Film Preview: The Garfield Movie (2024)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(November 19, 2023) Original
(March 10, 2024) New Trailer (#2) — New Posters (#1-#8)
(April 28, 2024) New Trailer (#3) — New Posters (#9-#29)
(May 19, 2024) New Poster (#30)
(June 2, 2024) New Trailer (#4) — New Poster (#31)

Release Date:

May 24, 2024

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Garfield is about to go on a wild outdoor adventure. After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – the cat Vic – Garfield and Odie are forced to abandon their pampered life to join Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.”

Poster Rating: C / C- / C (2) / C / C / C / C- / C- (12) / C / C- / C+ / C / C / C+ (2) / C / C / C / B-

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Review: (#1, C) The empty background isn’t as noticeable but doesn’t add much to a meager foreground. (#2, C-) The garish yellow-orange background makes the whole poster stick out poorly. (#3-#4 & #6, C) The holiday-inspired efforts are cheesy and pointless. They might have more visual distinctiveness than the surrounding designs, but that’s not particularly appealing by itself. (#5, C) This design with the “I Hate Mondays” coffee mug might have impact with Garfield fans but it is such a bland design that it’s not really worth being excited over. (#7, C) While it doesn’t allow the yellow in the background overwhelm the fore, it’s not particularly original or interesting. (#8, C-) Another dull effort that is thankfully not as yellow as the first similar design.

(#9-#20, C-) These character posters are about as dull as the other poster designs, not employing much in the way of creative energy. (#21, C) Another of the holiday-themed posters. At least these try a little harder to add some non-orange colors but still rely on the empty backdrops. (#22, C-) Back to the orange, this attempt to appeal to comic fans who know Nermal’s concept might work better if it weren’t for the empty background. (#23, C+) Abandoning most of the excessive orange usage, this design has lots of details and looks like a more compelling poster design. That said, the details are minimal and not particularly interesting. (#24, C) It’s similar to the prior design but with the orange background and that’s a disappointment. (#25, C) It’s interesting that this design would try to sell the audience on Latin-American star Sandro Larenas, the voice of Garfield in many Spanish-language dubs of Garfield shows, in the role of “Vic” while having the English-language Vic, Samuel L. Jackson, still listed on the poster. (#26-#27, C+) These two nation-specific poster designs are intriguing in that they use very tourist-friendly marketing strategies of tying the cat into those regions yet they feel like they are targeted at the wrong audience. (#28, C) While this is a bit more yellow, better tying in orange Garfield and yellow Odie, it is not far removed from all the prior mediocre efforts with an empty background. (#29, C) And finally, we have a design that’s very familiar but which makes Garfield look like he has a moustache wile not trying for anything unique with the background.

(#30, C) Lots of fluffiness but all with a dull white background. It will be enough for some Garfield fans but not for many others.

(#31, B-) This is quite a bit different from the prior designs, which makes it stand out and it has a very lovely floral centerpiece without telling the audience much of anything about the film other than its orange feline.

Trailer Rating: C- / C / C / F

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Review: (#1, C-) It starts off well, but goes overboard in presenting sight gags and in-jokes to the viewer who will see things they recognize from the comic strip, but will be disappointed in the lack of Lorenzo Music from the past incarnations.

(#2, C) Getting the full story doesn’t make the film seem any more appealing that it was previously did. It kiddifies a character that millions of adults have fond memories of. They could have made this a little more adult-oriented and been more successful as adults aren’t likely to jump on the Garfield Movie bandwagon.

(#3, C) Unless you’ve been sold by prior trailers, this one, which seems to cobble together the “hits” of the prior efforts, doesn’t manage to excite the viewer any more than they might already have been. The vocal work from Pratt is slightly more interesting but still feels like he’s not very good in that type of format.

(#4, F) Playing a song from the film over two-and-a-half minutes of the same scene played on a loop is the most tedious slog one can imagine. The song isn’t appealing enough to merit the length and repetitiveness of the content.