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Garfield: The
Movie
Release Date: June 11, 2004
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Peter Hewitt
Screenwriter: Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow
Starring: Bill Murray, Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Debra
Messing, Brad Garrett, Alan Cumming, Nick Cannon, Jimmy Kimmel, David Eigenberg,
Mo'nique
Genre: Action, Comedy, Family
MPAA Rating: PG (for brief mild language)
Official Website:
Garfieldmovie.com
Plot Summary: He's cynical, lazy and, literally, a fat cat. Now, Garfield,
America's favorite feline, is about to become a major motion picture star, in a
film with broad-audience appeal. The live action/CGI picture is adapted from the
syndicated cartoon strip read in 2600 newspapers by 260 million readers around
the globe. In his film debut, Garfield's owner, Jon, takes in sweet but
dimwitted pooch Odie, turning Garfield's perfect world upside down. Now,
Garfield wants only one thing: Odie out of his home and life! But when the
hapless pup disappears and is kidnapped by a nasty dog trainer, Garfield, maybe
for the first time in his life, feels responsible. Pulling himself away from the
TV, Garfield springs into action.
Reviewed by Peter
Veugelaers © 2004
- Don't be deceived -- get out of cinema quick!
The
portrayal of animals in movies comes in several sizes. I hazard a guess that by
Garfield’s own admission that he would be happy as a size of his own. The fat,
spoilt, lazy, ferociously lasagne mad adorable slob goes beyond cute to nearer
the edges of comic characterisation, at least when what stands out as genuinely
idiosyncratic.
Fortunately
the live action animation movie of the comic strip creation by Jim Davis has its
title character remaining unscathed, except that he does not work convincingly
in CGI against live action scenery, but thanks to the spot-on melancholy voice
characterisation by Bill Murray the hairy oaf is still stealing the show.
Garfield
the Movie misfires on the appeal and bite of the comic strip which connected
the reader to the likeability and emotion of the characters. Neither is it
funny. Repeated and recycled monotonously in the first 30 minutes particularly,
is stock Garfield jokes.
Among the disappointing omissions of the Garfield phenomenon is letting Jim
Carey get away from the role of Garfield’s owner Jon, played by Breckin Meyer (Road
Trip, Go). Meyer is not as goofy as his comic book altar ego who is
supposed to be a soft touch but the one-dimensional Meyer doesn’t convince. The
sense of the comic strip Jon – a lively mix of soft heatedness and irritable
reactions – is absent.
The plot is a clunker and lacks the energy of the original. It is a stock file
from the Hollywood repertories of the improbable, clichéd and formulaic. A
self-indulgent presenter of a television show for dogs, Happy Chapman (Stephen
Tobolowsky), wants Jon’s dog Odie for his show which he hopes will boost his
profile as he appears jealous of his more successful television host brother.
The plot works to naturally evolve the movie’s main theme about friendship at
the expense of a better – and more Garfield – story line.
But isn’t Davis’ source material much better than that? There is plenty in that
which would be the basis for turning out a more successful idiosyncratic
formula. Writers Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow (who both worked on writing Toy
Story and Cheaper by the Dozen) opt for a variation of a 80s
Garfield T.V. movie plot line but which would have been better if left
untampered.
There is this burgeoning romance between Jon and Garfield’s vet Liz played by
Jennifer Love Hewitt (The Tuxedo, I Know What You Did Last Summer).
Garfield doesn’t go for telling about the rejections from Liz following
Jon’s romantic advances, which could have added an edge to the comedy. Love
Hewitt is nice on the eye, but her character is too pleasant to have any spunk
unlike Liz’s characterisation in the comic strip which offered much more fun.
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