The lasagna-loving star of a billion funny pages has daddy issues in The Garfield Movie, an all-toon comeback for Jim Davis’ idle feline that marks his first big-screen appearance since 2006. With a peppy Chris Pratt taking over vocals from Bill Murray and a caper plot redolent of the Mission: Impossible franchise, it’s an ostensibly fresh chapter for the iconic tabby, who’s been around for nearly half a century.
Mark Dindal’s (The Emperor’s New Groove) animation, alas, stumbles at the same hurdle that has scuppered previous attempts to bring Garfield to the big screen: namely, the impracticality of crafting a satisfying full-length feature around a self-centered sourpuss who rarely requires more than three panels to get his point across.
