Garfield: The Movie

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Garfield: The Movie

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Peter Hewitt
Produced by John Davis
Written by Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow
Jim Davis (Garfield creator)
Starring Bill Murray (voice)
Breckin Meyer
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Stephen Tobolowsky
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) June 11, 2004
Running time 80 minutes (1 Hour, 20 Minutes, 5 Seconds)
Language English
Budget US$50,000,000
Followed by Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
IMDb profile

Garfield: The Movie is a 2004 live-action movie based on the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield. In this movie, Garfield the cat was created with computer-generated imagery, though all other animals were real.

The movie was directed by Peter Hewitt, produced by Davis Entertainment for 20th Century Fox, and stars Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr. Liz Wilson, and features Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield.

The movie was released in the United States on June 11, 2004. Reviews of the movie were generally very negative, although Murray's voice work received some positive notices.

A sequel, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, was released in movie theatres on June 16, 2006 in North America.

The movie is now available to download on iTunes.

Contents

[edit] Summary

The film takes place in Chicago.It begins when Garfield, a fat lazy cat (voiced by Bill Murray) wakes up from a good night's sleep and awaits a tasty breakfast. Jon (Breckin Meyer) is woken by the fat cat with a dogpile. After switching his liver flavored cat food with Jon's corned beef hash, Garfield spots a pie outside on the neighbors window. He tricks the dog Luca (Brad Garrett) in order to get the pie and tangling his leash around many bushes and ceramic ducks.

After walking the cul-de-sac, Jon spots a mouse and counts on Garfield to get it. Garfield refuses and Jon runs after the rodent. He than trips and says "What good is it to have a cat, if it can't catch a mouse" Garfield runs outside and catches up to the mouse. Its name is Louis (Nick Cannon) and he was warned by Garfield that he should not run around the house when Jon is home. Jon walks out after Garfield and sees Louis in his mouth. Jon is proud of the tabby cat and when he leaves Garfield spits him out and spares his life, for now.

At the telegraph tower, Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky) the star of a Saturday morning show is sick of cats (because of his allergies) and wishes for a dog star along with him, and to outdo his more successful twin brother Walter, a news anchor. After his show, Jon comes home with some food he bought at the store. Garfield pigs out of the lasagna trays and Jon is terribly disappointed. Garfield is brought to the vet, with Jon and is checked out by Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a nice and attractive veterinarian and is also Jon's high school crush. Jon tries to ask her out when a dog is brought in. His name is Odie and Liz asks Jon to take care of Odie or he will not survive on his own. Garfield comes out of the vet and sees Odie in the car, and Liz ends up asking Jon out.

Garfield is not very happy now that a dog is running around the house, sitting in his chair, getting the paper, and sleeping beside Jon when Garfield is not allowed too. Just when things get a bit worse, Liz shows up and Jon comes out with Odie, they leave to go to a dog show, and Garfield chases after them. At the dog show, Liz is a judge and Jon was in the audience, along with Odie. Garfield is spotted by the dogs competing in the show and is chased after them. The music goes on and Odie leaps out of Jon's hands and attempts to dance (just as when Garfield was dancing back at the house). The judges are impressed as well as the audience. Garfield succeeds in escaping and Odie is rewarded by Happy Chapman (also a judge) He says Odie may have a future in television, but Jon turns it down. When a picture for the news paper is taken, you can see Happy looking at Odie.

Garfield hangs on under Liz's truck on the way back, and Jon and Liz plan a dinner on Sunday. Garfield is very angry because Odie got all the attention. He smacks a ball which started a, unusual Rube Goldburg contraptions and results to the square selfs above the computer to fall down. Garfield gets kicked out and he watches in the windows how much Jon loves Odie. He sleeps on the porch that night and Odie comes out to comfort him. Garfield is touched, but then hops inside and locks the doggy door, and locks Odie out. Odie runs away and ends up found by a sweet old lady.

Jon finds out Odie has gone and he feels terrible. After putting up posters around town, Liz arrives for the dinner, Jon cancels the dinner and tells Liz about Odie. Jon and Liz than work to together to find Odie. Meanwhile Happy Chapman finds a found poster by the old lady and knows it is Odie. He takes back Odie (which is a crime, because it is not his dog) and the dog preforms on the Happy Chapman show. Garfield sees him and Happy announces that he and Odie are going to New York by train for a big performance. Garfield attempts to show Jon, but the show goes to a Wendy's commercial. Garfield then sets out on a mission to rescue the pup.

