Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Garfield, the fat, lazy, lasagna lover, has everything a cat could want. But when Jon, in an effort to impress the Liz - the vet and an old high-school crush - adopts a dog named Odie and brings him home, Garfield gets the one thing he doesn't want. Competition.
The 2004 Garfield film is a middling live-action/CGI hybrid that faithfully but unambitiously adapts the beloved comic strip. The plot is thin and formulaic, following a predictable jealousy-then-redemption arc with little surprise. Bill Murray's voice work as Garfield is the film's standout element, bringing some genuine wit, but the live-action human performances are flat and unmemorable. The cinematography is functional and unremarkable, typical of early 2000s family comedies. While the CGI Garfield blended into live-action was somewhat novel for its time, it doesn't distinguish itself meaningfully from other CGI-animal films of the era. The ending is tidy but thoroughly predictable. Overall a below-average adaptation that coasts on brand recognition.