Garfield: O Filme

As a kid in the late 80's and early 90's, I remember watching "Garfield and Friends" every morning (The Show was also in syndication for weekdays at the time, so not just Saturday mornings fyi). I eventually began reading Garfield comic strips daily, but stopped because of the time factor. This was my favorite, and nothing else compared, except the Ninja Turtles from 1990-92.

But when Jim Davis had the audacity to sell his idea to 20th Century Fox and allow those dumb*ss producers and writers to f**k it all up by introducing Bill Murray as the Voice of Garfield (now a dancing jumping athletic cat, as opposed to being lethargic), Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, and a wide array of Hollywood's A and (A- to B) list including Jennifer Love-Hewitt, (the highly unfunny)Jimmy Kimmel, Monique, Debra Messing, Nick Cannon, and Brad Garrett et al, It looked as if another great memory of our childhoods has been flushed down the toilet.

Therefore, In short, this movie is weak. And I nominate "Garfield the Movie" for the 2005 Razzie Awards "Worst Film of the Year" (the opposite of the Oscar) Unless, Jennifer Lopez starts doing movies again, or otherwise if there is something even worse.

0/10 stars

And only marginally redeemed by Garfield.

There's not much to separate this from rubbish like Cats and Dogs and Stuart Little. Everything that happens on screen is there to appeal to the youngest of kids. No one over the age of 8 will get much out of this movie. Unlike movies such as Shrek 2 or Brother Bear, there's absolutely NOTHING in this for adults at all. A shame really as the humor in the Garfield comic strip can sometimes be very clever and observant.

It's worse when you go see this with a bunch of screaming kids (and a baby-honestly why bring a baby to the cinema?!?) who laugh at every single thing. And that's including the stuff that isn't meant to be funny. It did get very irritating and proves furthermore that this is a movie for infants.

The tiny bit of humor the movie does have comes ENTIRELY from Garfield. Bill Murray is great, his delivery is catatonically laid-back and dry. The CGI of Garfield is also very good. He looks to cute that you just want to keep him. But any positive the movie has begins and ends right there.

Breckin Meyer may look the part of Jon but he has less than nothing to do in the role. Jeniffer Love Hewitt (gorgeous as she is) is totally slumming it in a role that requires her to do even less than Breckin Meyer and the other animal cast members resemble nothing like their comic-strip counterparts.

I was a little annoyed at seeing Garfield talk in the trailers but in the movie no humans can hear him or the other animals. There are some other things they have changed. Odie comes straight from the vet, though in the comic-strip he came from Jon's friend Lyman. Nermal does not appear to be Garfield's cousin and Arlene doesn't appear to be his girlfriend either.

The story of Garfield rescuing Odie from an 'evil' TV host is completely uneventful and nothing much happens around it. The ending is an unentertaining, unexciting anti-climax and disgustingly childish. I appreciate kid's stuff. I could watch 100 episodes of Sesame Street back to back. But this film was the most brain dead excuse for low, low-grade kid's entertainment in a long, long time. Jim Davis should be ashamed for allowing his wonderful creation to me made into such a lousy movie.

The 3 stars are for Garfield himself ONLY. Otherwise, without him, it's a hardcore 1-star experience. You wouldn't find Calvin and Hobbes behaving this way.

I don't see why people blast this movie so much. It is funny, well acted and well animated. Breckin Meyer plays the nerdy Jon very well and acts like the pet loving dork that we loved so much in the cartoon. Garfield looks amazing, almost identical to what he looked like in the cartoon. Bill Murray is perfect to play him and his voice is similar to Lorenzo Music. They included all the trates of Garfield- lasagne, TV and being a lazy fat cat. Thye kept Odie the moronic but lovable dog. They kept the fact that Garfield has an agreement with the mice and gets on with them. They kept Liz the vet, which brings so much more to Jon. This is a great kids movie, that i am sure adults who watched this as a kid will love too.

Jon is a lovable schmuk with a crappy life, not a faceless "nice guy" who seems to have a good house, car and presumably job.

Nermal is a terminally cute yet astute grey kitten, not some idiot Siamese neighbour.

Arlene is the gawky, gap-toothed girlfriend, not a grey bitchy neighbour.

Garfield's bed, as ANYONE who has read the comics should know, is a box with a plain blanket in it, not some kind of cutesy, oak, mini-human-bed affair.

Garfield is a lazy, witty smart-arse, not an annoying, dancing(?!?!?!?) loud-mouth who just never shuts up.

Garfield stories are existential little comments on life, how it sucks for Jon, how stupid Odie is and how wonderful lasagna and sleep are, not extremely, extremely lame, generic, feel-good, I-hate-you-but-now-I'm-going-to-rescue-you rubbish. (I stopped the movie at 25 minutes and correctly predicted exactly everything that was going to happen from then on.)

In short, apart from having a large orange cat in it (well animated though he is) - this has nothing whatsoever to do with Garfield. Did the makers actually read ANY of the comics?

Firstly, i really liked the CGI incarnation of everyone favourite cat and i thought Bill Murray provided his voice superbly, capturing his character with perfection. Other than that though Garfield - the movie failed to deliver the essence of the cartoon's produced by Jim Davis. The humour in the original comic strips were entirely geared at the adult generation, not the kids.

I knew the movie would cater for the younger viewer, but i felt that it went overboard a little, and this was detrimental to the films enjoyment. As a family movie it is entertaining, but Garfield - the movie seems to have ignored the comedy that made him everyone's favourite cat; only traces of it still remain.

It's worth watching as a family movie, but for fans of the Jim Davis comic character, it's probably best left alone.

6/10