Our reviewer, Riley Barn, had a cat-astic time watching The Garfield Movie here at the Torch. If you like cats, a lot of action and adventure, treat yourself to the movie here in Pembrokeshire.

Garfield, the lazy Monday hating cat, gets kidnapped along with his dog companion Odie but is miraculously saved by a figure Garfield slightly remembers, Garfield’s father Vic. After a tense reunion they are all captured again and forced to steal milk from a “little” family milk company. Now they are all forced to work together to steal for an old colleague of Vic who cannot be trusted. 

I will admit I haven’t watched a lot of the classic Garfield TV shows so I was pretty fresh with this orange cat, but I think it gave me the opportunity to look at this movie with fresh eyes and I must say I think this is a great film! Packed full of goofy action and family comedia it is a great watch for anyone, no matter the age. Most of the jokes hit right and I loved some of the serious yet fun scenes. It makes for an amazing blend of everything that I know Garfield for. Vic (voiced by Samuel L Jackson) tries to grow into the father Garfield needs him to be while Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt) struggles to believe that Vic really wants to change after his original abandonment. This leads to some truly sad and emotional moments between the two as they work to try and fix everything including their relationship.

Now I would like to address the thing about this and other movies that many people didn't like. Chris Pratt has been voicing a lot of famous characters and many people don't think it's good. They believe that it's just “hire a big actor and get lots of money” but I genuinely think that Chris Pratt did an amazing job as Garfield. In some way he sounds like himself but also not like himself which I thought was very interesting. There were things however that in my opinion were kind of useless. Characters and whole plot lines were added in that felt so meaningless and added nothing to the story. One extra obstacle, no moral question, only a small and somewhat weird meeting near the end of the film. I at least feel there should have been a bit more evolution with these side stories. Other than that, I think the film is great! One final note, anyone who has seen Top Gun will enjoy parts of this film.

I highly recommend this film for a family experience for children and adults.