THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Garfield made enough laughs in 2004 to satisfy enough to kids to make enough and say they wanted more. Was it worth it? Fuck no.
PLOT
2006’s A Tale of Two Kitties takes place two years after the events of the first film. Jon Arbuckle goes to the United Kingdom to surprise his girlfriend Liz, intending to propose to him. He drops off his pets Garfield & Odie to a kennel, but they escape and stowaway in his luggage. And after sneaking aboard, they leave the hotel room out of boredom. This leads to them getting quickly lost in the streets and Garfield gets mistaken by a butler named Smithee (Ian Abercrombie) to be another cat, Prince the 12th, pet of the late Lady Eleanor whose inheritance is passed on to opposing cat. This didn’t suit well with her nephew Lord Manfred Dargis who wants the inheritance to turn the estate into a resort. So, he sweeps the cat into a panic basket and dumps him into a river, thus leading to the swap. Once Smithee finds and takes Garfield, Prince gets out of the sewer and is picked up by Jon. Mistaking him to be his own cat, he tries to keep him by his side for the remainder of the trip. Prince’s bulldog marjordomo Winston quickly understands the swap between both cats, but convinces the other farm animals tolerate Garfield because if Dargis gets his way, he’ll have all the animals killed and served to the tourists. This does lead to Dargis trying to kill the cat before the solicitors arrive to officially pass the inheritance to him. With the help of the farm animals though, they foil most of his plans. In the meanwhile, Prince enjoys being an ordinary pet but both cats miss their past lives. As Prince heads back home, Garfield is offended when overhearing the macaw Preston (Richard E Grant) point out to Winston what a slob he is. On his own, Dargis tries trapping him in a private cell but that gets foiled as well when the farm animals break him out. The cat does meet his doppelganger and plan to keep Dargis out of control. When Jon realizes the mix up, he and Odie head to the castle that Liz is coincidentally visiting. Both cats expose themselves to the solicitors which foils Dargis’ plan. This leads to him acting further more irrational by holding Liz hostage until the estate is passed to him. Once Jon & Odie, the latter bites at the villain long enough for his owner to get a crossbow from him. But Dargis holds Liz at gunpoint until a ferret distracts him enough for Jon to strike him down. As Smithee calls the cops on the Lady Eleanor’s nephew, the film ends with Prince maintaining the estate and Garfield helping Jon with his marriage proposal to Liz which she accepts, after spending the whole time feeling against it.
THOUGHTS
As a kid, I didn’t mind having more laughs of this setting but I didn’t expect I wasn’t going to laugh in the same amount I did first time around. A lot of them are just flat because they’re more on referencing better films than try to bring anything fresh. I mean, we don’t need an Oliver reference when Prince tries lasagna for the first time. The only thing that made me laugh the most was Garfield & Odie having their own tour montage before the swap happens. In any case, this should’ve been a short film instead of a full length sequel. Bill Murray & Tim Curry are entertaining as both cats who go through their own journeys in being reminded that change is good whatever the predicament, but it’s a fucking rush to get there since they’re barely interested in changing their ways until the final minute. I mean what does it really matter on how Garfield feels about Jon marrying Liz if he can’t hear him? He should’ve learned from Odie it ain’t always about him. That even leads to me wondering that if Bob Hoskins makes Winston a spiritual sibling to Prince, why doesn’t Odie talk? I never wanted to ask that before, but it’s weird how he’s the only animal to not. Breckin Meyer & Jennifer Love Hewitt are still a believable pair as Jon & Liz where I can see they’ll be happy together once married. While I think Billy Connolly sells all the slapstick that has to be brought to play the greedy Dargis, but it’s dialed up way too far compared to what see from Chapman. And that just leads to me there’s so much more things that don’t make sense storywise. Like seriously, what made Garfield think Jon was talking to him about the proposal if he doesn’t understand? He should know this by now. Now I don’t blame Smithee fainting over Garfield’s appetitive, but Jon shouldn’t be surprised of him eating a whole chicken after we know he’ll four cold boxes of lasagna without hesitation. And if he’s so skeptical of taking his pets to a kettle, why didn’t he take them to a sitter? I’m sure that could’ve prevented them from escaping the way they did. On top of that, why didn’t the kettle call Jon about his pets going missing? Not even Jon calls them to tell what happened which is weird. I even gotta ask with all honesty, is it really possible for a pet to get the inheritance of a human? If this is legal, it doesn’t sound fair since they can’t spend the money the way anyone else would. Also, are there really no cameras in the castle? I mean that could’ve prevented Dargis from his murder attempt on Prince. Garfield also shouldn’t be surprised in being called out for his laziness when he doesn’t do shit. Lastly, I feel like Jon should’ve jumped out the window to save Prince because this ain’t the first time a cat has gone missing under his watch. With all of these potholes, I don’t know any adult that can enjoy this. To get this over with, Director Tim Hall makes one of the worst films due to having a script lazier than the titular character. Whatever kind of fan you are, avoid this movie at all costs.
Comments