What can be possibly the reason for yet another Garfield movie? Well, the creators of this particular movie could not come up with any answers, unfortunately. It evokes the classic comment about “Nancy,” which, like “Garfield,” began its life as a comic strip notable for its minimalism and touchingly naive comedy. As someone once formulated the task of the cartoonist ‘to explain Nancy comic’, it would surely be, ‘it takes less energy to read it that to skip it’. People who have children begging them to take them to see “Garfield” will have this same attitude towards this film. It’s not terrible. Perhaps it is too much to say that any children will appreciate it, but it is probably safe to say that any of them will feel that they have been entertained, which is vague but close enough. But those watching the children really don’t go to the movies to be stimulated by the complete vacuousness of a film which is totally about monetizing the franchise. Ps And the parents of these children may also have some questions which are presented below.
Garfield, a comic strip created by Jim Davis, was first published more than thirty years ago and has been able to sustain his popularity despite minor changes to its content and characters. The setting of the comic revolves around Garfield, the cat who dominates the house. It would be absurd to call Jon, the human that shares the house with him, the owner of the house. There’s also a dog by the name of Odie who exists to be the butt of all jokes in the strip. Odie is simply a pet and does not have a set occupation in the strip. Ironically, Garfield has a firm dislike for Mondays even though he is not employed. However, he does enjoy eating. In fact, food, and specifically lasagna, is his favorite dish.
A story that works well as a four-panel comic strip will barely make an impact in a feature film. As a result, in this animated version, Garfield loves lasagna and is voiced over by Chris Pratt but is not as obnoxious and rude as the greedy and selfish cat featured in the comic strips, books, mugs and calendars. The audience is shown a glimpse of his childhood and how he zipped past his father and ended up abandoned in a back alley as a cat. In an Italian restaurant, Garfield saw Jon, ate Jon’s whole pizza, and this deserved his admiration so they became roommates.
Nowadays Garfield seems to live a good life as he is seen ordering drone food through Jon’s phone and relaxing and watching videos on Catlin. Unlike in the previous versions where Odie is portrayed as someone who annoys and is in competition with Garfield, Odie is in this version Odie’s friend and Garfield refers to him as his intern. Well, everything is fine until Garfield’s father who has been missing for a long time shows up, and that masked Vic, yet voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. This is when Garfield realizes too much of his feelings of being left behind. He has no desire to know his father but it seems all three Garfield, Odie and Vic are taken hostage by Jinx, a wraith who thirsts for revenge, played by Hannah Waddingham of Ted Lasso. It then becomes a heist movie when their only escape is through helping a gigantic bull named Otto voiced by Ving Rhames rescue his cow love, Ethel.
The issue of reconciliation between Garfield and his father is sensitive; children may not be happy about how it is resolved. It is emotionally painful for Otto, but his sufferings are due to some businessman’s decision to buy the farm. This theme has neither originality nor appeal for children. The bird dies while being electrocuted, and a host of important figures are zapped with cattle prods and an electric fence. A jibe at actor Daniel Day Lewis and a ‘roadkill’ extended ‘joke’ do not make good sense at all. The only other two important women antagonists are excessively aggressive, loud and overbearing. At one point, a character attempts to ‘employ’ humor with the audience by making this remark: “If you have small kids, now is the time to go grab a drink.” My recommendation is to select an alternative movie.
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