Thoughts & Impressions of The Garfield Movie Trailer

The first trailer for The Garfield Movie just dropped, and since I’m a lifelong Garfield fan (enough to even have its own section on this very website, if you can believe it), I felt like I should talk about it.

I guess the first thing I want to address right off the top is the art style. I find it kind of… odd. Not bad, but something of an acquired taste for me. Garfield has had many looks over the years, but as you read through the past 45 (yikes) years of strips, you can see a definite, gradual evolution take place.

But this? This just feels different. Almost like it’s different for different’s sake. Like Hollywood decides they’re going to make a movie about something, but they have to make it look their way. Jon with eyebrows? Man, that is just weird.

(Also, little-known fact: Garfield’s eyes are supposed to be green. Yeah, we’re getting into the weeds here, and no, that’s not something the first live-action movie just made up.)

But I don’t hate it. It certainly retains enough of the original style to not be completely off-putting, but… it’s an adjustment, even — or perhaps especially — after seeing the teaser poster some months back.

Second: They changed his origin story.

Originally, Garfield was born in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni’s Italian Restaurant (if memory serves, the sign he was born under was “No Smoking”). The owner soon had to face a decision: give Garfield away, or shut the place down, because Garfield was going to eat them out of business. Turns out they’d go out of business anyway (or at the very least, move it).

Garfield would rediscover all of this years later as he rediscovered his mother, who was still living in the now-abandoned restaurant with the rest of Garfield’s family, including his grandfather. Interestingly, we’ve never seen his father before.

This was a core element of the plot in the prime time television special, Garfield on the Town, and would be adopted into the comic strip a little over a year later.

Which is what makes what we see in this trailer weird to me. Garfield, for the most part, doesn’t exactly have what feels like a strong canon, necessarily, but the details tend to be mostly consistent from one version to the next, be it the comic strip, the prime time specials, Garfield and Friends, The Garfield Show, or what ever else (though I’d argue the live-action movies are something of an exception). So seeing this break from it in such a contradictory way is… kinda jarring?

Still… I don’t hate it? Garfield is adorable as a kitten here, perhaps more than he’s ever been. I’m assuming he doesn’t hate “cute” here, or else he’s in for a world of self-loathing, and that’s not Garfield.

1:06 in, though, all bets are off. That’s definitely Garfield, alright. If he’s not still five pounds, six ounces at birth here, he will be in no time.

The bit with the classic Garfield float from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade got a laugh out of me.

Finally, the biggest issue I’ve seen so far is with the voices. Particularly, a voice.

Jon and Odie seem fine, though I don’t think they have Gregg Berger reprising the cartoon canine role he’s held since 1982.

Nope, all eyes — or rather, ears — are on Chris Pratt, as they tend to be whenever he voices someone. Or at least someone beloved the world over, and portrayed by someone else for a significant duration of their existence. Cough-Mario-cough.

The elephant in the room is, of course, that Garfield’s best-known (but not first) voice was provided by the inimitable Lorenzo Music. The dearly departed Music was nothing less than a national treasure, and a once-in-a-lifetime performer. It was a stroke of luck that they were able to get an unwitting Bill Murray (who portrayed Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters, who would go on to be portrayed by Music in The Real Ghostbusters — at least, for a time) to do the live-action movies. And it probably says something that his successor, Frank Welker, whose ability to mimic voices, animals, and even sounds with such precision that it’s still talked about by other voice actors decades later — did not try to follow suit.

Here’s the thing I find with the voicing of Garfield, though. Music’s unique sound was only part of the formula, but there’s another element. A certain mood, a certain attitude that goes with portraying Garfield, too. I think a big part of that is you kind of have to be able to emote vocally without sounding like you’re emoting.

There’s more to it, of course, but that’s my general takeaway from listening to Music voice Garfield for years. I can’t imagine it’s an easy thing to do, but Music made it sound easy.

And to be honest? I think Pratt’s doing an alright job. No, the vocals aren’t an exact match for Music, and they’re not going to be. Odds are, no one’s are. Music may have set an untouchable bar for it, but for Pratt’s part? I feel like the mood, the attitude is right. The voice is different, but in a way, it still sounds like Garfield to me. Like… well, like Garfield with another voice.

With that said, I’m actually kind of looking forward to this. Only time will tell if it’s any good or not, though, but I think we’re off to a pretty good start.

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