Ben Madilynn
After nearly 50 years of being famous as a comic strip (thanks to creator Jim Davis!) and fun TV specials, Garfield returned to the big screen in The Garfield Movie, an animated film that combines everything audiences love about the popular orange tabby – plus some things they didn’t know.
“Garfield loves lasagna and hates Mondays, but he has never experienced this kind of adventure until now,” said Chris Pratt, speaking on everyone’s favorite kumudgeonly housecat as he embarks on a big, hilarious outdoor adventure in the all-new, all-animated film.
In The Garfield Movie, Garfield, the world-famous Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost dad – the scrappy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his canine pal Odie (voiced by Harvey Guillén) are forced from their perfect pampered life to join Vic in a fun, noisy, high-stakes heist. The voice cast includes Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, and Snoop Dogg.
Producer Andrew Kosove said, “The Garfield Movie is truly a family film. It has emotional stakes and characters you care about – and of course, humor and physical comedy.”
To show the emotional stakes, the snarky cat must show some character growth (and not just in size). “Garfield’s snark and cynicism are funny and effective in a three-panel comic,” said producer Broderick Johnson. “In a film, a person must have a character that has some level of growth despite himself. You have to root for him.”
Director Mark Dindal (The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little) and his team started the process by researching why Garfield is Garfield – and finding places where the character could grow and change. With many thousands of Garfield strips entertaining millions for decades, the task may seem daunting, but fortunately, it’s easier than ever to go back and find those classic Garfield gags.
“When we started making the film, we had access to a database that archived all the comic strips,” Dindal recalled. “You could put in keywords like ‘Garfield eating lasagna’ or ‘Garfield hugs Odie,’ and it would bring up all these amazing comic strips we could reference. That was a big resource for us, to find ideas that connect with the fans.”
And in this film, Garfield encountered a problem he never did. “This film is about an indoor cat – a lazy, pampered, selfish indoor cat – forced out of his comfortable place into a fun adventure outside the world,” said producer John Cohen. “He is sorely lacking the amenities to live without creature comforts of hot food-on-demand, his La-Z-Boy chair, blanket, and remote control. There are plenty of comedic opportunities in this fish-out-of-water scenario, especially for an arrogant character who is stuck in his ways and thinks he knows better than others. We had a ton of fun thinking of endless possibilities for the laziest cat in the world in the midst of a heist movie.”
Join Garfield and his friends on their hilarious adventure when The Garfield Movie, from Columbia Pictures, opens in theaters on May 29. #GarfieldMovie
