Garfield Gets Real

How does it seem contradictory? I just didn't expect them to have his mouth move. Clearly that was incorporating the movie into the next animated projects. Thankfully, it isn't jarring (or annoying) as giving Inspector gadget a talking Gadget Mobile in future animated versions, just because someone wanted it in the movie. But it's not detracting. I said that is was the only thing I wasn't comfortable with, but even then It's no big deal.

I'm defending the CGI actually (if you read the post directly above mine when the poster said the CGI looks like crap). I'd rather them do a film ALL in CGI than partially live action with CGI characters. Among other thing, the cartoon animals can act like cartoon animals. Unlike the film where Garfield was the only one, and Odie was real.

Not once did I say anything against this film. I think that even the fact a couple characters look akward, and they made his lips move, it's not like it's ruining the film for me. I'm extatic that we're finally getting the first animated garfield work since G&F was canncelled after years on CBS. This really looks like it upholds the classic strips and special much better than the movie did.
 
From the website and interviews Jim Davis seems to still be involved heavily with Garfield and from the website he wrote this DTV and he is the one who wanted to make it. I don't know how much of that to believe but what I do know is that I emailed Jim Davis using garfield.com and he asked for my mailing address to send me an autograph so that was nice of him.

More back on topic, after watching the trailer the voice is a decent replacement, not as good as Bill Murray but you can't do much about that. If Lorenzo Music was still alive and he wasn't doing the voice then I'd be mad about it but counting the circumstances this is not bad.

Garfield's lips moving is indeed odd, I didn't notice in the live action movies if he did it there. The movie itself from the trailer doesn't look that exciting which is a shame. I could be wrong though, I do know they seem to be putting a lot of effort on the movie, at least by giving weekly updates you don't usually see stuff like that.
 
I like the new voice, at least in the trailer. It's reasonably close to Music's awesome voice. As for the movie itself, I really don't think it looks very good (especially in terms of graphics-- the style just doesn't work too well in 3D).

Still, it should be better than the live-action ones.
 
After thinking about it a while, I have a question.

Do his lips move only when he's in the "real" world, or does it happen throught the movie, period (i.e., even when he is in "his" world)?
 
After 20+ years of starring in comics, animated specials and television shows how come now all of a sudden Garfield is opening his mouth when he talks? He never did it on TV and he never ever did it in the strip. Ever. But all of a sudden he's doing it now. Why?? And there's no excuse because Davis is working on this personally. Sellout.
 
But then of course, you gotta admit. He Looks like Garfield. not some nightmarish cartoon live action crossbread. That thing was ug-g-gally!!!
 
You know what I did find strange? That in the later seasons of G&F Garfield talked without moving lips, yet almost every other animal on the show did move lips. No, I don't mean the U.S. Acres characters, I mean other cats and dogs that appeared in it, like the Feline Philosopher or some random bully dogs. It felt very inconsistent.

Perhaps the worst offender was that "Only for Cats" episode. There's a flashback to how cats took over the human race, and there's a cat that looks just like Garfield (presumably his ancestor) and he talks with moving lips.

Even as a little kid I noticed this, and I would comment that I would have liked the show being more consistent.
 
While just sort of on the subject, I always assumed Garfield's not moving his lips signified that he was thinking, not talking. Which is why in the commics he always conveys his feelings through thought balloons. But it sometimes seems that Jon and Garfield can communicate somehow. And I always felt that the animals all had a telepathic bond.
 
There's an episode where Garfield shows that a machine that can read minds is used so the viewer can hear Garfield's thoughts.
 
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