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.

For in-depth thoughts on The Garfield Movie, please see my colleague Dom Fisher’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

The Garfield Movie comes to Blu-Ray with a fetching 1080p transfer. The level of finesse and precision these animators put into every unique environment really thrives here. The texture of the character designs and the environments are impressive and give the film a real sense of dimension. The fluid nature of the character designs is one of the reasons this film stands out in HD. Black levels are incredibly strong with no signs of compression artifacts or digital anomalies of the sort. Viewers are treated to a sterling array of colors that radiate off the screen with the wide range of hues saturating every inch of the frame. This transfer is every bit as brilliant as a modern animated film should be on Blu-Ray.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray makes the most of its DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track which gives this story a favorable presentation. Dialogue comes through clearly without ever getting clipped by the competing music or sound effects. This track puts a focus on the front channels for a good portion of the sounds, but activity extends to the surrounds and rears during the more bustling and action-oriented bits along with the musical soundscape. The low end effects from the subwoofer give key sequences that extra push to ramp up the fun. Music maintains an effortless fidelity as it fills up the room. Atmospheric sound effects are rendered creatively within the mix so that directionality is never in question. Sony has delivered a top-notch audio experience for this one. Optional English, English SDH, and an array of other subtitles are provided.

Special Features

Indoor Cat, Outdoor Adventure: A nearly four-minute featurette on the decision to delve deeper into the backstory of Garfield for this big screen outing and how it opened up the world beyond what we know from the comics.

Cast of Critters: A four-minute look at the vocal talent behind the film.

Gag Reel: A nearly three-minute collection of flubbed lines, laughing fits, and more.

Easter Eggs – Garnishes à la Garfield: A four-minute dive into the fun references and tidbits that fans will love sprinkled throughout the film.

Deleted Scene: A three-minute unfinished scene in animatic form featuring a song from Hannah Waddingham.

How-to-Draw’s

- Garfield, Odie & Jon (7:26)

- Vic, Otto, Jinx, Roland & Nolan (10:54)

Concept Art & Animation

- Animation Progression Reel (2:07)

- Character & Environment Gallery

Previews

Final Thoughts

The Garfield Movie is a pretty safe interpretation of the classic character that has a decent number of laughs for the little ones and fewer for those who are facilitating the viewing experience. The creative team has at least some sense of respect for the source material, but they rarely choose to do anything truly exciting with it. The biggest disappointment is Chris Pratt voicing yet another animated character without much effort in conjuring a sense of individuality. There are some highlights in the vocal talent assembled, but we long for the days when actual voice actors got these roles over known stars. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray featuring a fabulous A/V presentation and a few brief supplemental materials. If you love the character, you will at least have a fine time with this entry.

The Garfield Movie is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.