Instead, after a perfunctory origin story of Garfield’s life with his owner, Jon (Nicholas Hoult), and dog companion, Odie (Harvey Guillén), the film is quickly set into adventure mode when Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by a pair of henchman dogs working for a vengeful cat named Jinx (Hannah Waddingham). Garfield’s estranged father, Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), quickly comes to the rescue, but it’s Vic that Jinx is really after. After Jinx demands a truck full of milk as payment for a botched job she took the fall for, Vic, with Garfield and Odie in tow, are off to find a way to pay his debt.
Vic is a new addition to the lore. (Garfield’s father wasn’t present in the many media iterations, save for a few passing mentions.) He abandoned Garfield as a kitten in an alley, and their relationship is strained. This Garfield, aside from the predictable references here and there to his gluttony, is mostly an agitated son who chafes at his dad’s sudden presence in his life.
Even before all of this is set in motion, Garfield is introduced with too much pep in his step by Pratt, who has become, for better or worse, blockbuster animation’s go-to lead (“The Lego Movie,” “Onward,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”). His voice acting, though, lacks the dynamism to embody a memorable character like Garfield. His golden retriever, himbo energy can work in specific situations, like “The Lego Movie,” but here it’s the inverse of what Garfield ought to be. Bill Murray, Garfield’s voice in the earlier films, felt genuinely well suited to the cat’s languor, even if the movies were rough.
Granted, Pratt isn’t helped along elsewhere. The animation is visually flat, with compositions that seem oddly half-populated and cheap. The script, by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds, is weak, with most of its comedy derived from cheap slapstick violence that even kids may tire of, and emotional beats that were written on autopilot.
