Garfield (film)
Garfield
Directed by Peter Hewitt
Produced by John Davis
Written by Joel Cohen
Alec Sokolow
Jim Davis (Garfield creator)
Starring Breckin Meyer
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Stephen Tobolowsky
Bill Murray (voice)
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) June 11,2004
Running time 80 minutes
Language English
Budget US$50,000,000
Followed by Garfield:A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
IMDb profile
Garfield (also known as Garfield:The Movie) is a 2004 live-action movie based on the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield.In this movie,Garfield the cat was created with computer-generated imagery,though all other animals were real.
The movie was directed by Peter Hewitt,produced by Davis Entertainment for 20th Century Fox,and stars Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle,Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr.Liz Wilson,and features Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield.
The movie was released in the United States on June 11,2004.Reviews of the movie were generally very negative,although Murray's voice work received some positive notices.
A sequel,Garfield:A Tail of Two Kitties was released in movie theatres on June 16,2006 in North America.
Summary
Spoiler warning:Plot and/or ending details follow.
The movie for the most part follows the comics.Garfield is a fat,lazy,selfish cat who hates Mondays and eats a lot.One day,his owner Jon takes him to the vet.There,they meet a homeless puppy,Odie (portrayed as a "normal" house dog).Dr.Liz Wilson tells Jon that Odie will be taken to the pound if nobody claims him,so Jon brings him home,much to Garfield's chagrin (in this film adaptation,Liz is portrayed as Jon's love interest).He torments and teases the dog.One day,Jon and Liz go out to a dog show with Odie.Odie steals the show with his dancing (accompanied by the Black Eyed Peas),which does not go unnoticed by Happy Chapman,a television host who features house pets and desperately tries to upstage his newscaster brother (played by the same person,Stephen Tobolowsky).He offers to put Odie on his show.Jon refuses.One night Odie gets lost (after Garfield lets him out),and is kidnapped by Happy Chapman.Garfield,together with Louis,one of Jon's pesky house mice,Persnikitty,Happy Chapman's cat,and other characters,set out to rescue Odie,although Garfield is seemingly indifferent at first ("Nermal" and "Arlene" [both are briefly named in the film] resort to shaming Garfield and making him feel guilty in order to get him to help).