DVD Movie Rating for: Garfield

Rating 2 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Garfield

Life couldn't be sweeter for Garfield, everyone's favorite feline. Parked on a comfortable chair in front of the television, feasting on his favorite dish, lasagna, and hurling insults at his beleaguered owner Jon (Breckin Meyer), Garfield is the master of his universe.

When Jon takes Garfield to visit beautiful veterinarian Liz Wilson (Jennifer Love Hewitt), she gives Jon a pepped-up, tail-wagging, panting creature that represents everything that Garfield loathes. Garfield, meet Odie, a lovable, dim-witted... dog. The wise-cracking cat is, for the first time in his nine lives, left speechless. The clueless Odie chases his tail till he's dizzy, crashes into walls, and barks without cause, all to the unbridled delight of Jon who eagerly welcomes Odie into his home.

Odie turns Garfield's perfect world upside down. Garfield's solution: OUT, DARN DOG. When the hapless hound disappears into the evil clutches of local celebrity Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky), you would think Garfield would rejoice. But he feels responsible for the fate of another. With uncharacteristic energy, courage and selflessness, Garfield manages to pull himself away from his lazy life and spring into action. He's on the unlikeliest of impossible missions: to save Odie.

DVD Production Details of: Garfield

Starring: Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt

Director: Peter Hewitt

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Fox Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: October 19, 2004
Run Time: 82

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Garfield

• Breckin Meyer .... Jon
• Jennifer Love Hewitt .... Liz
• Stephen Tobolowsky .... Happy Chapman
• Bill Murray .... Garfield (voice)
• Evan Arnold .... Wendell
• Mark Christopher Lawrence .... Christopher Mello
• Vanessa Christelle .... Miss True-Value
• Daamen J. Krall .... Announcer (as Daamen Krall)
• Rufus Gifford .... Dog Owner #1
• Randee Reicher .... Dog Owner #2
• Ryan McKasson .... Dog Owner #3
• Susan Moore .... Dog Owner #4
• Eve Brent .... Mrs. Baker
• Bill Hoag .... Roy the Lodge Member
• Michael Monks .... Deputy Hopkins
• Mel Rodriguez .... Security Officer
• Juliette Goglia .... Little Girl
• Ben Kronen .... Older Man
• Fabio Serafini .... Red Cap
• Jerry Hauck .... Cop
• Jerry Giles .... Conductor
• Evan Helmuth .... Steward
• Annalea Rawicz .... Information Agent
• Danny Gil .... Engineer #1
• Leyna Nguyen .... News Reporter
• Frank Payne .... Engineer #2
• Joe Ochman .... Engineer #3
• Joe Bays .... Raccoon Lodge Member
• Danna Hansen .... Older Woman
• Joseph Edward Taylor .... Frank
• John F. Schaffer .... Larry
• Ariel Joseph Towne .... Technician
• Joseph Hale .... Little Girl's Dad
• Nick Cannon .... Louis (voice)
• Alan Cumming .... Persnikitty (voice)
• David Eigenberg .... Nermal (voice)
• Brad Garrett .... Luca (voice)
• Jimmy Kimmel .... Spanky (voice)
• Debra Messing .... Arlene (voice)
• Richard Kind .... Dead Rat (voice)
• Debra Jo Rupp .... Mom Rat (voice)
• Jordan Kaiser .... Kid Rat (voice)
• Wyatt Smith .... Kid Rat (voice)
• Alyson Stoner .... Kid Rat (voice)
• Jim Davis .... Drunken Conventioner

Photo Gallery of the movie: Garfield

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Garfield with Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt

Photo Gallery Garfield with Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt

Reviews of the movie: Garfield

Garfield(Breckin Meyer) is a fat lazy happy cat. He hates Mondays and loves lasagna. He lives with his happy owner Jon(Meyer). They have a pretty simple life and both seem to be happy.

One day when Jon takes Garfield to see the vet. He's been doing it a lot lately because of the veternarian Liz(Jennifer Love Hewitt) who he has a crush on and has had since high school. Liz likes Jon and thinks he's a good pet owner. She gives him a dog Odie to take care of alongside his feline Garfield.

Garfield protests to the dog and does everything he can to make it leave. One day Jon and Liz go to a dog show. Odie under the chaotic circumstances that Garfield causes at the show ends up winning first prize as the best dog. Odie is spotted there by Happy(Tobolowsky) whos is a tv personality looking for a dog for his big act. He wants Odie for his own and is upset when Jon won't sign with him.

Garfield being jealous of Odie has a small accident at the house when they get home. Jon is made and throws hime out. Odie feeling bad for Garfield goes outside to comfort him, and that where Garfield traps him outside. Odie runs away from home and the search for him is on. He is found by Happy who plans on using the dog for his own good. It's now up to Garfield to save the day and find Odie so Jon can stay with Liz.

