Garfield-a Tale Of Two Kitties -2006-- Dvdr-xvi... -
Lord Dargis, meanwhile, is the scheming British developer—polite, cunning, and ultimately foiled by an American cat’s brute-force chaos. In a post-9/11, pre-2008 financial crisis world, this felt like lighthearted transatlantic ribbing. Today, it reads as a strange comfort fantasy: the American idiot savant wins again. Bill Murray’s voice work in both Garfield films is a study in polite disengagement. Unlike other voice actors who disappear into their roles, Murray sounds like Bill Murray reading Garfield lines while waiting for a better script. In A Tale of Two Kitties , this detachment becomes the joke. When Garfield says, “I’m not fat, I’m festively plump,” you hear Murray’s smirk.
But that fragment— DVDR-xvi —is a reminder of a different media ecosystem, one where a mediocre sequel could still find an audience through word of mouth and shared files. The film itself? A curious little time capsule of mid-decade CGI, Bill Murray’s indifference, and the strange comfort of watching a fat cat wear a tiny crown. Garfield-A Tale Of Two Kitties -2006-- DVDR-xvi...
Yet that roughness gives it charm. The real animals (dogs, birds, the occasional rodent) are clearly reacting to nothing. The human actors, including Jennifer Love Hewitt as Jon Arbuckle’s love interest, perform against orange tennis balls on sticks. There’s a desperate, almost admirable craft to it—the same B-movie energy that makes The Cat in the Hat (2003) a cult object. In 2024, Garfield returned to theaters with The Garfield Movie (2024), a slick, CGI-heavy adventure voiced by Chris Pratt. That film is polished, safe, and algorithm-friendly. A Tale of Two Kitties is none of those things. It’s weird, slightly too long (78 minutes feels like 90), and tonally uneven. But it’s also the last Garfield film to feel handmade—flaws and all. Bill Murray’s voice work in both Garfield films
