The Garfield movie starring Chris Pratt has been rescheduled, but at least it will no longer premiere on a Monday. The initial release date for the animated feature was set for February 16, 2024, however, Sony Pictures recently stated that it will now be released on May 24, 2024. We will have to wait a little longer to watch Pratt’s take on the lasagna-loving kitty, but moving the release date to Memorial Day Weekend should help the movie earn more money. The orange cat created by cartoonist Jim Davis and named Garfield has been a part of popular culture since the comic strip debuted in 1978.
The film is still in pre-production, so we don’t know much else about it, but we can probably expect to see Garfield’s other friends, like his owner Dave and dog companion Odie. Since Bill Murray voiced Garfield in 2004’s Garfield: The Movie and 2006’s Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, this will be the first time the franchise has been shown in theatres. Instead of combining live-action and animation as the Murray movies did, this version is being adapted by Alcon Entertainment and will be a completely animated feature. Pratt stars opposite Samuel L. Jackson, who will play Garfield’s father Vic, making the celebrity cast already a major draw.
The star of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will also voice Mario in Illumination and Nintendo’s planned Super Mario Bros. film, set to be released in 2023. Since then, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, and Cecily Strong have joined the cast of Garfield. When filming finally begins, there will undoubtedly be more casting calls. The film will be directed by Mike Dindal, who hasn’t directed anything in more than 17 years. Beginning with the Scott Bakula–starring Warner Bros. picture Cats Don’t Dance in 1997 and concluding with the Disney film Chicken Little in 2002, he had a brief but fruitful career as a director of animated films. However, between those two, he made the masterpiece The Emperor’s New Groove, which starred David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, and Patrick Warburton and is widely considered to be his finest film.
Dindal’s co-writer on Finding Nemo, David Reynolds, will also be working with him again on Garfield. The film’s animation was created by DNEG Animation. Both Ron’s Gone Wrong and Kid Cudi’s animated special Entergalactic, set to debut on Netflix later this month, include their collaboration. John Cohen, Steven P. Wegner, Andrew Kosove, and Broderick Johnson will produce alongside DNEG CEO Namit Malhotra and President Tom Jacomb. Along with Bridget McMeel and Craig Sost, Davis will be an executive producer on the show. The release date of Garfield is set for May 24th, 2024.