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The filmmakers use the computer imagery sparingly. Garfield is the only animatron in the movie, which accentuates his stardom. He's also the only orange object in the movie. The filmmakers considered using a real cat to play Garfield, but to find one who was orange, fat and a great actor was difficult. Cats are notoriously difficult to film. Dogs like to please people and will do tricks for Kibbles. Cats, on the other hand, like to remain completely aloof. The world must come to them. The wranglers (trainers) were able to use the real cats that play Nermal and Arlene in the stunts, but they had trouble getting them to sit still and stare. They just got bored and wandered off. Anyone who has tried to get a cat to do anything, including eat, knows about this.

Tyler, the dog who plays Odie, did not need special effects. His repertoire of tricks includes being able to hop on his hind legs and twirl like a mad polka king. He can look confused, happy or sad. By relying on flesh-and-blood animals wherever possible, the filmmakers have made the movie comfortably familiar to lovers of the simply-drawn comic strip. It doesn't come across as an overproduced computer game, but as a movie about characters we love.

Finding a voice for Garfield was tricky. He had to be lively and engaging, jaded and world-wise, a bit nave and fundamentally vulnerable. Bill Murray is a natural. Murray's character in the recent Lost in Translation is a lot like Garfield: He's a pampered star taken out of his comfortable existence and dropped into an unfamiliar world. Murray is reserved and nuanced as the voice of Garfield. He's not Bill Murray the big-time movie star; he's a big fat cat.

Garfield: The Movie is geared toward kids, but lovers of the comic strip will find it familiar and charming. People who love cats will see their own felines in Garfield. Parents who love neither Garfield nor cats will have a good time nonetheless.

Talk About It

1. Why do older siblings get jealous when a new baby comes home from the hospital?
   
   
2. What kinds of things make siblings bond to one another and learn to enjoy one another?
   
   
3. Why do some people enjoy dogs, who like to please people, while others like cats, who are so independent as to be downright snobs?

The Family Corner

Garfield: The Movie is rated PG, although it might easily have been rated G. There's nothing to offend sensitive parents and nothing to scare most children.

Photos © Copyright 20th Century Fox

Jim Davis' Garfield comic strip has entertained people in daily newspapers for decades. But there's a big difference between a three-panel comic strip and a full-length feature film. Critics are saying that this feline probably should have stayed on the funny pages.

Family media watchdogs agree that this lazy self-absorbed cartoon character feline and his slobbering sidekick Odie are funny enough on the big screen to be entertaining for kids and parents alike. But is there anything truly excellent and worthy of praise here? Those who give Garfield a passing grade seem merely relieved to find a movie that doesn't offend them; they don't have much to say about what it does do.

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) says, "The trailer leaves us with the strong and unmistakable impression that the film is going to be a boring, unfaithful, and unfunny bastardization of the popular comic strip. That's exactly what we get." He says the mix of live-action and animated characters "does not work. We are never drawn into this hybrid world, and are instead reminded as to how false and forced it is."

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says, "Despite some funny moments … [director Peter] Hewitt coughs up a hairball." He describes the cat's antics as "staler than three-day-old Purina Cat Chow."

But Stefan Ulstein (Christianity Today Movies) says, "Parents and kids will find a lot to like in this charming film adaptation. [The movie] is not terribly sophisticated, but there is enough to keep parents from squirming in their seats with boredom. There is nothing … to cause parents to shudder."

"Garfield: The Movie isn't bad," says Adam Holz (Plugged In). "But a three-panel comic does not an 85-minute movie make. The movie does a reasonably good job of capturing the spirit of [the] cartoon. But it would be a disservice not to say that its positive elements have been dealt with better in countless other movies."

Mainstream critics are rating it as one of the year's worst, inclined toward remarks about litter boxes and words like "cat-astrophe." Sean Axmaker (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) remarks, "This isn't a movie. It's a marketing ploy."

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