Garfield – The Movie
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C
Garfield is one of the most celebrated and successful
comic strip, comic book series of the last 25 years. The TV series (variously reviewed elsewhere on this site) is
still enjoyed by fans of all ages.
Lorenzo Music originally supplied the voice of the famed cat; the
never-seen Carlton The Doorman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show hit
spin-off series Rhoda. There was
even an attempt to do a Carlton spin-off that was fully animated, but only a
pilot was produced. With the advent of
digital animation, usually for the worse, many animated and comic book
properties are being brought into the live-action world while retaining the
characters in “toon” form. Most of the
times this has been a disaster and Pete Hewitt’s Garfield – The Movie
(2004) is heading in that graveyard.
Music passed away a few years ago, so a substitute voice
that made sense was called on and the coup was that the filmmakers landed Bill
Murray. That should have been a
bullseye and a no-brainer, but Murray’s good voicing and efforts are more than
sabotaged by a series of mistakes that ruined what should have been a fun
film. For starters, someone made a
decision to animate Garfield and not to animate his canine roommate-by
default Odie. Just on that alone, the
film was bound to fail no matter what else was done right. Breckin Meyer is cast right as Jon and
Jennifer Love Hewitt is wonderful as his new girlfriend, but the script is
silly and the plot about the exploitation of animals needing to be foiled is
not as well thought out as it should be, especially for being aimed at a young
audience. All in all, the Joel
Cohen/Alec Sokolow screenplay seems clueless as to why Garfield works,
including the tremendous mistake of not having Garfield’s words remain
inner-thoughts. Because so much money
was being spent on animation, all of the talk is mouthed by the CG
Garfield. Jim Davis should not have
allowed this to happen, but it did and we get to suffer.
The image is available in an obnoxious pan & scan
version and an anamorphic 1.85 X 1 version that is not bad, but not as clear as
it ought to be for a new film, even including the still annoying limits of
digital animation. Dean Cundey, A.S.C.,
was the cameraman on the film and it does not offer much special visually,
despite his talents. The sound is
available in three Dolby Digital configurations, including Spanish and French
2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds and English 5.1 that offers the original
spoken dialogue and some bass, but that is all. The dippy music score by Christophe Beck is forgettable as
well. Extras are thin, with previews
for two other Fox programs on top of the several that pop up before you can
even get to the film, and a music video for the supposed hit song form the film
by Baha Men, who gave everyone a permanent headache with their instant
oldie-from-hell, Who Let The Dogs Out?
Aspirin anyone?
- Nicholas Sheffo
