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19 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
For kids, 11 November 2007
8/10
Author: ebobrow from United States

This film is not like the other Garfield films. The other ones anyone who loved the comic could watch. This film is JUST for kids and totters. The animation is really good for this type of film and the voice acting is great. The plot of the comic Garfield entering our world is an idea that could have been done much better if they filmed the "real" world stuff with real people because you just don't get the feel that he is in the real world.

If you are a regular Garfield fan over 10 or so you can just watch this on a Sunday afternoon as a time waster. If you have any, watch this with your kids. They will love it but could be confused never knowing who Garfield is. They will still enjoy it

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15 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Not for fans!, 30 November 2007
1/10
Author: matty-61 from Australia

I love Garfield. Let's get that straight right from the outset. I often laugh out loud at his comics and own quite a few of his books. Jim Davis is, in my opinion, a genius. But this movie, written by Davis, is abysmal. I never laughed out loud once. There were a couple of humphs but that's about it. About ten minutes in I wanted to turn it off.

The premise of the movie is that Garfield, along with Odie, gets sucked out of Comic World into the Real World, just as he's wishing he was someplace other than Comic World. What ensues is a very slow but simple story of Odie and Garfield wishing they were back in Comic World and the gang still back there trying desperately to get them back.

I never watched any previews of this so went in blindly. The animation is clever for a generic TV animation. The story is so shallow and simple a five year old would understand it quite easily. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I'm about twenty five years older than the target audience to watch this and enjoy it. The only thing that can be said is that it's short so the pain doesn't last too long.

PS. Yes, in the opening sequences, the cars' exhausts are blowing bubbles!

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9 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Movie, 8 November 2007
7/10
Author: sherorauf from Bulgaria

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This 3D Animated movie is good ...

The 3D is beautiful ,I want to say it is for children but believe it or not even the old can enjoy it ...

I like the idea and the connection between the comic world (3D) and the real world (again 3D) ... It is about life of Garfield where he work as an actor and a model making the comics ... and the real world where people see Garfield in newspapers and magazines ...

The movie protect the comic and the animation is fine and simple, the texture and the colors are beautiful ...

I think everyone can enjoy it ...and I will watch it again soon :-)

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Garfield is back and better than ever!, 18 December 2007
8/10
Author: tripdream from United States

Anyone who has seen the two live-action borefests and regretted every minute of it would do well to pick up this movie. My 5-year-old little girl loves this movie to death and she likes it much better than the other two. Having been a huge fan of the comic strip for years I was delighted to see that someone made a movie faithful to the source material. Every character looks and acts exactly as you expect them to and the animation is wonderful. You can tell that the animators took great care to craft something as amazing as the opening sequence, where the sun rises and spreads its light across the valley. Is it laugh-out-loud funny? No, but it really doesn't need to be, especially for the kids. Adults with an open mind and the heart of a child will find the movie entertaining as well. I would suggest that you rent this to see if this is something that your family will enjoy before plunking down the money to own it.

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
good for the kids,but has some scary looking characters, 30 January 2008
5/10
Author: disdressed12 from Canada

i don't quite no what to make of this film.this is Garfield's first CG animated movie.i thought it had some amusing moments,but nothing laugh out loud funny.the story is very simple,so kids will be able to follow it very easily.the voices were very fitting for the characters.the CG in general looks nice and pretty.that's the good news.the bad news?some of the characters look quite freaky,almost scary,i think..i also found the movie very slow for much of the time.i realise i'm much older than the target audience.for kids,if they don't find some of the characters too creepy,they will probably enjoy it.adults might like it too,and if not,at least they know their kids are watching kid friendly entertainment.for me,i give Garfield Gets Real a 5/10

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6 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
How could they screw up Garfield this bad?! It's TERRIBLE!, 6 February 2008
1/10
Author: poothrowinmonkey from United States

