Roger Ebert was born on June 18, 1942 in Urbana, Illinois. During his lifetime, Ebert forever changed the world of film criticism, bringing the art form into the mainstream like never before (does any other film critic name characters in blockbusters? by Roland Emmerich after him?). Ebert's legacy lives on in the modern filmmakers he championed like Ava. DuVernay and Ramin Bahrani, whose works and careers still leave a significant impact on the world of cinema. Ebert has been absent from the world of film criticism for more than a decade now, but the loss of his words and perspectives has never ceased to be devastating.
Garfield the Cat technically originated as the local strip Jon in 1976 before debuting as a national strip in 1978 with Garfield. Garfield's artistic legacy is not as profound as Ebert's, but there is no denying that Garfield left his mark on the world of popular culture. Today, it's hard to imagine a single comic book becoming a global phenomenon. But by the 1980s, Skeptical Garfield was everywhere thanks to rampant merchandising, including the suction cup Garfield plushies that became so popular that they appeared in the background of The Abyss. Several television specials, an animated series, and countless commercials featuring this big, lasagna-loving cat cemented Garfield's reputation. As a comic strip, Garfield lacks the creative visuals of Calvin & Hobbes or the strong melancholy of Peanuts, but there's something about the cat that resonates with people.
It's hard to imagine much crossover between Ebert and Garfield. But their paths crossed in the 2000s, when Garfield's first film hit the big screen. The second of these articles inspired one of Ebert's most interesting reviews, in which he assessed Garfield:
A story about two kittens…from Garfield's perspective.
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