Synopsis

Garfield the world’s favorite cat, has begun his very own British Invasion, wreaking havoc on the entire United Kingdom. He's traveled across the pond (with canine sidekick Odie) to surprise his master, Jon Arbuckle, who is in London to propose to his girlfriend, veterinarian Liz Wilson. Garfield came, he saw, he conquered: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Scotland Yard and his new favorite dish: hot minced pie (okay, it’s not lasagna, but you can’t have everything). As befitting an adventure worthy of a feline phenomenon, Garfield has switched places with Prince, a royal cat who has just inherited a castle. Now the castle is Garfield’s. Is there anyone who’s more deserving? Perhaps Smithee? Maybe, after all he was the late masters faithful servant. And then there is Dargis. With Prince out of the way, he would inherit everything. And needless to say, Dargis would love to get hold of everything.

What The Critics Say

"Kids might enjoy some of the routine lowbrow slapstick and zany animal antics on display here. Adults will find it tedious going." Todd Jorgenson DENTON RECORD CHRONICLE "Anyone want to see animals making lasagna or sporting party hats at a pool party?" Pete Croatto FILMCRITIC.COM "Not to be catty, but did we need another Garfield movie?" Neil Smith BBC "A lively sense of the ridiculous and grounding in fantasy makes the Garfield sequel chortling and fluffy fun. The welcome difference between this and the original film is that the filmmakers have opted for a fairy-tale tone, taking us straight into a make-believe environment. The humour pelts us from all angles - slapstick physical comedy, witty lines, crass toilet humour and a healthy sense of the ridiculous. All the family will enjoy this smart and funny sequel. Mee-yow!" Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE

