Hey Look! A GOOD Garfield Movie

[Drtooth]

Now, why didn't they just do this sooner?
http://www.garfield.com/d2v/index.html

Completely CGI, the script is written by Jim Davis Himself.... and they actually LOOK like Garfield. This should be fun, since the first REAL garfield movie was either Never made or long forgotten (Garfield's Judgement day was announced, and a book was released, but nothing apparently came out of it).

[anytimepally]

is Bill Murray coming back this time around :confused:

[Drtooth]

Not sure... however, they did recast Lorenzo Music a while back... he sounds like he does a good job...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rInjhsWd3a8

I would really love to see if they got Thom Huge and Greg Berger.

[anytimepally]

I miss Lorenzo Music :( .. his Garfield voice was just perfect!

[ryhoyarbie]

I still like "A Garfield Christmas Special" the best. I used to watch that as a kid during christmas time.

[SSLFan]

Hope this new movie will make up for the pointless " A Tale of Two Kitties" sequel. That movie was just not funny.:grouchy: :attitude: :smirk:

[D'Snowth]

I think I can actually watch this one!

[janicegroupie]

I'm a big Garfield fan but wasn't crazy about the last movie. I'm curious to see how this one is. It sounds promising with Jim Davis writing it since he is, of course, the genius behind Garfield.

[Drtooth]

Hope this new movie will make up for the pointless " A Tale of Two Kitties" sequel. That movie was just not funny.:grouchy: :attitude: :smirk:



Well, considering Davis didn't write the scripts and every animal aside from garfield (and his Counterpart) was a real animal, this is a drastic improvement.

As much as I like the GArfield strip, I think the cartoon specials and TV series really made the characters pop.

[Ilikemuppets]

It this going to be on video or in theaters because it doesn't quite make it clear to me.

[Drtooth]

Direct to DVD.

[Ilikemuppets]

I can understand that.

[frogboy4]

It's finally coming out - direct to DVD, but it looks to be what life-long Garfield fans and newcomers will like. Hope it's well written. :)

Amazon says: (http://www.amazon.com/Garfield-Gets-Real-Frank-Welker/dp/B000UZDO5S/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1195195929&sr=8-11)

The sameness of everyday life sometimes breeds discontent and Garfield is bored with his life in Cartoon World and sick and tired of reporting to work at the Comic Strip Studio every day with co-workers Wally, Billy Bear, Randy Rabbit, and Bonita. When Odie accidentally drops his bone through a patch in the screen that separates the realm of Cartoon World from the Real World, Garfield impulsively decides to dive headlong into the land of hot dog vendors with little regard for his girlfriend Arlene or owner Jon. Followed by the ever-bumbling Odie, Garfield's initial excitement quickly dims at the prospect of dumpster diving for food scraps and spending the night in an old leaky building. What's more, the neighborhood cats don't believe he's the real Garfield from the funny papers and Garfield knows that now that he's entered the real world, he can never return to Cartoon World. When the local newspaper declares its intention to replace the Garfield comic strip for good, Garfield realizes the enormity of his mistake and begs his Cartoon World co-workers to somehow find a way to bring him and Odie back to Cartoon World before their strip is permanently cancelled. This completely CGI animated full-length Garfield movie is a marked departure from the previous two live-action CGI animated movies (Garfield the Movie and Garfield--A Tale of Two Kitties) and has a distinctly unique look that utilizes three-dimensional character modeling against a seemingly flat background that looks like good video game graphics crossed with a colorful comic strip that's somehow been inflated. (Ages 5 and older) --Tami Horiuchi :zany:

I was hoping for toon shaders in the 3D but this looks to be a good middle ground. :excited:

[wwfpooh]

Just as long as it's done right and doesn't tank like some other toon-enters-reality films have done, I may take a look at this one.

[frogboy4]

Garfield Gets Real gets right what the recent theatrical releases got wrong. No real animals, Ghost Whisperer, spontaneous pop music dancing montage or trying to hard to be relevant. Creator Jim Davis was very much at the helm of this project and it shows. If you like the classic strip, television series and holiday specials, you will enjoy this straight-to-DVD picture.

The computer animation is striking and works to the project's advantage. The film takes place in the "comic world" where Jon, Odie and Garfield all live together in a house as equals and work as actors in the comics read by people in the "real world". The animation has a slight ink line in the comic world that vanishes in the film's real world. Besides that, there is little distinction between the two locations, but I didn't mind.

