movie news : A lazy cat in a lazy movie

There's nothing horribly wrong with "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties."

There's nothing especially right about it either.

The three children under 5 whom I took to the movie were entertained enough.

But as a parent, I was pretty much left out to dry, wondering who ordered up a sequel to the 2004 "Garfield," anyway.

Though the title alludes to Charles Dickens, "Two Kitties" resurrects Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" as house cat Garfield gets mixed up with the hoity-toity tabby Prince, who has just inherited an English castle. Both must battle a vengeful nephew (voiced by Billy Connolly), out for blood after getting shortchanged in the will.

As in the first movie, Garfield is convincingly rendered via computer animation while the rest of the world is photographed in live action. Everyone plays straight man (or duck, dog, or goat) to the wisecracking Garfield, for whom all the world is a stand-up comedy stage.

Bill Murray is the perfect choice to voice Garfield, since the laid-back actor can deliver his asides half-asleep and still stay in character. The cat's chronic laziness infects the movie, since the jokes are as dusty and the script as clattery as the suits of armor in the parlor.

The slapstick is aimed squarely at preschoolers, while parents are expected to chortle at references to "Fear Factor" and "Silence of the Lambs." The mix of cute and crude doesn't serve either demographic.

The twist here is that the cat acts human while the actors run around like cartoons. Breckin Meyer returns as owner Jon, who can't find the right moment to propose to girlfriend Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Garfield figures that it's bad enough that he has to share Jon's affection with the mutt Odie, so he tries to foil the nuptials.

No one looks comfortable, including the animated Garfield. He seems to know as well as we do that his comedy works best in a handful of comic strip frames.

BY JOHN MONAGHAN