3 weeks Ago By Joseph Szadkowski
’ curmudgeonly cat successfully returned to theaters early this year within an animated film that now debuts in high definition for families with younger children looking for an evening of home entertainment in . The partial origin story first has kitten Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt) introduced to human Jon Arbukle (Nicholas Hoult) and then eventually settling in the suburbs with his favorite yellow beagle buddy Odie (Harvey Guillén) and easy access to Mamma Leoni’s Italian restaurant. The pets are loving life until they get kidnapped by minions working for a crazy Persian cat named Jinx (Hannah Waddingham).
Jinx wants to lure Garfield’s estranged father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) into a trap and exact revenge for him leaving her during a heist, resulting in her capture and ending up in the pound. The feline’s plan works, and Jinx will only forgive Vic and release Garfield and Odie if he steals a stocked milk truck from the Lactose Farm dairy where he originally left her.
The trio works together to pull off the “Mission Impossible”-style caper and get training from the inside, from the farm’s one-horned, old bull mascot, Otto (voiced by Ving Rhames). Their attempted heist will bring dad and son closer together than ever, if they do not end up in the pound first. The movie with its frenetic action sequences in a screen-bursting presentation should please the younger demographic unfamiliar with Garfield’s mythos but hard-core fans might be much less impressed.
First, Mr. Pratt’s voice is not quite right for Garfield, too cheery and not grumpy enough, or maybe I just miss the vocal performance of Bill Murray as the titular character in the 2004 live-action Garfield film. Also, stalwarts devoted to the cartoon legend will wonder what happened to the perpetually fat, lazy, grumpy feline that they have laughed with and fell in love with for almost five decades in newsprint.
The digital animation style is satisfactory and has its moments such as a great-looking Shar Pei kidnapper or a backlit Jinx with her puffy white fur as well as crisp, colorful details of mounds of cheddar cheese, pizza and meatballs and the varieties of pet fur. However, Garfield has a strange look in the muzzle area, maybe authentic to the comic strip but exaggerated in three dimensions and looking like a Wilford Brimley yellow mustache. Viewers get a pair of short featurettes (seven minutes total) that allow actors, crew and director Mark Dindal to marvel at how great the movie and voice-over works is with endorsements throughout by Mr.
. Next, Mr. Dindal points out some Easter eggs in the film (roughly four minutes) tied to the various iterations of Garfield and then a very short gag reel offers nothing but disappointment.
Children can also watch a pair of tutorials (18 minutes) on how to draw key characters from the film including Garfield, Odie, Jon, Vic, Otto and Jinx in a pair of segments, hands-on hosted by illustrator Taylor Krahenbuhl. Finally, viewers get a photo gallery of concept art and a two-minute animation progression reel covering the film’s opening scene. Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.
. Click to Read More and View Comments Click to Hide.
