The Garfield Movie | 2024 | PG | – 1.3.1

Why is “The Garfield Movie” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “action/peril and mild thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kissing scenes between a cow and a bull, and a man and a woman, several scenes of peril where there is the potential for injury but none occur, animals being kidnapped and threatened, animals shown in a pound represented to look like prison cells in a few scenes, a cat that screeches and yells and threatens to kill others in several scenes, a young kitten left on its own, several arguments, and some name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The lasagna-eating tabby cat, Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), is taught how to survive outside his cushy life when he and Odie (voiced by Harvey Guillénare) are kidnapped and Garfield’s father (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) returns to help them. Also with Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang and Snoop Dogg. Directed by Mark Dindal. [Running Time: 1:41]

The Garfield Movie SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A bull and a cow kiss and they fall off-screen as romantic music plays and a dog pulls down a shade. A man and a woman on TV kiss. A bull and a cow look at each other longingly; they profess their love for each other in a few scenes.
► A cat says, “Cheese is my love language.”

The Garfield Movie VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A cat is flung toward a moving train from a tree branch, sails through the open doors to the other side where it is thrown back by another tree, and it slams into another cat on the train; the second cat uses an axe to cut a rope that is tied to another cat and the cat is chased to the top of the train by a large dog where they dodge tree branches passing over the top of the train, and many drones swoop around the large dog and a smaller dog as the cat sprays numerous meatballs at them from its mouth, smears salad on the ground causing one dog to slip, sprinkles pepper flakes in the dog’s eyes and sprays hot sauce at a cat and two dogs.
► Thunder rumbles and rain pours down after a small kitten is left in an alley; the kitten is frightened by dogs barking and car’s tires squealing in the distance. A cat laughs maniacally and glows red when it becomes upset; it drags a nail along a railing and sparks fly accompanied by a scratching sound; it later slashes pictures of other cats. A cat plans to kill another cat by throwing it from a train and over a bridge. A cat yells at two dogs, calling them names and saying degrading things.
► A cat slashes at several other characters that fall from a train toward many pointed rocks in a hole in the ground; one dog uses its numerous folds of skin like a sail to slow their fall. Two cats jump off a train and bounce onto a safety net that sends them right back to the train as it barrels across a bridge. A cat falls onto a large piece of cheese in a factory, and when the cheese is grated by a large cheese grater and gets smaller and smaller, the cat jumps to another piece of cheese that is about to be dropped into a vat of molten cheese and when it falls, it is lassoed and pulled away to a platform where large knives slam down around it and a dog, until another cat jumps toward them and pushes them to safety. A very large dog stands in front of a cat and puts a bag over it; another dog does the same thing to a dog and the two are taken away to an abandoned shopping mall where they are tied around the paws and hung upside down. A dog and a cat are cut from the ropes that are holding them upside down and flung onto a balcony where the dog lands safely and the cat lands with a thud but is unharmed. Cats and dogs rob a dairy and sneak away with several bottles of milk; one cat is grabbed in a net and taken to a pound while the others get away. A cat snaps a bird out of the air and we see feathers floating around it (implying that the cat ate the bird). A small bird lands on an electrified fence and is zapped, it is thrown into the air and falls to the ground in flames but stumbles away muttering. A cat attacks a woman and the woman zaps it with a taser.
