Summaries

Synopsis

Garfield (Chris Pratt) is an obese, sedentary, orange tabby cat who lives a pampered lifestyle with his beagle dog best friend, Odie (Harvey Guillen), and their owner, Jon Arbuckle (Nicholas Hoult). Garfield is a foodie, and no amount of food can satiate his hunger. Garfield uses Jon's phone and food apps to order food for himself.The earliest memory that Garfield has is of his father abandoning him in a deserted alley on a dark and stormy night. That night Garfield followed the scent of freshly baked pizza to a restaurant across the street. Jon happened to be eating at that restaurant that night. Jon was alone and wished for company. He saw a tiny Garfield in the window who wanted the food. Jon opened the window to bring Garfield in and feed him some pizza. Garfield proceeds to eat food from every table in the restaurant. When Jon says that he is not allowed to have pets in his apartment, Garfield starts to cry. Jon takes him in, and Garfield never left.Jon moved out of his apartment and into a little house in the suburbs. Jon even gets Odie as a pet. Garfield trains Jon to be a perfect pet owner. Garfield hates Mondays and his weekly trips to the vet. He is a fat cat, afraid of spiders and baths. Garfield also takes care of Jon by putting him to bed at the end of the day, with a sleeping face mask and noise canceling headphones.

One night, while getting a midnight snack, Garfield and Odie are abducted by a Shar Pei and a whippet named Roland (Brett Goldstein) and Nolan (Bowen Yang), who take them to an abandoned mall as prisoners. Garfield and Odie are soon rescued by Garfield's estranged father, Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), whom Garfield hates for abandoning him in an alley when he was a kitten.

The dogs' boss, Jinx (Hannah Waddingham), a deranged Persian cat, arrives to exact revenge on Vic for leaving her behind during a milk heist at Lactose Farms before she was caught and imprisoned. Jinx says that she came from London to be "America's Next Top Feline", but she was a failure. But she got stage fright and was a failure. That's when she met Vic and his crew, who were outlaws. Jinx thought Vic was her family, till Vic betrayed her and left her to be captured at the heist of Lactose Farms. She escaped prison with the help of Roland and Nolan, who were also in the city Pound. Jinx says that she kidnapped Garfield to lure Vic out.She agrees to forgive Vic if he, Garfield, and Odie break into Lactose Farms to steal a large quantity of milk (one quart for every day in the pound, which is 4 years, 7 months and 2 days. That comes to 1675 quarts of milk) as compensation for her imprisonment, which they reluctantly agree, while Roland and Nolan closely observe them.Garfield was reluctant to participate but was threatened of being ripped apart by Roland and Nolan as the only alternative.

The following morning, Jon notices Garfield and Odie's disappearance, but has trouble finding people to help search for them.

Freighthopping a train to Lactose Farms, Vic attempts to bond with Garfield, to no avail as the latter refuses to engage with him. Vic says that Garfield will need real world skills to survive, but he argues that he did well on his own till Vic showed up in his life. Vic teaches Garfield that spiders hate cedar chips.The three reach the farm, which is heavily guarded by an advanced security system, including an electrified fence. They meet Otto (Ving Rhames), a bull and the farm's former mascot, who was kicked out after a corporation took over the farm (when old man Lactose went out of business), separating him from his cow girlfriend, Ethel (Alicia Grace Turrell). Otto was put out to pasture and Ethel was put on display as part of the tour. Now he sees her for 6 seconds, twice a day.They agree to help get Ethel out of the farm if he helps them break in. Otto reveals the secrets of the security system protecting Lactose Farms and the safest way to get to the milk. Otto feels that everybody is out of shape, except Odie, and puts them through training to prepare for the mission. Otto says that the gang will never survive unless they learn to act like a team.

While preparing for the heist, Garfield and Vic frequently clash with each other, forcing Odie and Otto to tie up the two to a tree. During a heated argument, Vic forlornly reveals what happened on the night he abandoned him: he was actually getting food for Garfield across the alley but took too long returning to him. When he finally did, he saw him being taken care of by Jon in the Italian restaurant he wandered off to.

Sadly accepting that Jon would be a better care provider, Vic decided to let him adopt Garfield and kept his distance from his son. Finally understanding the circumstances, Garfield forgives his dad. Meanwhile, Jinx, who reveals to have lied about letting go of her grudge against Vic, secretly calls the farm's Animals Control officer, Marge Malone (Cecily Strong), to inform her of the upcoming heist. Marge uses an animal call translator to figure out Jinx's message.

The trio successfully infiltrate the farm and circumvent the factory's dangerous equipment (like cheese shredding, cheese fondue, and cheese slicing), but Marge intercepts them and captures Garfield and Odie. Vic leaves them behind despite his son's pleas, stealing the milk truck and successfully delivering it to Jinx, only to be betrayed and captured by her as she reveals that she wanted Vic to be sent to the pound in the same way she was.Otto is also left behind, as he and Ethel are captured by Marge. Otto manages to escape the relentless barrage of cattle prod.

A heartbroken and confused Garfield and Odie are taken to the pound, where they meet Vic's old crew.Vic's crew includes Maurice (Snoop Dogg), Olivia (Janelle James), and Snickers (Angus Cloud).However, they have long distanced themselves from Vic as he was constantly leaving their capers to check up on Garfield, watching from afar whenever he visits him, but Garfield refuses to believe them. Jon soon arrives to bail Garfield and Odie out and takes them home. Returning to his normal life, Garfield finds Vic's tally-marks on a tree across the house that the cat crew told him about, realizing that Vic does love him and only left him behind at the dairy to keep him safe.

With his trust in his father restored, Garfield decides to go back and save him, learning that Jinx intends to throw Vic off a canyon from a high bridge from a train into sharp rock formations at the bottom of the canyon and a ravine. With Otto's help, Garfield and Odie arrive to rescue him, only to eventually fail. Garfield manages to get on the train and fights Roland and Nolan. Garfield and Vic get to the back of the train and jump from the bridge, where Odie had set up a net below. But the net was strung too tight, and the duo simply ricochet right back up and onto the train.Roland and Nolan prepare to throw Garfield and Vic into the canyon, but Vic thanks Garfield for giving him another chance.

However, seeing Vic's genuine love for his son, Roland and Nolan turn on Jinx. Enraged, Jinx pushes the quartet off the train, before she herself gets knocked off by an overpass and falls down the canyon as well. Roland catches everyone and uses the folds of his skin to create a parachute to slow their descent.Otto swings a rope to catch them all and safely lands them on a net set up by Odie.They later return to the farm by the milk truck and bring in Jinx to Marge in exchange for Ethel's release, finally reuniting her with Otto. The reformed Roland and Nolan begin working as guard dogs for Marge, while Jinx ends up working community service.

Returning to Jon's house, Garfield finally reconciles with Vic, who moves in with the trio, officially becoming part of his son's life. Vic reveals that the notches on the tree were the plates of lasagna eaten by Garfield.