It’s a wonder to me why Hollywood insists on making Garfield a thing. The popular orange cat who hates Mondays and loves lasagna became a sensation via comic strips from Jim Davis and ever since, movies and media have been made to capitalize on the name. 2024’s aptly named The Garfield Movie is no different. It feels as factory churned, generic and unoriginal a film as ever. Hopefully this is the final nail in the coffin for Garfield-related media.
The Garfield Movie follows the titular cat (Chris Pratt) and his dog-pal Odie in regular life with their owner Jon (Nicholas Hoult). Suddenly and without warning, Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by Jinx the cat (Hannah Waddingham), who’s bent on revenge. Not for Garfield however, as we find out she wants revenge on his estranged father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) and uses the two to lure him out and capture all three. What ensues is a journey for Garfield, Odie and Vic to get enough milk to repay the debts that Vic owes Jinx.
There were a couple stand out voice performances in the movie that I want to highlight. Ving Rhames was great as Otto the bull and brought his brand of seriousness with a dash of lighthearted comedy. Samuel L. Jackson surprised me with how solid he was here, and for some of the beginning of the film I didn’t even realize it was him. To me, that is a mark of a good voice actor, especially as a big name one. If they can disguise who they are and envelope a character instead, it’s good for me.
Unfortunately, the film’s lead star, Chris Pratt, does little in this regard. Even though he plays Garfield, here it’s just Chris Pratt doing his voice and being Chris Pratt like he has done in many of the films post Guardians of the Galaxy. Hollywood really needs to just stop putting him in lead voice roles. I don’t believe he has the range to really become anything other than himself in a role that’s solely based on his voice. And when you have an already established character in Garfield, it just doesn’t work.
The rest of the movie is fine, but it just doesn’t stand out in any real way. The comedy is mostly unfunny, and while there are some interesting sequences, especially with the heist on Lactose Farms, I found it incredibly difficult to get through. The animation feels especially generic, which is a crime given how many great looking animated films have released in recent years.
The story is wholly predictable and mostly generic, like any artificial intelligence could have written the plotline.
Final Thoughts
The Garfield Movie will inevitably be lost to time and forgotten. While kids may enjoy it, there’s no real reason that it should exist other than as a cash grab on an existing IP. The entire film just feels so generic as if there was hardly any thought that went into it. You can easily skip this one.
