Toon'd Out Month: Garfield

Can one awesome element save a...not so awesome film?

Hello, Spongy here. And Welcome back  to Toon’d out month!

Last time I looked an adaptation starring a comedian I like as a cat. And today I look at an adaptation starring a comedian I like as a cat.
 

But this one is based on a COMIC that had a cartoon, so it’s a different ball game.

Yeah, the fact that both films have the above in common…is a coincidence. No joke. I saw it on Wikipedia and decided to review it.  So the above was typed when I realized all this.

Yes, this one isn’t directly lifted from a cartoon either.  But the various cartoon incarnations are how  a lot of people, including me, most know the character, AND Wikipedia has it on their list of live action movies based on cartoons. So yes it counts.

Like most people , I love this character and the star of this movie, so is this a adapatation worthy of the character, or is it worse than 10 Mondays? Well in honor of today being Monday, let’s check it out.

This, is Garfield.

The movie opens with Garfield, voiced by bill murray, waking up.

“I hate Mondays”
 

Hmmm…so far so good.

Garfield wakes up his owner, Jon (played by Breckin Meyer )  in a scene that has admittly okay gags. I think I’ve found the best part of the film already: Bill murray as Garfield.

He’s simply perfect as the voice. He brings the same amount of funny, likeable, and laziness to Garfield that I’m used to. Though it is odd to see Garfield not talking telepathically.

Garfield heads outside where he runs into nermal, voiced by David Eigenberg. He is kinda annoying, but nothing for me to bitch about.. At least Garfield is funny enough to get us through this.

 

After stealing some milk from the milkman…

I shall not comment on this image.

 

Anyway, Garfield runs into a mean dog, voiced by Brad Garret. Yes, him of all people. Of course he outwits  hin with some more okay gags and even some lame ones.

I’m finding little to make fun of here, but let’s see what happens

A mouse appears in the house later on, and jon expects Garfield to get it. Of course, he does not, and while jon is going about doing it himself, Garfield talks to the rat outside.

Turns out he knows him…and he’s voiced by nick cannon. What. Anyway, they cut a deal and Garfield pretends to eat him to impress john.
 

Billy murray is “eating” nick cannon. Make your own joke here.

Garfield heads back inside and watches some tv. He sees some thingy with a dude introducing a cat named persnickety.

“That cat’s puss is everywhere!”
 

Uh….

Cool.

He then says “who would want kind of exposure” while looking at the viewer. TOO SUBTLE.

We then cut to the studio where that thing was filmed where we meet Happy Chapman, played by Stephen Tobolowsky. He  is introduced as supposedly a happy man, but in reality he is jealous of his brother Walter J Chapman, a news reporter, and wants to outwit him success wise.

Yep, this is our villain. That’s what Garfield was missing,.

After that, jon takes Garfield to the vet so he can woo said vet, played by   Jennifer Love Hewitt.

“There’s nothing wrong with Garfield it seems. He’s just a happy, fat, lazy cat”

There’s nothing wrong with other than the two bad adjectives I used to describe him!

 

Garfield is taken off by the script so jon can talk to liz (the vet) so the cliché can go on. Jon tries to ask her out, but due to a WACKY  misunderstanding, he is given custody of a stray dog, Odie

“You came in for a date and came out with a dog”

Well he did he say he was getting some bitches. Wait odie’s a dude.

Garfield is worried about jon getting a dog, as every person ever would expect. Bill murray again carries the scene as Garfield has wacky situations with the dog.

So far I’m finding little to get angry over. It’s either just kinda bland or mildly entertaining. Well I shall press on anyway.

After odie saves Garfield from the brad garret dog, Garfield is of course still stubborn in the way only Garfield can be,.

The next day, Garfield is watching some dance show, but is interrupted by odie…which launches  into a really freaking stupid dance scene. It’s not only pointless, but also annoying and not even billy saves it.
 

Thankfully, that piece of stupidity is stopped by jon  taking Odie to a canine talent show, where Liz is a judge. Garfield stows away in jon’s car to see what happens with odie.

Garfield gets involved in a ruckus there with other animals, which moves Odie to the center of the ring…where he dances in the way he was dancing in that last scene.

Ugh.

 

Anyways, odie Is a huge hit, cuz everyone is an idiot except Garfield. It turns out that villain guy is one of the judges too.  He offers Jon a television deal for Odie, but Jon declines , as he as, again, an idiot, leaving Happy to apparently be envious of Odie. 

What kind of name is happy anyway? Is he one of the 7 dwarfs or something?

They head home, and Garfield accidentally trashes the house in a admittedly quite amusing fashion I can’t quite describe.  Jon of course kicks him out.
 

“You can’t do this, odie’s trying to tear us apart”

YOU ARE TEARING ME APART ODIE.

…sorry.

That night, Garfield gets sad about this odie thing and…sings about it.Oh boy…

Thankfully, the song is subdued and sad, and with bill murray doing it, it’s …alright. It does it’s job of making me feel for Garfield but only due to voicework rather than the weak script.
 

Odie attempts to be nice and actually comfort Garfield, but Garfield rejects him and heads inside and leaves odie trapped outside. Of course odie ends up running away, like dogs tend to do. Though he is taken up by the elderly neighbor close by. But as you would guess everyone in this continues to be a dumbass and does not notice this for awhile.

