THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Sometimes, it can be a challenge to find a stalemate between the wants and the needs.
PLOT
Based on the iconic comic strip first published in the 70s by Jim Davis, 2004’s Garfield follows the titular overweight, free spirited orange cat who lives in Muncie, Indiana, with his owner Jon Arbuckle. As part of his day to day life, he hangs out with fellow cat neighbors Nermal (David Eigenberg) & Arlene (Debra Messing), has a friendship with a mouse named Louis (Nick Cannon) who he refuses to eat and outwits his chained Doberman neighbor Luca (Brad Garrett). When having a routine check up by the veterinarian who Jon has a crush on, their lives take a big change when the latter adopts another dog named Odie who is more sociable and hyperactive compared to the former. Garfield becomes quickly jealous of the dog as he steals so much attention. The attention excels when he impresses television host Happy Chapman at a canine talent show by doing an improvised dance. Garfield takes it so personal that he hits Odie’s ball which causes a chain reaction of the house getting unintentionally trashed. When Jon returns home to the mess, he punishes the cat by having him sleep outside for the night. When Odie goes out to comfort him, he takes advantage in locking him out. That would be a mistake because Odie would end up running away until being picked up by an elderly woman named Mrs Baker (Eve Brent), who finds him lost. As the days progress that result in Jon and Liz searching for him, Nermal & Arlene scold Garfield for what he did since they saw what happened, but the orange protagonist assures them he didn’t intend for that to happen. Chapman ends up adopting Odie from Mrs Baker after finding his missing person sign, due to his desire to have a dog part of his act that could get him to perform on Good Day New York depending on the publicity he’ll get. His need to get a dog also comes from his allergies towards cats. When they go on tv together and Chapman announces traveling to New York, Garfield see this and heads there on his own to get the dog back. In his absence, Jon & Liz notice him to have left. By the time he reaches NY, the cat is almost eaten by rats until Louis protects him. He then reaches the broadcast tower through the air vents, where he sees that Chapman is going to use a shock collar on Odie so he can force him to perform tricks. When he tries to continue following him, he gets intercepted by an animal control officer that mistakes him to be a stray. He is able to escape though thanks to the assist of the animals from the pound. As this happens, Jon & Liz discover from Mrs. Baker that Chapman adopted Odie for himself, presuming he took Garfield as well. The orange cat reaches the train station and tries to switch the tracks in the control room, but almost causes a wreck until hitting the emergency stop button. With a disaster prevented, he is able to return Chapman’s train to the station and free Odie. However, the celebrity sees the animals escape and pursues them. He is able to corner the animals in the suitcase area until the rats and the other animals from intervene by putting the shock collar on him. Garfield & Odie give Chapman a taste of his own medicine by using it on with it. When Jon & Liz find them, the former punches Chapman for stealing his pet(s). The celebrity is then arrested for being supposedly involved with the train mishap. As Garfield’s neighbors hail him as a hero by his neighbors for saving Odie, film ends with Jon & Liz starting an intimate relationship with a first kiss.
THOUGHTS
Since I grew up watching the cartoons of these comic strips every weekend, I was totally down for a movie by the time this had came out. Am I gonna go crazy in saying this is the best thing ever? Oh of course not, but I ain’t gonna try to pretend this wasn’t fun at the time. While the computerized design of Garfield is believable, it is predictably the voice performance from Bill Murray who sells the true believability of the character. This cat sure loves relaxing by eating all the lasagna in the world or anything else that’s in front of him because that’s how lazy he is. Hell, he’ll even eat it when it’s cold which I would’ve not expected from an animal. And Murray’s deadpan deliveries really nail the tone the cat is all about. His patience is indeed tested when Odie becomes part of his life and since he causes an unintentional chain of events that he redeems himself for, it’s an example of showing there is always time for growth in however you live your life. Garfield didn’t hate Odie, but had a hard time adjusting he had a new member of his family since he was so used to having Jon to himself. Once he saw he did more harm than good, he set things like any protagonist would and since he luckily had more friends than he could count, it favored him in the long run because all of them had his back when he least expected it. Besides Murray being the selling point of the talking cat, the live action actors drive the story as well, as fluently as possible. Breckin Meyer has us adore Jon from the get go for being an easy going guy who may be bumbling when his own cat undermines him, but still has his head up as things progress. He never planned on adopting a cute dog like Odie, but it ain’t gonna stop him in giving it a chance. Besides that, his biggest gamble was finding love which paid off when he pursued Liz. Jennifer Love Hewitt was enjoyable as Liz because she was Jon’s equal in being kindhearted, which made things easy for them become one. Little would they expect an adventure where they come across a cruel villain. Stephen Tobolowsky nailed it making Happy Chapman a total prick since he’s all about achieving personal glory as in one-upping his younger brother and didn’t care in how he treated animals like Odie. I mean shock collars shouldn’t be made in the first place no matter the difficulty in training animals, so it went without saying his comeuppance fit the crime. Although this oddly wouldn’t be the last time the protagonists would deal with bad people, at least they get their heads up in the long run. I don't hate this movie, but there are so many illogical things going on that don't make sense upon re-watching. Like it's so confusing I see why people don't like it. Like for instance, why does Garfield have an alarm clock if he only uses it once? If Jon got rid of it, then there was in keeping it just to introduce us to the cat. Garfield's invention to steal milk doesn't really make sense either because why would a human neighbor not notice the contraption where a plant and some shoes are connected to a rope? If the neighbor is outta town, it's crazy Garfield doesn't bring it up. Also, why does Chapman take so long in pursuing a talented dog? If he's allergic to cats, he should've been looking way sooner. And it honestly gets too weird on how fast Jon puts all the attention on Odie before Garfield trashes the house. I know the dog is all about connecting compared to the cat, but every pet deserves attention no matter how annoying they can be. Mrs. Baker messes up in giving Odie to Chapman solely off of not asking if he had the collar to back up the ownership. That alone would've further maintained the villain's cover, but he relied on luck big time. On top of that, why does Garfield feel the need to have a snack before searching for Odie, when in fact he didn't have any cravings when sneaking to the canine talent show where he got chased by other dogs? I mean he really does pick and choose when to be lazy. The laziness even feels topped when not hopping over a trunk when we know it was about the same height of a couch. Garfield also wastes time in talking to the animal control guy when he knows he doesn't understand him. He only talks to Jon knowing the outcome just to kill time, so this is different. What tripped me out more than all the animals showing up at the train station which didn't cause a panic is that the control room was empty. I know everyone needs a bathroom break, but that's the kinda job where two people are needed to cover each other. Ignore this, then you'll still have a good time if you make it for this. In short, Director Peter Hewitt presents Garfield as a decent family flick for its effects in making kids smile with absurdity. If you enjoyed the comic strips or previous cartoons of this character, this is worth giving a chance.
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