurant leads the hungry kitten to Jon, who takes pity on the stray and adopts him.  Years later, Garfield has settled into a comfortable, pampered existence, reveling in his indoor, sedentary lifestyle.

This idyllic status quo is shattered when two things happen.  The first is long-lost dad Vic unexpectedly returning to his son’s life around the same time a pair of sinister canine henchmen kidnap Garfield and Odie (Harvey Guillén).  They’re taken to the lair of Jinx (Hannah Waddingham), a villainous Persian show cat who holds them for ransom, seeking revenge on Garfield’s long-lost dad.  Betrayed and locked in the pound for five years, Jinx wants Garfield and his estranged dad to pull off an elaborate heist, which involves skimming milk off a dairy farm under lockdown. Once there, indoor cat Garfield is forced to become an “outdoor cat” as he makes amends with Vic while overcoming obstacles like electric fences, massive cheese shredders, and a determined security guard (Cecily Strong, Leo, laying it on thick with a Midwestern accent).

While screenwriters Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds offer occasional moments of levity, the overall execution by Dindal (a former Disney animator who jumped ship) is hampered by the derivative, uninspired dialogue and predictable developments, which squander its talented voice cast. Pratt sleepwalks through his role (like he did in The Super Mario Bros. Movie) as Garfield, failing to instill the iconic cat with the sarcastic wit and lovable lethargy that made him a cultural phenomenon.  He doesn’t come close to the magic created by Lorenzo Music, the actor who spoke for Garfield the longest.  Music, like creator Davis, gets two Easter Eggs throughout the film; see if you can find/hear them!  Even the usually instantly recognizable Jackson (Argylle) is uncharacteristically muted as the gruff father figure Vic.  It will take you a few minutes to believe it’s him.  

The supporting cast fares slightly better. Waddingham (The Fall Guy) brings a menacing charm to Jinx, and if you stay through the end credits, you’ll get to hear her sing a song that sounds like it was cut from the film, while Guillén’s (Wish) Odie even without any human dialogue, is endearingly loyal.  The film also features Nicholas Hoult (Renfield) as Jon Arbuckle, who is often relegated to the background despite being a pivotal character in the Garfield universe.  Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One) as a lovelorn bull literally put out to pasture is the one time the screenwriters attempt a bit of elevated comedy, but it feels far out of place when everything else is so average.  That’s also how I’d describe the roles Brett Goldstein (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Bowen Yang (Bros) play as Jinx’s henchmen, who are only afforded personalities in the final moments when it can’t count for much.

As for the animation, it’s serviceable but hardly groundbreaking.  While animated films have pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling, The Garfield Movie feels stuck in the past.  My screening was in 3D, and the effects add little to the experience, making the upcharge a questionable expense for those seeking added immersion into this world. The film’s animation doesn’t hold a candle to the technical marvels we’ve come to expect from studios like Pixar and DreamWorks or even previous efforts from Sony Animation.

Though The Garfield Movie may provide a colorful diversion for younger audiences, it falls short of capturing the heart and humor that endeared the original comic strip and subsequent cartoon series to long-time fans.  There are moments when it feels like a soulless corporate obligation, a cynical attempt to maintain ownership of the rights, or perhaps even a tax write-off.  For fans yearning for a return to form, a cultural touchstone to pass on to a new generation, this latest outing is a disappointingly stale offering.