The Garfield Movie follows the story of Garfield and his canine friend Odie who are forced to partner a street cat Vic in a fun filled heist with high stakes. Do they manage to succeed? The story here is fun filled and hilarious while catered to the imagination of a 7 year old. The events are silly but perfectly in sync with the vibe of the drama which does make for a hilarious watch. The screenplay standing at about a 100 minutes is taut and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It may not be memorable but it is definitely entertaining in a manner that you will find yourself laughing and engaging with the characters while keeping the kid inside you alive. 

The drama opens with the introduction(or should I say, the reintroduction) of the orange feline, Garfield who hates Mondays and shares his love for lasagna with the viewers by breaking the fourth wall. A little flashback on his origin story and how he did get acquainted with Jon does form a sweet little screentime wherein a baby Garfield, hungry and abandoned by his father does warm up to Jon who is eating in a restaurant. This marks the beginning of a unique friendship with Garfield just sitting and eating while occasionally spending time with his bud Odie, while Jon does the cleaning up job(lol). The conflict in the tale arises when Garfield and Odie are mysteriously kidnapped and later requested to participate in a heist featuring the father of Garfield who has supposedly abandoned him. Will they or won’t they pull it off is what forms the rest of the story. 

The proceedings are engaging and fun-filled particularly when the dynamics between Garfield and his father Vic takes centerstage. Both of them find themselves in a pickle given Vic’s involvement in a sudden incident involving the antagonist who does suffer from anger management issues. And what might seem like serious business with its central plot, is often cut through by some humour that will consistently make you chuckle. The plot points may appear silly but they are just right for its intended target audience, catering to a demographic under 8 years specifically. As a result, you are thoroughly entertained throughout the narrative even as Garfield and his gang team up to plan and execute a heist despite having differences with his father. A parallel track of Jon searching for Garfield is a little half-baked while clearly the focus remains on its protagonist. 

Things get slightly muddled up in the events leading up to the closure of the heist with a little twist in the tale with respect to the motives of the antagonist. Yet, what drives the narrative here is the partly emotional father-son bond that has a thread joining the narrative wherein the stillness supersedes the hoopla and the chaos. The events leading to the final act with Garfield venturing out again to rescue his father after getting to know about his whereabouts during his growing up years, does get the film back on track. The entire adventurous finale is both fun-filled and entertaining there accounting for a feel-good vibe along the way, thereby summing up a screenplay that is most definitely entertaining.