Chris Pratt Will Be Voicing “Garfield” In A New Animated Movie
I loved Garfield so much as a dumb kid that I had a Garfield cake for my 10th birthday and the black icing stained my teeth for a week. So imagine my horror upon learning that noted non-fat actor Chris Pratt has just been cast as Garfield in a new animated movie. After being on the receiving end of a wide variety of athletic hand gestures from the Italianx community when it was announced that he would also be voicing Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Brothers movie, you would think that Chris would tread a little more cautiously when it comes to representing historically underrepresented groups. And fat lazy cats deserve better. Bustopher Jones anyone? Pratt’s casting as Garfield is the equivalent to an animated fat suit and I thought we weren’t doing those anymore!
Putting aside the fact that we’ve already had two Garfield movies, 2004’s Garfield and 2006’s Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, with Bill Murray slipping into digital orangeface for the role, do we really need a Garfield who can’t account for his whereabouts on January 6th, 2020? He says he was at the vet with John, but then why does he still have worms? According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Chris Pratt is going to voice the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating comic strip feline Garfield in a new animated movie.
Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson’s Alcon Entertainment is behind the new Garfield, which has been picked up for worldwide (excluding China) release by Sony Pictures. The script, written by Oscar nominee David Reynolds (Finding Nemo), is being directed by Mark Dindal (Chicken Little), with the duo having previously worked together on Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove.
When Chris announced he was going to be playing Mario, he told a perfectly believable anecdote about how as a kid he stole a quarter out of a wishing well so he could play the Mario Bros video game at his local laundromat and this was destiny’s way of making his wish come true. So I wonder what kind of convoluted backstory he’s going to give to explain why the universe threw Garfield in his path.
Pratt’s voice work includes the Lego Movie films and Pixar’s Onward as well as the upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated feature from Universal and Nintendo, where he will be voicing Mario. The actor, repped by UTA, Rise Management and Sloane Offer, was most recently seen in Amazon’s sci-fi feature The Tomorrow War and is due back in theaters in June with Jurassic World: Dominion.
And now he wants to play the world’s most iconic cat after Winston Churchill in Pet Sematary? Especially galling when you consider that Chris’ track record with cats is spotty at best. And are we just going to ignore the fact that Garfield is canonically an atheist? Shit, Chris doesn’t even eat carbs anymore! As a Garfield apologist, this lasagna-loving fat cat erasure cannot stand!
Pic: Wenn.com