And that's in addition to the lowbrow flatulence humor, which may be expected from films directed at kids these days, but which is still tasteless and unpleasant. The plot is as by-the-numbers as it gets, as Garfield a CGI character voiced by Bill Murray finds his position as favorite pet in the household threatened by a new arrival. His pushover owner Jon Arbuckle Breckin Meyer has just brought home a lovable dope of a dog, named Odie, who is willing to give affection and be obedient — unlike the impudent, mischievous feline.
However, when Garfield locks Odie out of the house, the poor pup winds up in the hands of a cruel television personality Stephen Tobolowsky. So it's up to Garfield to save the day and redeem himself. The biggest problem here is the script, which is filled with pop-culture references some of which are as unfunny as they are obscure and contains very little plot with shameless plugs for Fox television; the film comes from 20th Century Fox.
So you really can't blame Murray for phoning in his performance. Besides, he's playing off two of the most vanilla-bland performers out there in Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt, who plays Jon's love interest. The only performer who really comes off well at all is the dog playing Odie an adorable dachshund-terrier mix named Tyler.
But it's still unnerving to see him playing off a CGI-created feline. This of course irks Garfield to no end, even though he teaches Odie to dance on his hind legs. One night Garfield locks Odie out of the house, but Odie, friendly dog that he is, wanders away from home and ends up in the clutches of local cat trainer Happy Chapman.
Happy, unhappily, happens to be allergic to cats and sees the dancing dog as his chance for true fame in New York. Garfield feels guilty about being responsible for Odie running away. He manages to pull himself away from his favorite chair on an impossible mission: saving Odie.
There's a parallel plot involving the talentless Happy Chapman Stephen Tobolowsky , who hosts a TV show with a pet cat. He thinks maybe using a dog might bring him national exposure, tells the little old lady he is Odie's owner, and as a training strategy, gives him electrical shocks from a cruel collar.
Whether Garfield is able to break into and out of the pound, save Odie, expose Chapman and reunite Jon with both the dog and Garfield's own noble presence, I will leave for you to discover. The filmmakers obviously understand and love Garfield, and their movie lacks that sense of smarmy slumming you sometimes get when Hollywood brings comic strips to the screen.
Although Garfield claims "I don't do chases," the movie does have a big chase scene and other standard plot ingredients, but it understands that Garfield's personality, his behavior, his glorious self-absorption, are what we're really interested in. The Davis strip is not about a story but about an attitude. If they hadn't gotten Garfield right, nothing else would have mattered. But they did. And they've also solved the perplexing problem of how to integrate a cartoon cat into a world of real humans and animals.
Garfield talks all through the movie this is one of Murray's most talkative roles , but only we can hear him; that's the equivalent of his thought bubbles in the strip. Garfield is animated, the other animals and the humans are real, and the movie does a convincing job of combining the two levels. Garfield looks like neither a cartoon nor a real cat, but like something in between -- plump, squinty and satisfied. Learn how we rate. Parents' Ultimate Guide to Support our work! Corona Column 3 Use these free activities to help kids explore our planet, learn about global challenges, think of solutions, and take action.
Live-action cat tale has lots of cartoon violence. PG 80 minutes. Rate movie. Watch or buy. Based on 14 reviews. Based on 33 reviews. Get it now Searching for streaming and purchasing options Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Your purchase helps us remain independent and ad-free. Get it now on Searching for streaming and purchasing options X of Y Official trailer. Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update Garfield. Your privacy is important to us. We won't share this comment without your permission.
If you chose to provide an email address, it will only be used to contact you about your comment. See our privacy policy. A lot or a little? The parents' guide to what's in this movie. Educational Value. Meant to entertain rather than educate. Positive Messages. No real positive messages.
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