The Garfield Movie Isn’t Worth Chris Pratt

I took my kids to see The Garfield Movie specifically because of Chris Pratt. We are huge Marvel fans in my house, and we loved The Super Mario Bros. Movie (though to be honest, that was likely because of Jack Black’s Bowser). Of course, we had high hopes for the orange cat I loved so much as a kid. And the film actually started out pretty good, but it quickly descended into madness that I think only kids could understand at that point.

The Garfield Movie stars, in addition to Chris Pratt, Nicholas Hoult, Ving Rhames, Hannah Waddingham, Snoop Dogg, Brett Goldstein, and Samuel L. Jackson, among others. At first, we get the classic origin story of how Jon (Hoult) first meets Garfield and takes him in. We see a sweet little orange kitty alone on a street after his father tells him to “Wait right here. I’ll be right back.” After waiting for what seems like hours, little Garfield leaves the relative safety of his cardboard box and wanders down the street. 

In the background of The Garfield Movie, Chris Pratt voices the cat’s narration. He describes the scene as it unfolds. Kitty Garfield sees Jon in the window of an Italian restaurant and taps on the glass. Jon lets Garfield in through the window and hides him behind a menu.

Before we know it, Garfield eats all of Jon’s lasagna and then sneaks around the eatery, wolfing down other patrons’ meals that are unbeknownst to them. Jon, meanwhile, is racing around, trying to keep up with the cat. 

These early moments are the best of The Garfield Movie and utilize the best of Chris Pratt’s voice work. The reflections of a sweet but mischievous kitten unfold as Jon and Garfield leave the restaurant and prepare to go their separate ways, but Jon can’t leave the innocent kitten to the wilds of the city, so he rearranges his whole life to take in the cat. He moves from an apartment to a house and ultimately takes in Odie, the dog we’ve all come to love. 

But it is at this point that The Garfield Movie loses us, and Chris Pratt’s role becomes obnoxious and a waste of potential. The movie skips to the cat and dog being much older now, in the present day, and getting kidnapped. Enter the always delightful Hannah Waddingham as a vengeful fluffy cat seeking revenge on Garfield’s absentee father by holding his son and his son’s canine companion hostage.

I’m pretty sure I fell asleep at some point here while the convoluted plot line involving a farm, an estranged cow couple, and an overzealous security guard unfolded. 

REVIEW SCORE

Suffice to say, it was entertaining enough that my kids had fun with The Garfield Movie, and they loved recognizing the voice of Chris Pratt, but from an adult’s perspective, the filmmakers could have done so much more with this movie and this cast, or they could have just left the storyline alone altogether. We probably didn’t need a Garfield movie at all. Rotten Tomatoes seems to agree, with only 37 percent positive reviews. At least my kids liked it.