I liked the CGI that they used for Garfield. It reminds me a lot of Scooby Doo, though this is a much better movie. Bill Murray is the perfect guy to voice Garfield. Garfield is the epitome of sarcasm and nobody in the world is as sarcastic as Murray. He does a perfect job with as the voice and I love it when he sings.

I liked Meyer as Jon. He wasn't quite enough of a loser, but he did a good job. I loved Jennifer Love Hewitt. She's hot and she really is in the movie. Jon in the comic strip would never have gotten a girl like her, but I'm not going to complain that she was in this.

This is a great family movie. My broters and sisters liked it a lot. Hardcore Garfield fans aren't going to like this one a lot. However if you want to take the kids to a good clean movie than this is it. It's a fun 90 minutes at the movies. Don't miss out on it.

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Garfield is a cat. He's fat, lazy, sly and he loves lasagne. In the live-action movie version of the Jim Davis cartoon strip - a source with a fairly limited range of possibilities - he is a CGI creation with the voice of Bill Murray, who is cast, presumably, for the world-weary, sardonic tone he can give the character, a creature defined by self-interest.

The other animals in Garfield's world can talk too, but they are portrayed by real cats and dogs whose mouths are made to move using CGI. Director Peter Hewitt must have decided that he couldn't cast an actual feline, that he needed to maintain Garfield's difference, his cartoonish quality. So he's big, boofy, orange, and not quite real.

He might be plausibly three-dimensional and interact with the world, but he looks like an animated plush toy.

Garfield's world of lasagne and naps is interrupted by a newcomer to the household. His owner, Jon (Breckin Myer) has a crush on the local vet, Liz, played by the perky, wide-eyed Jennifer Love Hewitt, who almost looks like a CGI creation herself. Liz suggests that Jon acquires a dog, Odie. Garfield is, of course, appalled at the disruption and the competition. He does everything in his power to make him feel unwelcome.

But when Odie disappears, kidnapped by heavy-handedly villainous local TV celebrity Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky), Garfield is forced to act, to leave for the big city on a rescue mission.

The film shifts from Phase One: Garfield As Narrator to Phase Two: Garfield's Zany Adventures in the Metropolis. The self-centred cat is forced to become heroic, a move that doesn't suit the world view of the original character, but is a required element in plot terms.

The film becomes busily mechanical, a cinematic pinball machine in which Garfield is bounced from one conundrum to another: it's mildly entertaining, but you can't help being aware of the effort involved in stretching a repetitive cartoon strip into a movie

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Garfield seems to be lifted directly from the comics for this movie. He has his teddy bear Pooky. He eats lasagna. He insults Jon. He fights with Odie. He outsmarts the neighborhood dogs. He hates Mondays. It's all here. They even have him dance and sing like in the comics. And having him voiced by Bill Murray was absolutely perfect. Their personalities and dry sense of humor are perfectly matched and Murray's voice fits the fat, lazy cat well.

The Garfield effects are also impressive. Though this CG doesn't break any new ground, it is a good merging of the cartoon character and real life cat characteristics. The hair on Garfield is finely detailed and the only thing missing is him shedding all over the place. But the real life animals are entertaining, too. The dog that plays Odie is about as good of a real life match as you could get for the comic strip character. He does plenty of tricks and is lovable.

This was a pleasant film for the whole family. It was a bit of nostalgia for my wife and I while my 2 and 5 year olds were entertained by the antics of Garfield and Odie. Any time Garfield was on the screen, they sat completely still and gave their undivided attention to the movie (which is a major feat). And since Garfield was on the screen 90% of the time, they sat still for almost the whole movie. They loved it when Garfield and Odie danced and they got a big kick out of the fat cat being abused. (There's hope for them yet!) Since there aren't many movies that I can show the whole family, this ended up being a major plus for "Garfield: The Movie" and one of the reasons I rated it higher. Otherwise, I probably would have given this film a lower rating.

On the down side, one of the biggest problems with "Garfield: The Movie" is that it is simply not that funny. Like the comics of late, it relies way too heavily on "I Hate Monday" jokes and "lazy" jokes. They were old in the 80's and they are old now. When I saw the trailers for Garfield, I was hoping that they were saving the best and funniest material for the film. Well, they weren't. What you see in the trailers and commercials is what you get. That is especially frustrating because so often the film has great comic potential only to pass right by it and rely on weaker jokes. Looking back, the older Garfield comics were funny because of their biting or twisted sense of humor. In them, Jon was a bit of a loser and a bumbling idiot. That made him funny and the butt of many jokes, but in this movie Breckin Meyer is simply cute and sweet. He's almost nothing more than something for the CG Garfield to interact with. The same goes with Liz. In the comic she would constantly shoot Jon down and spurn his lame advances. Here, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, she's also cute and sweet. Rather than coming up with new jokes or relying on what made the original comics funny, they ignored it to make an ultimately tepid film. Cats have all sorts of great comic potential, but none of it is taken advantage of.