"Connolly, bless him, throws himself heartily into the task of acting opposite a computer-generated cat given to bad puns and flatulence. Everyone else, however, looks mortified, and can you blame them?" Elizabeth Weitzman NEW YORK DAILY NEWS "Cat fanciers and five-year-olds will have a great time, but everyone else will likely find themselves wishing they'd buried this one in the litter box." E! ONLINE "Though mediocre, it's not the complete load of kitty litter the first movie was." Frank Swietek ONE GUY'S OPINION "I've always had a soft spot for Garfield, and this may account, at least in part, for the fact that I enjoyed a lot of this movie. When the humans have the sense to keep quiet, and the animals are doing their shtick, there's great fun to be had. Kind of like life, now that I think about it." Jessica Reaves CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Inside Story If your an adult fan of the comic strip "Garfield" you'll probably feel somewhat obligated to seeing this sequal, "Garfield 2". Mind you, you may be terribly, terribly disappointed, but that's a lesson you should have learnt from the original, "Garfield". Obviously someone thought taking that big, fat, ginger ball of fur to the big screen for a second time was what the world needed, after all, the comic strip "Garfield" has been a huge success over the years and surprisingly the film "Garfield the Movie took $US75,253,404 in the USA and $US200 million in worldwide box-office receipts. The syndicated cartoon strip is read in 2,600 newspapers by 260 million readers around the world. The sad fact is, despite their best efforts, the sequal, "Garfield 2" (or "Garfield A Tale Of Two Kitties") has proven to be a huge flop at the box-office taking just $US28,280,486 this time in the USA. "It was about time that Garfield becomes a big movie star," says John Davis chairman of Davis Entertainment, whose sixty five plus film and television productions have earned more than two billion dollars (US) worldwide. "He’s lazy, funny, crotchety and he has attitude. It doesn’t matter if you’re five years old or fifty; everyone can relate to him on some level." You'd expect John Davis to get very excited about anything "Garfield", after all, he admits he's a big fan. "I loved the comic strip as a kid, and I am truly honored that Jim Davis granted me the opportunity to take that franchise and turn it into movies," Davis says. "I think Jim has created an icon that spans the world." Jim Davis, creator of the "Garfield" comic strip and who is no relation of John Davis would have been cock a hoop that his somewhat outspoken creation was, despite all the critics warning otherwise, a huge success the first time round. "I think Garfield is popular to people of all ages for several reasons," says Davis. "He’s a very physical animal when it comes to humor, and kids love that. Teens identify with his resentment for authority; he’s very much his own cat. And on an adult level, he relieves our guilt about such little foibles as over-eating, sleeping too much, not exercising enough, or being unmotivated. He has the courage to say and do a lot of things that we wouldn’t. So he speaks for a lot of us." Bouyed by the success of "Garfield the Movie" John Davis says they "wanted a bigger canvass and grander concept worthy of Garfield's worldwide big-screen stardom. We wanted to take Garfield out of his usual environs, owner Jon Arbuckle’s home on a cul-de-sac," says Davis, "and take him to a more exotic location." And where did the idea for this latest adventure spring from. It seems we have screen writer Alec Sokolow Sokolow’s neighbors to thank for providing the inspiration for his and Joel Cohen’s screenplay. "A married couple who lived near me had passed away, and their will stipulated that their maid could live in their home; provided the maid took care of the couple’s dog," Sokolow explained. So how then did merry olde England get into the picture? Davis has already said he wanted a grander concept and what could be more grander than the stiff lipped, upper crust and their grand historic English homes. "For the new film, we wanted Garfield to be a reactive comic character, and we needed to place him somewhere interesting where he could react, and make him a fish out of water," Sokolow said. Enter Merry Ole England and a royal makeover for the famed feline. "There’s a sense of pomp and circumstance in England that we thought we could have a lot of fun with," says Joel Cohen. "A royal lifestyle sometimes carries a ridiculous protocol, which seemed ripe for the Garfield treatment." The idea that there would be a 'princely' "garfield" already existing in jolly old England? Sokolow explained "a light bulb went on about incorporating a prince-and-the-pauper element into the story." "Jim understands who Garfield is better than anyone else," says Cohen. "Garfield’s voice and world view is very important to Jim, and was a strong influence as we wrote the script. So when we’d pitch ideas to Jim, if he didn’t like something, he’d say 'Well that’s nice', unenthusiastically," says Sokolow. "When he really liked something, he’d say, 'Well that’s NICE'. They would be the same words, but a totally different inflection. So he steered us in his own subtle way." Director Tim Hill, who wrote "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie", which by the way is a great hire or buy on DVD, was intrigued by Cohen and Sokolow’s premise. So he set out to research the 'pets get everything left to them' premise. "I went online and discovered many instances of owners providing a sizeable inheritance to their pets," says Hill. "I really liked that as a starting point for our tale." And setting the story in England? Hill says he appreciated the story’s British setting. "In England, Garfield’s not only a fish out water, he’s a bull in a china shop." If there's one point I do agree on about the making of "Garfield the Movie" and "Garfield 2" it was the choice of BAFTA and Golden Globe winner Billy Murray as the fat cats voice. "Bill Murray is hilarious. He has just the right delivery and attitude to be the cat. It was perfect casting. In both films, Bill provided the perfect synergy and attitude to the character," says Garfield creator Jim Davis. "Half the work was done when Bill agreed to do the voice because everybody knows Bill for that attitude. Everyone knows Garfield for his attitude. So when you have Bill's voice, you’re halfway home." Unlike the first film when Murray recorded the voice after the animation was completed, this time round the animators went into production after Murray had recorded the dialopue. "The animators listened carefully to Bill’s voice performance," says "X2" and "Fat Albert" animation supervisor Chris Bailey. "But not to figure out dialogue nuances; instead, they were interested in the bigger picture; i.e. what makes him Bill Murray." Returning for the live roles are Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Breckin plays Garfield's owner Jon Arbuckle says, "I still have that small 'issue' of being allergic to cats, so I was more than happy to work opposite a beanbag, which stood in for Garfield during principal photography." Jennifer Love Hewitt once again plays the love interest in the film. The star of the TV series "The Ghost Whisperer" was very happy to reprise her role as Liz, even if it meant juggling a tight schedule which meant working Monday to Friday nights on "The Ghost Whisperer" and then all day sunday on the set of "Garfield 2". "It was a lot to handle,” Hewitt says, “but I loved both projects, so I was very enthusiastic to come to work each day," she says. And is it true she once had a cat like Garfield? "I grew up watching the Garfield cartoon series, and even got a big orange cat," she says. "I tried Garfield’s favorite dish, lasagna, for the first time when I was making the movie. But what I now love most about Garfield is his sarcasm. I’m very sarcastic too, so I appreciate that kind of humor." New members in the sequal include much loved larrikan comedian Billy Connolly and the delightful Ian Abercrombie. Billy, who plays the dastardly Lord Dargis said, playing the bad guy provided many 'benefits'. "I love playing a bad guy," Connolly adds. "Bad guys always get the more interesting things to say and do." But you take a beating in this role, don't you? "I get hit on the head with a rake, chased over a fence and bitten by a Rottweiler, fall down a flight of stairs, a piano cover falls on my hands, and I duel with Breckin Meyer. Everyone’s out to get me in this film. It’s real slapstick comedy, and was a good excuse for me to just run around being silly." And what is his assessment of his character Lord Dargis? Billy says Dargis is a "nasty, lazy piece of work." Noting "he crashes around thinking he’s clever, but he’s really a shifty, upper class twit." While all this sounds pretty good, the fact of the matter is "Garfield 2" will really only find total appeal from those who qualify as ankle-biters or those amongst the audience who are the most dedicated of Garfield fans. When it comes to pint-sized cinemagoers, the abundance of talking animals and their antics will keep the little ones happy. The Verdict "Adults may well feel as though they have been through hell after sitting through what their eyes will see as a lack-lustre sequel. Dear oh dear, even poor old Billy Connolly appears to be struggling a bit with this one. But come-on parents, do it for the ankle-biters who will love Garfield, his twin 'Prince' and the antics of all the other talking animals at the castle. The word on "Garfield 2" is this: leave it for the real littlies because any 'grown-up' kids in the audience won't be able to sit still. Recommended for those little brats aged 7 years and under. 2 1/2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "GARFIELD 2" stars .......
Breckin Meyer ["Roadtrip", "GO" and "Herbie, Fully Loaded"]; 1998 Blockbuster Entertainment Award winner Jennifer Love Hewitt ["The Tuxedo", "Heartbreakers" and TV'S "Ghost Whisperer"]; Billy Connolly ["Mrs Brown", "The Man Who Sued God" and "The Last Samurai"]; Ian Abercrombie ["Endgame", "The L.A. Riot Spectacular" and "Hard Four"], Bob Hoskins ["Maid In Manhattan", "Beyond the Sea", "Unleashed" and "Mrs Henderson Presents"] and Bill Murray ["Ghostbusters", "Rushmore", "Lost In Translation" and "Broken Flowers"] as the voice of Garfield.
"GARFIELD 2" was .......
directed by Tim Hill ["Muppets From Space" and "Max Keeble’s Big Move"]; screenplay by Joel Cohen ["Garfield" and "Toy Story"] and Alec Sokolow ["Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Money Talks"]; production design by BAFTA Award winner Tony Burrough ["A Knight’s Tale", "The Santa Clause 2", "Ladder 49" and "Hotel Rwanda"]; original music by EMMY Award winner Christophe Beck ["Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Under the Tuscan S"]; costume design by Francine Jamison-Tanchuck ["Serving Sara" and "The Negotiator"] and produced by John Davis ["Flight of the Phoenix", "Behind Enemy Lines" and "I Robot"]. Run Time 81 minutes Rated G [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - 20th Century Fox - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved