It seems that Garfield's first introduction to the filmmaking world was anything but a major success, Garfield the Movie is a movie that I remember adoring as a kid but now disliking as an adult after having more experience with the original Garfield comics. That didn’t stop the filmmakers from making yet another movie seeing as the first movie made a boatload of cash at the box office. Garfield A Tail of Two Kitties is the second time that Garfield would have a shot to be a charming and successful film. While this sequel may arguably be a little more entertaining than the last, this CGI/Live Action movie still falls short of being anything more than a mainly stupid kiddy flick.
Garfield (Bill Murray) and Odie travel with Jon (Breckin Mayer) and Liz (Jeniffer Love Hewitt) to London when Garfield is accidentally mistaken for a royal cat who has mysteriously disappeared from Carlyle Caste. The other look-alike cat named Prince the 12th appears to Jon and Odie who mistake him for Garfield. Garfield soon finds out that he unknowingly might be royalty which leads him to make a mockery of the entire castle and his barnyard subjects. However, Lord Dargis (Sir Billy Connolly) has big plans to rid the castle of barnyard life and kill off a cat that he thought he already has gotten rid of.
The Story is basically a somewhat parody of The Prince and the Pauper but the film doesn’t attempt to do much anything with it that is funny or enjoyable as it still revolves around Garfield being an idiot and making a mockery of things with little to no remorse except when the movie decides to throw remorse on you in a forced way. More time is spent on Garfield than it is on the Prince character as there isn’t a balance to give more time to other characters other than Garfield and the Barnyard animals themselves. The shameless product placement and pop culture references from the last movie are thankfully toned down a lot yet, the film would have been more entertaining without having to use much of them at all. One thing that is rather funny though is some of the slapstick especially if dodges is the one being tortured. It’s stupid but in a wacky sort of way and did make me feel like I was watching a Home Alone sketch in a good way. I feel bad for Director Tim Hill because he has worked on the Early Seasons of Spongebob so I know he can be funny, but aside from some neat slapstick, this is a story that makes me which I was watching the real The Pince and The Pauper story rather than watching this subpar parody.
The Characters are more tolerable this time around but many of them still carry the flaws from the first movie to make them boring and not at all engaging. Garfield played once again by Bill Murray is less of a jerk in this movie but his character development into realizing what is more important is rushed and does not feel earned in the long run. Jon and Liz are played by the same actors from before and they feel more miscast as ever as they feel like a quirky couple and not at all what they were like in the original comics. The new characters aren’t much of a help either as the film introduces some forgettable faces such as the barnyard animals of Carlyle Castle and the admirably funny but not nearly as great Dargies who is mainly there to be the film's big punching bag as he gets the most slapstick consequences out of all the characters in the movie. Then there is the Prince Character played by Tim Curry who is not as fun or over the top as I would have expected seeing that Curry is a person I know can make even boring dialogue sound interesting. There are some upsides to these characters but their entertainment value is not strong enough to carry the already poor storytelling.
The Visuals can look pretty from time to time, especially with showing off some of the landscapes of London, but aside from that, there isn’t that much about the visuals that remain any what of a treat for the eyes. The London shots of the actual town and the Carlyle castle do look pretty but it often gets sidelined by the other effects including the CGI effects for Garfield and The Prince which look too cartoony to be in the same world as the real humans. The other animal characters, on the other hand, are actual animail with CGI lip movements which granted are not as fake as other talking animal movies but they aren’t very convincing either. The Cinematography is a step up from the last movie but it seems like a waste of time seeing as London is a very beautiful place and they don’t seem to do the place any justice.
The Music is done by Christopher Beck who would later go on to score the Frozen movies. Its a shame because his talents seemed to be wasted on such a lackluster story as the music feels like the only thing that is passionate about what its trying to accomplish. The Carlye Castle theme is pretty memorable and the rest of the orchestrations do have a very lively and also royal feel to them. There are also some pop songs that are not as annoying as the last and they don't stick around for long.Maybe it's because everything else is so underwhelming, but this is an orchestration soundtrack I can totally get behind seeing as it’s coming from a very talented composer.
I have to admit that this movie is slightly more entertaining compared to the total lackluster experience in the first movie that did not represent the orange cartoon cat in all his glory. Still, that isn’t much of a recommendation as this movie is nothing more than your average everyday CGI/Live-Action Hybrid movie that does not attempt to do anything that interesting with the characters, visuals, or even its premise. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again if you wanna see Garfield at his best, read the original comics instead. Granted I’d much rather watch Tail of Two Kitties again compared to the first Garfield movie, but there are no shortages of family-friendly films that I could be watching instead.
(Final Grade: C-)