Crafting the Spirited Sound of ‘The Garfield Movie’

In current middle school slang, the word “pookie” is a term of endearment – what one would call their best friend or significant other. In discussing this slang term with my middle schooler, I replied, “Oh, I get it. It’s like Garfield’s teddy bear, Pooky. Cute!” To which she replied, “Who’s Garfield?” She didn’t know who Garfield was?!?! Shocking! Garfield was a staple of my youth — my favorite Saturday morning cartoon back in the ’80s! How does she not know about Garfield?!?!

I took her to see The Garfield Movie – which she loved! – and thankfully, Pooky made a cameo. Dots were connected. The generational divide grew a bit narrower.

Director Mark Dindal’s The Garfield Movie (distributed by Sony Pictures) is a film that both parents and kids can enjoy. It captured the nostalgic joy of the Garfield cartoons I remember watching as a kid, yet delivered it in a fresh way that appeals to kids today. It’s action-packed, heartfelt, and down-right fun to watch in 3D.

Here, supervising sound editors/sound designers Luke Gentry (at SONA.), Ben Meechan (at SONA.), and Jeremy Price talk about their collaborative effort of tackling the massive amount of sound work on this film – from creating a swarm of drones for the train chase sequence to designing a “Death Star”-esque environment for the Lactose Farm’s dairy processing facility. They talk about their favorite “one-off” sounds, and creating tons of interesting new whooshes. Supervising dialogue/ADR editor Tim Siddall talks about the process of recording dialogue for animated films, recording breaths/efforts to bring the audience closer to the animated characters on screen, and recording lots of loop group to bring the pizzeria and Lactose Farms to life. And re-recording mixer Chris Burdon (at Warner Bros. De Lane Lea) discusses his approach to making the most of the Dolby Atmos surround field, using processing to put the voices in the spaces on screen, and much more!

THE GARFIELD MOVIE – Official Trailer (HD)

When did you get started on The Garfield Movie, and what did you tackle first? Were there specific sounds or scenes that dir. Mark Dindal wanted to nail down sound-wise?

Luke Gentry (LG): Early on, we had a really great spotting session with Mark and Mark [Keefer, picture editor]. I remember Mark Dindal saying, “Just go for it, push beyond what you’d usually do, even to the point where you break it!.”

This inspired us to really not hold back and the first scene we delivered was the train jump, an ideal scene for going all guns blazing! They loved what we did and it set the bar for the movie going forwards.

Jeremy Price (JP): We started on the film in July 2023 with a plan to mix in September/October.

When the film was turned over to us, it was in various stages of development. Some scenes were fully animated, others were early greyscale, and there were still scenes that were only storyboard. So we decided to tackle the film in the order of where the picture was. Reels 1, 3, and 5 were in the most finished state. Reels 2 and 4 had large sections that were still storyboard and Reel 6 still had a lot of picture work to be done. The decision was made to start with a couple of sequences that needed heavy design – Reel 1 as a whole – and work with Mark Dindal the director and Mark Keefer the editor to come up with a style that would work for the film.

Mark Keefer had worked as a sound editor before switching to picture editing, so the guide track…in the edit was a tremendous help to understand the direction they were heading sonically…

Mark Keefer had worked as a sound editor before switching to picture editing, so the guide track he had laid in the edit was a tremendous help to understand the direction they were heading sonically, but we were asked to push it further. Mark Dindal was very clear that he would rather we go too far so he could reign it back rather than us playing it safe.

Mark Dindal had a very specific direction for the sound where he didn’t like things to overlap too much. He was happy to have layers of sounds to create one sound but he wanted space between each sound in the storytelling. Thunder shouldn’t rumble on too long, a whoosh should stop before a splat, etc. – unless we’re creating mayhem, for example, during the Roland and Nolan playtime tear-up.

