The Garfield Movie

The Garfield Movie is a 2024 animated adventure comedy film based on the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis. Directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds, the film stars Chris Pratt as the voice of the titular character, alongside the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Snoop Dogg. In the film, Garfield is reunited with his long-lost father, a street cat named Vic, being forced into joining him on a high-stakes adventure.

Development on the first animated Garfield film for theatrical release started at Alcon Entertainment in May 2016. Dindal was announced as the film's director in November 2018, and pre-production began the following month. By 2021, Sony Pictures had already purchased the film rights for global distribution and Pratt was cast as Garfield, with the rest of the cast joining the following year. The film was animated by DNEG Animation, while John Debney, a frequent collaborator of Dindal, composed the score.

The Garfield Movie premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on May 19, 2024, and was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing on May 24, 2024. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, and grossed $245 million worldwide.

Plot
Garfield is an obese, sedentary, orange tabby cat who lives a pampered lifestyle with his beagle dog best friend, Odie, and their owner, Jon Arbuckle. One night, while getting a midnight snack, Garfield and Odie are abducted by a Shar Pei and a whippet named Roland and Nolan, who take them to an abandoned mall as prisoners. Garfield and Odie are soon rescued by Garfield's estranged father, Vic, whom Garfield hates for abandoning him in an alley when he was a kitten. The dogs' boss, Jinx, a deranged Persian cat, arrives to exact revenge on Vic for leaving her behind during a milk heist at Lactose Farms before she was caught and imprisoned. She agrees to forgive Vic if he, Garfield, and Odie break into Lactose Farms to steal a large quantity of milk as compensation for her imprisonment, which they reluctantly agree, while Roland and Nolan closely observe them.

The following morning, Jon notices Garfield and Odie’s disappearance, but has trouble finding people to help search for them. Freighthopping a train to Lactose Farms, Vic attempts to bond with Garfield, to no avail as the latter refuses to engage with him. The three reach the farm, which is heavily guarded by an advanced security system. They meet Otto, a bull and the farm's former mascot, who was kicked out after someone took over the farm, separating him from his cow girlfriend, Ethel. They agree to help get Ethel out of the farm if he helps them break in.

While preparing for the heist, Garfield and Vic frequently clash with each other, forcing Odie and Otto to tie up the two to a tree. During a heated argument, Vic forlornly reveals that on the night he abandoned him, he was actually getting food for Garfield across the alley but took too long returning to him. When he finally did, he saw him being taken care of by Jon in the Italian restaurant he wandered off to. Sadly accepting that Jon would be a better care provider than he ever could, Vic decided to let him adopt Garfield, and kept his distance from his son. Finally understanding the circumstances, Garfield forgives his dad. Meanwhile, Jinx, who reveals to have lied about letting go of her grudge against Vic, secretly calls the farm's animal control officer, Marge Malone, to inform her of the upcoming heist.

The trio successfully infiltrate the farm and circumvent the factory's dangerous equipment, but Marge intercepts them at the end and captures Garfield and Odie. Vic leaves them behind despite his son's pleas, stealing the milk truck and successfully delivering it to Jinx, only to be betrayed and captured by her as she reveals that she wanted Vic to be sent to the pound in the same way she was. A heartbroken and confused Garfield and Odie are taken to the pound, where they meet Vic's old crew. However, they have long distanced themselves from him as he was constantly leaving their capers to check up on Garfield, watching from afar whenever he visits him, but Garfield refuses to believe them. Jon soon arrives to bail Garfield and Odie out and takes them home. Returning to his normal life, Garfield finds Vic's tally-marks on a tree across the house that the cat crew told him about, realizing that Vic does love him and only left him behind at the dairy to keep him safe.

With his trust in his father restored, Garfield decides to go back and save him, learning that Jinx intends to throw Vic off a high bridge from a train. With Otto's help, Garfield and Odie arrive to rescue him, only to eventually fail. However, seeing Vic's genuine love for his son, Roland and Nolan turn on Jinx. Enraged, Jinx pushes the quartet off the train, before she herself gets knocked off by an overpass and falls down the canyon as well. Otto swings a rope to catch them all and safely lands them on a net set up by Odie. They later return to the farm by the milk truck and bring in Jinx to Marge in exchange for Ethel's release, finally reuniting her with Otto. The reformed Roland and Nolan begin working as guard dogs for Marge, while Jinx ends up working community service.

Returning to Jon's house, Garfield finally reconciles with Vic, who moves in with the trio, officially becoming part of his son's life.

