Remember all the uproar when it was announced that Chris Pratt had been cast as the voice of Mario in The Super Mario Bros Movie? He’s not Italian! He’s probably not even a plumber! I demand an equally outraged response to this news: Chris Pratt is the voice of Garfield in his new CGI animated movie, The Garfield Movie. Chris Pratt isn‘t even a cat! This is absurd.
In the past, Jim Davis’ inexplicably long-running comic strip inspired TV cartoons, along with two live-action/animated hybrid movies from the 2000s that featured Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield. (One of them was called Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, which I am writing here purely because it is hilarious to write A Tail of Two Kitties in any context.) This movie is fully animated — and interestingly it comes from the director (Mark Dindal) and writer (David Reynolds) of The Emperor’s New Groove, which has to be in the conversation for the funniest Disney animated movie ever. So while a Garfield movie (featuring non-cat Chris Pratt?!?) does not exactly blow me away, the thought of the New Groove guys getting back together definitely gets my attention.
That said, I would not have necessarily sensed they were involved from the trailer, which is mostly about cute Garfield as a baby eating things, and then later adult Garfield getting into an adventure with his father (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, also not a cat).
Check out the trailer for The Garfield Movie below:
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Again, not as Emperor’s New Groove-y as I would like, but at least the animation style does evoke the Davis cartoons in a pleasing way. Maybe it will outperform the trailer? I hope so.
Here is the film’s official synopsis:
Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.
The Garfield Movie is scheduled to open in theaters on May 24, 2024.
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Gallery Credit: Claire Epting