Garfield's Pet Force
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Garfield's Pet Force is a 2009 direct-to-video computer-animated superhero comedy family film based on characters from the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield and loosely based on the Pet Force novel series. It is the third/final installment in a film trilogy that also includes Garfield Gets Real and Garfield's Fun Fest and the fifth overall Garfield film. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 16, 2009. It was written by Garfield creator Jim Davis. In 2010, it was re-released in 3-D.
Plot
Nothing in the world can make Garfield get involved in anything besides eating and/or sleeping, until a muscular superhero version of him named Garzooka comes crashing into Cartoon World from the Comic Book universe with terrifying news. Garfield must summon up the willpower to join his superhero Garzooka in a fight to save both worlds.
Not Super Qualities
- The animation once again is really cheap and poorly-done, and this becomes more evident with the characters who get affected by the MoScram at the start of the film, as well as some of the extras.
- Several inconsistencies with the source material. For example, the planet Polyester is named Dorkon, and because the animators were too lazy to make new models (and Jim Davis didn't even think of adding any characters that weren't the main cast we've seen from the first two films), Sorcerer Binky is replaced by Professor Wally. Also, Garzooka uses a generic spaceship instead of the Lightspeed Lasagna, and Emperor Jon doesn't fall in love with Vetvix in the novels yet he does in the movie. The film doesn't even have characters such as Compooky or any of the other villains shown in the novels.
- The plot is overall extremely weak and it's just the typical "Stop the bad guy from destroying the world" plot but with the Pet Force storyline shoehorned in... for the first few minutes of the film because after that the film has absolutely nothing to do with the stories shown in the Pet Force novels.
- The characters are still dumbed down from their comic counterparts.
- The plot is way too wacky and unrealistic, which clashes horribly with the down to Earth tone the comics had, not to mention that the Pet Force series takes place in a different timeline and universe, so it makes no sense why the characters from the Pet Force universe can make it to Garfield's world.
- There's barely any action scenes, which is unacceptable for a superhero movie. In fact, there are only two action scenes in the entire movie, and they happen rather late into the film.
- The 3D version, for whatever reason, skips over some scenes, leaving the run time to 73 minutes, making it even shorter than the previous films (this film is 79 minutes long, which is a minute shorter than before).
- The climax is your generic "fight the monster and save the day" scene.
- Garfield barely does anything noteworthy the entire movie, except during the ending.
- False Advertising: On the DVD cover, Garfield wears a red cape, but he doesn't wear it in the actual film.
Super Qualities
- Some of the jokes are decent, such as during the climax where Garfield tries to catch a hot dog in slow motion, and this is a rare occurance in the whole direct-to-video Garfield movie trilogy where the movie can actually make you laugh sometimes.
- It is nice to see the Pet Force in animation for the first time, and to see them return after being dormant since the 90s.
- The joke at the end with Betty ending up at the wedding is funny.
- While it takes many liberties with the Pet Force source material in the movie, it does try to stay true to the source material like the previous two installments.
- Decent concept, despite being poorly executed.