In the city, Garfield meets Louis again and the mouse guides the fat cat to the Telegraph Tower. Garfield can't go in by the doors, so he climbs the vents and finds Odie in Happy's room. Happy comes in and puts on a inhumane shock collar that with a press of a button, Odie gets a small shock and performs backflip. Happy than heads to the Train Stationa and Garfield follows behind, The tabby is than caught by Animal Control and is thrown in the pound. Jon sees Liz at a clothing store and tells Liz that Garfield has run away too. The couple goes and investigates. Finding a found poster of Odie, the old lady says Odie is Happy Chapman's dog and the two drive to telegraph tower.

Garfield, at the pound meets Persnikitty (Alan Cumming), Happy's last show cat that he thrown inside the pound. A family arrives to take a cat home for a pet. Persnikitty, Garfield, and 3 other cats are taken and lined up behind a wall. The little girl picks Persnikkity. The old show cat tells Garfield that he will press the red button (opens all the cages) in order to escape. All the caged up animals ran like mad cows out in the city.

At the Train Station, Happy places Odie in the luggage cart and sits down for lunch. Garfield just misses the train. Jon and Liz arrive at the Train Station after being told that Happy was going to leave. Garfield sneaks into the control room, and messes with the commands. The tracks get rearranged that all the trains are on the same tracks. Just when the trains are about to collide, Garfield stops all the trains with the press of a certain button. Garfield climbs in the luggage cart after the train returns to the station. He reunites with Odie.

Happy sees Garfield and Odie run out and is shocked. He runs out and chases them into the Stations Luggage Halls, he traps the two animals and threatens Odie with the shock collar. Garfield jumps to the rescue and Happy throws the tabby on some luggage. Garfield gets up and is greeted by the pound animals. They've come to help. The animals corner Happy, and Garfield gives orders to attack and place the shock collar on Happy's neck. The pound animal leaves than Garfield and Odie finish off Happy with 2 shocks of the collar. Jon and Liz arrive, Jon furiously punches Chapman in the face in knocks him out. Jon promises the cat and dog to never let them out of his sight. Chapman gets arrested and Garfield is now known as a hero.

Back home, Liz and Jon began a relationship, along with a passionate kiss. Garfield learns friendship and love, and they live as a big happy family.

[edit] Reception

The movie was released with huge backlash from many critics. The movie received a "rotten" 13% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, 4 points shy of being placed on the websites' "100 Worst Movies of All Time" list. [1]

Yahoo! Movies critics' gave it a C-.[2]

Overall, a majority of critics called it strictly a "kiddies' movie".

[edit] Color and Print

[edit] Box office

First Week Gross US$ 21,727,611
Domestic US$ 75,369,589
Non-Domestic US$ 123,595,312
World-Wide US$ 198,964,901

[edit] Differences

  • In the film, Jon drives a green Volvo S60 as opposed to his red sedan in the comics, cartoons, and other media. This also changed in Garfield 2, because in that, Jon drives a blue Volvo V50.
  • In the movie, Liz is portrayed as Jon's love interest, which is significantly different from her comic portrayal (until July 26, 2006), in which she repells Jon's advances and insisting on keeping the relationship professional. Jon's entire romantic life in the comics is a series of cancelled or failed dates.
  • Nermal is portrayed as a playmate of Garfield. In the comic strip, he is a vain kitten that often visits Garfield to remind him of his old age, usually on or near his birthday, which usually results with Garfield doing him in .
  • In the comic strip and animated series, Garfield is portrayed as an extremely lazy cat, seen mostly sleeping or eating. In the movie, Garfield can be seen dancing, running, jumping, and making a lot of other movement . This was also noted in Garfield and Friends.
  • Jon got Odie from Liz in the movie. In the strip, Lyman showed up with Odie in tow.
  • Odie in the film is a dachshund mix. In the comic strip, Odie is a beagle with a black spot on his side.
  • Arlene's fur was dark gray instead of pink. Nermal's colour is different too, he is potrayed as a seal point siamese when, he was a gray tabby originally.
  • Arlene in the film appears to be more of Garfield's friend whereas in the comic, she is his love interest.
  • In the comics and TV series, Jon is portrayed as a nerd with very little success in love. In the movie, he is no longer portrayed as a loser, has a good relationship with Liz and even knocks-out Happy Chapman in one punch.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Clip

[edit] References

  1. ^ Garfield the Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ Garfield (2004) at Yahoo! Movies

[edit] External links

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