Is The Garfield Movie OK for kids? Is The Garfield Movie safe for kids? Read The Garfield Movie Review | Safe for Kids? 2024 Parents Guide, an honest parents guide and mom review of the all-new Sony/Columbia Pictures original animated film Garfield 2024, starring Chris Pratt as Garfield and Samuel L. Jackson as Vic. No spoilers! #GarfieldMovie May contain commissioned links.
2024 Parents Guide The Garfield Movie Review | Safe for Kids?
The cat’s out of the bag. Garfield is back!
After 10-years and a Bill Murray cat-astrophy of a Garfield: The Movie 2004 live action film (rated a whopping 14% on Rotten Tomatoes – OUCH!), Garfield is taking the hint and leaving the live-action world behind for a CGI animated version of the classic Jim Davis comic strip cat. And while my 1980’s loving husband may be happy to see his childhood friend make a come back in 2024, is a new generation of kids happy to see him?
Or should we hit a final paws button on this whole Garfield 2024 reboot?
In The Garfield Movie Review | Safe for Kids?, I’m breaking down the visuals, the story, a full PG age rating explanation for violence, adult themes and language, and what kids’ age recommendation is suggested to watch in this new 2024 The Garfield Movie parents guide to the new Columbia Pictures animated film. A no-spoiler parent review of The Garfield Movie 2024, is this animated summer flick going to be a family must-see or far from purr-fect?
The Visuals
Visually, The Garfield Movie is step up from rather LARGE and awkward 2004 “live action” Garfield: The Movie. Going back to his roots, Garfield 2024 took a page from loveable comic strip cartoon with CGI animation and visual effects that are bright, bubbly, and cute – appealing to younger viewers and family audiences.
Photosensitivity Warning. For viewers prone to epilepsy and photosensitivity, be warned that The Garfield Movie 2024 has MULTIPLE scenes of bright flashing or strobing lights. Between scenes of lightning flashes to CGI animated electric shock-type weapons – I counted over 9 possible scenes that could be triggering for seizures. There no scenes of note with dizzying and fast spinning camera movements that could be nausea inducing.
The Story
Directed by Mark Dindal (“The Emperor’s New Groove“) and written by Paul A Kaplan (“Spin City“), Mark Torgove (“The Late Bloomer“), and David Reynolds (“Finding Nemo“), The Garfield Movie is an all-new animated film adventure based on the popular Jim Davis comic strip starring Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise) as Garfield, Samuel L Jackson (“The Marvels“) as Vic, along with voice cast of Hannah Waddingham (“The Fall Guy“), Ving Rhames (“Mission Impossible” franchise), Nicholas Hoult (“The Menu“), Cecily Strong (“Ghostbusters“), Harvey Guillén (“Blue Beetle“), Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso“), Bowen Yang (upcoming 2024 “Wicked“), and Snoop Dog (“Turbo“).
The story follows the world-famous and classic comic strip cat, Garfield – known for his lazy, selfish attitude, affinity for eating A LOT of food, and his dislike for Mondays. After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, Garfield and his bestie Odie are in for a wild outdoor adventure of a lifetime as they team up for a hilarious, high stakes heist!
I think Garfield 2004 got the message for Garfield 2024. Whether kids have read the classic comics or not, this easy-to-digest film can be picked up by casual movie goers and Garfield lovers alike. Keeping things light, simple, and kid-focused, this simplistic story is rooted in true Garfield origins and easy to follow themes of family, trust, and love. The real question is – is The Garfield Movie for kids?
The Garfield Movie PG Rating Explained
Is The Garfield Movie 2024 safe for kids? A Garfield animated film that is rated PG? Should parents be concerned? It’s no secret that I am highly skeptical of all MPAA ratings (um hello, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker not disclosing any language??). And as we know, not all movie and TV age ratings are the same. As a parent, it’s been rather heartbreaking to witness how ratings have shifted over the years with a G-rating no longer an option to help guide parents.
PG ratings now oscillating between Turning Red intense to Christopher Robin calm, and even PG-13/TV-14 age ratings teetering on the edge of R or MA ratings (Moon Knight and Werewolf by Night, I see you!), there’s a wide range between the age of 0-14 years old for parents to consider. Having fully disclosed parent guidelines can help determine if a movie or show is kid friendly – and safe for the whole family to watch together.
Why is The Garfield Movie rated PG? In The Garfield Movie Review | Safe for Kids?, this 2024 The Garfield Movie from Columbia Pictures is rated PG for “action/peril and mild thematic elements.” With film and TV ratings also unpredictable these days, having fully disclosed parent guidelines can help determine if a movie or television show like The Garfield Movie is kid friendly. Is The Garfield Movie too crude for kids? Is The Garfield Movie for kids? Let’s breakdown that PG age rating in this The Garfield Movie parents guide.
Violence/Suspense. The Garfield Movie is an animated cartoon based film with action, adventure, and mild peril that’s similar to other animated kid movies. Expect lots of over-the-top and exaggerated fist fighting and hand-to-hand combat (including punches slaps and kicks between characters), kidnapping, imprisonment, bound characters, and a variety of weapons including knives, electric shock sticks, and an ax.
Blood and gore are both minimal to none for The Garfield Movie. There is one verbal reference to “waxy buildup” in reference to a character’s ear – but nothing is seen. Electrocution of characters is common. Animal death is implied visually and verbally – including multiple scenes of flattened “roadkill” that appears in the film for laughs – but still is slightly grisly/grotesque to look at. Animal death by ingestion also occurs, but is meant for laughs. Cartoon spiders are present – for “creepy” effect. Some of the villain animal characters may appear “scary” looking to younger kids – but the cartoon appearance is overall less frightening.