Back at Dr. I am the obvious bad guy’s place, he sees the found dog poster said neighbor put for odie, and gets the idea to take him to use for his act. Because that’s what all poorly written bad guys do in kids movies.

Jon searches for odie, putting up posters and the like. Being an idiot he doesn’t seem to see any of the found dog posters we saw earlier. The idiot.

Miss bland love interest shows up for a date with jon.  And he reluctantly admits he lost odie and they head off to find hm. Maybe she won’t be a complete dumbass!

Mr bland villain picks up odie from the neighbor’s house.  See, jon, this wouldn’t happen if you were actually SMART!

Anyway, Garfield is now hated by the neighborhood animals due to his odie hatred and him running away and all. Also known as kids movie cliché number 53545.

Garfield is watching tv when he sees oddie and Dr. stupid. At first he doesn’t really care but then the bad guy says this.

“I have an announcement.  Me and odie schnitzel are going to new york to try out to be regular contributors on good day new york!’

 

“..what?! …that’s his last name?”

Okay, that is a little funny.

Garfield tries to get mr dumbass to see this but of course, he doesn’t. due to…you know by now.
 

Garfield now feels bad and heads on the epic quest to save odie! …as epic as Garfield can be. Which isn’t that epic.

Garfield runs into the nick cannon rat and they head to odie together. Of course no one notices the fat cat roaming the city.

This movie should be renamed “Dumbass: the movie”

6 minute long story short garfiled makes it to the place and is able to find odie, at long last.

Chapman enters and secures a shock collar to Odie, which, when activated, releases an electric discharge that forces him to perform tricks. Cuz again, that’s poorly written kids movie bad guys can do.

You know, I have found good material now, but I still am kinda reaching for actual jokes at this point. Thank god for jon the dumbass.

Chapman heads for the train station, with Garfield in pursuit. However, an animal control officer snags Garfield as a runaway before he can reach Odie.

Okay, so here’s something  I can talk about: this movie is so damn predictable. Everything has been done, every story point can be seen from mars! The only thing stopping me from going all out here is bill murray and a couple other actors, who lift the materiel a tad bit.

When jon stops by that neighbors his brain activates and figures out his dog has been stolen and heads to find him.

Garfield is taken to the pound, where he runs into mr bland villain’s former cat, who turns out to be voiced by…alan cummings. Well it makes more sense than son of the mask.

“I was trained in the classic theatric you know. But now I’m a cable cat with a name I can never live down”
 

 

Speaking of, I forgot to mention one of the other rats I never mention cuz they had no reason to be in this, is Alyson stoner.  Yes, the chick who I now respect as Isabella from Phineas and ferb.
 

I’d ask why she took up this film but I  think her last name says it all.

With the help of alan cummings, all the animals end up escaping the gaurds, as they are, of course, huge dumbasses!

At the train station, Chapman boards the train, with Odie in the luggage car. Garfield arrives only to see the train depart.

 

Garfield remembers that his train set at home is similar, so he sneaks into the control room, cuz everyone in the station is in this movie, and thus they are idiots,  and attempts to stop Odie's train.

To make a lame story short, he’s somehow able to stop the train, and rescue odie. But of course Dr. Obviously Evil takes notice that odie is running away and gets off the train to chase him down.
 

He catches up the duo and like the bland villain he is, he corners the two, takes out Garfield (don’t ask) and threatens odie with the collar.

But just as things look bleak…it’s alan cummings to the rescue! Oh and the other animals from the pound appear too. How did they get there? No idea, but the movie’s almost over, so I don’t care.

But just as quickly as they appeared, they quickly defeat chapman, and leave. Well it’s almost as if that was a poor deus ex machina!

Happy gets the shock collar on him and Garfield gleeful shocks him with it. Jon and liz show up and jon gets the best non bill murray part of the movie…by punching bland guy in the face.
 

I admit, that pleased me.

Anyway, another lame story short, chapman is arrested, Garfield learns a lesson, jon gets some ass, and there’s another dumb dance bit. The end!

Final Thoughts:

I’m honestly a little split on this movie. Was it good? Not really. Was it bad? Not really. While the plot was cliché, the script was meh, and the bulk of the characters were complete idiots…
 

Where am I going with this? Oh yeah.
 

The tone of Garfield is captured right. The actors do a fine job at bringing these characters to life. And once again I must say how much I liked bill murray as Garfield. He is perfect for the part. And he makes some otherwise lame jokes almost funny.
 

I enjoyed parts of this movie, mostly garfield’s part of course, but even some bits with the bland villain had me enjoying it for the absurdity of it all.
 

I also think the CGI on Garfield is quite good. I almost did believe he was really there, even though he wasn’t. It’s well made, and has that Garfield feel. So I’ll give it  that.

Is it a badly written film? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Quite a bit. So I guess you can call this one a guilty pleasure, but not a huge one.
 

Grade: C+

Well that wasn’t the best blog.  The movie just wasn’t the kind of stuff I’m used to looking at on here. But I guess every movie can’t  be cat in the hat. I tried my best with the materiel, much like Bill Murray with the film.
 

So what’s up for the next live action adaptation?

…Oh boy.