Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is a comedy about a cat who swaps places with a royal feline and then gets mistaken for a prince. It is also a sequel that does the bare minimum to justify its existence.
The 86-minute film follows Jon Arbuckle and his pets, Garfield and Odie, as they travel to the United Kingdom. There, a case of mistaken cat identity finds Garfield ruling over a castle. His reign is soon jeopardized by Lord Dargis, who has designs on the estate. The plot is loosely inspired by Mark Twain’s novel The Prince and the Pauper, which is a good starting point for a story about two cats who look alike. It is not a good ending point.
Trailer, via Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers.
Cast and Voice Work
The film stars Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Liz, and Bill Murray as Garfield’s voice. Billy Connolly plays Lord Dargis. Tim Curry voices the royal cat Prince, and Ian Abercrombie plays Smithee, the butler. Roger Rees, Lucy Davis, and Oliver Muirhead appear in live-action roles, while Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Vinnie Jones, Joe Pasquale, Richard E. Grant, and Jane Leeves fill out the voice cast.
That is a lot of names for a film that spends most of its runtime on cats. The human actors get little to do beyond reading lines that explain the situation. Murray’s Garfield delivers the jokes, and he does it well. Meyer and Hewitt are competent but do not add much to the proceedings. Connolly is the standout in a small role, but his screen time is limited.
What the Plot Does
The case of mistaken cat identity is a simple idea. Garfield and Odie sneak into Jon’s luggage and join him on the trip to London. They escape from a kennel, get lost on the streets, and are eventually found by the wrong people. Smithee takes Garfield to the castle, thinking he is Prince. Jon’s pets are taken to the estate by Smithee, thinking they are Prince.
This should be a funny setup. It is not.
The film spends too much time on the mechanics of the swap and too little on the consequences. Garfield becomes a prince, which means he is treated with reverence by the animals who work the castle. He is fed, pampered, and protected by Winston, the bulldog majordomo. He teaches them how to make lasagna. The stakes are simple and clear:
- Garfield must avoid being discovered as a fraud
- Lord Dargis must succeed in his plan to turn the castle into a resort
- Smithee must keep the two cats apart
None of it lands. The animals are comical in theory. In practice, they are just repeated shots of cats being cute. The film does not use the setup to build tension, and it does not use the stakes to push the story forward. It just keeps showing Garfield in a castle, eating lasagna, and being adored by animals.
Length and Pace
The film is 86 minutes long. That is short. It should have been shorter.
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties was released by 20th Century Fox in the United States on June 16, 2006, and in the United Kingdom on July 21. It earned $143 million against a budget of $60 million.
The film is a mess, and it knows it is a mess. It is the kind of sequel that exists to fill theaters and sell toys, not to entertain anyone who already owns the first one.
Release Dates
| Region | Release Date |
|---|---|
| United States | June 16, 2006 |
| United Kingdom | July 21 |
The Verdict
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is a failure. It is a failure of writing, a failure of direction, and a failure of ambition. It is a film that could have been a charming little adventure and instead became a bloated, unfunny mess. It is a film that deserves to be forgotten. It is a film that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. It is a disappointment that will be cited as an example of what not to do when making a sequel.
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