“The most egotistical character on the funny pages”: Roger Ebert’s obsessive love of Garfield
For the most part, critics and reviewers are expected to approach their work from a non-biased perspective, regardless of how invested they may or may not be in the material. When it came to Roger Ebert and Garfield, though, his fandom was on full display.
He must have been an avid reader of creator Jim Davis’ comic strips following their debut in the 1970s because he was one of the very few to give a glowing appraisal to the 2004 movie that combined live-action with CGI to win big at the box office while being dragged around the back and beaten to a pulp by critics and audiences alike.
2004’s Garfield: The Movie was not good, something star Bill Murray was among the first to admit after hilariously revealing the only reason he signed on in the first place is because he thought the script had been written by one of the Coen brothers, although it should have been clear to a veteran of his standing that wasn’t the case by the time he reached the end of the first page.
There weren’t many people falling over themselves to lavish praise on the thoroughly tedious family film, but Ebert has no such issues. He was thrilled with the way director Peter Hewitt “captures the elusive charm of the most egotistical character on the funny pages” on-screen while celebrating the narrative for the way it “allows him to bask in his character flaws”.
Ebert then places his Garfield fan club membership squarely on the sleeve by revelling in the way “the filmmakers obviously understand and love Garfield,” making the title character sound like a protagonist that demanded to be done justice and not a cat who loves lasagne just as much as they hate Mondays.
Speaking for everyone, whether they gave a single shit about Garfield or not, Ebert was left enthralled by how the movie “understands that Garfield’s personality, his behaviour, his glorious self-absorption, is what we’re really interested in”. Are we, though, Roger? Are we really?
Of course, Ebert approved of plenty of terrible flicks and gave a thumbs down to countless classics, but Garfield exists on a pedestal all of its own. Why? Because when significantly worse sequel A Tale of Two Kitties arrived in 2006 – prior to landing Golden Raspberry Award nominations for ‘Worst Prequel or Sequel’ and ‘Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment’ – the review was published in the first person as written by Garfield.
Ebert – writing as Garfield, who described Ebert as “the smart and handsome one” for posterity’s sake – gave it three stars, same as the first, even though they both sucked. Clearly, the noted critic was a massive supporter of the character, but he definitely let his fandom encroach a little too heavily into his professional life.
