The Garfield Movie (2024) is directed by Mark Dindal and stars Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillen, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Snoop Dogg, Janelle James, Angus Cloud, and Jeff Foxworthy. The film follows the classic, lasagna-loving orange cat (Pratt) as his cozy life with his human, Dave (Hoult), and canine brother, Odie (Guillen), is thrown into disarray with the arrival of his long-lost father, Vic (Jackson). He soon ropes Garfield and Odie into a dangerous heist of a local dairy farm at the behest of Jinx (Waddingham), an evil feline who Vic previously betrayed and now demands restitution. 

The cast is filled with recognizable names, so it’s disappointing that they all feel like the most generic casting choices possible. For example, there’s nothing particularly inspired about casting Ving Rhames as the non-nonsense Bull character. The same goes for Waddingham as an evil British cat and Samuel L. Jackson as the “street cat.” Speaking of which, the film distinguishes the voices of the “street cat” and “house cat” characters by giving the former a black voice actor and the latter a white voice actor. Yeah, that’s definitely teaching kids the right lessons (eye roll). When all is said and done, the characters are indistinguishable from ninety percent of similar animated films. On paper, Chris Pratt is a better fit to play Garfield than he ever was for Mario. However, because he essentially just plays a version of himself here, it results in a less compelling voice performance. At least the script gets the character himself correct – he’s lazy, sarcastic, and loves lasagna more than anything in the world. I just wish more of the comedy would have resulted from these qualities. Instead, the movie feels the need to thrust the character into a generic heist comedy without taking advantage of what makes him so timeless. 

The comedy is almost entirely aimed at the younger crowd, and for them, it should do the job sufficiently. Everyone over the age of twelve will instead be groaning at all the uninspired slapstick and constant jokes about characters being hungry. For example, there’s one scene in which Garfield and Vic are fighting while tied to a tree and Ving Rhames’ character says, “I could watch this all day.” I, Mr. Bull, will have to respectfully disagree. This is something I got bored watching after a quick two minutes. 

The animation style also does little to set itself apart from the pack. It’s just a meaningless cascade of bright colors and big-eyed characters that’s sure to hold the attention of children while giving adults splitting headaches. It’s a style of animation that a studio could use for any IP, and that’s not a good thing. Animation storytelling is an art, and the chosen art style should always support the style/tone of the story being told. Instead, it’s as if the filmmakers told AI to come up with the style and then left it at that. 

Overall, this is a disappointingly generic animated film that should easily appeal to small children but make older fans of the franchise want to rip their hair out. The voice performances are lame, the emotional elements are ineffective, and the visuals are frustratingly unoriginal. The biggest problem, however, is that it doesn’t lean enough into the iconic personality that is Garfield. It hints at what we want from the character but instead takes him in a woefully generic children’s movie direction. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d rather watch the live-action Bill Murray movies. C-