Chris Pratt’s Garfield voice divides viewers in first trailer

Chris Pratt strikes again in the voice acting world – this time starring at the lasagne-loving orange cat Garfield.

Chris Pratt seems to be in every animated franchise nowadays. From the Lego Movie franchise to the Super Mario Bros. Movie, we’re hearing his voice everywhere, for better or worse.

Now, he’s starring in the upcoming Garfield animated movie, based on the works of Jim Davis. Directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds, this movie is set to put a whole new spin on the character.

But Pratt’s voice work has once again been met with pushback from audiences, particularly from social media users.

The Garfield trailer has dropped, and Twitter isn’t happy

The trailer for the animated Garfield movie has finally dropped today, starring the comedic likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, and Bowen Yang.

The film follows this synopsis: “Garfield, the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.”

Watch the trailer below:

But of course, it’s Chris Pratt’s casting as Garfield that has caused the biggest stir, with his name even trending on X (formerly Twitter).

In these tweets, many users complained about Pratt once again voicing an animated figure, namely citing that he hardly changes his regular voice to fit the character. “Forgot that Chris Pratt casting wasn’t a joke…” lamented one user, while another stated, “Why is Chris Pratt not even acting he’s just talking completely in his normal voice/Like there wasn’t even an attempt.”

Some chose to find the funny side, such as Zane Schnacht, who joked “If I had a nickel for every time Chris Pratt voiced the main character in an animated adaptation of a long-running intellectual property that inexplicably added a daddy issues plot I’d have two nickels.”

Check out more reactions below:

However, some posters came to Pratt’s defense, with one arguing, “Personally I never got why people were so concerned over it, Chris’s regular voice sounds an awful lot like Garfield, so unsurprisingly, he fits the role really well!”

Some were even jokingly indifferent, with one user saying, “I can’t explain it but I can’t tell if Garfield sounds like Chris Pratt or if Chris Pratt retroactively just sounds like Garfield.”

Either way, Pratt’s voice will not be the sole defining factor of the quality of the film, so we’ll have to judge it on its own merits when the movie comes out.

Garfield will laze his way into cinemas on May 24, 2024.

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