Did anyone actually think The Garfield Movie was going to be great? If you watch the trailer for The Garfield Movie and think it looks fun, chances are you will have fun with this. This is the kind of movie that my son when he was five would have loved and I think for kids five and under, there is some fun to be had here with this latest attempt to reboot Garfield.
How to Download The Garfield Movie
The Garfield Movie was released on May 24, 2024. You expect to be able to download or stream the film from a digital platform such as Netflix in about two months from this date. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the avilability.
The Movie Review
My era of Garfield was the late 80s Garfield and Friends TV show and I loved it. I will be honest, I did not hate the Bill Murray voiced Garfield movies. I would not say they are classics or anything like that, but I remember watching them with my son and we had a good time with them.
Miscast Voice Talent
The thing with The Garfield Movie is that Chris Pratt is horribly miscast as Garfield and that is coming from someone that loves Chris Pratt. If they decided to voice Oodie, Chris Pratt would have been perfect for that, hell he would have even been great as Jon if Jon was an actual main character in this movie. The problem is that Chris Pratt has a way too happy and upbeat voice to play the role of Garfield.
Say what you will about Bill Murray as Garfield, but his deadpan and sarcastic voice was perfect for Garfield. Chris Pratt does not do a bad job, but his voice does not fit Garfield at all! The trailer shows a silly and over the top slapstick kind of caper and that is pretty much what you get here.
The Plot
Garfield comes into contact with his dad Vic who abandoned him when he was a kitten. Garfield resents Vic for this! Vic ends up in some trouble and he and Garfield end up having to go on a heist for this Persian cat called Jinx to get out of trouble. That is right, The Garfield Movie is pretty much a heist movie. I will say that I give them credit for not going the obvious route of Vic being bad, I thought for sure there was going to be a “twist” and that Vic was in on it all.
Target Audience
For kids 5 and under, this is probably going to be an entertaining day out at the movies or keep them entertained for 90 minutes at home. I feel that children who are older would find this kind of boring as there are so many better and way more entertaining and funny kids animated movies than this.
Final Thoughts
To be fair, I think that if they had this exact same story with these exact same characters, but they were not called Garfield and Oodie, it may have been more passable. I just see no reason for this to be a Garfield movie as the main character does not feel like the fat, lazy, and sarcastic cat that many of has loved for decades. Unless you have kids freaking out over the trailer and saying they have to see this, I would wait for this one to hit streaming.
