I’ve wondered where the world of CGI was going to take us as far as feature films. It’s generally best used in places where you never even notice it. Backgrounds or enhancements to a scene are okay, but when you start to build entire characters out of it, the effect can be questionable. There have been some successes, such as the T-1000 in “Terminator 2”, but for the most part they stand out like a sore thumb. Recent films like “Van Helsing” go to the extremes, replacing just about every character with a CGI version at one point of the other. The problem with this is that these CGI characters look fake when placed against a real world location or even next to a real actor. But there are a few producers who have latched on to this and have come up with a way around this flaw. Let’s not try to make these CGI characters look real at all, as a matter of fact let’s take some famous animated characters and place them in the real world, all the while celebrating their animated status.

This has been done not once, but twice with Scooby-Doo, and the reaction from audiences has been mixed. Most people would agree that the movies were amusing, but Scooby looked a little more scary than funny. It’s the eyes, man… the eyes. (Of course even more frightening was the use of the all CGI-created actor Freddie Prinz, Jr.)

When I heard about “Garfield: The Movie”, I had very mixed feelings. I grew up reading Jim Davis’ comic strip, even going so far as to have a collection of the paperback books. I’ve always loved the Garfield’s sarcastic view of the world, as it is one that I share. He is continuously surrounded by those less intelligent than himself, and not to sound too full of myself, so am I. It’s very frustrating and I share his frustration. Then there is the matter of his complete selfishness, which thankfully I only share in part.

I had seen the many animated versions that have been on TV, and for the most part they were pretty good. The best thing about them was that they found the perfect voice in the late Lorenzo Music. His voice imbued Garfield with a certain air of lazy arrogance, and it was so perfect that whenever I read the comic strips today, his is the voice I hear. Since Music unfortunately passed away in 2001, the question came to my mind as to who could they possibly find to take over. Thankfully, they went the right direction and chose to cast Bill Murray as the voice of my favorite fat cat. The two sound almost exactly alike, which did not go unnoticed by producers. After all, Music provided the voice of Peter Venkman in the animated series “The Real Ghostbusters”, which was the character Murray played in the movies.

I missed “Garfield: The Movie” in theatres, but my mom had taken my son to see it one weekend. I asked them when they got home if they enjoyed it and they both said, “Yes.” My son thought it was very funny, and my mom admitted to having cried at one point. I jokingly asked her if she cried because she had paid to see it, but she didn’t. “It was happy tears,” she claimed.

Hmmm, well that got my attention and so I figured I would have to see it at some point. When the DVD became available I added it to my list, deciding that I would have to see it for myself. My feelings upon that initial viewing are as mixed as they were when I first heard about the project. Since this was a full length movie, the filmmakers had to come up with a story that would fill at least 80 minutes. The opted for an ‘origin’ story of sorts, where we are first introduced to Garfield’s nemesis, Odie. This part of the film was fairly good, but once we got past the meeting I guess they needed more filler. “Garfield: The Movie” soon becomes little more than a ‘chase movie’ with our hero going on a mission to save Odie from an unscrupulous dog trainer.

As I expected, Garfield himself looked incredible out of place with his surroundings, but it was acceptable because he was supposed to. But I wish that the filmmakers had gone the extra mile and made Odie a CGI character as well. The dog they had was very cute, but it wasn’t Odie. It might not have been a big improvement, but it would have been an improvement nonetheless. Murray did a great job with the dialogue, such as it was and was really the highlight of the movie.

The casting of Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Garfield’s owner Jon and his veterinarian, respectively, was inspired only by the fact that as actors they tend come across as vapid as the characters from the strip. They were kind of… well… dull. In a way, I suppose that’s complimentary, but it didn’t help to make the film anymore interesting.

The DVD for “Garfield: The Movie” is out in stores this week, and as you can expect from any Fox release, the quality of the transfer is superlative. But it was obvious that the studio didn’t have much faith in it as there are almost no extra features. Since the film is so ‘special effect’ heavy because of the title character I expected some ‘how they did it’ featurettes, but all you’ll find is a commentary by director Peter Hewitt and producer John Davis.

Overall, “Garfield: The Movie” has a lot going for it, and I found it to be relatively funny, perhaps a little more than I expected it to be. I even found some scenes to be a little endearing, and I can see why my mom cried a little, though the formula wasn’t quite strong enough to work on me.

Directed by: Pete Hewitt
Starring: Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Stephen Tobolowsky, and (the voice of) Bill Murray
Extras: Commentary by Director Peter Hewitt and Producer John Davis
Specifications: Widescreen and Full Screen Versions, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 10/19/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG (For Brief Mild Language)
Website

We'll give Garfield: The Movie a C.