Let’s set the scene: an orange cat with black stripes hovers around a fresh-out-of-the-oven lasagna and devours it with glee. That’s probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Garfield. It’s incredibly cliché that the first trailer for The Garfield Movie, the new animated film based on the comic trip, was released on a Monday. Get it? It’s because Garfield historically hates Mondays.
Sony’s latest features Christ Pratt as the voice of the titular lazy orange cat in another odd casting choice from Hollywood. Was it not enough that we had to endure Pratt as the voice of Mario for The Super Mario Bros. Movie this year? Apparently not. However, not all appears lost in the new trailer for this totally unnecessary reimagining of Garfield.
Directed by Mark Dindal of The Emperor’s New Groove and Chicken Little fame, the latest Garfield animated film was initially slated to come out mid-February, but was delayed due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. With the strikes now ended, the film is set to release in theaters on May 24, 2024. This also means the film’s promotional tour will include its star-studded cast.
Continuing this strange streak of animated roles, Chris Pratt is set to voice the film’s star. It’s not entirely clear why Pratt seems to be the go-to for seemingly Italian and/or Italian-adjacent roles like Mario and Garfield, who is Italian-adjacent simply based on his love of Italian cuisine. Also, it helps that Garfield was famously born in the back of an Italian restaurant. According to the transitive property of red sauce, that makes him Italian.
Other notable actors include Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Garfield’s biological father, Vic. I can’t wait to see how that plays out. Rounding out the cast are Nicholas Hoult, Ving Rhames, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Harvey Guillén, Cecily Strong, and Bowen Yang. It’s an incredibly stacked cast, all coming out for Garfield, the cat. It’s more than the cat himself would ever do for anyone else.
The trailer itself doesn’t reveal too much aside from the basics. We’re introduced to a young Garfield lurking in the trash cans outside Mama Leoni’s Italian Restaurant with an innocence that rivals a newborn baby’s. That’s where he meets John, the source of Garfield’s many acts of aggression once he quickly learns how much of a pushover John is. It’s clear that Garfield is interested in giving every aspect of Garfield’s past an origin story, like an Oscar-bait biopic. Hence the new role of a biological father, Vic, is in direct tension with John’s role as Garfield’s adopted father figure. With a screenplay written by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds, the film feels serviceable.
Perhaps it’ll surprise us all when it comes out on May 24, 2024.
(featured image: Sony Pictures)
