The Garfield Movie (2024)

 

Genre: Family/ Adventure

Time: 1h 40mins

Director: Mark Dindal

Quick Summary: After Garfield's unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, ragged alley cat Vic, he and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered lives to join Vic on a risky heist.

If I see one more product placement I am going to scream.

I didn't have high hopes for this film at all and only saw it because it's Garfield. It's safe to say I will not be returning to this. It just doesn't feel like Garfield, it feels off. Everything that is charming about him is gone. Most of it is down to Chris Pratt's awful monotone voice-acting and sounds too cheery for our beloved grumpy guy. 

Admittedly, I had a soft spot for the animation as it reminded me of the old TV show I watched as a kid. All the same cartoonish elements were kept and it did bring out a few funny slapstick moments. 

Shame this was barely funny. It had its moments where I'd laugh because it would either be A) such a bad joke or piece of dialogue I couldn't help but laugh at it or B) it was so stupid it made it funny. There was this one scene where two cow lovers are reunited and as soon as they see each other "Let's Get It On" starts playing. For those who do not know the song: Click here. This made me laugh so much just because it was so stupid. 

Odie was strange to me as they essentially made him into Snoopy by doing things in the background or failing to get their attention for something. Now this could have been good if they hadn't made him bark constantly throughout the film. By the thirty-minute mark, I wanted to kick him.

Admittedly, I don't remember much from the plot because it was such a mess. I wonder if they got two or three episodes from the TV show that were never actually made and loosely crammed them together to make a film. This leads us to why I think this film was made. Product placement.  Never in my life have I seen so much product placement and placed so obviously. We'd get a shot of the fridge with everything being not so detailed aside from things like "Heinz" or "Olive Garden." clearly written in crisp detail. Here is a list of all the product placements I could remember: Tinder, Bumble, Popchips, Heinz, Olive Garden, Walmart, FedEx, Netflix, Sony, and Roomba. These were all so blatant and obvious it really put me off every single time I saw them as these would all turn up in the film about three times each.

Kids might find this mindlessly entertaining, but this will be painful for adults. I still can't believe they managed to turn this mess into a full-length film. At least baby Garfield was cute.

2/10