Review of 'The Garfield Movie'

Not to be confused with the live action 2004 film “Garfield: The Movie”, “The Garfield Movie” is a more recent animation-only story of the lasagne-loving comic sedentary orange tabby cat Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt) who lives with his long-suffering (silent) friend, beagle dog Odie (“voiced” by Harvey Guillén) and their owner the somewhat oblivious Jon (voiced by Nicholas Hoult). This film tells the story of Garfield's origins with his memory of abandonment by his father and his joyous chance meeting at an Italian restaurant with his owner Jon. When Garfield meets his estranged father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) he and Odie are drawn into stealing a large shipment of milk from “Lactose Farms” to save themselves from a deranged Persian cat Jinx (Hannah Waddingham) and her psychotic flunkies, a Shar Pei named Roland (voiced by Brett Goldstein) and a Whippet named Nolan (voiced by Bowen Yang). Will they be able to pull it off? Will Garfield ever stop thinking of food? When will the film ever end?

I wanted to like this film but I was sorely disappointed. Despite the rather heavy-hitting voice talent (including Snoop Dogg as Maurice, part of Vic's old crew) it cannot save a disappointing, dark and often mean-spirited film. Garfield is far from the loveable, selfish character of the comics but instead here is a snide-talking, truly mean character that is only interested in number one…except where it doesn't suit the plot then has a turn of heart and goes along with it. The humour is very light and does little to help things along though there a few times when I found myself with a slight giggle, most of the time it felt very, very flat and, again, mean. The plot is easy enough to follow with the main points pummelled into the viewer's head over and over again with the ending never much really in doubt. The animation is serviceable though hardly memorable though some of the set pieces are quite good such as the dairy heist.

Certainly the makers of this film have the mechanics of the comic right (Garfield, check, lasagne, check, Odie quiet but smart, check, Jon, oblivious and generally not terribly smart, check…) but the spirit of the character is sadly missing leading to a banal, boring and tragically unfunny comedy film. I can't see this even appealing to children who will likely get bored very quickly as it is quite talky.

Rating: “Average, but who wants to be average?”

Review Date: 2026-05-17

Directed by: Mark Dindal

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Year: 2024

Length: 101 minutes

Genre: Animation

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5779228/