BEFORE: Back to work today, so I didn't see the new backyard kitty. But my wife was home and fed her. Yes, it's a her, so if she sticks around we'll have to take some precautions against her having kittens.
Problems with my cable boxes continue - my upstairs DVR is having troubling saving recorded shows. It records them, but then can't save them. Rebooting the box helps, but only for a couple of days, then the problem comes back. Which would only be a problem if my job required me to watch TV at home. Oh, wait, it does. Hoping to have the problem fixed on Saturday, if Time Warner Cable shows up to repair it. My fear is that they'll need to swap out the box and I'll lose 5 or 6 episodes of "Chopped".
THE PLOT: Jon Arbuckle travels to the United Kingdom, and he brings his cat, Garfield, along for the trip. A case of mistaken cat identity finds Garfield ruling over a castle, but his reign is soon jeopardized by the nefarious Lord Dargis.
AFTER: Ah, there's nothing that kids like more than titles that riff off of Charles Dickens novels. Though "A Tale of Two Cities" featured a classic case of look-alikes, the plot here mostly rips off "The Prince and the Pauper" - at least, the parts it didn't steal from "The Aristocats". Yes, only three films into the new year, and things are already getting repetitive.
Once again, we've got an older woman who leaves her inheritance to her beloved cat. And once again there's a stuffed-shirt proper Briddish-type villain who needs to dispose of the feline standing in between him and his perceived rightful fortune. And where "The Aristocats" had some random geese and farm dogs, this film also adds ducks, rabbits, pigs, goats, ferrets, a parrot, and I think some kind of musk ox for good measure.
My 3-year old niece and nephew are going through an animal phase, so that tells me about what age level this film was aiming at. But just because you're making a kid's film, you don't have to make a dumb film, or throw in a bunch of random talking animals just as eye candy.
If you want to read between the lines, there's some stuff here about class struggle, the working farm animals vs. the indoor pet animals, but I suspect I'm overthinking it. This isn't "Animal Farm". On a slightly simpler level, there's the dichotomy between look-alikes Garfield and Prince, the rich cat. Like people, some cats are born of privilege, and others aren't. Perhaps this is on my mind when I compare my spoiled indoor cat to the one living in the backyard.
Of course, since this is a movie, the cats are content to take advantage of their seemingly improved stations - Garfield enjoys the comforts of his new mansion, and Prince enjoys sitting on a hotel couch and watching TV. (They didn't have TV in his castle?) But, eventually (Spoiler alert...) they each long to return to their lives and find a way to switch back, and get slapsticky revenge on the upper-class twit who's so conveniently cruel to animals.
NITPICK POINT: Once again, it's surprisingly easy for Garfield (or Prince) to escape from his owner when necessary. Convenient plot point, or just bad supervision? But whereas that was the WHOLE plot of last night's film, here it's just a small development.
NITPICK POINT #2: Garfield + Odie stash themselves in Jon's luggage to get to the U.K., thus neatly avoiding weeks of quarantine. But no one x-rayed the bags? And they lasted 12-14 hours without food, water, or air?
NITPICK POINT #3: Again, Garfield is supposed to be LAZY. One would think this condition to be heightened after days spent pigging out and living in the lap of luxury. But again, he seems incredibly agile (and very animated...) when the plot calls for it. Still, out of character.
Starring Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, voice of Bill Murray (all carrying over from last night), plus Billy Connolly (last seen in "The Last Samurai"), Roger Rees (last seen in "The Prestige"), Ian Abercrombie (Mr. Pitt from "Seinfeld"), and the voices of Tim Curry (last seen in "Kinsey"), Bob Hoskins (last seen in "The Cotton Club"), Sharon Osbourne, Jane Leeves (last seen in "Miracle on 34th St."), Rhys Ifans (last seen in "Pirate Radio") and Vinnie Jones (last seen in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels").
RATING: 5 out of 10 oil paintings
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