I have liked Garfield for years. I enjoy the comic strip and I watched the cartoon all the time when I was a child. In 2004, I went to see the movie Garfield and I did enjoy it even though it was rather silly. Since I do like the character and liked the first movie, I decided to go see Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

Jon Arbuckle decided that it was time to propose to his girlfriend Liz. Garfield wasn’t happy about that idea and tried to mess up the evening. Liz arrived with the news that she had been asked to speak at a conference in London and she would be leaving the next day so she couldn’t stay for dinner. Jon decided that he would go to London to surprise Liz and propose there. He left Garfield and Odie at the vet’s, so he was surprised when they popped out of a bag in his hotel room. Garfield still wanted to split up Jon and Liz. Garfield and Odie managed to get out of the room and Garfield was mistaken for Prince, a cat that lived on a large estate. Prince’s owner had died and left everything to the cat. That greatly upset her nephew, Dargis, who was only going to receive a small allowance. He started plotting once he found out that he would inherit after Prince died and tried something that resulted in Prince ending up in London where Jon found him. Garfield decided to enjoy his new life as a royal cat while the other animals on the estate plotted how to stop Dargis.

Garfield: A Tail of Two of Kitties was an enjoyable family friendly movie like the first movie was. The movie did seem to be mostly aimed at children, though adults that like the character of Garfield may also enjoy the movie. The basic plot of two characters looking the same that trade places for whatever reason has been done before in many movies. The only difference was that for this movie the two characters were cats, giving a slightly different twist to the story. Overall the movie was predictable and had very few surprises, though there was a tiny bit of mystery added with what Dargis was up to and what the animals were going to do about it. It didn’t take long for the animals to figure out his plan and start making their own plans. Garfield did learn a bit of a lesson by the end of the movie, something that does happen in many family movies. Even with the small lesson, there really wasn’t any deep hidden meanings to the movie. This is a movie to watch just for entertainment.

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties wasn’t as funny as it could have been. I think the first movie was funnier. I did laugh several times, but there were jokes in some scenes that just didn’t work, at least for me. In one scene, Garfield said a line like Hannibal Lector and I just didn’t think that worked in the movie. I didn’t think it was funny and the children wouldn’t have any idea what the line was from. There was some gross humor in a few scenes without it getting out of control like has happened in some movies. Dargis added a lot of humor in most of his scenes. I did think some of Garfield’s antics, and even Dargis’s, were funny, if rather silly. I wasn’t bothered by the silliness because I expected that when I went to see the movie. People should keep that in mind when considering this movie. If expectations are too high, then people will probably end up disappointed with the movie.

In the first movie, Garfield was created with special effects and all the other animals in the movie, including Odie, were real animals. Effects were done to make it look like the real animals were talking except for Odie. He never did any talking which did really go with the comic strip and cartoons. For Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Garfield was once again created with some kind of special effects. I’m sure that Prince was created with the same type of effects since he and Garfield looked identical. There was a wider range of other animals in the movie since there were farm animals on the estate where Prince lived. I did think the effects used to create Garfield and Prince were done well and some of the movements, like the way their tails would twitch as they walked, looked very realistic. As far as I know, all of the other animal characters were real animals and effects were used to make it look like they were talking.

Garfield and Prince were the main characters in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. I think that Garfield was in a bit more of the movie than Prince was. Both of the cats were pampered by their respective owners. Prince was considered feline royalty and his every whim was attended to by a staff of humans. Prince did think about the well being of the other animals on the estate, though he didn’t always come up with good ideas to help the situation. Once Garfield was at the estate, he was actually more demanding than Prince had been. Garfield was a bit too arrogant in this movie. He’s always been pampered in the comic strips and cartoons, but it went a bit too far with this movie I think. He did go through an attitude adjustment by the end of the movie. Bill Murray did a good job with Garfield’s voice. He does manage to sound very much like the man who did the voice for the character in the cartoon. Tim Curry did fine with the voice of Prince.

Winston was a dog that lived on the estate with Prince. At first Winston didn’t realize that Garfield wasn’t Prince. Winston came up with the idea to keep Garfield around to try to stop Dargis. The voice that Bob Hoskins provided did go with the character. Rommel was a large dog on the estate that chased Garfield more than once. Winston and the other animals came up with a plan to get Rommel to chase Dargis instead. Vinnie Jones did a voice for Rommel that did sound a bit thug like, which went with the character well. I recently saw him as Juggernaut in X-Men: The Last Stand. There were many other animals around the estate. None of them really received any character development and it was difficult to keep track of the names. The only animal characters that returned from the first movie were Garfield and Odie.

For the most part the human characters weren’t that important to the overall plot and they didn’t receive as much screen time as Garfield and Prince. Jon and Liz were both in the first movie and returned for this one. They really had very little screen time and Liz ended up with some rather stupid lines. Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt were fine in the parts. They did the best with what they had to work with. Roger Rees turned up in a few scenes as a lawyer that was dealing with things related to the will. He suspected that Dargis was up to something even though he couldn’t really prove it. Rees had a very small part in The Pink Panther and a larger part in the mess that was Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. People may remember him from the part he played on Cheers as Robin. I think he looked a bit younger in this movie than he did in The Pink Panther. Dargis was probably the human that had the largest part in the movie. He was constantly scheming on how he could get his hands on the estate so he could go through with the plans he had. Billy Connolly handled the part well even though he did go a bit overboard in some scenes. It worked for the character. Connolly had a small part in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Main Cast

Billy Connolly - Dargis
Tim Curry - Voice of Prince
Jennifer Love Hewitt - Liz
Bob Hoskins - Voice of Winston
Vinnie Jones - Rommel
Jane Leeves - Eenie
Breckin Meyer - Jon Arbuckle
Bill Murray - Voice of Garfield
Sharon Osbourne - Christophe
Roger Rees - Mr. Hobbs

Tim Hill - Director

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties had a few problems but I did think it was entertaining overall. Children will probably enjoy it more than adults for the most part since it was rather silly. It was cute overall even though it wasn’t as funny as it could have been. People that enjoyed the first movie or just like the character of Garfield may enjoy this movie.

Family Movie Reviews
Around the World in 80 Days ~ Casper ~ The Cat in the Hat ~ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe ~ Freaky Friday ~ Garfield ~ The Haunted Mansion ~ Herbie: Fully Loaded ~ The Muppet Show - Season One ~ The Muppet Movie ~ The Great Muppet Caper ~ The Muppet Christmas Carol ~ Nanny McPhee ~ The Princess Diaries ~ The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement ~ The Shaggy Dog ~ Zathura ~


Recommended: Yes