Garfield, the world's most popular comic strip character, is about to become a major motion picture star.  The cat who brought us catch phrases like "I would like mornings if they started later" and "I'd rather pig out than work out" toplines a live-action/computer generated film adapted from the syndicated cartoon strip read in 2,600 newspapers by 260 million readers around the globe.  Garfield finally has an epic story that is as large as his ego - one that can barely be contained by the big screen.

Producer John Davis, whose many hits include the all-audience pictures "Doctor Dolittle" and "Daddy Day Care," was a natural to bring GARFIELD to life on the big screen.  "It's about time that Garfield becomes a big movie star," says Davis.  "He's lazy, funny, crotchety and he has attitude.  It doesn't matter if you're five years old or fifty; everyone can relate to him on some level."

For several years, Davis, along with Co-Producer Brian Manis, doggedly (sorry!) pursued Garfield creator Jim Davis (no relation), for the rights to make a Garfield movie. 

Jim Davis, after a quarter-century of drawing and writing the Garfield comic strip, decided it was time to bring his creation to the movies. "I've always treated Garfield as a real cat," says Davis.  "He actually exists like that in my head.  And new technology can finally represent him in this authentic way."

Jim Davis and John Davis wanted to be faithful to the essence of Garfield, which has made Garfield a worldwide household name for 25 years.  "I think Garfield is popular to people of all ages for several reasons," says Jim Davis.  "He's a very physical animal when it comes to humor, and kids love that.  Teens identify with his resentment for authority; he's very much his own cat.  And on an adult level, he relieves our guilt about such little foibles as over-eating, sleeping too much, not exercising enough, or being unmotivated.  He has the courage to say and do a lot of things that we wouldn't.  So he speaks for a lot of us." 

In fact, Davis admits, "I'm 30 percent Garfield - I don't jog, I love lasagna, and I like to relax - and the other 70 percent of me, I put into the character of Garfield's owner, Jon.  I'm a daydreamer, and I draw on my college dating experiences for failures in Jon's love life."

With the coveted rights secured to make a GARFIELD motion picture, John Davis approached the screenwriting team of Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow ("Toy Story," "Cheaper by the Dozen") to write the screenplay.

Cohen says much of Garfield's appeal lies in his neuroses.  "Alec and I like to tell a story through the emotional needs of the character, or of the cat, in this case," he explains. "And if you think about 'Toy Story,' you see how the marriage of plot and character neuroses helps to advance that story.   Similarly, Garfield is a Chinese banquet of neuroses, which gave us a wonderful opportunity to harness it all and tell a story through his impulses."

Adds Sokolow: "Garfield is a classic comic voice.  He's elemental in his desires, he doesn't suffer fools gladly, and he is probably the most honest and human of any of the characters in his world .  For a writer, that's an embarrassment of riches.  As long as you stay true to Garfield's basic slovenly desires, it's hard to go wrong."

The two screenwriters ventured into Garfield country - and Jim Davis' home in Muncie, Indiana - to meet with the GARFIELD creator about their star.  "Jim was a great resource for us because he has this uncanny ability to immediately see in our script what is true to Garfield and what is not quite right," says Sokolow.  "Also, his humor is kind of edgy by Midwestern terms, and yet kind of mainstream by the standards of the East and West Coasts."

The next step was for the two writers, and John Davis and Brian Manis, to sift through 25 years of Garfield comic strips to come up with the film's theme: the universal story of sibling rivalry. 

"Garfield is the master of his universe, until Odie comes into his life and disrupts his perfect world," says John Davis.  "Like a new little brother, Odie gets all the attention.  Garfield feels displaced, and decides to banish him.  But when Odie gets lost on his own, Garfield realizes that he actually loves the little bugger.  So this agoraphobic cat that has his neighborhood wired and never goes any further, now has to venture out into the big, bad, unrelenting world to find and save Odie.  It's classic because there are a lot of subconscious scary and funny childhood things you can hang on that." 

In several instances throughout the story, Cohen and Sokolow have Garfield breaking the fourth wall - speaking directly to the audience.  "We realized that a lot of great comic film legends utilized this technique, such as Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Groucho Marx. They would be involved in a scene, and then suddenly stop and say something off on the side," says Cohen. "We saw this as a great opportunity for Garfield to comment on the world and on other characters by speaking to the audience, but without ever leaving the moment."

As work continued on the script, John Davis chose Pete Hewitt to direct the film because he was impressed with Hewitt's film "The Borrowers," an adventure about four-inch high people fighting to save their home.  "I loved that film, and I knew he had the sensibility and the comedy for GARFIELD.  Pete has a great sense of humor, which he brought to the project, but he also wanted to bring a certain level of realism to it.  I think that's important because you want to see Garfield and his world come to life in a recognizable way."

