| Bilgi : Parents and kids will find a lot to like in
this charming film adaptation of Jim Davis's
cross-generational comic strip. The cinema version of Garfield
remains true to his lazy, fat-cat persona, lounging around the
house, eating lasagna and generally slacking off. The physical
comedy of the lethargic feline is faithfully transferred to
the screen, with the overweight Garfield squeezing through
openings and taking long breaks when he has to walk more than
fifty feet. Jon's house is Garfield's domain. The cul de sac
is the ragged edge of his universe
Garfield: The
Movie is something of a prequel in that we meet Odie
for the first time. Garfield's owner, Jon (Breckin Meyer), has
a huge crush on the veterinarian, Liz Wilson (Jennifer Love
Hewett). When she asks him to adopt the slow-on-the-draw pup,
he gladly agrees, much to Garfield's dismay. Garfield is
aghast when, on the way home from the vet, he finds a dog in
his car seat. This must be a mistake! When they arrive home,
Garfield uses poor Odie as a straight man for endless
put-downs and jokes. While Garfield reclines on the chair,
musing about this new pretender to the throne, we see the
intellectually challenged Odie chasing his tail.
Writers Jim Davis, Joel Cohen and Alec
Sokolow have captured the essence of the Garfield comic strip and distilled it
into a movie. While some adaptations of comic characters end
up scaring the children or offending the parents, Davis, Cohen
and Sokolow have chosen to retain the charm and gentle wit of
the strip. There is nothing in Garfield:
The Movie to cause parents to shudder. Like the best
comics, Garfield reaches across generations, and the film
version does too. Those old enough to remember Rocky and Bullwinkle will recall laughing
at the physical humor while Dad chuckled over puns and
allusions that the kids didn't get. Garfield: The Movie is not terribly
sophisticated, but there is enough to keep parents from
squirming in their seats with boredom.
The central theme is an appropriate one for
young families: sibling rivalry when the new baby comes home
from the hospital. In this case it's the pet hospital.
Garfield, like a pampered first son, has carved out a
comfortable niche with Jon, who feeds him and provides for his
every need. Enter Odie, and the whole family dynamic changes
forever. Where Garfield is smug and satisfied, Odie, like a
new baby, is oblivious to everything, including Garfield's
resentful teasing. Those of us who were firstborns will recall
conducting various behavioral experiments on our new rivals:
"Will he eat this?" But like the jealous poutings of
human older siblings, Garfield's tormenting of Odie is done
out of vulnerability rather than cruelty.
Because this is a movie and not a comic
strip, a narrative with a resolvable conflict was needed. A
sleazy television host kidnaps poor Odie to be a prop in his
new TV show. Odie is hauled from his comfortable Midwestern
home to the big scary city of New York. Garfield finds that he
misses Odie and sets out to save him. Traffic, flights of
stairs and rats stand in his way, and while Garfield would
prefer the lazy way out, he perseveres for Odie's sake.
Just as we eventually learn to enjoy and
cherish our siblings, Garfield eventually comes to love and
accept Odie into the family. Their adventures bond them just
as our backyard adventures bonded us. But as with human
families, a certain level of jealousy and hazing still
remain.
A big belly full
of—you
guessed it—lasagna
 |
Technically, Garfield:
The Movie is a treat. Garfield's cat pals Nermal and
Arlene show up as live cats with computer generated mouths.
Some of the talking cat commercials on television are so weird
and over-emphasized that they look downright creepy; they've
been known to frighten little children. Nermal and Arlene
speak softly, as real cats might if they had voices. Luca, the
big dog on the chain is a scary looking Doberman, but he never
snarls or looks like he's about to rip anyone apart. Kids will
see him as the Big Dog, but in a humorous, not a terrifying
way.
The filmmakers use the computer imagery
sparingly. Garfield is the only animatron in the movie, which
accentuates his stardom. He's also the only orange object in
the movie. The filmmakers considered using a real cat to play
Garfield, but to find one who was orange, fat and a great
actor was difficult. Cats are notoriously difficult to film.
Dogs like to please people and will do tricks for Kibbles.
Cats, on the other hand, like to remain completely aloof. The
world must come to them. The wranglers (trainers) were able to
use the real cats that play Nermal and Arlene in the stunts,
but they had trouble getting them to sit still and stare. They
just got bored and wandered off. Anyone who has tried to get a
cat to do anything, including eat, knows about this.
Tyler, the dog who plays Odie, did not need
special effects. His repertoire of tricks includes being able
to hop on his hind legs and twirl like a mad polka king. He
can look confused, happy or sad. By relying on flesh-and-blood
animals wherever possible, the filmmakers have made the movie
comfortably familiar to lovers of the simply-drawn comic
strip. It doesn't come across as an overproduced computer
game, but as a movie about characters we love.
Finding a voice for Garfield was tricky. He
had to be lively and engaging, jaded and world-wise, a bit
nave and fundamentally vulnerable. Bill Murray is a natural.
Murray's character in the recent Lost in
Translation is a lot like Garfield: He's a pampered
star taken out of his comfortable existence and dropped into
an unfamiliar world. Murray is reserved and nuanced as the
voice of Garfield. He's not Bill Murray the big-time movie
star; he's a big fat cat.
Garfield: The
Movie is geared toward kids, but lovers of the comic
strip will find it familiar and charming. People who love cats
will see their own felines in Garfield. Parents who love
neither Garfield nor cats will have a good time
nonetheless. |
