I Watch Films: The Garfield Movie (2024)

 

The Garfield Movie (2024)

Garfield, an orange cat who is lazy, hates Mondays and loves lasagna, lives with Jon (a human) and Odie (a dog) in a nice house. One day he is kidnapped, then rescued by his dad Vic, a feral cat who abandoned him in an alley. They in turn are threatened by Jinx, a criminal mastermind cat who says Vic owes her for a heist that went wrong at Lactose Farms. They go to steal the milk to pay the debt.

Lactose Farm has a high tech security system. The two farm mascots, Otto the bull and Ethel the cow have been separated after the farm got taken over by new owners. They convince Otto to help them steal milk in return for them breaking Ethel out.

This is a CGI cartoon for kids; Garfield has to go through various wacky stunts, sight gags and also learn that his dad is not is bad after all just in time to save him. SPOILERS for The Garfield Movie. Do I have a problem with this? Maybe I do, squashing the long-running Garfield comic strip into the shape of every kid’s film and cutting off everything that doesn’t fit. Garfield isn’t lazy and cynical, he’s not commenting on the absurdity of life. He’s going out on a wacky heist! He’s holding a grudge against his Dad! He’s running up bills on Jon’s credit card!

That last one is okay actually.

Watch This: House cat has to leave the house to have cartoon adventures
Don’t Watch This: Loses much of what makes Garfield Garfield