Amy Love

Opinions Editor

aml7458@psu.edu

From an Instagram post from Chris Pratt himself, the announcement that he was voicing the fictional character Garfield was made. Pratt posted a photo of Garfield with the caption “Well this Monday doesn’t suck…” 

This film is being written by screenwriter David Reynolds, whose credits include “Finding Nemo,” and it is being directed by Mark Dindal, whose credit is “Chicken Little.” 

Reynolds and Dindal have previously worked on a film together, which was “Emperor’s New Groove.” 

The movie was previously announced in 2016 and this has been the only details to be released. This also is not the first movie to be made about Garfield; there were two other films released in 2004 and 2006. The films, “Garfield” and its sequel “Garfield: Tale of Two Cities” had the orange cat voiced by Bill Murray. 

Murray has mentioned that playing Garfield was one of his regrets, so there is reasoning behind why he is not voicing the cat for this film. In fact, he has offered an explanation of why he originally signed on for the movies, which was: “I did the Garfield movies, which were just like one crazier than the next. It’s true, yeah its absolutely true. And I didn’t really read the script. And I was like, ‘You know, I’d kind of love to do, try one of these animated movies. They’re kind of fun.’ I’m looking, I go, Joel Coen, one of my favorites, I mean the Coen brothers? These guys make great movies. Well it wasn’t that Joel Coen, it was a different Joel Cohen.” 

Coen has created films such as “Raising Arizona” and “The Big Lebowski,” while Choen’s films include “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “Daddy Day Camp.” 

Pratt is not new to being casted as a voice actor. He has voiced a character in the Lego movie franchise, Pixar’s “Onward” and it was previously announced that he was also voicing Mario in a new movie set to release December 2022. The movie is “Super Mario Bros.” 

Some people did not take these casting choices too well, and many had a field day with jokes about it. In an interview with IGN, Adi Shankar, who is a director for the Netflix’s anime based on “Devil May Cry” said: “‘I can also confirm that Chris Pratt won’t be voicing any characters.” 

For the upcoming film, “Lightyear,” some people were voicing complaints about Buzz Lightyear being casted by Chris Evans instead of Tim Allen. Playing on this information, Chris Killian tweeted the following: “Instead of being mad that Chris Pratt is voicing Mario and Garfield, try being glad that he isn’t voicing Buzz Lightyear.” 

There is no information about the release date for the new Garfield movie. There is also not a set title, the only available information is who is voicing the orange tabby and who is creating the film.