All the characters are back - and look like his and her cartoony self. Nermal, Arlene, some new characters and a few surprise cameos from other comic strip stars. The story could have used a layer or two of added depth and it is geared toward a younger crowd, but if you ever loved Garfield, this is the one you remembered.

Frank Welker voices Garfield (now that Lorenzo Music has passed away and Bill Murray is more of a film actor) with a near-seamless skill that will have you believing the cat is back. This is the first of three such films in the next two years. I'm glad they'll keep coming! I know it's trite to say, but I'm glad this cat got another life - and one without suction-cup paws.

[wwfpooh]

Wow! With that summarization, I might check this one out after all!

Hey, you! Chewin' the gum. I hope you brought enough for everybody? (http://www.soundamerica.com/soundamerica/sounds/themes/Cartoons/G/garfldf.wav)

[Drtooth]

Frank Welker voices Garfield (now that Lorenzo Music has passed away and Bill Murray is more of a film actor) with a near-seamless skill that will have you believing the cat is back.[/url]

Frank Welker did the voice of Garfield once prior to this. It was only for a breif gag, but ever since rewatching that segment, I felt that he'd be natural to take over for Lorenzo. They had another official Garfield voice (used in a video game and a PSA for writing) but that person couldn't act.

[quote]This is the first of three such films in the next two years. I'm glad they'll keep coming! I know it's trite to say, but I'm glad this cat got another life - and one without suction-cup paws.

Just like Futurama. Nice to know these old cartoons can come back as movies. I think these may be a replacement for a Garfield series that didn't happen. They announced a new CGI garfield last year, and so far, nothing has come out of it, sans the movies.
I cannot wait to pick this one up. I wonder how Wally Wingert fares as Jon, though...

[frogboy4]

I cannot wait to pick this one up. I wonder how Wally Wingert fares as Jon, though...

It's just a younger different sounding Jon to me. Not my first choice, but he's okay. I totally loved Nermal. The voice actor aint bad either. ;)

It's just nice to see everybody back where they should be and sans Brecken Meyer.

Apparently Frank Welker does the voices for everything in the universe! He even did some Muppet Babies! Reportedly Kermit, Beaker and (fictional, but PC) Skeeter! He truly is the animation world's current Mel Blanc. He's the original Fred from Scooby Doo and even Nibbler from Futurama! Guy gets around! :eek:

[wwfpooh]

But Frank was around, even when Blanc was in the later stages of his career.

[Drtooth]

Apparently Frank Welker does the voices for everything in the universe! He even did some Muppet Babies! Reportedly Kermit, Beaker and (fictional, but PC) Skeeter! He truly is the animation world's current Mel Blanc. He's the original Fred from Scooby Doo and even Nibbler from Futurama! Guy gets around! :eek:

And let's not forget, he's the go to guy in Hollywood when a movie studio needs animal noises for big budget films. He was in George of the Jungle amongst other things, and you would probably never have known he was there. He is extreemly gifted, and can do any animal sound dead on.

His Curious George voice is pretty much a cartoony-fied version of his monkey voice for example. Dude's got mad talent. It's hard to find anything he was not in.

[wwfpooh]

Indeed. Welker is the animal genius! :lol:

[MelissaY1]

It's still CGI crap. Why can't they just make a regular animated Garfield movie? They were planning one in the mid 80s where the late Lou Rawls recorded the music and everything. It was supposed to be called "Garfield's Judgment Day". They discuss it briefly on the T.V. special celebrating Garfield's 10th birthday

[wwfpooh]

Why can't they just make a regular animated Garfield movie?

Technology has moved on and the intended audience is more interested in CGI and modern stuff nowadays rather than the classics of our childhoods.

[frogboy4]

Jim Davis' fingerprints are all over the movie and the DVD production. This is very much his baby (unlike the other live action attempts). He waited for the computer animation medium to advance enough (especially in areas of squash and stretch) so that his characters would be represented accurately. In most of the movie, in the comic world, Garfield has a small ink line. :)

Straight from Davis himself - this is not some fad that gobbled up Garfield like the cat would do to a plate of lasagna. He feels that his creation has already been represented in 2D and hit the limit of quality he feels that *this project's* way of handling 3D accomplishes. Unless the Disney people handled a Garfield 2D animation project (which is neither in the works or ever likely to happen) this is what we get. :cool:

Personally, I like the 3D thicker outlined toon shader effect better than this glossier style (i.e. how Mr. Peanut is represented in his Planter's ads on TV). But I like the attempt of finding a middle ground. It's far from "crap" but there is some room for growth - especially in the sculpting of new and secondary characters. I have not seen the characters really appear like themselves in such a long time until this project.

