Garfield: The Movie (DVD)

Due to an error in literacy I misread the time and was unable to attend the press screening for the theatrical release of Garfield and once I saw the reviews I wasn't sorry, but I was still interested considering I loved Garfield comics growing up, but I did hate the idea of yet another live-action adaptation with a CGI lead.

Garfield takes the popular cat we have all come to know from Jim Davis' comic strip of the same name, and here we find the fat and lazy feline up to his usual antics of searching for lasagna, mistreating Nermal and trying to get over his jealousy issues once Odie comes into the picture.

Unfortunately in his attempts to mistreat Odie he leaves him outside one night and the curious mongrel runs away and the search is on. As Garfield is on the lookout, his owner, Jon Arbuckle (Meyer), is on the verge of getting closer to the local veterinarian played by Jennifer Love Hewitt who ends up helping Jon search for his lost dog and his, now missing, cat.

The premise is simple, and the story is generic, there is no wonder why critics panned this film, but, at the same time, it should come as no surprise that Garfield did big numbers at the box-office pulling in upwards of $75 million on a production budget of a reported $50 million... kids films with a recognizeable lead always seem to do decent.

Taking this into consideration and knowing that this is a film based on a loved comic strip you would think you would get a little Jim Davis commentary track, a CGI feature, maybe a comparison between the movie and the original comic strip or something, but to no avail... There isn't a single special feature on this DVD.

Now I am not sure if that is because I received some alternate version for a press screener or what happened because original reports indicated that this DVD would include a feature-length audio commentary by Director Peter Hewitt and Producer John Davis, some music videos, an "Animated transition" feature and a look at Fox's upcoming movies including Robots, Fat Albert and Because of Winn Dixie, but they just aren't here, which is not only surprising but a bit of a let-down considering you have to put something together to get the adults to enjoy this boring run-of-the-mill chase movie.

Overall, I would recommend this title to families with young children, which is the obvious reason for its box-office success and will be the only people to actually enjoy it at home.