Garfield (2004) March 13, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Peter Hewitt
Everyone’s favourite lethargic feline makes the jump to the big screen in this perfectly harmless family adventure. The story centres on Garfield as his owner Jon (played by Breckin Meyer) comes into ownership of a new pet named Odie. Not only does Odie start to get all the attention but in Garfield’s eyes he’s even dumber than the average dog. All this changes however when Odie is kidnapped by an evil dog trainer, leaving it up to Garfield to embark on a mission beyond the safety of the cul-de-sac to save him.
Absolutely no risks are taken with the storyline which re-treads the Toy Story route almost exactly, coming to its logical conclusion in under 80-minutes. At least that means it’s never slow and except for the completely unnecessary musical number part way through, it keeps rolling along at a decent pace.
Bill Murray is the perfect choice to voice the lazy cat, injecting the right amount of helplessness and sarcasm into the character to make him come alive on-screen. And while most of the gags are aimed squarely at the kids, this movie does contain a few obligatory references for parents to catch too, although I doubt they’ll raise much more than a smile unless you’re in a particularly good mood.
As for the human actors, they get to play the whole thing as a living comic strip, giving main players Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Stephen Tobolowsky an easy ride. The cinematography and set design helps hold the comic book illusion too and, as you would expect, they make use of a bright colour palette in most scenes. Peter Hewitt’s direction offers nothing spectacular, but at least he keeps the film looking consistent.
Finally, you can’t write anything about this movie without mentioning the live-action / CG blend, which is actually pulled off fairly effectively throughout. There are some moments where the CG character looks out of place and a few awkward scenes where someone is required to hold Garfield, but besides this I thought they kept the interaction between what is real and what isn’t looking very fluid. Plus, using an actual trained feline was clearly not a choice in a movie where the cat’s expression is half the laughs.
There’s not a lot to recommend about this flick, but neither can I say that it completely fails in its intentions. The story is predictable and the running time appears extremely short even for a kid’s film (although having almost every shot be SFX-based must be hard work). Despite this, the vocal work by Bill Murray and the lively CG character model helps raise the film up out of disaster territory, into the passable category. And for everyone except young children, I imagine this is exactly where it’ll stay.
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