Jul 23, 2024

Mark Dindal, Animatic of Deleted Scenes from “The Garfield Movie” (Exclusive)

One of the theatrical animation success stories of 2024, Sony Pictures' “The Garfield Movie,” grossed $220 million worldwide on a $50 million budget. It is now available digitally for purchase or rental.

Based on cartoonist Jim Davis' Garfield character, the digital release includes several “making of” extras, including an animated matte of the deleted musical sequence of “I'm Back” featuring vocals by Hannah Wadham

The film is also available as a “making-of” featurette.

See the animatic of the deleted musical number of Cat Jinks :

So why wasn't this sequence included in the final film - Mark Dindal, who directed “The Garfield Movie,” is the director of Steven Anderson's (Disney's Meet the Robinsons” and also directed ‘Winnie the Pooh’) storyboarded the sequence and shared the story behind it.

Dindal told us:

This deleted scene was created to showcase Hannah Waddingham's amazing singing voice and musical theater background by having Jinks give Garfield and Vick a backstory in song. In this version, Jinx is the award-winning cat in the show, who met Vic when she was touring in the States. Ultimately, as Jinx tells it, she was betrayed by Vic and ended up in the pound.

Unfortunately, the actors' strike delayed the opportunity to record Hannah. When we were finally able to record her, we ran out of time to animate the song sequences for the film. Still, we wanted the audience to hear Hannah's wonderful performance, so we included the song in the end credits along with Steven Anderson's wonderful storyboard.

Digital extras include a gag reel, concept art, animation progression reel, and various other Easter eggs, along with animatics. The physical media version will be released in the fall.