Seemingly abandoned by his dad in an alleyway in the rain, poor little "Garfield" espies the unsuspecting and lonely looking "Jon" having a pizza across the road. In a shot he's looking all sad and bedraggled at the windows, next he's demolished the man's dinner and finally coaxed him from his comfortable flat to a new house that they share with the dog "Odie". His life is just one idyllic round of snoozing, eating and watching "Catflix" until he and "Odie" are kidnapped. Why? Well it's only when they are rescued by a caped hero - who turns out to be his dad "Vic", and we then are introduced to the criminal mastermind that is "Jinx" who has an axe to grind, that we start to get to the bottom things. She spent ages in the pound and is looking for her pint of milk! Now "Garfield", "Odie" and "Vic" have to come up with plan to rob a well defended dairy to settle scores. Even if they succeed, can they trust the duplicitous "Jinx" and her two sinister hench-creatures? It's an amiable enough adventure movie, this, with plenty of daft escapades for the cats, a menacing security officer and even an old lovelorn bull ("Otto") who's seen better days. I found the story reminded me a bit of the "Wallace and Gromit" kind of mishap-ridden narrative and though it's probably twenty minutes too long to sustain a film that doesn't seem to ever want to end, it's got the usual messages to team-playing, family and loyalty and has some quite witty one-liners now and again.

First off, I did like the father-son dynamic that was present here, it's just that I didn't care about what was happening on screen since it's nonsensical majority of the time. But there's only real development between those two by the end, nobody else. And the casting is quite bad as well because none of the actors really sell me on their performance, just seems they're phoning it in. The villain doesn't have a great performance either but that's mostly due to poor writing, they could've done something far greater than her. But the creativity that's present is short lived if it's constantly followed by a villain saying a poor landing joke, or even a main character. How can a Garfield movie truly be done? After seeing this I have little hope for Garfield movies in the future. But the idea of Garfield being in a movie is outlandish and quite hard to make a feasible plot without introducing lame characters. This franchise is hard to make acceptable for fans since it will never live up to what Garfield truly is. But to give us an hour and a half of our time with him for a outlandish, out of this world, story is enough regardless of how bad it might be, because it will never work out.

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/the-garfield-movie-review-simple-light-hearted-fun-for-the-whole-family/ "The Garfield Movie may not be an animated masterwork or a film that provokes deep reflections, but it effectively fulfills its purpose of entertaining with a story that’s generic yet packed with fun moments. Boasting the classic sarcastic humor of the titular cat, a light plot, and well-executed action set pieces, it’s an ideal choice for families seeking an enjoyable experience with plenty of laughs. It serves as a reminder that sometimes a film can be appreciated just for what it always wanted to be – a simple, unpretentious form of entertainment, perfect for a session alongside the little ones." Rating: B