Garfield 2: The Prince and the Paw-per is the 2006 sequel to 2004's live-action feature film Garfield: The Movie. This film was directed by Tim Hill, written by Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow, produced by Davis Entertainment for 20th Century Fox, and was released in U.S. cinemas on June 16, 2006 (July 21, 2006 in UK). The film borrows its storyline from Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. The title alludes to Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities.

The fictional Carlyle Castle in the film is in fact Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, UK.

Plot

In a palace somewhere in England, a royal cat named Prince (voiced by Tim Curry), is living a luxurious life and is king of his castle, known as Carlyle Castle. On the other side of the world, Garfield the cat (voiced by Bill Murray) is living in his owner Jon's house a year after the first movie and believes that he's the king of the home. That night, Jon invites his girlfriend Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt) over for dinner, and is planning to propose to her. Garfield finds a turkey at the dinner table and eats all of it, while Jon is about to propose but was unable to find the ring (because Garfield took it so that he cannot propose as he wants to keep Jon all to himself). Liz tells him that she's been asked to travel to England and is flying there tomorrow. After she leaves, Jon feels sad that Liz is leaving. Garfield reveals to Jon that he took the ring, and tells him to give it back to the store, but instead, Jon decides to go to England to be with Liz.

The next day, Garfield thinks that he and Odie are going with Jon to England, but instead they are sent to the kennel where they are to stay while Jon is in London. Garfield throws a tantrum, and damages his and Odie's cage door. The two of them get out of the cage and escape into Jon's car. They hide in his luggage, throwing everything inside out the window. Meanwhile, at Carlyle Castle, Prince has just been named the new owner of the castle (as it said on the will of the past owner of the castle), but a man named Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly), the nephew of the past owner, expected that the owner would give him all the land. Prince's assistant, Winston, is worried that Dargis will get rid of Prince in order to get the land, but Prince assures him that Dargis would not do such a thing. However, Dargis puts him in a picnic basket and throws him in a river which leads to London in order, just as Winston had thought, named as the owner of the castle. Jon arrives at his hotel and is about to propose to Liz when Garfield and Odie come out of his bag. Jon is surprised, and leaves Garfield and Odie in the hotel room while he and Liz go sightseeing. Garfield and Odie also go out in search of Jon.

Meanwhile, Dargis is feeling happy now that Prince is gone and tells the news some officials and tells them he will be the next owner of the palace. The animals who are kept in a barn in the palace receive about the Prince's disappearance from a crow. After sending a mouse to look around, they also find out that Dargis is planning to kill them in order to spare more land and serve them to the guests. Meanwhile, Garfield and Odie have been travelling all over london, searching for Jon and Liz. Meanwhile, the butler of Caryle Castle, Smithee, is told by Dargis to go to London to get his new suit. He finds Garfield and Odie during their travels and mistakes him for Prince, bringing him to the castle and leaving Odie alone. Prince manages to get out of a gutter in front of Odie, to his confusion. Jon finds the two and, mistaking Prince for Garfield, takes them back to his hotel room.

At the castle, the animals realize that Garfield is not Prince, due to his voice, but are not concerned as he just needs to look like him. Dargis mistakes Garfield for Prince, and unsuccessfully attempts to have him killed. At the hotel, Odie brings Jon and Liz's map to Prince. Prince spots Carlyle Castle on the map, and sets off to return to the palace.

Jon realizes that Garfield is gone and goes off with Odie to find him. Jon does not find him, but Odie finds a newspaper containing Prince's picture and shows Jon that Garfield could've been mistaken for Prince. Jon and Odie rent a car and head for Carlyle Castle. But in Carlyle Castle, Garfield hears the pesky parrot, Preston's, words about being a horrible impostor, making him sad, but he soon decides to find his friend, Jon, but finds out that Dargis is hitting on Liz, and saves Liz by distracting Dargis. Jon meets up with Smithee and after explaining the story, he decides to come with them. Meanwhile, Garfield is thrown into a cell in the dungeon by Dargis. He is rescued by Winston. After over-hearing how the other animals really feel about him, Garfield decides to head back to London, but then comes face to face with Prince in a classic "fake mirror" scene, finding the truth after exhaling, causing his "reflection" to slightly faint due to Garfield's breath. Prince explains that he had been living Garfield's life for the last three days is found by the other animals. The animals ask Prince for a plan to escape from Dargis. Prince suggests that they pack up and leave, but Garfield tells them that they should fight Dargis, and decides to stay. The animals set traps all over the palace, with Garfield and Prince luring him into the traps. They manage to keep him off for a while. Jon and Odie arrive as Dargis gets a crossbow and aims it at the animals and the people who made Prince the owner. Odie bites Dargis on the butt, making him throwing the cross bow away. Dargis takes out a gun and threatens to kill Liz, who was also at the palace. A ferret enters Dargis' pants and starts running around, driving him crazy. He soon is knocked out and falls to the floor. Smithee brings out troops of the police to arrest him.

Liz sees Garfield and Prince, not knowing the difference between the two of them. Garfield kicks Odie off the chair they are sitting on in order to prove who is who. Jon takes out the ring and proposes to Liz. Liz happily accepts.

The animals, Garfield, and Prince party at the end of the film, celebrating their freedom.

Cast

• Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle
• Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr. Liz Wilson
• Billy Connolly as Lord Dargis
• Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield
• Tim Curry as the voice of Prince
• Bob Hoskins as the voice of Winston
• Ian Abercrombie as Smithee
• Roger Rees as Mr. Hobbs
• Lucy Davis as Ms. Abby Westminister
• Rhys Ifans as the voice of McBunny
• Oliver Muirhead as Mr. Greene
• Vinnie Jones as the voice of Rommel
• Joe Pasquale as the voice of the Claudius
• Gregg Berger as the voice of Odie (uncredited)

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $28,426,747 in the U.S. box office (the first film made this in its first six days).^[1] According to 20th Century Fox, the studio was aware that the film would not make as much as the first, and only made it based on the worldwide success of the first film.^[2]

It became a huge success overseas, earning $113,011,707, or 100% of its worldwide gross.

Critical reception

The film also was panned by reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it an 11% critical approval rating, with the consensus that the film is "strictly for (very) little kids, A Tale of Two Kitties features skilled voice actors but a plot that holds little interest." The film was also nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards in 2006: "Worst Prequel or Sequel" and "Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment".

Home media

• The DVD was released on October 10, 2006. The DVD includes a "Drawing with Jim Davis" featurette and two games: Garfield's Maze, and Odie's Photo Album. It also includes a music video, trailers, and footage not seen in theaters.
• An extended version (86 minutes) was released with the first Garfield film on a double-sided DVD.

References

External links

• Official website
• Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties at the Internet Movie Database
• Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties at Box Office Mojo
• Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties at Rotten Tomatoes