Garfield. There was once I time I thought he was the cat's pajamas, and that time was probably pretty close to when "the cat's pajamas" was a popular colloquialism. The strip was at one time one of the best, funny and most of the time fairly entertaining. I'm not quite sure when the whole thing started to suck. Was it the 100th Monday gag? Was it when Garfield started walking on his hind legs on a regular basis? I know I detest the look of the bipedal orange feline. The comic may not suck as much as Family Circus, but at least that panel has "cute" going for it in the art department.
Despite the current crappiness of the strip, I was excited when I first heard of the Garfield movie, and even moreso when I heard that Bill Murray would be starring as the voice of our hero. With good writing and a talented star, this might actually work. Then the reviews came in and they were less than glowing. That's okay, I still wanted to see it but now I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend money on it.
My former roommates bought the DVD, so great, I could finally see it! Well, I thought so at first then it turned out I borrowed the case only, so next time I was over I corrected that error. I had it at my place for about a week, then last weekend after helping them move on the second day, I was home early enough that I had time to relax and enjoy a movie. Now I could finally see it!
I'm not really blaming any of the stars, most of whom I usually appreciate in the work they do, even Jennifer Love Hewitt who gets dumped on a lot but I like her. I do blame the writers and director and likely the studio hacks who I do blame for this humourless piece of garbage. A comedy doesn't have to make me laugh for me to enjoy it, it just has to amuse me. Entertain me. This movie got a chuckle out of me once, and it was a half-assed chuckle at that. I kept sitting there, waiting for something even vaguely amusing to happen. Waiting. Waiting.
Not only did only one faintly amusing thing happen, but Garfield came across as a real asshole. I know he abuses Odie in the comics, but what can work there doesn't work so well in live action. They used a real dog to play Odie, so being mean to him really strikes a bad chord.
And speaking of live action, the decision to have every animal except Garfield be live, and have Garfield himself a cartoonish CG was a very bad decision. He stuck out like a sore thumb and it just didn't make sense. Having all the animals CG would have worked better, allowing all of them look more like their comic strip counterparts as well as allowing for less wincing at Garfield's abusive treatment of Odie.
Even Bill Murray couldn't save this flick. But then, I don't necessarily find him funny all the time. I loved him in Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Lost In Translation (not really a comedy, but damn, that was a far better film than Bored of the Rings 3 and deserved the Oscar far more). I didn't care for him at all in Caddyshack and some of the sketches I see him in on Saturday Night Live reruns.
Bill Watterson had the right idea. He created Calvin & Hobbes, and retired the strip before it lost its edge and refuses to this day to let it be marketed with t-shirts and toys or for any filmed version to be made, be it animated or live action. He alone was the writer and artist as well, so unlike the current Garfield which is cartooning by committee - I don't even know if Jim Davis has much to do with the daily strip anymore - and has to be kept innocuous so as to keep the marketing empire that has sprung up around it running without a hitch.
Garfield's time as come. It's too late to let this once-great strip retire with even a little dignity left, at least let it go before even more indignities are piled on top of it. Let it die before it becomes B.C. or Hagar the now truly Horrible.
posted
by Tabby at 3/02/2005 05:19:00 p.m.