Hewitt embraced the character and his movie world. "At the heart of the film is this sardonic, sarcastic cat.  And he takes the saccharine away by throwing out these great one-liners," Hewitt says.
During pre-production, Hewitt brought together a team to make a 70-minute animatic film of the script.  "I did a storyboard of the whole film, edited it, used actors to give voices to the characters, and added music and sound effects," says Hewitt.  "This gave us a great advantage of looking at the movie early on and seeing what worked, what we could cut, and what we should add."

casting
As the start of principal photography neared, the filmmakers faced a formidable question: Who would voice Garfield?   Says John Davis: "We looked for someone with a biting, satirical, iconic and brilliant sense of comedy, and we were fortunate to get the perfect person: comedy legend, Bill Murray." Jim Davis adds, "Bill Murray is hilarious. He has just the right delivery and attitude to be the cat. It was perfect casting. I couldn't be happier."

The filmmakers cast Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner.  "Breckin had the humor and also portrayed an 'everyman with a cat' so perfectly," Hewitt explains.

"Jon is a not-too-suave-with-the-ladies guy, who's got a cat," says Meyer.  "He also is the straight man in the story.  He and Garfield are like Abbott and Costello or Martin and Lewis."

Meyer was no stranger to Garfield and his world, having grown up with the comic strip. "My mom was a huge fan of the comic," he says.  "Every Christmas I would get her a Garfield-themed gift, like a stuffed animal or a figurine.  So when I got the part of Jon, I immediately e-mailed my mom a drawing of Jon, with the message, 'Look who I'll be playing next.'  She was very excited."

Meyer had a small "issue" that could have proved troublesome to him and the production: He's allergic to cats.  So he was pleased to learn that Garfield would be computer generated.  "I didn't tell the filmmakers until the first day of the film that I'm allergic to cats," says Meyer.  "But because I had some scenes opposite Garfield's feline friends Nermal and Arlene - who were the real things - there was always allergy medicine on the set."

Jennifer Love Hewitt stars as Jon's love interest - and Garfield's veterinarian - Liz Wilson.  John Davis had previously worked with Hewitt on the comedy "Heartbreakers." "She's a wonderful comedienne ; she's really charismatic and perfect opposite Breckin," says Davis.  "There was chemistry the second we put them together." 

Adds Pete Hewitt: "It was important to cast a couple that had a sweetness together, but also a strong presence that you would remember, so that when they're not on screen you don't forget what's going on between them as well."

"There's a mutual crush between Liz and Jon," notes Jennifer Love Hewitt. "Liz's real role in the story is to make Jon's heart beat a little faster every time he's in a room with her.  So he trumps up excuses to bring Garfield to the vet."

Jennifer Love Hewitt, too, is a Garfield fan. "I grew up watching the cartoon series, and I was really influenced by it.  I had a big orange cat that I wanted to name Garfield, but I was out-voted by my brother.  And I tried lasagna for the first time because of Garfield," she says.

The actress made several personal adjustments to "get into character."  Since her comic strip counterpart has short hair, Love Hewitt followed suit.  "I cut my hair the shortest it's ever been," she says. "My new flippy hair, flirty false lashes and colorful clothes really got me into the spirit of a realistic cartoon character."

the animal co-stars
For lovable canine Odie, the bane of Garfield's existence, Madrid had a pooch in mind from the start: Tyler, a half dachshund and half cairn terrier mix.  "I had worked with Tyler on another movie and I thought he'd be perfect for Odie because he looks cartoonish with his long body, short legs and expressive eyes," says Madrid.  "But Pete wanted me to enhance him a little more, so we cut and lightened his torso fur, while his paws, ears, muzzle and tail stayed dark, which gave him a very distinctive look."

Tyler's identical sister Chloe stood in for Tyler for the less physical scenes, and to give her sibling a well-earned break during filming.

For his big-screen starring debut, Tyler had to master some challenging athletic moves, including a big dance sequence for a dog show scene.  He already knew how to hop on his hind legs, but had to learn to hop in one place and then twirl around in a circle, also on his hind legs. On the day of this dance number Tyler was a regular Gene Kelly.  In fact, twirling is now one of his favorite behaviors.

Tyler also had to master a back flip.  "We used a harness to help him with this stunt to make sure his long body would tolerate it.  And once again, he did it with gusto," says the dog's trainer, Kristy Campbell.

