Review of Garfield's Pet Force (2009) by Mike M — 16 Sep 2010

The most prominent sign yet of the disregard the producers - and, more alarmingly, creator Jim Davis, who takes a screenplay credit here - have for Garfield as anything other than a profit-generating brand, "Pet Force" doesn't rewrite the rules of the Garfield universe so much as burn the rulebook altogether.

Part of the film wants us to credit the notion of Garfield as a buff, clued-up Buzz Lightyear-like intergalactic superhero, a makeover comparable to recasting Fred Flintstone as an Olympic athlete, or Bart Simpson as a Rhodes scholar.

Presumably the idea - as there was behind the similarly cheap "Space Chimps" and "Planet 51" - was that while DreamWorks and Pixar have assumed control of the earthly animation market, there might yet be life on other planets for poverty-row animators; the result - seemingly aimed at toddlers barely able to discern colours and shapes, let alone quality product from cash-ins - is depressing enough to make "Marmaduke 2" seem like an appealing proposition - and no doubt even that's entering pre-production as a 3D DVD item as we speak.