OK I didn't watch the whole thing, I fell asleep, I didn't need to. I'll sum it up, I saw the first movie, they screwed up the characters (besides Garfield) on that. But this one is much much worse, lets see...none of the voices even sound at all like the old cartoons or even have half the of the character that they had. They all sound like they're on autopilot. It looks like it was made for 2 year olds, and here's the biggest problem, get this, Garfield's mouth moves with his words. His mouth is supposed to stay still because he's only thinking the words, he can't actually talk to john, if these morons had actually read a garfield comic strip or watched one of the cartoons before animating it they'd know that. Just as bad as the guys who made that pink panther cartoon series where he talked. It's upsetting to watch them take something I liked as a kid and dumb it down so far. See it didn't need to be dumbed down for kids, I watched the old garfield specials (before the show) when I was a kid and they were great, they were already basically for kids. This is pathetic, Garfield deserves better. Unfortunately according to this site it says Jim Davis wrote it, his strips have also been...not very funny for awhile, I think he needs to give it up, sorry to say, I still think the old garfield comic strips (collected in volumes) and the old TV specials are great. This DVD is horrid.

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Another recent Garfield project that fails to deliver, 10 September 2009
5/10
Author: Electrified_Voltage from Guelph, Ontario, Canada

In the traditionally animated Garfield cartoons of the 80's and 90's (a bunch of TV specials, plus the long-running TV series, "Garfield and Friends"), the distinctive voice of the character was provided by the late Lorenzo Music. Since his sad passing in 2001 at age 64 from lung and bone cancer, there have been other Garfield projects (aside from the strip). In 2004, the character's first theatrical movie, simply titled "Garfield", was released, featuring the popular lazy feline as a CGI figure, voiced by famous actor/comedian Bill Murray, and live actors and real animals for all the other characters. In 2007, that movie, along with its 2006 sequel, were followed by this full CGI animated direct-to-video feature, starring voice acting veteran Frank Welker. Although both of these films have spawned sequels, neither of them is very good.

Garfield lives in a suburban house with his owner, Jon Arbuckle, and dog, Odie, in the cartoon world. Other inhabitants in this world include Arlene and Nermal, also from the Garfield comic strip, and many characters from various other daily strips. Every day, these cartoon characters go to a studio to play their parts for the newspaper funnies. Garfield is tired of the same old routine, and longs for a life outside the comics. So, he escapes to the real world, and Odie soon follows as he tries to get a bone back. However, the two of them soon learn that their strip will be cancelled unless they get back into the comic world in 24 hours, and there is no known way back in from the real world! Fortunately, the other inhabitants of the cartoon world are trying to find a way to get Garfield and Odie back, but unfortunately, a muscular cat and dog really want to take their place, so they try to prevent the two stars from making it back in time!

Frank Welker doesn't do a bad job providing the voice of Garfield, though it does sort of sound like a parody of the original voice. Replacing Lorenzo Music obviously wasn't easy. Of the three main characters in the series, the only original voice from the 80's and 90's cartoons feature here is that of Odie, provided by Gregg Berger. This means the voice for Jon was also replaced. Thom Huge provided that voice in the TV cartoons (except for the first one), and in this film, it is provided by Wally Wingert. There's something about Wingert's Jon voice that I didn't like. The film also doesn't quite capture Jon's famous antics. However, the biggest problem with "Garfield Gets Real" is that it isn't very funny. I smiled a bit during the scene where Odie hides the bone from the Prop Boy in his mouth and denies having it, and also smiled when Shecky (a cat Garfield and Odie meet in the real world) puts on a show so people will throw his dinner at him, but I never laughed. There are some fairly lame gags I could mention, such as the whoopee cushion joke that leads to real flatulence, and Garfield's hot dog fantasy, but I would say most of the gags are too average to be noteworthy.

The 2004 live action theatrical Garfield movie is said to be strictly for kids, and I guess that's also the case with this direct-to-video computer animated film. "Garfield Gets Real" definitely bears more resemblance to the comic strip and traditionally animated cartoons than 2004's "Garfield" does, but there are still differences (not good ones) between the two. One major thing the two movies have in common is that they're not very funny at all, at least not for adults. There's one sequel to the live action film called "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties", which was released in 2006, and so far, two more direct-to-video computer animated features have come since this one ("Garfield's Fun Fest" and "Garfield's Pet Force"), but I obviously don't intend to watch any of those three films, since I don't like their predecessors. So, kids might like this 2007 non-theatrical animated feature, but if you're an adult who grew up with Garfield, then you might as well skip it and try watching some traditionally animated Garfield cartoons if you still like the character and are feeling nostalgic.

