The Garfield Movie - Its...Different?

Before I get into my thoughts of the movie, let's hop in a time machine and go back. Back to the mid-80s!

I grew up with Garfield. I read the strips all the time in the newspaper and bought many of the books from Troll and Scholastic...if you don't know what that is I feel a little sad for you. There was a Saturday morning cartoon I watched every week. There were specials (like the Peanuts); Christmas and Halloween were my favorites.

And this doesn't include the dozens of other specials that were made. Point is, I've loved watching and reading Garfield my entire life.

That said...this didn't really FEEL like Garfield. There were quick flashes of things we'd see in the comic strip at the start of the movie. There were a number of chuckle worthy moments. But it was missing something. It had some heart, but the ending felt mildly forced.

Lorenzo Music voiced the character to perfection. You could read the strips and hear his voice. It was slow and lazy and when he needed to emote more, he could. Looking back with grown-up eyes, he might have been a little high...

Chris Pratt, while I enjoy him as a comedic actor, I agree with many that he wasn't right for the role, but he fit in fine for the world Garfield was in.

I understand when bringing a character like Garfield to the screen you have to go bigger for the story. Most of the Garfield "movies" i was familiar with as a kid were around 30 minutes. He goes camping with John, hijinks hijinks hijinks, a panther shows up, they go home.

An 80-90 minute movie would make sense. This one was and 1hr 40 minutes.

The premise was all centered around Garfield's dad and a heist. Odie is along for the ride cause he needed his buddy.

We see Garfield's origin story. Kitten who befriends cartoonist John Arbuckle to the fat cat we all know and adore.

He's pulled into his dad's (Vic) past world of crime (stealing milk...cause kid movie). A crew member from Vic's past wants revenge and uses Garfield to get it.

It follows the tropes of a heist movie...the assembly of the crew, the prep work, the heist, the twists.

I won't get into the main details because...spoilers.

Overall, for a kids movie, its decent. Parents might be able to sit through it without going crazy. I didn't love it though. It might not have helped I had low expectations of it based on the trailer. It lacked the magic of the 80s Garfield. I know times change and we evolve. The Peanuts Movie from a few years back (while far from perfect) managed to have the heart of its strip and specials. Charlie Brown is timeless and so is Garfield.

The problem is I don't think it's easy to translate Garfield's comic strip to the full screen. Figuring out a story that can fill the runtime of a movie is no easy feat. Your main character doesn't do much outside of sitting in a chair, laying in bed, teasing Odie, and eating.

The specials took him to different places and situations, but they lasted exactly as long as it needed to be to tell the story. That was the other problem with the movie, it was a little too long for an animated movie based on a comic strip. If it had been 70-80 with a better or more condensed story it could have been a little better.

I'd wait for streaming to give this a watch and you can decide for yourself. But for this Garfield fan from back in the day...it was okay, but just missing something.

2/5