Development
In May 2016, seven years after 20th Century Fox's license with Paws, Inc. expired, it was announced that Alcon Entertainment would develop a new computer-animated Garfield film, with John Cohen and Steven P. Wegner producing, from a script by Mark Torgove and Paul A. Kaplan. Mark Dindal was announced as director in November 2018, with pre-production beginning the following month. In November 2021, David Reynolds was announced to write the film, reuniting with Dindal after having previously worked together on Disney's The Emperor's New Groove (2000). Sony Pictures would distribute the film under its Columbia Pictures label except for China, and DNEG Animation would provide the animation. By September 2023, it was reported that the film would be entitled The Garfield Movie.

Casting
In November 2021, Chris Pratt was announced to star as Garfield. In May 2022, it was reported that Samuel L. Jackson joined the film as Garfield's father, Vic. In August 2022, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Hannah Waddingham and Cecily Strong were added to the cast. In November 2022, Brett Goldstein and Bowen Yang were added to the cast. Harvey Guillén was confirmed to voice Odie in November 2023, and Hoult was later confirmed to voice Jon Arbuckle in December 2023. With the release of the second trailer in March 2024, Snoop Dogg was revealed to star in the film, and Janelle James was also announced to star the same month.

Garfield creator Jim Davis has approved of Pratt's casting as Garfield, believing his performance embraced "all sides of the character" and not just Garfield's deadpan humor. Pratt was also director Mark Dindal's first choice to voice Garfield, believing "he had been 'imagining [Pratt's] voice coming out of Garfield' for years". Dindal believed that his natural voice captured Garfield's laziness and sarcasm, and to test the compatibility, the animators have paired his voice with snippets of Garfield's dialogue as a test.

Music
In November 2023, it was reported that John Debney would compose the film's score, marking his third collaboration with Dindal following Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little (2005). Snoop Dogg collaborated with Keith Urban on an original song for the film titled "Let It Roll", which was released as a single on April 12, 2024. Another single titled "Then There Was You" was released by Calum Scott in May 2024. On May 15, 2024, yet another single titled "Good Life", this time from Jon Batiste, was released. While the soundtrack was released by Republic Records.

Release
The Garfield Movie was theatrically released earlier in international markets on May 1, 2024, and later in the United States on May 24, 2024. It was previously scheduled for release domestically on February 16, 2024.

On May 12, 2024, the film had special previews for cinemas across the United Kingdom; the previews were for MediCinema. The film also had its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on May 19, 2024.

Home media
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on digital download on July 9, 2024, and it will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on August 27.

In April 2021, Sony signed deals with Netflix and Disney for the rights to their 2022 to 2026 film slate, following the films' theatrical and home media windows. Netflix signed for exclusive "pay 1 window" streaming rights, which is typically an 18-month window and included The Garfield Movie. Disney signed for "pay 2 window" rights for the films, which would be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu as well as broadcast on Disney's linear television networks.

Video game
A video game based on the film is reportedly set to be released in 2024.

Box office
, The Garfield Movie had grossed $91.7 million in the United States and Canada and $153.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $245.5 million.

In the United States and Canada, The Garfield Movie was released alongside Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Sight, and was projected to gross around $30 million from 4,000 theaters in its four-day opening weekend. The film made $8.4 million on its first day, including $1.9 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $24.8 million (and a total of $31.1 million over the four days), finishing second behind Furiosa. In its second weekend the film dropped 42% to $14 million, finishing in first.

The film opened in 18 countries on May 3, and grossed $22 million in its first weekend. Its largest markets were Mexico ($8.8 million), Spain ($3.2 million), Brazil ($2.2 million), Italy ($1.6 million), and Peru ($1.3 million).

Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale (the same as the live-action films), while those polled by PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 73%.

In a negative review, Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film's unfaithfulness to the comic, writing, "As anyone familiar with cartoonist Jim Davis' iconic feline character knows, Garfield doesn't like to move around very much. He likes to eat, particularly pepperoni pizza and lasagna, and he likes to lie around and make sarcastic comments. In other words, he's not a cat of action. And yet for some reason, the creators of the new animated film revolving around him think that what the audience really wants is to watch Garfield engage in Mission: Impossible-style, stunt-laden violent mayhem." Brandon Yu of The New York Times criticized the quality of the animation, stating the film was "visually flat, with compositions that seem oddly half-populated and cheap", while a review in The Guardian went as far as to call it a "foul feline origin tale littered with product placement". A mixed review for TheWrap, however, praised certain aspects of the film mildly and conceded, "While this new film isn't especially funny it's still a reasonably enjoyable kids flick. It's short on laughs but surprisingly big on tenderness."

Accolades
The film was nominated at the 2024 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie, but lost to fellow Sony animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.