Although it has grossed more than $100 million at the global box office so far, “The Garfield Movie” has certainly not been a hit with critics, with a dismal 36% rating. Rotten tomatoes. The latest version of the lazy orange tabby cat created by cartoonist Jim Davis gets some of the basics right, including Garfield’s love of lasagna and hatred of Mondays.
But “The Garfield Movie” tries to build a large-scale adventure around a character whose defining characteristic is his dedication to doing nothing. Voiced by Chris Pratt, Garfield reconnects with his long-lost father Vic (Samuel L. Jackson) and is drawn into a complicated heist scheme.
They’re all a bit crap, so if you’re looking for a better way to entertain both kids and adults, here are five great alternatives to “The Garfield Movie.”
“The Emperor’s New Groove”
“The Garfield Movie” is the first film directed by Mark Dindal in nearly 20 years, which may have appealed to fans of Disney’s animated cult classic. “The Garfield Movie” includes brief flashes of the anarchic sense of humor that infuses “The Emperor’s New Groove,” but has none of the freewheeling absurdity of this hilarious ancient adventure, which remains the funniest animated film ever released never Disney.
It’s all the more impressive given that it was originally intended to be a serious historical epic with musical numbers by Sting, before it was remade into a Chuck Jones-influenced comedy about a self-centered emperor named Kuzco (David Spade) who transforms. to a llama. Dindal infuses absurd humor into Kuzco’s journey of enlightenment, with memorable villains voiced by Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton, and a slyly self-referential tone.
Watch Disney Plus
‘Chicken Run’
Garfield’s raid on a heavily fortified dairy facility owes much to the escape plan hatched by a group of chickens in the first feature film from beloved stop-motion animation studio Aardman. Set in rural Great Britain, “Chicken Run” pays homage to classic prison escape films as headstrong hen Ginger (Julie Savalha) rallies her fellow egg-laying members to fly the coop. They hope to literally fly, thanks to lessons from cocky American rooster Rocky (Mel Gibson), who ran away from the circus.
There are exciting set pieces as the chickens battle the sinister Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson), who plans to turn them all into pot pies via an elaborate, ominous machine. ‘Chicken Run’ showcases Aardman’s typically detailed stop-motion animation, with distinctive characters and rich backgrounds, creating an immersive chicken farm world.
“The Lego Movie”
This fellow animated film starring Chris Pratt is a much more successful integration of art and commerce, building a smart, rousing adventure out of what could easily have been a feature-length toy commercial. Pratt voices Emmet Brickowski, an everyday citizen in the almost pathologically optimistic Lego-built town of Bricksburg. Emmet’s world is rocked by the arrival of freedom fighter Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), who tells him that he may be the prophesied savior of the entire Lego world.
“The Lego Movie” is a clever spoof of selected narratives, peppered with pop culture cameos from various Lego minifigures and laced with sharp meta-humor. It’s amazingly animated, bringing Lego bricks to life without losing their tactile sensations as chunks of plastic. It may inspire an urge to buy related merchandise, but only so viewers can spend more time in its imaginative world.
Watch Netflix
“Paddington 2”
Like Garfield, Paddington is an iconic animal character who has appeared in various adventures over many decades and has an obsession with a certain type of food (for Paddington, that’s jam sandwiches). But while Garfield is an avatar of American indolence, Paddington embodies warm British politeness, as the warmly dressed bear lives in harmony with a family from London.
Paddington’s decency gets him into trouble in his second live-action film, as he is falsely accused of stealing from an antique shop and sent to prison. The unfailingly kind Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishoe) befriends and uplifts his fellow inmates while his adopted human family works to clear his name. Hugh Grant is delightful as Paddington’s bigoted actor, and this sequel further captures Paddington’s low-key humor and genteel decency.
“DC League of Super-Pets”
This lighter, kid-friendly take on DC superheroes is more fun than most big-budget live-action DC movies of the past decade. Although familiar characters like Superman and Batman appear in supporting roles, the main character is Superman’s superpowered dog Krypto, who works with a group of misfit shelter animals who have suddenly acquired superpowers themselves.
The super pets must save the Justice League from a super-evil guinea pig named Lulu, who has kidnapped the human heroes. It’s all profoundly silly, but director and co-writer Jared Stern knows how to balance smart comic book jokes with simple lessons about teamwork and friendship. Dwayne Johnson sounds appropriately heroic as the voice of Krypto, and Kate McKinnon is amusingly evil as the voice of Lulu.
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