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This Cannot Be Garfield, 23 December 2008
2/10
Author: SilverScreenQueen from United States

Garfield is a philosophical, furry fat man originally intended by our disgruntled, coffee-slugging adults. But this is not Garfield. This is a fantasy show with a Garfield lookalike. It's watered down, badly animated, and contains horrible new characters such as Shecky, Sheila, Billy Bear, and that intolerable Bonita.

Garfield is supposed to take place in a real-life setting in Muncie. This is a fake world with pseudo-physical properties that is home to the comic strip. It is an alternate reality to our own. I always preferred to think that Garfield lived right across my state border, not in a parallel universe.

I don't know how Jim Davis ever allowed it (and its sequels) to ever come into production. This would be the worst Garfield film of all, if not for the Fun Fest. Awful. But then, that gives insight to my mind as well: I watched them, and I'm planning to see the Pet Force, just for the heck of it. Do we humans ever learn? I'm giving this one 2 stars, because I love Garfield. I don't think I can be that lenient on Fun Fest, though. Even my 8-year-old Garfield-loving sister couldn't stand this stuff. Give me "Babes and Bullets" any day, and leave "Gets Real" for your younger siblings and children.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly good!, 15 March 2009
7/10
Author: thomyx from Hungary

This is what a Garfield adaptation should look like. Though 'Garfield Gets Real' may seem childish for the first time, it's recommended for all ages and for all Garfield fans. The storyline is very simple (but what can we expect from a children's movie?), and I think they should have put more effort into the visual side, but the final result is surprisingly good. Though in my opinion it's not as good as the live action movies, it's still enjoyable and fun. Some characters are a bit annoying, but it's not a problem for the kids. The fact, that the cartoon and the real world in the movie look exactly the same, is the biggest drawback of the film. A good family movie with some humor, cute characters, highly recommended. 7/10

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
An acquired taste, 16 January 2009
7/10
Author: jamjohnx3 from United States

Garfield is ready to make a comeback (after the live action movies) with a CGI movie, bringing the fat cat back to somewhat familiar territory: the world of animation. But Garfield purists beware, the jump to 3D comes along with a jump in plot. In order to summarize it, the odd premise must be tackled.

In Garfield Gets Real, Garfield, Odie, John Arbuckle and the rest of the cast live in the "cartoon" world. The idea behind this is that the characters acknowledge their own little fourth wall. They get up, go to work and "film" comic strips with their director and scripts like an actual movie, magically send the finished strips into the newspapers of the "real world" and then watch people's reactions through a magical window viewer that lets them see out of the newspaper. The premise is odd, a little juvenile, and feels like something reserved for fanfiction to introduce a Mary Sue (well, actually, there may be a little more thought put into than what a Sue writer would come up with).

Anyways, Garfield, like the lazy cat that he is, is now tired and bored of this everyday routine. When he discovers that it's possible for cartoons to go into the real world, he (and Odie through an accident) end up in the real world with no way back, and with the others left to watch in horror. Garfield and Odie go on to start their new lives, only to find the real world isn't all that he thought it would be cracked up to be, and that if he doesn't get home soon, his strip will be canceled.

If you compare this to the Garfield specials of old, you will probably be disappointed. Quite frankly this isn't on that level, as can be seen through its premise which is a little out there even for Garfield, but it is good for what it as. The voice acting is great, the characters are in character (Nermal is a nuisance and the first to try to benefit from Garfield's departure), but probably the most notable thing is the animation, which is excellent. There are several points where the level of skill is demonstrated, such as the introduction. In some cases I feel like they might be doing a little TOO much for something based around Garfield. I mean, Garfield doesn't exactly require Pixar animation.

My only real disappointment with this film is that, staying within the confines of the movie, it didn't play around with the idea of Garfield in the "real world" quite as much as I'd like. What he actually does there is quite limited, there just seemed like so much gag and humor potential wasted. That, and despite the animation that actual design between the cartoon and real world isn't that different. Really, the only way you can tell the difference is that the cartoon world is brighter and has certain absurdities like superheroes soaring through the air, bubbles coming out of tailpipes and ridiculous character design (that is, until you see the fat goth kid in the real world...he certainly takes the cake).

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