Mark Dindal Shares The Animatic For A Deleted Scene From ‘The Garfield Movie’ (Exclusive)

One of 2024’s theatrical animation success stories, Sony Pictures’ The Garfield Movie grossed $220 million worldwide on a budget of $50 million. It’s now available to buy or rent on digital.

Based on cartoonist Jim Davis’ Garfield character, the digital release includes several “making of” extras including an animatic for the deleted musical sequence for “I’m Back” featuring Hannah Waddingham’s vocal performance.

Watch the animatic for the deleted musical number for Jinx the cat :

So why wasn’t this sequence included in the final film? Mark Dindal, who directed The Garfield Movie, shared the backstory of this sequence, which was storyboarded by Stephen Anderson (who also directed Disney’s Meet the Robinsons and Winnie the Pooh).

Dindal told us:

This deleted scene was created to showcase Hannah Waddingham’s spectacular voice and musical theater background by having Jinx tell her backstory in song to Garfield and Vic. In this version, Jinx was a prize winning show cat who met Vic while she was touring in the US. Ultimately, as Jinx tells it, she was double-crossed by Vic and ended up in the pound.

Unfortunately, the Actors strike delayed our chance to record Hannah. When we finally did record her, we soon found out that we had run out of time in the schedule to animate the song sequence for the movie. Still, I wanted very much for audiences to hear Hannah’s wonderful performance, so we included the song in the end credit roll, along with some of the fantastic storyboards from Stephen Anderson.

Along with the animatic, the digital extras include a gag reel, concept art, an animation progression reel, and various other Easter eggs. Physical media editions will be available in the fall.