I have always thought of the strip as a quiet cartoon, one based on irony and sly, wry humor. Not so the Garfield movie, which is generally raucous and loud.
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I have to admit at the outset that I have never been a big follower of the "Garfield" comic strip, so perhaps my appreciation for the 2004, live-action/CGI movie version of the cartoon was somewhat influenced by this fact. Even so, if "Garfield: The Movie" is looked at using any reasonable, unbiased standards of cinematic judgment, it's still pretty lame, lacking in character, lacking in humor, lacking in story, and lacking in energy.
The Garfield of the Jim Davis comic strip is, as far as I can tell, a sweet, lovable layabout, not only the embodiment of what most of us think of as the easy life of the impassive feline, but the kind of loafer we know is secretly hidden inside all of us. He may be a mischievous scamp and sometimes prankster, but in a comic strip he gets away with things that don't translate well to the screen. Indeed, the Garfield of the movie is something entirely different. He's described in the film as "a happy, fat, lazy cat," but in reality he's a conceited, arrogant, obnoxious, mean-spirited smart aleck. He's anything but loveable or mischievous. And where's the fun in that?
In the movie Garfield appears to be partly a CGI creation, partly an animatronic concoction, and partly a hand puppet, with all the appearance of an exaggerated cartoon facsimile. The result is rather disconcerting, especially considering that all the other animals in the movie are extremely true-to-life. In fact, the cat reminded me of Scooby-Doo from Scooby's own CGI/live-action movies, namely something entirely too weird-looking and out of place to be associated with any sort of reality, cartoon or not.
The other problem with Garfield's character is that he's voiced by Bill Murray, which on the face of it would seem to be perfect. Murray has himself carefully nourished a screen persona of insouciance, nonchalance, unconcern, just the personality Garfield is supposed to represent. What's more, the movie's creators must have remembered what Robin Williams contributed to the "Aladdin" movie and thought Murray could duplicate the feat. But Murray is so casual and so laid-back in the role, he is unable to infuse the movie with any momentum; and, worse, Murray has very little that's funny to do or say except to make some nasty, barbed remarks at the expense of other animals or people. Nothing seems to work.
Add to the movie's general lackluster mood a pedestrian performance by Brecklin Meyer in full "Mr. Nice-Guy" mode as Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, and you come up with a really dull movie. Jennifer Love Hewitt has a small role as Jon's love interest, but what might have been a cute romantic comedy with the cat as a possible help or hindrance is forsaken for a silly chase adventure. The movie was directed by Peter Hewitt, whose only previous motion picture you may remember was "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" back in 1991, unless you've heard of "Thunderpants" or "Whatever Happened To Harold Smith?"
About halfway through the "Garfield" movie, after a lot of introductions are made of other characters, mostly animals, Jon adopts a small dog, Odie, and Garfield, naturally, goes mad with jealousy. The dog is so stupid it can only chase its tail. And while all the other animals in the film--cats, dogs, mice, rats, you name it--talk to one another in an animal communication rendered to the audience in English, poor Odie is the only one who is either mute or retarded. He just makes little dog noises that can't be understood by anybody. Go figure.
But Odie does have a trick up his sleeve or paw or whatever: He can dance up a storm. In fact, he's so good at it, he's kidnapped by an unscrupulous local TV personality, "Happy" Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky), who takes him to New York to help him make it on big-time, network television. Garfield, by this time friendly with the little mutt, goes after and rescues him. But the rescue seems as much to prove himself to his master as it does to save the dog.
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[release]12646[/release]