And despite the fact that Garfield and Odie are very close to their comic incarnations, Garfield fans will be annoyed to find out that Nermal is no longer the "world's cutest kitten". Instead, he is now a dopey friend of Garfield's and a Siamese. Why was this change necessary? Garfield was often at his funniest when he was harassing the kitten. Nermal would have been great for a sequel, too. It ends up being yet another opportunity for great comedy thrown aside.

Another gripe about "Garfield: The Movie" is the blatant use of product placements in the film. There are multiple glaring ads for Wendy's, Pepperidge Farm Flavor Blasted Goldfish Crackers, Pepsi, and more. There's even a baffling highlight of Fox's "Best Damn Sports Show". Huh? Every time one of these products came up on the screen, I had to roll my eyes and try not to puke up a hairball.

What it all comes down to is that "Garfield: The Movie" is a kid's movie. Children should love it and adults will probably only find it mildly amusing. Cat lovers and Garfield fans will enjoy it more, though.

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For the past 26-odd years, cartoonist Jim Davis has been recycling the same series of jokes in the Garfield comic strip. Garfield is lazy. He likes to sleep and eat lasagna. He doesn't chase mice. He's afraid of spiders. He picks on his owner Jon and Jon's dog, Odie. I guess I'm what you'd call a fan-sometimes Davis does manage to pull off a good sight gag-but mostly I read the strip because I like cats (and, I suppose, because I read every comic printed when I do bother to sit down with the funny pages. Well, except stuff like Mary Worth and Funky Winkerbean, which nobody reads). But, for the most part, the strip has continued to exist far past its expiration date because it's a merchandising monster-T-shirts, whimsical coffee cups for the "funny" guy in the cubical next to you, sun-faded stuffed animals suctioned-cupped to car windows, and on and on. So, really, why should I have expected a movie based on a worn-out, over-merchandised character to be anything less than a worn-out excuse to sell merchandise? I blame the cat.

Cats are never treated well in Hollywood. Dogs jump away from explosions in Jerry Bruckheimer films, to the claps and cheers of the audience. Felines get humiliated in Cats & Dogs. I just wanted to see a movie with a cat that wasn't getting chased by a dog or abused by a stupid bird. Unfortunately, Garfield: The Movie was not the droid I was looking for.

Fox's live-action adaptation (why?) was a miscalculation right from the start. If you want to make Garfield CGI, fine, but then why is he the only animal that's done in that fashion? The rest of the dogs and cats all talk using those special effects from Babe and don't seem to notice that Garfield is a freakish monstrosity. I mean, the CGI looks wonderful, but he doesn't exactly look like a cat. He even has round pupils. Cats are very observant (assuming they are actually looking at something when they stare at the wall for 11 minutes), and I think they would notice stuff like that.

Why bother with such trivial details? Because the rest of the film isn't worth mentioning. In a brilliant move by the filmmakers, every other aspect, from the barely-there love story between owner Jon (Breckin Meyer) and vet Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt), the supporting cats (including Arlene and Nermal, totally changed from the comic, and voiced by Debra Messing and David Eigenberg), to the warmed-over plot (Garfield must save Odie from cookie-cutter villain, in this case a TV host played by character actor Steven Tobolowsky who sees the talented pup as his shot at the big-time [whatever]), is extra boring, so Garfield seems more interesting in comparison.

Not that Garfield is all that well done, either. Other than the fact that he's orange, fat, and likes to eat, he bears only a minimal resemblance to the actual Garfield. I mean, physically, I guess he's as close an approximation as you're going to get in CGI. The animation is certainly impressive-his fur looks real enough to pet-but he's pretty lifeless. Bill Murray provides the voice, and he'd seem like a good choice, but he sounds bored. Not that I blame him, with a script that offers up such fresh catch phrases as "You had me at hello," "I love the smell of (insert joke here) in the morning," and "Got milk?" I mean, seriously, was this script written in 1997?

Garfield will probably appeal to young children. It's got a lot of cute animals in it, Garfield is colorful, and there are a lot of jaunty chase sequences and cartoony sight gags. But anyone with affection for the character, or an attention span longer than my cat's, will probably want to steer clear.

The movie may be a dog, but the DVD isn't. Video quality is very good, with full-screen and anamorphic widescreen transfers offered on the same side on the disc. Colors are bright, detail is sharp and shows good dimensionality, and I noticed no artifacts or aliasing. The audio track is less impressive, a front-heavy affair that features a wide front soundstage but minimal support from the surrounds.