The Garfield Movie (2024) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Mark Dindal

Cast: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham (VOICES)

Release Date: August 27, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

Synopsis:

Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.

‘The Garfield Movie’ joins everyone’s favorite lasagna loving and Monday hating lazy cat for an adventure that will send him away from the cozy comforts of home. The animated film joins Garfield and Odie on an average relaxing day at home before the duo are kidnapped by the henchmen (hench-animals?) of a bitter cat seeking revenge against Garfield’s long-lost father who he hadn’t seen since he was a young kitten. Following an unexpected reunion between the two, Garfield, his dad Vic and Odie are forced to pull off a dangerous milk truck heist to pay amends and are quickly thrown into a wild, unpredictable and high-stakes outdoor adventure that will change each of them.

Directed by Mark Dindal (The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little) from a screenplay written by Paul A. Kaplan (TV’s George Lopez) & Mark Torgove (TV’s Raising Hope) and David Reynolds (Finding Nemo), based on the Garfield® characters created by Jim Davis, Dindal does a solid job at the helm of ‘The Garfield Movie’ guiding along the humorous and mostly light-hearted fun. The film’s talented voice cast includes Chris Pratt (The Super Mario Bros. Movie), Samuel L. Jackson (Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank), Hannah Waddingham (TV’s Krapopolis), Ving Rhames (Wendell & Wild), Nicholas Hoult (Watership Down 2018), Cecily Strong (Leo), Harvey Guillén (Wish), Brett Goldstein (TV’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock), Bowen Yang (TV’s Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai) and Snoop Dogg (The Addams Family 2) who each contribute to the fun throughout, although some admittedly work better than others for the specific characters.

‘The Garfield Movie’ is an enjoyable, humorous and family friendly animated outing that sends the lazy, grumpy cat into the outdoors for an adventure that’s well out of his usual wheelhouse. The laughs aren’t constant or hilarious but are frequent and decent enough to keep viewers giggling with a smile on their face and the animation is beautifully done, looking closer to the Garfield we all know and love than the previous theatrical outings. The film strays a bit too far from the formula fans are familiar with and much of the movie takes a few too many liberties with the characters that soon ends up making them somewhat unfamiliar and will surely disappoint many of the comic strips dedicated fans but should elicit very few complaints from kids who will likely appreciate the zany fun and fast-paced excitement.

Many diehard ‘Garfield’ fans will at least be somewhat troubled by Chris Pratt as the voice of our lasagna-loving feline due to the unavoidable differences to the voice(s) we are familiar with which can be difficult to disregard, even if Pratt is quite decent much of the time and does a commendable job overall. The movie does veer a bit off the path fans would expect, although it does so in a believable manner and ends up offering up plenty of goofy and entertaining moments throughout as Garfield repeatedly finds himself out of his comfort zone, but it never quite manages to fully land its mark and as a whole ends up much more in the realm of average than outstanding.

Overall, ‘The Garfield Movie’ should prove a winner for many younger viewers who surely won’t have as many qualms about the source material and voice performances and will very likely have a great deal of fun with this enjoyable animated adventure which keeps things light and consistently exciting. Even if many older viewers may not fall head over heels in love with it, they should still have a pretty good time taking the ride and will appreciate the numerous nods and homages to the comic strip that it offers along the way. If you’re a fan of the character or have young ones at home looking forward to it, then ‘The Garfield Movie’ is worth giving a chance and should at the absolute least keep you adequately entertained. For those who are interested but haven’t yet had a chance to check it out I would at least encourage renting it as opposed to making a blind purchase just to be safe.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Garfield Movie’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks spectacular as a whole and delivers a clean, sharp and beautifully colored presentation from start to finish that’s absent of any notable issues or faults to be uncovered throughout. Detail is sharp and solid down to each animated line, noticeable on the various animated characters and surroundings, with fur visibly ruffling and other small details standing out, while colors are bright, vibrant and gorgeous. Overall, this is a wonderful high definition video presentation that holds up splendidly and should easily satisfy fans and first time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack is quite a bit of fun itself and offers a clean, crisp and often noticeably immersive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, rain, vehicles and characters, along with some adventure effects and more zipping throughout the various speakers quite frequently, while never causing any simultaneously occurring dialogue or other audio elements to become distorted or negatively affected along the way. Overall, this is a great 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that adds to the fun regularly throughout.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Garfield Movie’ features a fun collection of extras including the ‘Deleted Scene – “I’m Back” Animatic featuring Hannah Waddingham’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length), along with a ‘Gag Reel’ (running approximately 2 minutes) and ‘Easter Eggs: Garnishes a la Garfield’ (approximately 4 minutes). Also included are some Behind the Scenes Featurettes and other fun videos including ‘Indoor Cat, Outdoor Adventure’ (approximately 3 minutes), ‘Cast of Critters’ (4 minutes), in addition to guides on ‘How-to-Draw’ various characters from the movie (approximately 18 minutes altogether), plus an ‘Animation Progression Reel’ (2 minutes) and a ‘Character and Environment Gallery’ with various stills.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

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‘The Garfield Movie’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘The Garfield Movie’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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