The early 2000s saw a lot of old cartoons and characters get a live action movie now that CG was accessible enough. It took a while but Garfield eventually got his own movie during this era. It did not get a great reception back then but it made enough money to get a sequel which did bad on both standards to end the orange cat’s movie carreer. I remember thinking the first movie was alright and not liking the second one but now that enough time has passed it was time to se ehow they held up.
Many people praised the voice of Garfield being Bill Murray since Lorenzo Music has a similar tone and he voiced Peter Venkman in the cartoon so it was just poetic. It seems it was all a coincidence though but it was nice casting on the movies behalf. Bill Murray tries to blame it on a confusion of who the director was as to why he did the movie but the anser is pretty much money as his exuse makes no sense, he was even in a sequel. His voice is not bad, it’s just his deliveries are not great and neither is Garfield’s dialogue which make it difficult to like him. Jon Arbuckle’s actor is decent, he can’t hear Garfield which is how it should be. He’s still a loser but in a different way, they try to play it up as more relatable which only makes him a bigger loser so it works unintentionally. Finally we have Liz played by Jennifer Love Hewitt and she’s an interesting choice, despite giving her that awful haricut she doesn’t look like Liz or act like her but the aded eye candy does help the movie.
Garfield The movie
Garfield is too realistic in this version, not only the way he looks but also acts. Nermal is just a random cat in this movie and I think they could’ve had a cuter choice. Odie is also a normal dog, he’s quite cute and works, although I wish he could’ve looked a bit more like the Odie we know and love. I couldn’t help but like the Petco advertisement in the movie, we also get callbacks to the Simpsons and Lassie which were neat. The actual plot of the movie is a simple one but it works for an origin movie. Garfield is not happy with Odie being the new pet and things happen because of this. It works but it needed a bit more heart and jokes for it to be a memorable movie. It just doesn’t stand out despite being ok. Unsure why this version of Liz is all thirsty for Jon, she’s the one making all the moves.
Garfield: A tail of two kitties
The Prince and the Pauper but garfield. They didn’t have a great start but it had potential and that’s how they ruin it, with a rather generic story. I dont know vhat they were thinking, the original never tried to go for an older audience like say Scooby Doo did but here they go for the youngest demographic. The story of two identical cats and one a prince and they do a switcheroo as the prince is trying to be killed. Why is garfield in the uk? Who thought htis was a good setting, none of the animal friends fromt he first movie are here, the first movie wasn’t hilarious but this one is just not funny. Jon is just a side character here as is Liz for the most part. Liz does look better here since she’s less restricted to look like the character here I guess but she doesn’t do much except show booba and that makes up for it I guess. The villain is far goofier villain than the first and it doesn’t have a fun cast. The greens creen animals is distracting. At least it’s an ending since Jon marries Liz.
Garfield 3
No third movie and I can’t think of a good plot or give the writers any hope for a good idea for a story so it’s good the second one at least gave an ending to the franchise. I wouldn’t have minded a third movie if they could’ve tried to do something unique and intresting. It’s still would’ve been neat just to see what they tried.
Garfield had to hide through animated CG direct to video movies after this for a while until plenty of years happened and we got a new theatrical CG movie and no live action. Overall they could’ve done a much better job with the franchise, there was definitely potential even if Garfield can be a hard character to write for in longer stories. He works better with shorter plots but the movies did little to embrace the world of garfield.