I watched the advanced screening of The Garfield Movie armed with a wealth of knowledge about favorite fat cat. I’ve seen both of the live-action versions in the 2000s where Garfield was voiced by Bill Murray. I’ve also enjoyed Garfield comics regularly growing up.

Those who’ve come to be a fan of Garfield knows him and his life very well. He hates Mondays, loves lasagna, and blurts out sarcastic lines in thought bubbles which his owner Jon doesn’t really hear anyway. That’s his character that has defined newspapers and digital spaces for over half a century.

I wanted to wait until the end of the film to make my judgement, knowing that it’s a new take. I was right. Here are a few thoughts:

Puts Garfield at the forefront

This version puts the orange cat at the center of it all. That’s unlike the two live-action movies I mentioned. There’s less screen time for Jon (since the movie doesn’t revolve around him), and in the parts he’s involved, it’s comedic enough. I felt the second live-action (Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) particularly, Jon’s wedding plans with Liz gets in the way of the main storyline.

In contrast, this film is mainly about Garfield. Sure, there’s his dad Vic, but we all know that. I’m also glad we didn’t get just a cliché father-and-son narrative. In the end, it was a fun adventure that focused on what Garfield can bring to the big screen.

Expansion of what we know

The first 10 minutes or so of The Garfield Movie introduces the titular character as the one we know in the comics. The typical elements like pizza, lasagna, spiders, watching TV, and refrigerator runs were packaged in a superficial manner.

Then, it expands on what we’ve already seen in the trailer where he was “abandoned” by his father Vic. Or so that’s what Garfield thought. We’ll get to more of that in a few.

Rollercoaster ride

The main storyline is then introduced when Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by Jinx’s assistants. Apparently, Vic owes Jinx a debt and the main antagonist decides to serve revenge by pitting Vic (and Garfield and Odie) against the ropes.

Believing that doing Jinx a favor will make them even, Vic takes Garfield and Odie to Lactose Farms, where they need to steal thousands of bottles of milk as repayment for Jinx. There, they encounter Otto, a bull who served as the former mascot of Lactose Farms before a change in ownership forced him out of the facility.

Realizing that his love interest, a cow named Ethel is still inside Lactose Farms, Otto decides to help the trio so they can all accomplish their goals. However, Jinx double-crosses Vic and informs the business’ security beforehand that a heist is about to happen.

This is one of the first twists in the movie. I personally enjoyed that it was made unpredictable so viewers are kept glued to what’s about to happen next. I also love how characters just kept being revealed, giving viewers an idea as to how big the story actually is. Moreover, Otto’s substoryline was aptly laced onto the main plot.

Entertaining, refreshing

In between these parts, Garfield showed how indifferent he was at first to Vic. We all know he believed is father left him for good when he was a kitten. But eventually, the truth is revealed, and Garfield warms up to his dad.

Back to the planned heist, Garfield’s crew fails to follow Otto’s original plan to free Ethel. This is as they got trapped in the facility’s cheese room. After the set-up by Jinx, Vic is forced to “leave” Garfield and Odie again to escape. Jon’s pets, meanwhile, were apprehended and ended up in the city pound.

While incarcerated at the pound, Garfield realizes how Vic had been watching him grow up from a distance. He also realizes Vic was saving them by stealing the milk truck so Jon could pick them up. As everything becomes clear to him, he decides once and for all to help his dad.

At the original place where they were kidnapped, Garfield discovers Jinx’s evil plan to dump Vic under the bridge from a speeding train. He uses the help of several hundreds of drone deliveries of pizza, meatballs, salad, and more, battling Jinx and her assistants to free Vic and save the day. In the end, they triumph, and Vic is welcomed to Jon’s place to have dinner regularly.

Enjoyable

The entire journey from Lactose Farms to Garfield’s team’s impromptu training with Otto to the heist attempt and his reconciliation with his father was consistently entertaining. Aside from the story being unpredictable, the makers inserted a lot of Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes-like slapstick humor to draw regular giggles.

We all didn’t know what was going to happen until it unfolded, and that’s an applaudable mark of keeping the audience hooked. It was an enjoyable story that’s cartoonish enough but not too exaggerated nor out of this world. I felt the film’s length was also just right.

Final thoughts

I get why some Garfield fans are upset as to why the film didn’t reflect the comics as accurately as possible. But for what it’s worth, the makers behind this movie promoted it with the heist as the key idea. But fine. If you want to call it “A movie starring Garfield” instead of “The Garfield Movie,” go ahead.

I’ll be upfront: It’s still a good, entertaining, and refreshing take on our favorite cartoon cat. It actually feels great to come across a lot of new characters and elements in this movie we haven’t seen in the comics. And even then, towards the end of the film, Garfield saves Vic doing with something he knows best: food. In a way, that’s sticking to the core.

Sure, there a things that could have been portrayed more obviously. For example, Garfield being superior to Odie or him gobbling up all the cheese in the world at Lactose Farms. But in the end, that hardly matters.

This is a one-off film meant for younger audiences. And the makers managed to stitch together a cool story that takes them on an enjoyable rollercoaster ride with hardly any dull moments. So yes, for all the “Garfield shouldn’t be that energetic or going on an action-packed adventure” and whatever an actual orange tabby should be doing in real life, it’s also good to leave that and suspend disbelief every once in a while.

Because if we wanted to stick to the grumpy, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving narrative, then let’s just stick to reality. That’s already how we feel on a daily basis especially as adults, right?

The Garfield Movie hits Philippine theaters starting May 29, 2024.