One would think that the physical scene - like teaching one of the feline cast members to pull a skateboard with a pie on it, or jump in a bucket and ride up 12 feet in it - would have been challenging for Madrid and the cats.  But these stunts were not nearly as demanding as training the cats to sit still and stare for any length of time.  "Cats get bored easily, so you have to keep their interest long enough for them to hold the look," says Madrid.  "And the look has to be in the right position.  It's a much more complicated than you'd expect."

Madrid and his team also cast and trained Happy Chapman's cat, Persnikitty; Luca, a Doberman who plays the neighborhood bad guy; and five mice that play Louis.  Along with these featured "cast members," were 15 cats, 30 rats and 35 dogs of different breeds.

To meet the special challenges of filming so many animals, the production employed two film units shooting simultaneously.  The first unit was for the human actors and Odie; the second was an animal unit. 

visual style
Creating the right look for GARFIELD was as important as the casting.  "We wanted to give the film a very vibrant visual style," says John Davis.  To that end, Cinematographer Dean Cundey, ASC, Production Designer Alexander Hammond and Costume Designer Marie France gave GARFIELD a visual style that bridges fantasy and reality.  "Our look was a slightly heightened fantasy world," says Cundey. "It's a real world, but a bit toward comic strip as far as color selections and surfaces; there's not a lot of texture." 

Hammond's reading of countless Garfield comic strips revealed that they were composed of very few elements.  "There was something very Midwestern about the strips; they are uncomplicated looking, very straightforward," says the Production Designer.  "After reading the script and talking with Pete, we remained true to the comic strip and simplified the look of the film across the board.  The film can be viewed as being made up of solid blocks of color. 

"We also knew Garfield was going to be orange, so it was decided he would be the only orange object in the movie."

Hewitt and Hammond divided the film into three distinct looks. "Garfield's house and neighborhood are his domain, where he feels completely comfortable," says Hammond.  "So we made his cul de sac, filmed on Universal Studios' backlot, a magical, inviting storybook street: colorful homes with front porches, manicured lawns, shady trees."

When Garfield journeys to the big city (also filmed on the Universal Studios' back lot) to find Odie, Hammond's designs reflect the fact that Garfield is completely out of his element. 

bringing garfield to life
The look of the title character, of course, took center stage.  Pete Hewitt and the film's visual effects team were regularly in touch with Jim Davis to get his feedback on the creation of the computer generated Garfield.  Davis was a valuable resource.  "Jim has been a good godfather to us," says Hewitt.  "Although he didn't ask for it, we made sure we got his blessing on everything we were doing.  He's very much been a part of the team."

To bring the title character to life, GARFIELD employs state-of-the-art computer generated imagery (CGI).  "We couldn't find a trained cat that was big and fat enough, and could deliver a lot of one-liners," jokes John Davis, "so we had to come up with a way to use technology to help us tell this story.  And I think one of the main reasons Jim Davis decided it was time to bring Garfield to life after all this time was because technology has advanced so much in the past several years."

Dean Cundey, whose has much experience photographing effects-heavy films, such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and the "Back to the Future" trilogy, Associate Producer/Visual Effects Producer John Kilkenny ("Daredevil," "Dr. Dolittle 2"), Animation Supervisor Chris Bailey ("Mighty Joe Young") and the visual effects team at Rhythm & Hues (who worked with John Davis on "Dr. Doolittle" and "Dr. Dolittle 2"), together created the on-screen Garfield, infusing him with his trademark cartoon characteristics: girth, hooded eyes and toothy grin.

Hewitt insisted that Garfield be believable and true to character. "Garfield has to walk on all fours for the first time, interact with his human and animal co-stars, and exhibit all the humor and mannerisms we associate with the comic strip, and still make us believe he's a real cat," he says.

To create the CG Garfield, the filmmakers first rehearsed with a marquette (a stuffed Garfield stand-in) so the camera operator could note Garfield's location in a scene at a given time, and the actors could have something to react to.   

After these rehearsals, scenes were shot without a marquette or any "stand-in," to give the visual effects artists a space to place the CG Garfield.  In part three of this process, a neutral grey sphere, and then a shiny mirrored sphere, were photographed exactly in the spot where Garfield ultimately would appear. This gave the animators a sense of the direction and quantity of lights hitting him, and accurately showed reflections of light of his flesh or his eyes.

Animation Supervisor Chris Bailey, who worked on "The Little Mermaid" and "The Lion King," was on-set for Garfield's scenes.  He showed the cast how to hold the non-existent cat, as if Garfield were really there.  "It's very natural at first for actors to hold an invisible character stiffly or too close or too far away," says Bailey.  "So I gave Breckin a beanbag to feel some weight.  Then I gave him a stuffed Garfield to see where to support the cat's hips and chest."  CONTINUED … READ MORE