Adult Themes. There is a mild to moderate amount of “implied” alcohol consumption in The Garfield Movie – including the appearance of cocktails in martini glasses (even though it is milk) and characters holding tropical mixed drinks in their hands. No drugs, smoking, or gambling present.
The Garfield Movie 2024 adult themes include discussions of mental health issues including “depression,” trust and abandonment issues, and questionable parenting tactics. There’s also multiple discussions about imprisonment and jail.
Toilet humor references The Garfield Movie 2024 includes verbal references to “bird poop” and “butt,” a visual scene of characters scratching their behinds, and a visual of a character in a pile of brown substance with a bag that is labeled “manure” next to it.
Does The Garfield Movie have sexual innuendo? I guess comic strip Garfield is keeping up with the times here. While there are no sex scenes there scenes that include hugging, kissing, holding hands, and implied romantic “love” between characters. There is a sexual innuendo verbal reference to “dating apps” including mention about “tinder.” There is also a quick yet slightly disturbing scene of a child “milking” a fake set of cow udders.
There are multiple implied visual and verbal references to being “large” including jiggling of bellies appearance of an excessive amount of skin rolls eating in glutinous amounts breaking scales and focus on “gut” sounds. While one part of the Garfield character and one part self-deprecating humor – fat shaming could also be insinuated.
Language. Does The Garfield Movie have language? There are no foul language phrases and or swear words in Garfield 2024. However…that does NOT mean that The Garfield Movie is totally clean either.
Milder bad language phrases and insults in The Garfield Movie include: “bloody,” “stupid,” “half wit,” “losers,” “thugs,” “hate,” “stinky,” and “son of a gun.” Overall, The Garfield Movie 2024 is very mild for language.
The Garfield Movie Age Rating for Kids
With a runtime of 1 hour 41 minutes, The Garfield Movie 2024 runs a little longer than usual for kid films. With animated CGI visuals and an overly simple plot line – some older kids may be bored with the amount of physical comedy versus verbal jokes and overexaggerated action sequences to appease a younger child audience.
However, fans of the classic comic strip and the Garfield franchise will be happy to see The Garfield Movie returning to his cartoon roots – a welcoming come back from the 2004 Garfield: The Movie debacle.
The all-new Columbia Pictures’ 2024 The Garfield Movie animated film is most like Garfield: The Movie (2004) and The Secret Life of Pets.
This all-new animated 2024 The Garfield Movie produced by Columbia Pictures is rated PG for “action/peril and mild thematic elements” by the MPAA.
Yes, The Garfield Movie has one end credit scene that occurs at the beginning of the credits, one set of mid credit stills and one surprise end credits scene as well.
Based on my The Garfield Movie parents guide and mom review above, I would not recommend Garfield 2024 to kids younger than the age of 4-5 years old.
With animated cartoon violence, The Garfield Movie is an animated comedy film that is the next level above more kid friendly series like Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I advise parents to prescreen the 2024 Garfield film for adult themes including toilet humor and “fat” jokes and possible disturbing images.
Considering the full PG age rating breakdown and the The Garfield Movie parents guide above, this parent movie reviewer would not recommend The Garfield Movie 2024 to kids younger than the age of 4-5 years old. The Garfield Movie PG rating is light and easily comparable to Paddington or Clifford the Big Red Dog. 
The Overall
How do you like Garfield meow?
I say this in total respect of Chris Pratt who I am a HUGE fan of (LEGO, Guardians, Jurassic, Mario!) – but I’m kind of done with my boy Chris voicing all animated male characters for a hot minute. There’s so much talent out there We had to be Emmitt and Mario and Garfield too?
Is Sony’s desperate attempt to revive a cat reboot palpable? While coming back to his cartoonish comic strip roots, Garfield is taking one his nine lives into our hands – and I’m not convinced that he’s welcome to the party.
This film has taken notes from 20-years ago and applied them to a better Garfield reboot. But that’s not to say that we still don’t have some fur ball problems. 20 years later, do any of these kids today relate to or even know who Garfield is? Without reading the Sunday Funny Pages (um do kids even know what a newspaper is?), I find it hard for Garfield to be relatable to this generation of video gaming, TV watching, social media absorbing kids.
And for the true Garfield fans you may cringe at how “overly active” your favorite lazy cat has become. Awkwardly plopping Garfield into another kids’ action/comedy movie genre entirely – it feels slightly forced and unnatural for the cat that lazily lays in the house all day eating.
Overall, The Garfield Movie is a watchable kids movie for the summer that’s definitely NOT the cat-astrophy of 2004. But definitely not my first choice for family movie night either. Is it time to press paws on Garfield? I think so. But I’m also craving lasagna right now too.
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The Garfield Movie, the all-new 2024 Columbia Pictures original animated film based on the popular Jim Davis comic strip character is pouncing into theaters starting Friday March 24, 2024. Will your family be watching?
I was invited to screen the all-new Columbia Pictures animated film The Garfield Movie 2024 in exchange for The Garfield Movie Review | Safe for Kids? Parents Guide. All photos courtesy of Sony Pictures. Be sure to follow Raising Whasians for more movie reviews, television updates, celebrity interviews, entertainment, and behind-the-scenes info!
Chris G says
Thanks for this review! I love the details. We were wondering if this film would be okay for our almost-four year old.