May 27, 2024

Mark Dindal, director of "The Garfield Movie," on his journey to make a film about an icon

Cartoon Brew, in partnership with exclusive online event partner INBTWN Animation, interviewed Mark Dindal, director of "The Garfield Movie," which is competing for the #1 spot in the country over Memorial Day weekend.

Dindal is a well-known director of animated feature films, and his early films such as "Cat's Dance" and "The Emperor's New Groove" are beloved modern classics. For "The Garfield Movie," he was entrusted with adding a new flavor to the iconic comic strip characters that already had a long track record of animation.

The film, which features Garfield's father for the first time, gave Dindal the opportunity to explore the personality of the lazy orange tabby in a way that had previously been impossible. Says Dindal, "My interest was to reveal that this character, who had been so confident for so many years, also had human frailties."

In the interview, Dindal discusses how he cast the character's voice, playing in the sandbox created by Garfield creator Jim Davis, working with an international production crew spanning four continents, and facing production challenges such as global pandemics and He touches on many topics, including the importance of maintaining a playful spirit and imagination even in the face of