6/10
This Cheesy Story of Garfield is As Sweet As Orange Candy
17 May 2024
The Garfield Movie (2024) : Movie Review -

Mark Dindal is here with the orange-flavored, catty-sweety animation flick called The Garfield Movie. Let's see, what are the basics of getting an animated feature right? A good story, enough emotions, some comedy, adorable characters, and beautiful visuals, right? Garfield's family story has it all. Coming in summer makes it a perfect entertainer for children, who don't belong to concept-driven animated flicks. This sweet orange candy has enough spice and cheese to wet your tongue, just like that smart doggie in the film, so you better book a recliner sofa, just like Garfield does in the film, but without a remote, and enjoy this popcorn entertainer in cinemas near you.

The film tells the story of a little cat named Garfield, who is abandoned by his father on a stormy, rainy night. Jon adopts him and takes him home, and they grow close to each other. Jon and Garfield have another pet, Odie, a dim-witted dog who is smarter than you think. After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, a street cat named Vic, the pet dog Garfield, and his canine friend Odie are forced to perform a high-stakes heist of milk. How can this risky operation go well when this father-son duo is not getting along well with each other? Will some secrets from the past bring them close and make this heist successful?

Based on Jim Davis' Garfield, The Garfield Movie is a fun-filled film right from the beginning. The way Garfield eats, the way he lives, the way he spends his day, and his I-am-the-kimg attitude-everything tickles your funny bones. There are funky vibes to the background score that elevate Garfield's persona, and you start liking him more. The Odie is too sweet already, but Vic makes you fall in love with him by the end, when a lot is discovered from his life. It's that typical Pixar drama, not coming from Pixar. Whatever.. there are more punches, more comedy, and more cuteness in this Monday-hater cat's world.

Chris Pratt and Samuel L. Jackson's hate-me-love-me banter is verbally and expressionally adorable, and you must give credit to them for their perfect voicing. The rest of the voice cast, including Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Snoop Dogg, were fine with their roles. It's not as much of a voice-over-driven film as you might think because we don't know how cats, an ox, and other animals would sound in a cinematic world. Yet, one has to give them applause for convincing us that those human voices were coming out of creatures.

The Garfield movie has pretty decent visuals, but the 3D viewing isn't necessary. It happens with many animated movies, but with this one, it's clearly visible how unnecessary those specs were. The production design is fantastic and fascinating. You will love those nuances, be it the house, Catflix, Odie's movements in the background, kidnapping, pinecake, cheese factory, deadly but color-changing meow, heist, rescue on the top of a running train, and that blue one-horned Ox and his pink sweetheart. It's tremendously creative for a run-of-the-mill story and the characters it has. Thankfully, the emotional quotient comes to boost the so-so story in the ending, and we literally end up with one or two drops of tears, if not a river like Garfield does in the adoption scene. The film slips a bit down in the middle but covers the loss with an even better conclusion portion in the last quarter. Mark Dindal uses 90 minutes (excluding end credits) to deliver an engaging, adventurous family drama that is worth your time and money. Go, enjoy a piece of cheese pizza along with a piece of cheese-loving cat's sweet tale.

RATING - 6/10*
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