10 Apr 2009

Garfield Movie

In the cartoon strips Garfield is a fat, lazy cat, and Jon is a hopeless nerd who wears absolutely awful suits and entertains himself at weekends by trying to get both shoes on one foot. Both cat and owner are very funny. The cartoon strips are wonderful and I read every one.

Yet, in the first scene of this movie Garfield goes to a lot of trouble to wake Jon. This was the first warning signal that something is wrong. Later in the movie this supposed Garfield roams far and wide rescuing a dog. The so-called Jon is even worse - he is good-looking, dresses well, lives in a nice, large house and isn't clumsy, stupid or nerdy.

It is not that this is a bad movie. It is yet another generic American moralizing movie, about someone with a bad personality making a mistake, regretting it, then making up for it, and they all live happily ever after. Oh, with a love story tacked on.

I've nothing against that kind of movie, I even enjoy them. From that point of view this movie is average, a few laughs but nothing special. However, what I strongly object to is sticking the label "Garfield" on this movie. It is like biting into an egg-and-bacon buttie and discovering some idiot has actually filled it with ice-cream. What a waste of an opportunity.

You can find the comics here:
http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html

Or here are the links to buy the mediocre movie:

UK:


Japan: