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Garfield Gets Real

2007

This movie surprised me by not being awful. At least, it was better than the two theatrically released Garfield movies.

So, apparently Garfield and the other characters in the comic strip all live in comic world, and their job is to, uh, "act" in comic strips, which are created by some kind of magic process of taking photos of the comic characters and converting them to ink on newsprint, or something. Apparently every comic strip character lives in comic world and has the same job, I guess. Garfield hates his job because he has to do the same jokes over and over (a very interesting and self-aware statement given the screenplay was written by Jim Davis himself). He gets a chance at a new life when Odie tries to hide a prop bone in a portal to the real world. Garfield crosses over, and things aren't so bad until he realizes his absence from the comic world means the Garfield strip is getting cancelled (I guess they can't replace it with Garfield Minus Garfield). He devises a plan along with his comic friends to return to the comic world, because otherwise he'll be replaced by Hail and Hearty, a pair of Hans and Franz-esque body building dogs. Of course they make it back, Odie keeps his bone, and they take some cats they made friends with back to comic world with them to star in their own strip. And then there's a dance party.

Really, it wasn't horrible. It has a charming mid-2000s CGI cartoon art style that looks like something you'd see on kids' TV. Frank Welker does an admirable job of replacing Lorenzo Music (much better than Bill Murray did). It's not great, but it's generally inoffensive. Kids would probably like it. Adults won't care one way or the other.