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

Movie rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

Summary:

Garfield (voice: Chris Pratt), the world-famous Monday-hating, lasagna-loving house cat, is about to embark on a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voice: Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his four-legged friend Odie are forced to abandon their perfectly pampered lives and accompany Vic on a hilarious, high-stakes robbery.

Garfield: The Movie follows everyone’s favorite lasagna-loving, Monday-hating cat on an adventure that takes them out of the cozy comfort of their home. The animated film follows Garfield and Odie on a normal, relaxing day at home before the duo are kidnapped by the henchmen (animal henchmen?) of a bitter cat seeking revenge on Garfield’s long-lost father, whom he hasn’t seen since childhood. After an unexpected reunion between the two, Garfield, his father Vic, and Odie are forced to pull off a dangerous milk truck robbery to make amends, and are quickly thrown into a wild, unpredictable, and risky outdoor adventure that will change each of them.

Directed by Mark Dindal (The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little) from a screenplay 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, directing through the humorous and mostly lighthearted 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 2: Back to the Wild”), Bowen Yang (TV’s “Gremlins: The Secret of the Mogwai”) and Snoop Dogg (The Addams Family 2), all of whom add to the overall fun, though some are admittedly better suited to individual characters than others.

Garfield The Movie is a fun, humorous and family-friendly animated film that sends the lazy, grumpy cat out into the great outdoors for an adventure that goes way beyond his usual terrain. The laughs aren’t constant or hilarious, but they’re frequent and good enough to keep viewers giggling with a smile on their faces. The animation is beautifully done and is closer to the Garfield we all know and love than the previous movies. The film strays a little too far from the formula fans know and takes a few too many liberties with the characters in much of it, which soon makes them seem a little alien and will surely disappoint many diehard comic book fans, but should elicit few complaints from kids who will likely appreciate the wacky fun and fast-paced excitement.

Many diehard Garfield fans will be at least a little disturbed by Chris Pratt voicing our lasagna-loving cat, as the inevitable differences from the voices we’re familiar with are hard to ignore, even if Pratt is decent most of the time and delivers a commendable performance overall. The film does veer a little from the path fans would expect, although it does so in a believable way and ends up offering plenty of silly and entertaining moments as Garfield keeps stepping out of his comfort zone, but it never quite manages to achieve its goal and overall lands more in the realm of average than outstanding.

Overall, Garfield: The Movie should be a winner for many younger viewers, who certainly won’t have as many concerns about the source material and voice acting, and will very likely have a lot of fun with this entertaining animated adventure that remains light-hearted and engaging throughout. While many older viewers may not fall head over heels in love with the film, they should still have a pretty good time and appreciate the numerous nods and homages to the comic that it offers along the way. If you’re a fan of the character or have young children at home who are excited to see the film, then Garfield: The Movie is worth a try and should at least keep you sufficiently entertained. For anyone who is interested but hasn’t had a chance to watch it yet, I would at least recommend renting it rather than blindly buying it, just to be safe.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of The Garfield Movie offers a full 1080p HD presentation using the film’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation looks spectacular overall, delivering a clean, sharp, and beautifully colored presentation from start to finish with no notable issues or flaws. Details are sharp and solid down to every animated line, evident in the various animated characters and environments, with fur visibly ruffled and other small details popping out, while colors are bright, vibrant, and beautiful. Overall, this is a wonderful HD video presentation that holds up extremely well and should easily satisfy fans and first-time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release includes a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multi-channel soundtrack is quite enjoyable in its own right, providing a clean, clear, and often noticeably immersive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly utilizes all five available channels to frequently send music, rain, vehicles, and characters, along with some adventure effects and more, through the various speakers without distorting or negatively affecting any dialogue or other audio elements that occur simultaneously. Overall, this is a great 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack that regularly adds to the fun throughout.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of The Garfield Movie includes a fun collection of extras, including the “Deleted Scene – “I’m Back” Animatic featuring Hannah Waddingham” (approximately 3 minutes long), a “Gag Reel” (approximately 2 minutes long), and “Easter Eggs: Garnishes a la Garfield” (approximately 4 minutes long). Also included are several behind-the-scenes featurettes and other fun videos, including “Indoor Cat, Outdoor Adventure” (approximately 3 minutes long), “Cast of Critters” (4 minutes long), as well as instructions on how to draw various characters from the film (approximately 18 minutes long total), an “Animation Progression Reel” (2 minutes long), and a “Character and Environment Gallery” featuring various stills.

*Please note that the images above are from the Blu-Ray and have been resized, and suffer some loss of quality due to 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.

–

Movie rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

–

“The Garfield Movie” is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

–

You can buy “The Garfield Movie” on Blu-ray from Amazon HERE!

*Screen-Connections.com is an Amazon Associate that earns from qualifying purchases