At first, it seems like the new Garfield movie is doing something genuinely radical: making Garfield cute. In a new trailer for 2024's version of the movie we can’t stop making for some reason, we’re initially reintroduced to the lasagna-loving tomcat/internet horror show when he’s just a bug-eyed little kitten searching for a good meal and maybe some friendship on the side. He’s pretty sad and very adorable, like something out of a really good Pixar short. He actually looks and moves like a cat! He’s cute!
Then he opens his mouth, and we remember that this is, indeed, a Garfield movie. But it’s not just a Garfield movie. It’s a Garfield movie starring Chris Pratt, which is apparently a thing the world needed. He’s not doing a fun voice or anything, either. Just a lot of animated, orange Chris Pratt eating lasagna. This trailer didn’t necessarily make our Monday worse, but it didn’t make it better either.
There’s allegedly a plot to The Garfield Movie, which also managed to nab stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Bowen Yang, Hannah Waddingham, and Brett Goldstein. (Strong SNL and Ted Lasso rep here!)
Here’s Sony Pictures’ official synopsis:
Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.
Besides one kind of funny (if completely canon-breaking) gag about Garfield bouncing off of his own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, not much of the above is scrutable from the new trailer. The studio does leave some space at the end of the clip to encourage people to submit videos of their own cats for the film’s marketing campaign, which has the potential to be very cute. That is, if Chris Pratt doesn’t end up doing voice-overs for them as well. Shudder.
The Garfield Movie premieres summer 2024.