It's not a very long show. If you’re not sold on it I recommend Netflixing it if possible. That way you really aren’t out more than a bit of pocket change. ;)

[MelissaY1]

Technology has moved on and the intended audience is more interested in CGI and modern stuff nowadays rather than the classics of our childhoods.

I know it's shameful.

[heralde]

Technology has moved on and the intended audience is more interested in CGI and modern stuff nowadays rather than the classics of our childhoods.

The companies certainly seem to think this is true. Except that I've rarely seen this way of thinking reflected in real life, heh. Audiences are not robots, they don't go around thinking "old cartoons bad, CGI good. Or vice versa." There are kids who enjoy the classics, even if they also like CGI. Sadly, what ends up on the screen doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what the intended audience actually wants.

[frogboy4]

3 Screen-Grabs of the Garfield Gets Real (http://www.wijitworld.com/stock_images/gf.jpg)

To me, this project reminds me of the neatly shaded Garfield posters of the 80s. Upon a second viewing the secondary characters really stand out as being sub-par. I do love that in the Comic World all the cars run on bubbles! Does Al Gore know about this technology? ;)

[Drtooth]

Technology has moved on and the intended audience is more interested in CGI and modern stuff nowadays rather than the classics of our childhoods.

I have to disagree on that count there.... the "modern audiences" want to see these cartoon characters as flat CGI's against a live action back drop. That's why this was DTV, and the horrible one where Garf looked like a horrible cartoon/live action Cross breed. In fact, i'd rather have seen Underdog and Alvin and the Chipmunks look more like this than what they became.

I agree with Frgoboy here, this is far from crap looking. John looks a tad awkward to me, but everyone else (especially that guest character in that shot) looks great. And as for a DTV movie, well, we'd be getting crappy flat looking Korean 2-D if we got 2-D. I cannot stand how all the Warner Brothers cartoons look now. They clearly use an inferior studio. it looks so perfect, it's mechanical. Makes me really miss the odd Japanese outsourcing from the 1980's (especially TMS's work with DIC animation and Disney).

The companies certainly seem to think this is true. Except that I've rarely seen this way of thinking reflected in real life, heh. Audiences are not robots, they don't go around thinking "old cartoons bad, CGI good. Or vice versa." There are kids who enjoy the classics, even if they also like CGI. Sadly, what ends up on the screen doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what the intended audience actually wants.

I tend to think that's why every single animatd movie since has been CGI. Plus, come on. Pixar and Dreamworks made money. They are clearly utilizing a technology for money making purposes. As I said before, I think Pixar is the studio that gets it. They have CGI down to a fine art, but they also have beautifully designed characters, wonderful scripts, and some bizarre lovable ideas. Dreamwork's has pretty decent films, I feel, and Blue Sky has great animation, but their scripts are only so so. To me other studios just want to get on the "fad" of this type of animation.

[frogboy4]

This project listed no other writer than Jim Davis (and he exec-produced it too, of course). The extras show a video conference between Davis and the overseas animation team leader. He also picked the guy to help the US end of the project that reportedly created the technology for Terminator 2 so there's no slumming it on the States end.

Upon second viewing there are some issues that stand out to me. Yeah, the story could have been a bit more interesting (I absolutely adore the Garfield classically animated Christmas special from my youth). But it appears that even within the separation of worlds there are some consistency problems with animation quality that shouldn't be there - especially in the area of mouth movement.

I am glad they have Garfield's mouth move throughout the film. Today's young people would likely think a static-mouthed cat as a cop-out and those are much of the target group for this. And it works.

When viewing a character like Nermal (who is actually the best animated character in the film, better than Garfield) it makes me wonder why? Is Nermal heavily featured in films 2 and 3? Odie is done so beautifully too. Arlene and Jon could use more work. The comic director character is done so very poorly it makes me wonder if they just ran out of time. This video received very little fanfare anywhere.

That makes me think the filmmakers know the short-comings and are planning to remedy them in future projects. It is clear they weren't sure how 3D is too 3D in the film. Some shots are flatter than others. But this is a good indication of direction. I still wish they'd have a story the level of the Christmas special so dear to my heart.

[wwfpooh]

Maybe this could be the "Batman Begins" for Garfield, because like that film revitslized Batman's career following BTAS, this movie could be a good move to fix up Garfield's career after the first two feature film flops.