► A large cat pats a smaller cat on the back and knocks it on the ground (no injuries are seen). A cat is thrown using a tree branch like a catapult toward a speeding train and it sails through the open doors of the train car and is shot back and forth numerous more times when it slams into other trees, power lines and finally slams into a pile of manure inside the train car. A bull punches a cat and the cat slams into a tree but is OK. A bull hits a cat with its broken horn a couple of times during training, a cat crashes into a boulder but seems uninjured, the bull throws large tree stumps at two cats, ties their ankles together, they fall and slide down a hill, and they are swarmed by bees. Two cats are tied to a tree with a vine and every time they try to move, the vine pulls causing the other cat to hit itself or be hurt in some way. Two cats and a dog climb through large drainpipes and slide through them while yelling and one cat slams into a grate. A cat walks across a street and cars and trucks slam on their brakes to avoid hitting it. A cat locks a cat and a dog in a room and leaves to steal a dairy transport truck; the cat drives the truck through a gate, a bull slams into a car as a diversion and is tasered.
► Two cats, a dog and a bull plan a dairy farm heist and we see some training sequences to prepare one of the cats; during a reenactment we see a bullfrog croaking loudly and its chest puffing out, and what looks like a drawing of a character on a flat board is called “roadkill.” A bull with a broken horn sits on a ridge and we hear that it was banished from a dairy farm after a corporation took over and separated it from a dairy cow inside. A security guard plans to foil a dairy farm heist.
► A kitten follows the smell of food and walks across a busy street causing cars to screech and stop short of hitting the kitten. A kitten cries and floats away on a river of its tears when a man tells it goodbye on a sidewalk; the man grabs the kitten before it floats into a drain and takes it home. A cat talks about its dream of becoming famous but that it became an outcast. A cat goes to a garbage can in an alley to find food for its kitten, but is chased away by a man and when it returns to the kitten it discovers that it is not there and panics. A cat and a dog are taken to a pound where they are retrieved by their human.
► A man panics when his cat and dog are missing; we see the man on hold on the phone for a very long time when trying to call a missing animal hotline. A man sits alone in a restaurant and seems sad; a small kitten stands at the window eyeing the man’s pizza and when the man lets it in, the kitten gobbles up the entire pizza, then darts around the restaurant eating food from other tables until the man orders more food to take out and leaves the restaurant with the kitten. A few scenes show a cat unhappy by having to go to the vet, being shampooed in a tub, being blow-dried and when a spider skitters toward it. A large dog is shown to have numerous rolls of skin that fold down to create thick tubes that engulf other characters. A cat complains when a dog pulls burs out of its fur. An oven bursts into flames when a cat cooks something and we see a large mound of glop that is served to others around a table.
► Two cats argue in several scenes about one of them abandoning the other when it was just a kitten. Two dogs snarl and rush around kicking up clouds of dust. Two cats and a dog jump off a moving train and two other dogs follow them.
► A cat rides on a dog’s back as the dog races around a house. A dog jumps on a cat’s abdomen and bounces like a trampoline. A cat orders food deliveries in several scenes and drones fly into the house to bring large quantities of food. A man collapses on an exercise bike and is revived by the smell of pizza. A man falls asleep on his desk and a cat helps him to bed and tucks him in. A cat slides down a tree and says, “Ooo, that stings.” A series of live-action videos show cats and dogs interacting; one shows a kitten riding a Rumba.
► A large, gooey dessert explodes and sprays goo all over a man and the inside of a window. Many spiders crawl on a cat and it panics until another cat sprinkles cedar chips on it and says spiders don’t like them. A cat fits a whole pizza in its mouth and eats it very quickly spreading crumbs around; he does this again later with another cat doing the same thing. A dog licks a cat on the face and we see a bit of slobber. A cat shakes its head and splatters drool in the air. A cat eats leaves from a branch and panics saying they had bird droppings on them, spitting out the leaves. Two cats scratch their buttocks and later pick their teeth.

The Garfield Movie LANGUAGE 1

 – Name-calling (outcasts, losers, thugs, double-crossing, low-life, barbarians, disrespectful, train wreck, incompetence, shady characters, weak, stupid, worry wart, lack of skills), exclamations (stop whining, son of a cud, bloody). | profanity glossary |

The Garfield Movie SUBSTANCE USE

 – Several cats drink milk from Martini glasses.

The Garfield Movie DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Abandonment, relationships, love, kidnapping, fame, failure, revenge, second chances, improvisation, film noir.

The Garfield Movie MESSAGE

 – Forgiveness can lead to happiness. Odie really is the smart one.