Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties

Every once in a while, a sequel is announced that makes me ask myself, "wait a minute, the first movie actually made money"? That was the question that immediately sprang to mind when the posters for Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties started popping up at my local theater. The original 2004 Garfield movie was a loud, obnoxious, and mostly unfunny attempt to bring the famous comic strip fat cat to the big screen, with only a couple good performances making it watchable for adults. The sequel is pretty much more of the same, only there are even more good performances this time around thanks to a game cast of talented British actors cashing a pay check. Director Tim Hill (TV's SpongeBob Squarepants) along with screenwriters Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow saw no reason to improve on imperfection, so we are once again stuck with another movie that does not do justice to the comic I grew up with. It is slightly better than the first film, but that's really not saying much.

As the film opens, we discover that pampered house cat Garfield (voice by Bill Murray) has an unknown doppelganger living on the other side of the world. This other cat is Prince (voice by Tim Curry), a royal cat living in London who has just inherited a massive fortune and ownership of the entire castle that once belonged to his human owner who has since passed on. Naturally, this news is not met very well by the owner's scheming nephew, Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly), who wants to take control of the castle and convert it into a luxury estate, which would mean that the hundreds of farm animals that make the castle grounds their home would become homeless. The evil Dargis comes up with a plan to get rid of Prince by dumping him in the river, thereby claiming ownership of the castle grounds. Meanwhile, Garfield himself has just arrived in London after stowing away in the suitcase of his haplessly sweet owner, Jon Arbuckle (Breckin Meyer). Jon has come to England to chase after his girlfriend Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who is there for a convention, and hopes to propose to her. While Garfield and his dim-witted dog companion Odie are exploring the streets of London on their own, a mix up occurs when one of the castle's servants mistakes Garfield for the missing Prince, and Jon mistakes the royal cat for Garfield. The lasagna-loving fat cat now finds himself enjoying the royal lifestyle that he's always dreamed of, not aware of the danger awaiting him with Dargis plotting to get rid of him once and for all.

While watching A Tale of Two Kitties, my mind started to wander a little bit as it tends to do when I'm stuck watching a movie that I'm not particularly engaged in. I started to wonder such things as why is Garfield a CGI cartoon cat, while all the other animals are actual animals that "talk" by means of special effects similar to the Babe films? Though the effects for Garfield are generally quite strong, he does look a little too out of place when he does scenes surrounded by hundreds of actual animals. And why is it that Odie is the only animal in the movie who cannot talk, when there are plenty of other dogs featured in this movie who converse fully with Garfield? It's true that Odie never actually talked in the comics and the cartoons, but I still found it curious that he was the only animal not gifted with the ability of speech. No matter, this is a movie for kids in the single digits, and no doubt they will be amused. There are plenty of crude bodily humor jokes and pratfalls to keep them rolling in the aisles. The plot and humor are simple enough so as to not offend, and with a running time of just 80 minutes, the film is mercifully short. The problem here is, just like the last film, it doesn't feel like a Garfield movie. The Garfield in this movie is still a fast-talking, one liner spewing comedian, rather than the sarcastic observer that creator Jim Davis often portrays him in the comics. This is a Garfield who makes pop culture references, impersonates Hannibal Lecter, and just does not capture the spirit of the character at all. I don't know who this impersonator is, but he's not Garfield. And while Bill Murray's line readings as the voice of the feline may be energetic, he still comes across as too loud and desperate, almost as if he's just trying too hard to generate laughs.

What ultimately saves the film from being completely disposable is a change of scenery and a large cast of likeable actors, which helps lift the material out of the gutter if only just a little. Though a lot more London scenery could have been used, what is there is well shot and interesting to watch. The most appealing aspect to this mostly forgettable sequel is the large group of animals that make the castle their home. They're headed by gruffish dog named Winston (voice by Bob Hoskins), and are desperate to convince everyone that Garfield is the missing Prince so they don't lose their home. Although the animals never say anything particularly witty, they are cute, the special effects used to make them talk are convincing, and the filmmakers have included a large cast of talented British actors to supply their voices, including Richard E. Grant, Rhys Ifans, and even Sharon Osbourne. The animals of the castle do get one of the few memorable scenes in the film that depicts Garfield teaching them to make lasagna, which made me smile, and a dim-witted attack dog sent by Dargis to wipe out Garfield supplies one of the film's very few laugh out loud moments. The animals of the castle are so much more personable and likeable than the completely CG Garfield that it almost makes me wish they had gone the same route for him as well. And, just like last time, the little dog who portrays Odie once again steals just about every scene he's in. I'm not much of a dog person in real life, but this is one cute and very funny canine, and it's almost a shame he's not in the movie more often.

As for the human cast, Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt reprise their roles as the sweet couple of Jon and Liz. They're just as likeable and cute together as they were in the last film, but this time around, they're given less to do, especially Hewitt, whose role is mostly a glorified cameo and mainly just stays in the background and observes in most of her scenes. The stand out of the actors is Billy Connolly as the evil Dargis, who gets the most laughs and seems to be the only human cast member who gets to do anything memorable in the film. Most of the other cast members seem to fade in and out of the screenplay as the film sees fit, which is a shame, because like the voice cast, there is some recognizable British talent on display such as Lucy Davis from the original British sitcom The Office. Like Hewitt, everyone is forced to mainly let the animals take center stage.

With so many sub-par family films clogging the market (even the mighty Pixar has fallen to the curse with the underwhelming Cars), Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties certainly seems to fit right in, and I'm sure it will find its audience with children, especially on DVD. I guess I'm just still disappointed. The comics and cartoons were a big part of my childhood, and neither of the live action films have brought the same feeling to me. The film is at least watchable and has a couple scattered laughs (more than the original did), which I guess makes the sequel better than the original. Still, should the inevitable Garfield 3 make its appearance in the next two or three years, I think I may just skip it and stick to my memories of the character's better days.

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