No one asked for it, but the Chris Pratt-helmed Garfield movie is headed to theaters anyway.
Pratt is a perfectly talented voice actor, to be fair. He shone in The Lego Movie and, despite low expectations from fans, he played a surprisingly good Mario in The Super Mario Bros Movie. We’d still prefer Charles Martinet, of course, but Pratt didn’t fudge up the role like so many of us expected.
He’ll likely play a perfectly good Garfield, too, but the fresh attempt at Jim Davis’ nearly 50-year-old franchise looks like one of its weaker entries. Considering the Bill Murray films exist, that’s a pretty harsh takeaway, but after watching the film’s first trailer it feels apt. This flick has plenty of saving graces — most of which are centered around its cast — but even careful editing can’t make this film look like much more than a cash grab.
All that being said, the film has plenty of marks in its favor. Sure, its got a pretty basic premise, but its voice cast is stuffed with mega-popular A-listers. Pratt is joined by Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Hoult, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Bowen Yang, all of whom have proven themselves massively talented over the years. Then there are the big names behind the scenes, which include two of the funnymen that brought us The Emperor’s New Groove. That movie holds up, so The Garfield Movie should have potential… right?
Its still hard to say if the film will prove my low expectations right or wrong, but with such a spectacular cast, it’s got a baked-in audience. Now that we have an official release date, a bunch of nostalgic Garfield fans know for sure when they’ll be rushing to theaters to experience the latest attempt to make a grouchy orange cat into a cinematic icon.
The Garfield Movie release date
The Garfield Movie was announced all the way back in 2016, and its been providing minor, occasional updates in the years since. It takes a long time to make an animated movie, and with the COVID-19 pandemic thrown in, paired with plenty of other roadblocks, The Garfield Movie is among many films that took close to a decade to complete.
By the time The Garfield Movie hits theaters, it will have been in production for a good eight years. Chris Pratt’s name was attached two years back, in 2021, and progress has been much quicker since then. If everything continues to go as planned, the film should actually arrive in theaters by summer of 2024. The Garfield Movie is currently slated to hit theaters on May 24, 2024, which leaves those Garfield-adoring masses with less than a year to wait.