The Garfield Movie

MOVIE #1,927 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.23.24 We continue with 2024 Kids Flick Friday with arguably the least heralded picture of the bunch. This was notable on a personal level for two reasons: (1) my kids and I had the entire theater to ourselves for our late-in-its-run afternoon showing, and (2) my just-turned-5-years-old son started bawling during the flashback scene where Garfield’s dad (Samuel L. Jackson lol) sees that he’ll have a better life with Jim and lets him go. I don’t think he’s ever gotten that emotional watching any movie and it’s pretty funny that The Garfield Movie (2024) sparked that in him. This was considered to be a dud but it still raked in close to $250 millie. Sure, it’s cynical as hell (I spotted product placement for Popchips, Olive Garden, Roborock, Walmart, FedEx, Heinz and more) and stupid as the day is long. But to the latter point, I don’t really care. The best part of the film is when Garfield orders drone delivery Italian food to help do battle with the enemy.

My son has been watching The Garfield Show (early 2010s era) on Netflix and that is equally dumb (and horrifying to look at), but in a winking way. I know that Garfield as a character has lost some cache over the years but he’s still OK in my book. A final note: this needed more Nermal — a central character in the GCU that deserved more than just an end credits cameo imo.

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The Garfield Movie is a 2024 animated comedy film based on the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis. Directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds, the film stars Chris Pratt as the voice of the titular character, alongside the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Snoop Dogg. In the film, Garfield is reunited with his long-lost father, a street cat named Vic, before being forced into joining him on a high-stakes adventure. It was released on May 19, 2024.