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Based on characters created by Jim Davis, this family feature
tells the story of Garfield a supremely spoiled pet cat, who
wants the affection of everyone around him, but only when
he wants it. Trouble arises when, under the influence of the
beautiful veterinarian Liz, Garfield's owner Jon decides to
introduce a cuddly dog called Odie to the family...
Garfield,
you either love him or hate him - usually depending on whether
you are a cat or dog lover. This is Peter
Hewitt's
latest movie after his well received Thunderpants
and
his decision to bring Garfield to the big screen was
a rather ambitious project. While the Scooby-Doo movie
used similar CGI technology, that movie just about managed
to get away with it due to the fact that there was plenty
of interaction between the CGI Scoobster and Matthew Lillard's
Shaggy as well as many a CGI ghost.
Sadly,
Garfield proves that the technology is still not quite
good enough to be believable. There are a few very poor scenes-
including one where Garfield is lifted very unbelievably out
of a cage in the pet pound by one of the wardens. There are
also numerous scenes where the lighting isn't good enough
to make you believe that Garfield lives outside of a computer
hard drive. Although, ironically, the scenes that seemed the
most difficult to achieve - where the CGI Garfield pushes
the live action Odie off a chair - work incredibly well. And
there are plenty of scenes that do look convincing.
The
star of the show is not Garfield (nor the spot on casting
that is Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield), but the wonderfully
comedic Stephen Tobolowsky as the over the top villain Happy
Chapman. Incidentally, it was the last time that he and Billy
Murray teamed up that most people will remember Tobolowsky
for - Ned Ryerson in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day (Am
I right? Or Am I right?)
This
is an out and out kids flick. There's very little here to
really appeal to adults. Sure Garfiled's dry sense of humour
will have everybody smiling, but the main narrative is very
much aimed at the youngsters.
As
is becoming more commonplace these days, 20th Century Fox
are releasing this DVD in two editions. There is a single
disc collection (RRP: £15.99) and a double disc edition
(RRP: £24.99). In all honesty it's not worth spending
the extra £9 and buying the two-disc collection. There
isn't really that much content on the second disc and you
probably won't watch the four main featurettes (which in total
last 56 minutes) more than once. In fact, these could probably
have been edited in to one 20 minute featurette anyway and
tacked onto the first disc - some of the interviews are repeated
throughout the featurettes.
The
only other extras on the second disc are a multi-angle (five
different angles) look at how a few of the CGI scenes were
constructed, and a storyboard to movie comparison of a large
segment of the film. None of these really stand out as being
unmissable.
The
extras on the first disc are more than adequate and include:
Garfield Inside Look; two games - 'Find Odie' maze
game and 'Mixing Moments' (which didn't seem to work on our
review copy - and just played the movie); a run-of-the-mill
audio commentary with Peter Hewitt And John Davis; deleted
scenes reel (which include some rather bizarre and pointless
clips); 'Garfield The Cat To Life' featurette; multi-angle
content 'Grab a Number 2 Pencil'.
Once
again, Hewitt proves that he can directed movies to keep the
kids happy. Only this time adults might start to shuffle out
of slight boredom before the end credits roll. The kids will
love it though.
Nick
Smithson
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£11.99
(Amazon.co.uk)
Single disc edition |
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£14.99
(Amazon.co.uk)
Double disc edition |
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£13.49
(MVC.co.uk)
Single disc edition |
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£19.99
(MVC.co.uk)
Double disc edition |
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£10.99
(Powerplaydirect.com)
Single
disc edition |
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£17.99
(Powerplaydirect.com)
Double
disc edition |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
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