Garfield (2004) Movie Information:
| Garfield (2004) Directed by: |
 Peter Hewitt |
| Garfield (2004) Written by: |
| Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Jim Davis |
| Garfield (2004) Cast: |
| Bill Murray, Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Stephen Tobolowsky, Nick Cannon, Debra Messing, Alan Cumming, Brad Garrett, Jimmy Kimmel, David Eigenberg |
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Garfield (2004) Synopsis:
Life couldn't be sweeter for Garfield, everyone's favorite feline. Parked on a comfortable chair in front of the television, feasting on his favorite dish, lasagna, and hurling insults at his beleaguered owner Jon, Garfield is the master of his universe. When Jon takes Garfield to visit beautiful veterinarian Liz Wilson, she gives Jon a pepped-up, tail-wagging, panting creature that represents everything that Garfield loathes. Garfield, meet Odie, a lovable, dim-witted dog. The wise-cracking cat is, for the first time in his nine lives, left speechless. The clueless Odie chases his tail till he's dizzy, crashes into walls, and barks without cause, all to the unbridled delight of Jon who eagerly welcomes Odie into his home. Odie turns Garfield's perfect world upside down. Garfield's solution: OUT, DARN DOG. When the hapless hound disappears into the evil clutches of local celebrity Happy Chapman, you would think Garfield would rejoice. But he feels responsible for the fate of another. With uncharacteristic energy, courage and selflessness, Garfield manages to pull himself away from his lazy life and spring into action. He's on the unlikeliest of impossible missions: to save Odie.
Garfield (2004) Movie Review:
Arriving a decade too late, Garfield: The Movie, the film adaptation of Jim Davis’ beloved comic strip falls flat due to prone inconsistencies and lack of flavor. Children under 10 years old may enjoy this film, with the recent success of the weaker Scooby-Doo films, but all other audience members will be in for a waste of time.
The film of course centers on the spoiled, lazy, fat orange cat Garfield (voiced by Bill Murray), who continuously endures lasagna and lives with his absent-minded owner Jon (Breckin Meyer). In the comic strip and the many cartoons of the 1980’s, Garfield was stubborn and mischievous, as he is in this film, but his thoughts were spoken or heard. However, in Garfield: The Movie, he talks right to the audience through the voice of Bill Murray and is completely computer generated with huge green eyes. Garfield’s perfect lifestyle is altered when Jon brings home a dog-named Odie that he accepts from a beautiful veterinarian that he has a crush on named Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Odie is Jack Russell Terrier that is now given all of the attention from Jon, while Garfield becomes secondary. In efforts to regain Jon’s affection, Garfield locks Odie outside one night and gets lost. Filled with guilt, Garfield sets out to the city to go find the slobbering dog and save him from an abusive and money hungry television celebrity named Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky).
The story itself sounds simple for this film, though its lack of charm and entertainment value has the film feeling longer than its under 90 minute running time. Writers Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow deliver a hollow script full of numerous pop culture references and weak antics. Garfield himself is somewhat like the way Davis’ conceived him, but in this film he is hardly likeable. The supporting animal roles, which include Odie and Nermal, are an absolutely wasted embarrassment to Davis’ original premise. There is also hardly any effective humor in this film, of course there are numerous lasagna jokes, but in this version Garfield relies more on burping to gain laughs, rather than clever cynicism. However, the worst creation in the script is the dreadful villain character of Happy Chapman.
It is also questionable as to why did director Peter Hewitt choose to have Garfield as completely computer generated, when all of the other animal characters are real, but have computer generated mouths when speaking, ala Cats and Dogs. The aspect of mixing real animals and special effects has been a wearied phase in Hollywood for about five years now, so why use it? Garfield speaking to the screen also may become confusing to kids, since he talks right in front of Jon, but his owner can not hear him. The special effects are also atrocious when either Jon or Liz picks up the CGI Garfield. The actors seemed not to know Garfield’s proportions with obvious white lines around their hands, where the effects where not polished. Hewitt’s direction is so uneven that it seems he ran out of time to tighten all of his choices. The atmosphere of Jon’s home among other things are not too bright either, in which one of Davis’ eminent choices of the comic strip were its vast colors.
Breckin Meyer is a solid choice to play Jon Arbuckle, he has the look for it, but his performance is lost. It almost seems that Meyer and love-interest co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt were sleepwalking through out this film. They were not given much to work with, and of course Hewitt has to run around the last twenty minutes of the film in a tight dress, even though she is educated veterinarian. Stephen Tobolowsky plays one of the worst bad guys in the history of family films as the annoyingly over the top television celebrity Happy Chapman.
Garfield: The Movie is a horrible film and a disgrace to the original creation by Jim Davis. Perhaps if this film was made in the early 90s it might have worked, but most of the aspects in this film are tired, such as the real-life animals with CGI moving mouths. Parents may be bored with this one, but will children still watch this film, sure they will.
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Garfield (2004) review written by: Bailey Henderson
