Why Garfield retains so much popularity
When the new cartoon movie premiered a short while ago, Time gave some history of how and why veteran cartoonist Jim Davis created Garfield 46 years ago, and this is the reason he provided:
While the box office of recent hasn't been great, surely no thanks to Furiosa's failure, John Nolte at Breitbart points out that the budget for Garfield's new cartoon film isn't that big, which could serve to its advantage:
All that said, I still think it's a shame Davis sold much of his franchise rights to a conglomerate 5 years ago, because what if it does affect the famous cat badly? If Garfield's still corporately owned, Davis really should consider buying it all back.
One of the reasons Davis thinks a comic strip about a fat orange cat has endured is because anyone can relate to his love of eating and lazing.Interesting. While it's not healthy to eat too much cholestorolic foods, and too much sugar and salt can also be bad for the health, there's still doubtless very worthy humor to be found and appreciated in how Garfield eats tons and lazies around, and it did make for some great jokes over the past near-jubilee.
“People like Garfield because he relieves their guilt,” Davis told CBS News in 1994. “We live in a time where we’re made to feel guilty about overeating and oversleeping and not exercising. And Garfield not only does that, but defends his right to do that. He’s happy with himself.”
While the box office of recent hasn't been great, surely no thanks to Furiosa's failure, John Nolte at Breitbart points out that the budget for Garfield's new cartoon film isn't that big, which could serve to its advantage:
As of now, both will top out at $31 million over the four-day holiday weekend. That’s not the end of the world for Garfield. The family movie’s reported production budget was just $60 million. Add another $30 million for promotion, and the fact it has already made $66 million worldwide means it might eke out a profit.The studio did the right thing to make it less expensive than some other cartoons - and certainly live action sci-fi flicks - can be these days. What I think is great is that this movie is fully animated, recalling 2 previous adaptations from the mid-2000s may have been a combination of animatronic and live action. I just hope the new cartoon isn't PC. Also for the record, the Hollywood Reporter, in their history coverage, revealed how the famous tabby cat came to walk on 2 feet more often, several years after debuting:
While working on Here Comes Garfield, Davis struggled to make the cat stand up and dance, but got some assistance from his hero, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, who happened to be working in the same studio. “He started drawing over my drawing, saying, ‘The problem is, you’ve made Garfield’s feet too small,’ ” Davis once said in an interview. “So he got Garfield, like Snoopy, up off all fours, and Garfield’s been walking upright ever since.”So Schultz of Peanuts fame had a hand in giving Davis advice on how to shift Garfield from all fours to twos. Very admirable. So we got Snoopy's creator to thank for boosting Garfield's comedy potential. As I recall, in the early years, there were 2 or 3 strips where Garfield was trying to walk on his hind feet (and fell flat on his face), but it was only by the mid-80s that Davis was more likely to depict him shifting to walking on twos, and after a decade in publication, this was pretty well established.
All that said, I still think it's a shame Davis sold much of his franchise rights to a conglomerate 5 years ago, because what if it does affect the famous cat badly? If Garfield's still corporately owned, Davis really should consider buying it all back.
Labels: animation, comic strips, good artists, history, sales, science
