The Garfield Movie
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: May 24, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
14
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
68
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerMay 20, 2024
All told, it’s a surprisingly good time. The Garfield Movie may be as disposable as one of those numbered paperbacks that ex-kids of a certain age may fondly recall from their Scholastic book orders, but it approximates their sense of fun, too. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMay 27, 2024
Though the film is formulaic and somewhat annoyingly energetic, it’s cute and irreverent enough, and manages to bridge the generation gap, offering up a kid-friendly flick that can keep adults somewhat entertained for the duration, proving that even after all these years, Garfield’s still got it. Read full review
55
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMay 19, 2024
When I say The Garfield Movie is the best Garfield movie, it’s going to sound like faint praise. Because it is. But faint praise is still praise. Read full review
50
The Daily BeastColeman SpildeMay 24, 2024
The Garfield Movie fundamentally misunderstands the charm of Garfield. Read full review
50
IndieWireKate ErblandMay 20, 2024
Call it a case of the Mondays, but this kitty needs to go way back to the drawing board. Read full review
50
LooperAlistair RyderMay 19, 2024
In trying to reinvent the lazy feline for modern kids, the filmmakers have lost track of the comedic tone that has helped these simple, gag-driven stories endure for decades. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMay 19, 2024
It all plays as routinely as you’d expect, making the film directed by Mark Dindal (The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little) feel much longer than it is, at least for anyone over the age of 10. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubLeigh MonsonMay 23, 2024
When brand perpetuation is as soulless and milquetoast as this, it seems unlikely that it will create any new fans at all. Read full review
40
EmpireJohn NugentMay 23, 2024
This latest attempt to adapt the world’s laziest cat for the big screen just feels plain lazy: pure kids’-movie-by-numbers. The cinematic equivalent of a Monday. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMay 23, 2024
It’s not that it’s unfunny or completely without charm: it’s that the script feels like an abandoned The Secret Life of Pets sequel into which Garfield has been crowbarred. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 23, 2024
It’s just a product that behaves like one – which is a pity, since studio animation is now bolder and more dynamic than it has been for years. Not hellish – but pretty purr-gatorial. Read full review
40
Screen RantRachel LaBonteMay 23, 2024
At times, it feels as though The Garfield Movie is going through the motions, and it fails to offer anything particularly noteworthy about its main character. Read full review
40
ColliderMatt DonatoMay 22, 2024
The Garfield Movie is silly to a fault, feels seventeen hours long, and lacks any pulse of life. Read full review
40
IGNA.A. Dowd May 19, 2024
The Garfield Movie applies some nice animation to an annoying all-ages comedy of product placement, phone jokes, and daddy issues. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithMay 19, 2024
Long before the film reaches its action-packed, train-based climax, however, adults will be questioning if its three writers have so much as seen an actual Garfield comic strip, given how removed their work feels from its activity-averse inspiration. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 10, 2024
Garfield still loves his lasagna, still underestimates Odie the dog and grumbles about “Mondays.” But slapstick and decent CGI animation aside, and even grading on that “aimed at very young children” curve, this “Garfield Movie” is slim pickings. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMay 22, 2024
The somewhat inappropriate story won’t matter to youngsters who’ll be hypnotized by a color scheme so bright you need sunglasses to view it. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comNell MinowMay 20, 2024
The storyline is complicated but not particularly engaging. There are elements that are too arcane or unsettling for children and not of any special comedic value for adults. Read full review
38
The Associated PressMark KennedyMay 20, 2024
A curious new animated attempt to monetize the comic icon again by giving him an origin story and then asking him to do things a galaxy away from what he does in the funny pages. Read full review
37
Washington PostAmy NicholsonMay 24, 2024
Made for an audience mostly too young to have held the funny pages of a newspaper, it’s a madcap heist flick that feels like someone grabbed a random screenplay and scrawled “Garfield” at the top. Read full review
30
CNNBrian LowryMay 23, 2024
Part heist movie, part family reunion, the film draws upon the most salient characteristics of the flabby feline, but mostly as an excuse to build a story that seems to crawl further from its origins with every passing frame. Read full review
30
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsMay 21, 2024
Jim Davis’ once-witty comic-strip creation is no slouch when it comes to commercial tie-ins, but The Garfield Movie somehow marks some kind of obscene apotheosis of this dark art. Read full review
30
VarietyCarlos AguilarMay 19, 2024
It’s a Garfield movie for audiences who have never heard of Garfield, which reads as an attempt at erasing history and reintroducing him in this high-octane, overly stimulated form for a generation with reduced attention spans. Read full review
20
ABC NewsPeter TraversMay 24, 2024
Soon to be infamous for bad decisions, this despairingly off-kilter toon looks like a movie, talks like a movie, but feels like a cynical cash grab propelled by the idiocy of turning our favorite mouthy, shamelessly lazy cat into a blah action hero voiced by Chris Pratt. Read full review
20
The New York TimesBrandon YuMay 23, 2024
It’s a Garfield movie that strangely doesn’t feel as if Garfield as we know him is really there at all. Read full review
20
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyMay 23, 2024
The Garfield Movie is stuffed with enough tragic backstories to make a therapist rich. Read full review
20
The GuardianCharles BramescoMay 22, 2024
This shameless shilling comes packaged in an equally offensive story that foists Hollywood’s au courant fixation with intergenerational trauma on to a character heretofore occupied above all with napping and eating. Read full review
15
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 21, 2024
This new Garfield outing is a true feat in shoulder-shrugging nothingness. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleZaki HasanMay 22, 2024
The Garfield Movie is a reheated tray of stale lasagna. Read full review
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