In 2007, a CGI-animated film based on the Garfield comic strip titled Garfield Gets Real was released, which had the premise of the cast of Garfield living in a world of comic strip characters, with Garfield and Odie finding their way into the real world.
2008 saw a sequel titled Garfield's Fun Fest, which had Garfield losing his ability to be funny and having to regain it in time for a talent contest. This movie's tie-in game has its own page here.
A third and final film, titled Garfield's Pet Force, came out in 2009, where Garfield and friends had to help their superhero counterparts the Pet Force stop the evil Vetvix. It is loosely based on the book series of the same name.
In spite of also being in CGI and sharing the same voice actors for the central characters, it is not in the same continuity as The Garfield Show.
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: The Pet Force film omits Pooky and Binky the Clown's counterparts Compooky and Sorcerer Binky, the latter being replaced by Professor Wally.
- Garfield's favorite plush teddy bear, Pooky, doesn't make any physical appearances in these movies, except for some small cameos in Garfield Gets Real, like appearing on the newspaper in the scene where Sheila and Waldo see Shecky on the comic strips, and on a poster with Garfield hugging it that can be seen on a wall at the ending of the movie when everyone is dancing. He appears as an item in the DS game based of Garfield's Fun Fest, though.
- Alternate Tooniverse: The world that Garfield lives in is a world where all comic strip characters live and make their strips, which are then read by people in the "real" world. It runs on Toon Physics and is filled with all manner of fictional characters.
- Alternate Universe: In Pet Force, it's established that the universe Garzooka hails from is one to the main comic strip universe, with counterparts for several characters.
- Animated Actors: The trilogy takes place in a world where comic strip characters are actually actors, making comic strips for people in the real world to enjoy.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Bonita spends most of Garfield Gets Real berating her husband Wally, but is shown to admire his newfound confidence when he starts using his invention to retrieve Garfield and Odie from the real world and even refers to him as her hero after he returns to the comic strip world with Jon, Odie, Garfield, Billy and Shecky.
- Big Bad:
- Hale and Hardy in Gets Real.
- Ramone, who's actually Nermal in disguise, in Fun Fest.
- Vetvix in Pet Force.
- Big Damn Heroes: In Gets Real, Jon, Wally, and Billy Bear use the Bonitanator to enter the real world and rescue Garfield, Odie, and Shecky from the burning hotel.
- Big Fun: Billy Bear and Eli both. Billy's a jokester and a showman, and Eli has a gregarious, but casual manner.
- Bears Are Bad News: Junior the Bear in Garfield's Fun Fest, subverted, because he doesn't wanna eat Garfield and Odie, he wants to play metaphors.
- Beary Funny: Billy Bear, there's also Junior in Fun Fest.
- Black Dude Dies First: Inverted in Pet Force; Eli is the only black character in the studio, and one of the only ones who manages to escape zombification.
- Bookends: Fun Fest starts with a book opening and a narrator telling the story of the funny water and Freddy Frog, then the movie ends, revealing that the entire movie was also part of the book and the narrator was Freddy Frog himself as he closes the book and flies away from the Comic Studio.
- The Cameo: Grimm from Mother Goose and Grimm and Dagwood and Blondie from Blondie make background appearances in Garfield Gets Real.
- Canon Foreigner: Pretty much every character outside of Garfield's regular cast was created for the movie.
- Chekhov's Gun: Two in Garfield Gets Real:
- Wally invented an accordion gadget that can extend grab stuff like Bonita's cookie. Garfield would eventually tell everyone via looking through a newspaper and demonstrating with an accordion that he took from a lady to build a bigger version to send into the portal to get him out.
- When Eli checks on how Garfield is doing, one of the papers happens to be the one that he uses as the entrance to rescue Garfield (i.e.: in the alleyway near the burning hotel).
- Dance of Romance: At the end of Pet Force, Garfield and Arlene have one of these among the stars.
- Dance Party Ending: Both Garfield Gets Real and Pet Force end with one.
- Demoted to Extra: Shecky (a cat from the "real" world who was brought into the cartoon world at the end of Garfield Gets Real) only cameos in Fun Fest afterward.
- Denser and Wackier: The movies take place in a drastically more surreal version of the Garfield universe. While the comics and all other preceding/following media take place in something resembling a stylized version of the real world, these movies take place in a full-on Cloudcuckooland full of nonsensical elements, where Garfield and his friends are Animated Actors who take pictures of themselves for a newspaper that is then beamed to the real world. To that end, all of the movies have increasingly surreal plots involving Garfield and Odie being stranded in the real world, Garfield going on a fantastical journey to rediscover what it means to be funny, and an alternate universe superhero version of Garfield called Garzooka coming to Earth to turn Odie, Nermal, and Arlene into superheroes to fight a galactic conqueror version of Liz.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Vetvix sports some purple eyeshadow, and is the Big Bad of Pet Force. She loses it after turning good.
- Failure Montage: Garfield and Odie have one of some of their attempts to return to the comic world in Get Real, culminating in a near-miss with a steamroller.
