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The Garfield Movie
Movie

The Garfield Movie

2024 • Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

After Garfield's unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, ragged alley cat Vic, he and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered lives to join Vic on a risky heist.

Overall Series Review

The Garfield Movie departs from the original comic strip's core humor to present a generic, action-adventure heist film focused on a fractured family unit. The main story centers on Garfield's reunion with his long-lost father, Vic, and the subsequent efforts toward reconciliation, reinforcing the importance of family and belonging. The narrative follows a traditional moral arc where gluttony and selfishness are ultimately refuted by the need for connection and paternal love. Jon Arbuckle is a caring, if slightly inept, owner who genuinely misses his pets. The film avoids direct political lecturing or centering on human identity characteristics, as the main cast consists of animals. The most notable ideological inclusions are a minor critique of modern agribusiness and two fleeting implied non-traditional couplings, which are subtle elements in an otherwise universal, family-focused plot.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The movie’s focus is on universal themes of abandonment, family, and reconciliation between a father and son, not on human racial or intersectional politics. The characters are animals, which bypasses the criteria of race-swapping or vilification of whiteness. Merit is tied to character and competence in the heist plot, which is colorblind.

Oikophobia3/10

The central message is one of family and reunion, viewed as a source of strength, which upholds institutions. However, the film features a distinct element of institutional critique by depicting a corporate agribusiness as an adversarial and oppressive environment, and petting zoos are shown in a negative light as cruel to animals.

Feminism2/10

The main villain, Jinx, is a female cat, and another antagonistic figure, Mabel, is a domineering female security chief, which runs counter to the perfection of the 'Girl Boss' trope. The core emotional storyline is a masculine-centric father-son reconciliation arc between Garfield and Vic. Motherhood or natalism is not a theme, but the narrative does not contain anti-family or anti-natal messaging.

LGBTQ+2/10

The core relationships presented are a male father-son bond and a heterosexual animal romance between a bull and a cow. One review noted two very subtle, implied moments of same-gender relationships, but these are not centered or used for political lecturing, keeping the normative structure intact.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film explicitly contains a very strong moral worldview where virtues like family reconciliation, selflessness, and the refutation of greed are emphasized. There is no overt hostility toward religion. A joke about an 'all-you-can-eat buffet in the sky' is present, but it is a mild, non-hostile jest about the afterlife.