In 1976, the comic called 'Jon' by comic book artist Jim Davis was published locally in the Pendleton Times. The comic was so successful that it was published nationwide under the name Garfield in 1978 and since then the greedy orange cat with a heart of gold has become indispensable. The drawing style was changed in 1984 to a more cartoon--like style as we actually know it well now. In 2002 was one of the most printed comics in the newspaper in 2570 newspapers worldwide with 263 million readers. Now with different animation series and different films we now get to see the second cinema film about the orange hangover. This time voiced by Chris Pratt as Garfield, who of course had a lot of success in recording Mario's voice in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Samuel L. Jackson speaks the voice of Garfield's father Vic and so we can mention a whole bunch of celebrities. In the Dutch version, these are Jim Bakkum and Jörgen Raymann who record the voices of Garfield and his father Vic. Either way, the film promises a lot of fun, fun and action.
With many delays and postponements of the release date, of course due to the pandemic and problems with production, the time has finally come. In a kind of origin--like story telling, we see how a baby Garfield is just left behind by his father Vic. The story actually focuses a lot on that and because of this a main character like Jon is pushed back. When Garfield and his loyal buddy Odie are kidnapped, they end up with the crazy cat Jinx and her two mean service dogs Roland and Nolan. But why is Garfield actually kidnapped out of nowhere? That becomes clear when Vic appears on stage, but of course Garfield doesn't want to know anything about Vic at all. We all understand that leaving Garfield when he was still a kitten had a different reason than that you would think at first glance and that is quite a shame, because it makes the film very predictable for the older viewers. You notice from this that a film like this is really made for an audience under 10 years old, but don't be put off, because apart from that fact, the film is really entertaining for an older audience.
The animation itself is average and nothing more than that. Nowadays it is difficult for most animated films to say anything about it, given that it is most similar in style. Well, well it was not expected in advance that we would get to see an artistic masterpiece, so in that respect the film succeeds in that area with flying colours. The music was a positive point, this was in the hands of composer John Debney and at some points the music was completely reminiscent of the beautiful melancholic sounds that Thomas Newman often makes. In the end, the big picture is crazy fun and you won't be bored for seconds. The humor is good and fun and things like Catflix where Garfield watches cat movies are hilarious. In the end, you have to stay there during the credits for the funny cat movies that continue to play when the credits start rolling.
Garfield has become a successful and funny movie for the whole family. The jokes are fun, the animation is fine and Garfield and Odie get the laughs on their hands very often. Perhaps the predictability of the film could have been a little less, because this actually only makes the film suitable for children up to 10 years old, but well, this is not something you should also care about, because the film is just too fun for that. The animation itself is standard, doesn't excel in anything, but that's fine. The music pops out and from time to time it is reminiscent of a soundtrack that Thomas Newman could have made. Just stay seated at the end credits too because the crazy cat movies that Garfield watches on Catflix make for a last smile on the face.
