Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Garfield - The Movie

Garfield – The Movie

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

Garfield is one of the most celebrated and successful comic strip, comic book series of the last 25 years.  The TV series (variously reviewed elsewhere on this site) is still enjoyed by fans of all ages.  Lorenzo Music originally supplied the voice of the famed cat; the never-seen Carlton The Doorman from The Mary Tyler Moore Show hit spin-off series Rhoda.  There was even an attempt to do a Carlton spin-off that was fully animated, but only a pilot was produced.  With the advent of digital animation, usually for the worse, many animated and comic book properties are being brought into the live-action world while retaining the characters in “toon” form.  Most of the times this has been a disaster and Pete Hewitt’s Garfield – The Movie (2004) is heading in that graveyard.

 

Music passed away a few years ago, so a substitute voice that made sense was called on and the coup was that the filmmakers landed Bill Murray.  That should have been a bullseye and a no-brainer, but Murray’s good voicing and efforts are more than sabotaged by a series of mistakes that ruined what should have been a fun film.  For starters, someone made a decision to animate Garfield and not to animate his canine roommate-by default Odie.  Just on that alone, the film was bound to fail no matter what else was done right.  Breckin Meyer is cast right as Jon and Jennifer Love Hewitt is wonderful as his new girlfriend, but the script is silly and the plot about the exploitation of animals needing to be foiled is not as well thought out as it should be, especially for being aimed at a young audience.  All in all, the Joel Cohen/Alec Sokolow screenplay seems clueless as to why Garfield works, including the tremendous mistake of not having Garfield’s words remain inner-thoughts.  Because so much money was being spent on animation, all of the talk is mouthed by the CG Garfield.  Jim Davis should not have allowed this to happen, but it did and we get to suffer.

 

The image is available in an obnoxious pan & scan version and an anamorphic 1.85 X 1 version that is not bad, but not as clear as it ought to be for a new film, even including the still annoying limits of digital animation.  Dean Cundey, A.S.C., was the cameraman on the film and it does not offer much special visually, despite his talents.  The sound is available in three Dolby Digital configurations, including Spanish and French 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds and English 5.1 that offers the original spoken dialogue and some bass, but that is all.  The dippy music score by Christophe Beck is forgettable as well.  Extras are thin, with previews for two other Fox programs on top of the several that pop up before you can even get to the film, and a music video for the supposed hit song form the film by Baha Men, who gave everyone a permanent headache with their instant oldie-from-hell, Who Let The Dogs Out?  Aspirin anyone?

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com