Shadows on the Wall | The Garfield Movie

The Garfield Movie

dir Mark Dindal
scr Paul A Kaplan, Mark Torgove, David Reynolds
prd John Cohen, Broderick Johnson, Andrew A Kosove, Namit Malhotra, Craig Sost
voices Chris Pratt, Samuel L Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillen, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, Snoop Dogg, Dev Joshi, Luke Cinque-White
release US/UK 24.May.24
24/US Columbia 1h41

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Very young children may enjoy the colourful chaos of this animated adventure, but anyone over about 10 will struggle against the inconsistent, contrived screenplay, which abandons the title character's distinctive lazy sarcasm while leaving a gifted voice cast straining to generate laughs. And imagery has confusing perspectives and plasticky textures. Manic pacing and elaborate set-pieces might keep undemanding audiences happy, but most viewers will want more than this.

After adopting his human keeper Jon (Hoult), fat orange cat Garfield (Pratt) has been living in pampered bliss, energetically tended to by his "unpaid intern" Odie (Guillen) the dog. Then sinister white cat Jinx (Waddingham) sends her goons (Goldstein and Yang) to kidnap Garfield and Odie. This reunites Garfield with his father Vic (Jackson), who abandoned him as a kitten. Now Jinx forces them to carry out a heist, stealing thousands of gallons of milk from a farm. They get help from lonely ox Otto (Rhames), but alert security guard Marge (Strong) is onto them.

While the script maintains Garfield's loathing of Mondays and love for Italian food, it throws out everything else from the comics, leaving him as a rather nihilistic manipulator. But this is only true until the film decides to flood scenes with sentimental gooeyness as he confronts his simplistic daddy issues. Everything is so constructed and false that it's difficult to get involved in the pandaemonium, which plays out with an exaggerated Road Runner style of farcical mayhem, but without the internal logic.

Because the characters are so erratic, the vocal work tends to go as big as the frenetic visuals. This eliminates textures in both animation and characters themselves. At least the A-list cast brings edgy energy, camping up the nutty melodrama and sparking up the action. The standouts are Waddingham's purring villain, Rhames' endearingly lovelorn ox and Strong's silly super-cop Marge, who is the only genuinely hilarious character.

Audiences looking for mindless bedlam will find this movie vaguely enjoyable, but anyone needing coherence should perhaps steer clear. Convenient plot points continually niggle, such as acorn radio buds or a delivery drone fleet, to name just two. The narrative stubbornly refuses to make a bit of sense, and the relentless slapstick violence feels simplistic, overworked and painfully obvious. Perhaps rather than trying to shoehorn Garfield awkwardly into this movie, this might have been more satisfying as a nutty romp with all new characters.

themes, violence 12.May.24

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