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2008
3/5
This one is extremely meta.
So, it's a direct sequel to "Garfield Gets Real," and takes place in the same weird comic strip world that the previous movie does. This time, the yearly talent show, the titular Fun Fest, is coming up soon, and it will determine which comic strip gets printed at the top of the page (because that's how newspapers work). Garfield always wins (of course) with his comedy double act with Arlene, but this year Arlene wants to do a dance act instead. Enter Ramon, the Don Juan type cat, who sweeps her off her feet and convinces her to do the tango with him. Garfield tries to be funny by himself, but fails (because of course he does), and so he determines the only way to win the talent show is to... go on an arduous journey to the mystical forest to retrieve the fabled Funny Water which will allow him to win the contest.
No, that last sentence was not a joke. It's the plot of the movie.
So he goes to the mystical forest and meets the first funny animal, Freddy Frog, who shows him to the funny water, but not before trying to teach him how to be funny (because he knows he isn't actually funny). Garfield doesn't end up being funny, so he has to drink a lot of the funny water to be confident enough to win the talent show. He takes some back with him just in case, the vial he had the water in breaks before he gets back, so he has none left to help him be funny. He decides to not be funny but to enter a tango-off with Ramon, and wins the talent show.
And of course Ramon turns out to actually be Nermal in a robot suit.
You know, it's a weird movie, but I found it to be enjoyable. I love how meta it is, basically calling out that Garfield isn't funny at all, but apparently he doesn't need to be in order to be the most popular character. I think Freddy Frog is supposed to be speaking to Jim Davis (who, again, actually wrote the screenplay for this, to my continued shock) when he says that Garfield was so concerned with winning that he forgot to entertain. You really should listen to Freddy, Jim.