The Garfield Movie
Sony Pictures’ reanimation of the pizza-guzzling tabby is a witless, cacophonous, charmless and dispiriting thing.
Photo Credit: Project G Productions, Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Being emblematic of gluttony and the morbidly overweight, Garfield would appear ripe for reinvention. Created in 1976 by Jim Davis (who is an executive producer here), the fast food-guzzling cat became the star of the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. However, the indolent and sardonic tabby (voiced here with some animation by Chris Pratt) is less about the alarming rates of over-eating in the US than an exercise to cash in on a familiar brand. It really is that depressing.
Following the regrettable live-action adaptations Garfield: The Movie (2004) and Garfield 2 (2006) – with Bill Murray supplying the eponymous vocals – an all-new approach seemed the order of the day. Sadly, the director Mark Dindal, who brought us the cartoons Cats Don’t Dance and Chicken Little, merely pushes the new film towards the lowest common denominator, always going for the cheapest gag and the most obvious comic choice. Besides the hideous animation, the film augments its sins by superimposing ear-splitting sound effects and clichéd music cues. We know we are in dubious territory when Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore’ is used to accompany the opening scene in an Italian restaurant, while a snatch of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get it On’ is appropriated to force home a romantic note.
Besides the constant grope for the bleeding obvious, The Garfield Movie trots out a ludicrous plot on which to hang its absurdities. Having introduced us to the Origins of the eponymous puss, the film proceeds to introduce a menagerie of exaggerated figures blatantly borrowed from other sources. Thus, the villainous, milk-sipping Jinx (an excited, cackling Hannah Waddingham) is obviously a feline version of Ursula the witch from The Little Mermaid (on which Mark Dindal worked as animation supervisor), Garfield’s loyal, mute and resourceful canine companion Odie is a twin of Aardman’s Gromit (they’re both beagles, whereas in the previous films Odie was a dachshund), and Jinx’s deformed whippet henchdog is a variation on Tim Burton’s Sparky from Frankenweenie. Perhaps the most brazen exercise in appropriation of all is the creation of the animal control officer Marge (Cecily Strong) who, while she looks like Emma Thompson’s Agatha Trunchbull from Matilda the Musical, sounds just like Frances McDormand in Fargo (who also played a Marge). Maybe Dindal and his crew can brush aside these acts of embezzlement as homage, but it does little for the film’s originality.
Besides, the arrogant, sarcastic, greedy, complacent and self-serving Garfield is not an engaging protagonist to spend time with – and hardly an ideal role-model for the overweight youth of America. And another thing: the youth of America should not be encouraged to let cats drink milk because the animals are largely lactose intolerant. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Voices of Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Snoop Dogg, Mark Dindal.
Dir Mark Dindal, Pro John Cohen, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove, Steven P. Wegner, Craig Sost and Namit Malhotra, Ex Pro Jim Davis, Screenplay Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds, Pro Des Pete Oswald, Ed Mark Keefer, Music John Debney, Sound Jeremy Price and Luke Gentry.
Columbia Pictures/Alcon Entertainment/DNEG Animation/One Cool Group/Wayfarer Studios/Stage 6 Films/Andrews McMeel Entertainment-Sony Pictures.
100 mins. USA/UK/Hong Kong. 2024. UK and US Rel: 24 May 2024. Cert. U.
