Review of Garfield (The Movie)

Introduction

This groovy cat has only been around for just over 25 years but it seems like forever. Like Snoopy Garfield sums up an attitude in life that appeals to a lot of people.

Created by Jim Davis in 1978 Garfield first appeared in The Chicago Sun-Times and was cancelled after the first few months. The angry readers who demanded him back ensured the lazy lasagne loving cat was here to stay. He was soon syndicated around the globe and so the world grew to know and love him.
Davis says that Garfield was a combination of all the cats he knew as a child growing up on a farm in Indiana.

As nothing much happens in a Garfield strip the makers have decided to pick out the arrival of Odie and how it disrupts the lazy life of Garfield. He believes the world was created to serve him and is quite put out by the appearance of the `dumb dog` but his growing friendship makes him lurch into semi-action when Odie is stolen by the kitty kibble presenter Happy Chapman(Stephen Tobolowsky).

Video

As is expected, a very clear picture with no visible problems. Occasionally the CGI is evident usually when someone picks up Garfield but the rest of the time it`s spookily real.

Audio

Bill Murray sings what more could you want.? Music by Christophe Beck veteran of Cheaper by the Dozen and ex- Buffy. Ali `Dee` Theodore composed the music for when Odie and Garfield dance.

Features

Disc One

A director and producer commentary.

A chatty and quite informative commentary it is occasionally repetitive as normal conversations spread over 80 minutes sometimes are.

Featurette

Two Games:

Find Odie Maze Game

Games- I don`t do games. Anyhow I had a go and the maze was frustrating for me but probably pretty simple for anyone else over about 5.

Mixing Moments

This is a screen where you can put Garfield with different friends and backgrounds. Use the remote arrows for this. Quite simple but would have been a better feature on a CD Rom with the ability to print it out.

Deleted Scenes Reel

Quite a lot of short items that don`t add anything.

Includes a courting scene with Garfield and Arlene which preludes the `pie stealing scene`. Most of Debra Messing`s catty performance ended up on the cutting room floor.

Inside look at next years big film-Robots.

Disc two

Featurettes

The Birth of Garfield

The Rise of Garfield-Garfield as (wind) screen idol and global franchise.

Garfield from strip to screen

Yes it was really difficult and you couldn`t do it!

Illustrated Technical Commentary

The clever clogs show you how they did it.

Plus
Multi angle content Five Multi Angle Garfield Composite Workshop Segments
Storyboard to film Four Multi Angle Storyboard to Film Comparison Segments

Conclusion

With a plot that owes more than a nod to Toy Story Two there are still plenty of slapstick laughs to be had. It could have tried harder with a more substantial story but most of the budget did go on creating the loveable cat and I`d take him home anytime. Yes I laughed dear reader though occasionally I felt my laughter had been cheaply obtained.

This film is fun and innocent and it recycles the plot of other fun and innocent films which is something that younger children will simply appreciate rather than criticise.

The extras show that the film makers consider the potential audience to be adults as well as children with the commentary and the detailed look at the animation techniques scoring quite highly. The featurettes are not overly long and the short games included are incomprehensible to me so they are probably OK too.

I predict that this will sell loads for Christmas and it`s a sure fire hit with girls and boys alike.

Region Two is the only beneficiary of the 2-disc special edition. There is also a single disc edition which is probably all you need if you are buying for children but not much difference if you fancy watching the extra bits.