- Foil: Get Real's Hale and Hardy are a dog-and-cat cartoon pair voiced by Gregg Berger and Frank Welker, and that's where their similarities to Odie and Garfield end. Hale and Hardy are effectively The Dividual, while Garfield and Odie are distinct in body type and personality from each other. Garfield and Odie don't always get along but collaborate when things get serious, and Hale and Hardy are stern and collaborative but are quick to blame each other when things go south for them.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: One scene in Garfield Gets Real sees Garfield and Odie hiding behind a display featuring one of their comics. Pausing the scene and taking a closer look at it reveals that the comic in question is actually an infamous fan comic
◊ where Jon threatens to sodomize Garfield, completely uncensored. - Goldfish Poop Gang: The ten identical chihuahuas in Gets Real. They always end up being outsmarted and repelled until the ending.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: Vetvix's ultimate fate; Garfield uses the Mo-Scram gun to fuse her with Betty's happy corner, turning her into a complete sweetheart.
- Heroic BSoD: In Fun Fest, Garfield has a brief one when he finds out his container of funny water broke thanks to his crash landing.
- I Ate WHAT?!: In Fun Fest, Garfield swims in and drinks from a lake of what he believes is the funny water, only to be informed that it not only isn’t, but is also being used to dump trash from a nearby city.
- Interspecies Romance: In Pet Force, the human Betty falls head-over-heels for the cat humanoid Garzooka.
- Magic Feather: During the climax of Fun Fest, Freddy explains to Garfield that the funny water is just regular water. Garfield was always funny; he was just so focused on winning the Fun Fest that he forgot to make the audience laugh.
- Mirror Self: Garzooka seems to be this to Garfield, to some extent. The latter is short, chubby, lazy, and a Lovable Coward; the former is tall, ripped, espouses the virtues of exercise, and more conventionally heroic.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Mo-Scram gun from Pet Force mixes and matches different people and items. The resulting creations are completely under the control of the one who scrambled them, which is why Vetvix wants it.
- Murder by Arson: Garfield Gets Real: After leaving their comic strip for the real world and having to audition to return, Garfield and Odie are captured by a pair of rivals determined to take their place who trap them in a hotel which they subsequently set on fire.
- Mythology Gag: In Gets Real, Garfield gains a more accurate cat appearance with bigger legs and walking on all fours, similar to his 1984-1988 appearance in the comics.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The trio of real world animals from Gets Real. Waldo is a Kindhearted Simpleton, Sheila is vain and harsh, and Shecky's a comedian.
- Opening Scroll: Pet Force starts with one, which complains about how nobody ever reads opening scrolls and then tries to impart a couple life lessons on the viewer.
- Original Generation: Of a sort. The behind-the-scenes staff of the comics and the stars of Billy Bear Woods and Life Stinks aren't characters from existing comics, while the stars of Garfield and the cameos from Blondie and Mother Goose and Grimm are.
- Refugee from TV Land: Garfield and Odie, residents of Comic Strip World, are sucked out into the real world through a hole in the comic screen in Garfield Gets Real. Garfield and Odie must return in a few days or else their comic strip will be cancelled. In an unusual example of the trope, the "Real World" is also animated.
- Robotic Reveal: Ramone is revealed to be a robot piloted by Nermal at the end of Fun Fest.
- Shout-Out:
- Of all things to reference, a book called Depth Note can be seen on Garfield's bookshelf in Garfield Gets Real.
- In Pet Force, Nermal namedrops The Flash, Kid Flash, Quicksilver, and the Whizzer while trying to figure out a hero name for himself
- In Gets Real, when rescuing them from the hotel fire, Billy Bear tells Shecky that he is a comic strip character. Shecky then curiously asks, "Wow, what's Snoopy really like?".
- In Fun Fest, there are a lot of shout-outs to classic movies when Garfield and Arlene perform a quick show; some of them are Titanic and Gone with the Wind, and later in the movie, Odie does an impression of Elvis Presley.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the Pet Force books, the original Pet Force was depowered and imprisoned in a "ghastly dimension" by Vetvix, which prompted Garfield and his friends to take their place. In the movie, Garzooka keeps his powers and his teammates became temporarily under Vetvix's control thanks to the Mo-Scram gun, prompting Garzooka to seek Arlene, Nermal, and Odie's help by giving them serums that turn them into their Pet Force counterparts.
- Spin-Off: Pet Force, a loose adaptation of the comics of the same name.
- The Stinger: Pet Force has one: after the wedding of Emperor Jon and Vetvix, it's revealed that Betty followed Garzooka back to Dorkon, meaning the Director needs a new assistant. Nermal quickly volunteers.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In Gets Real, in a bid to get their comic reinstated, Garfield and Odie attempt the classic table kick gag. But Toon Physics aren't in effect in the real world, and Odie ends up injured on the floor and the board of executives Garfield was playing to aren't happy with him.
- Thing-O-Matic: Wally's new invention in Gets Real, the Bonitanator, named for his wife. The name isn't related to its function, but its design - the scythe-like blade and pair of floodlights mounted on the front resemble Bonita's head.
- Toon Physics: The Comic Strip World is shown to run on this, with several characters being shown to survive the occassional Amusing Injury.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Surprisingly, not lasagna. Instead, the most common food Garfield eats is hot dogs.
- Trapped in Another World: A pivotal plot element in Gets Real. Whenever something or someone from the comic world starts getting pulled into the real world, it has to be pulled back out before it goes all the way through - the passage back to the comic world can't be opened from the real world. The plot to rescue Garfield and Odie ultimately relies on being able to force open the passage.
- Trapped in TV Land: Shecky in the end of Garfield Gets Real. He follows Garfield and Odie into the comic strip world and ends up staying with them, supposedly becoming the newest cast member in the strip.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Emperor Jon forgives Vetvix for everything she did at the end of Pet Force, largely because her Heel–Face Brainwashing led to her reciprocating his feelings.
