Garfield

Like this movie. I always enjoy the real versions of animated movies. This was done well. Garfield being pissed off at Odie for John bringing him home.

A forgettable film, full of problems, and which purges Garfield of the charisma and soul of the original cartoon character.

I have to say that, although I'm not a comic book fan, I've loved Garfield since I was a child, particularly due to his adaptation into children's cartoons, which I saw in my childhood and loved. I also saw the more modern animations, in digital format, but I can't help but think that the classic material is better, and the stories presented are much more engaging. In any case, trying to compare the 2004 film to any of the Garfield animations or comic books is a real trial by fire: the film is considerably weaker, even though it has certain positive points that deserve our attention.

The film was directed by a certain Joel Cohen, who is not the same Joel from the Cohen Brothers, he is another person with an identical name, who I didn't know. The director doesn't seem to me to have been the best student in the directing class at film school... notice how the film was poorly edited and unfolds unevenly, wasting a lot of time on uninteresting things just to rush near the end. In addition to the pacing problems, the film lacks a good soundtrack and some comic “spark” that gives it soul and charm. Although sarcasm works effectively and is a very solid characteristic of the character, Garfield manages to be funnier and more charismatic than this cat in this film, and most of the jokes sound hollow, especially to adults.

The script, instead of taking advantage of the wealth of Garfield that exists in comics and animations, serves us a story that is dull, uninteresting, poorly written and full of clichés. It seems that the production only had people who didn't like, or didn't know, the character: the film only talks about the friendship between Garfield and Oddie, a cat and a dog who will have to learn to share the attention of their owner, Jon. There is an attempt to do anything more than that by inserting a villain who acts like Cruella...