[quote="Myerskera"]I would rather watch the series that most of us are used to & have no knowledge of the comic book.[/quote]
Garfield and Friends captures the feel of the original comics perfectly. The characters are directly lifted from book to screen without losing a thing.
Garfield and Friends accomplished this so well that the longer Sunday strips were copied into the show exactly, as "Quickies", and fit right in.
I found this film to be a dull, thoughtless retread of
Here Comes Garfield that lacked most of what gave Garfield its charm. Jon is not nearly enough of a dweeb here, the actor they got was too handsome and didn't play up Jon's complete-dork personality at all. Liz is not enough of a sarcastic snarker and is far too much of the nicey, girl-next-door type. I've not read 100% of the comic (I've read the majority of the original strips throughout the 70s and 80s but not much that got made later) so perhaps Liz and Jon did date at some point, but it still feels like a betrayal for the two to end up together here. It just happens too easily.
Arlene is barely in it so I guess her character was fine, though completely sidelined. They ruined Nermal completely. He does nothing here to annoy Garfield, and without seeing Nermal smugly rub in how cute he is and Garfield get annoyed at everyone fawning over him, it doesn't make sense that Garfield would rig a device just to torture Nermal. I'm also confused as to why a Siamese was chosen over a gray tabby. Surely the latter would be easier to get ahold of? I know Nermal was a model, so I guess I can see why they'd choose a breed that's far more rare than your standard tabby... But they should have explained that. Admittedly, I haven't seen this film in a long time, but I don't remember it mentioning Nermal's modelling career at all. Which is a glaring flaw, as it probably would have taken five minutes at most to go over it. Or else, it could have cut Nermal entirely and not much would have been lost. A film such as this shouldn't need to rely on prior knowledge from the comics or
Garfield and Friends, as it was obviously more intended for a young audience than those who grew up with Garfield.
Garfield as the only CG animal feels very out-of-place here. I'm not sure why they didn't either A) get a real-life orange tabby to play him, or B) have the rest of the animals be CG as well. It feels very off to have Garfield be the only character to retain the big-eyed style, and while I feel it would have been a terrible idea to try and use that style on humans, it just doesn't work having Garfield as literally the only animal that looks like that. With a different script, perhaps it would have stuck out less... But they have Odie become a sensation because he hops around on two legs. Meanwhile the alien-cat hybrid that dances far more like a human and knows how to watch TV, down to changing the channels? No media attention brought to him. In the strip as well as
Garfield and Friends, animals other than Garfield constantly did humanlike stuff. It was just the quirky world they lived in. Here, it's far more confusing than it should be.
Garfield himself feels watered-down, though he is true to the character. It's a big ol' shame that Bill Murray wasn't given a good script to work with, as he makes an okay Garfield here, and could so easily have made a great Garfield had better material been given. Odie... is a dog. I wouldn't really say they ruined his character or anything since it rarely went beyond that, though a real-life dog is far less of the slobbery annoyance with a good heart that the true Odie of the comics and show is. Points for finding a dog that resembles Odie probably as much as a real-life dog can, I guess. The dancing thing is kind of baffling because as far as I recall, Odie never got famous for dancing in the source material. It gives the weaksauce villain motivation to kidnap Odie... but was the motivation really that necessary? Just have him be an evil guy who kidnaps animals, or else, your typical dogcatcher. It's not like other kids' films released within a decade of the Garfield movie didn't have
the same sort of thing.In conclusion,
Garfield: The Movie offers little in the way of the iconic and lovable characters and just feels very bland and safey. Do yourself a favor and watch
the superior version of this story, told in roughly 1/5 of the time, too!