Synopsis
Garfield goes about his happy existence, scarfing lasagna, tormenting the neighbourhooddog, and taking advantage of fellow cat Nermal’s stupidity. Chaos arrives when Jon (BreckinMeyer), hoping to impress vet Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt) adopts Odie the dog. Garfield doesall he can to remove Odie from the home, but when Odie actually is kidnapped by an evil animalshow host, Garfield heads off to the city on a perilous rescue.
Other than Garfield’s look and an appropria…ely snarky voice from Bill Murray, the filmbears little resemblance to the comic strip, and squanders just about every humorous possibility.Most of the characters bear no resemblance to their strip equivalents. Jon, in particular, is nolonger the social disaster whose life is perpetually made hell by Garfield. Now he’s just kindashy. Love Hewitt is saddled with a role whose only purpose, it seems, was to make her run (andthus bounce) for the camera as much as possible. Deeply embarrassing, and with precisely onechuckle in 80 minutes.
Audio
The sound is almost as lackluster as the movie itself. The opening song, playing over thecredits, should be pumping up the audience, priming us for the laughs ahead, but instead thesound is thin and desperately in need of energy and bass. The orchestral score is a little better,and ensconces itself comfortably in the rear speakers, to the exclusion of all but a very fewsurround effects.
Video
The picture comes in both full and widescreen formats. Choose properly when the disc loads,because there is no way of changing your mind subsequently without re-loading the disc. Thecolours are extremely bright and vibrant, and there is no edge or grain. This is, then a veryhandsome-looking transfer, and easily outclasses the audio.
Special Features
Director Pete Hewitt and producer John Davis provide a fairly technical commentary (butthen, there isn’t much thematic for them to talk about). The only other extra is “Inside Look,”which is a promo featurette for Robots. A handful of kid-oriented trailers play when thedisc loads. The menu’s main screen is animated and scored.
Closing Thoughts
Your kids will probably force you to see this. But with luck, only once.
Special Features List
- Audio Commentary
- “Inside Look” at Robots