Chris Burdon (CB): From very early on, Mark Dindal encouraged the whole sound team to be adventurous and bold with sonic ideas throughout the film. Both Mark Dindal and Mark Keefer were always happy to hear new ideas and concepts. This was true not only for the sound effects side of the things but also for music and dialogue.

They didn’t want the sound to feel like an orchestra warming up, more like individual instruments playing their individual parts.

Ben Meechan (BM): I’ll always remember Mark Dindal saying to us in that first spotting, “I’ll never say to you ‘there is too much sound.’ Have fun and go for it.” To get free range on a film like this was thrilling.

Both Mark and Mark (Keefer) referenced drum kits a lot for how they wanted to distinguish between the sounds. They didn’t want the sound to feel like an orchestra warming up, more like individual instruments playing their individual parts.

Tim Siddall (TS): Mark was keen for the dialogue team to begin by building a warm, homely environment for the Italian pizzeria, to counter the cold/wet exterior where we first meet Baby Garfield. This began with the right source recordings but developed extensively with the addition of loop group.

With three supervising sound editors on The Garfield Movie how did you divide the work? Was it by reel? Or by genre, like ‘comedy,’ ‘action,’ ‘musical,’ etc.?

JP: The three of us work extremely well together. Ben and I have known each other for more than 20 years and I first worked with Luke on Aladdin where we instantly hit it off with our similar approach and love for sound. As a result, we tend to bounce ideas off each other and work together on everything to get the best sound we can.

It allows us all the opportunity to still design sounds and not get bogged down in emails and scheduling.

LG: Whilst unconventional, our three-supervisor system just works. It allows us all the opportunity to still design sounds and not get bogged down in emails and scheduling. Three heads is better than one, and it’s important that we outnumber the mixers! :)

BM: All three of us are capable of supervision and sound design. We trust each other and bounce off of each other’s ideas. Plus it’s Garfield, so of course we’d all want to have a go at sound designing as much as we could throughout the film.

We also had sound effects editor Jacob Stripp onboard, who really thrived when it came to laying sounds in this film. The time we had to tracklay wasn’t as long as you would have expected on a film like this, so we needed to edit fast and have a crew we could really rely on, which was why we also brought on Tim Siddall, as we knew he’d get the dialogues done and bring his personal touch to the background characters and crowd.

I grew up watching Garfield and Friends on Saturday morning cartoons back in the late ’80s – early 90’s. Were there any sonic easter eggs from that era, maybe in the ‘I hate Mondays’ opening?

BM: I was also a massive Garfield fan; I had the wallpaper and bedspreads. This film was hugely important to me and something I could show my own kids.

Mark and Mark didn’t want us to reinvent the wheel. They wanted us to create a comic book sound, making sure it had as much fun in it as possible, but giving the soundtrack heart. There are however many easter eggs hidden within the picture!

There are SO MANY whooshes in The Garfield Movie! Did you use something like TONSTURM Whoosh to help create those? Did you record custom whooshes? Any indie sound libraries that were helpful for whooshes/swishes?

JP: Yes, we did use Tonsturm Whoosh as well as Traveler, Doppler Pro, and GRM Doppler.

We recorded a huge amount ourselves and also used libraries like BOOM Library’s Close Combat to layer with our recordings.

We recorded a huge amount ourselves and also used libraries like BOOM Library’s Close Combat to layer with our recordings.

LG: We teamed up again with our Norwegian sound brothers at Uhørt in Oslo. On this show, they provided all the foley. Whilst they are amazing at foley, they are also a world-class sound design team and the tracks they provided were immense. They recorded a whole bunch of whooshes which offered us some natural variation in the track.

Can you talk about the dialogue workflow on an animated feature? After the initial performances are recorded and edited, are there any re-records? What does ADR for an animated film entail?

TS: Great question! It’s very different from working in live-action features for sure! The filmmakers began the project long before we were involved, initially using scratch voices and storyboards to try out ideas and create the initial cut. By the time we were involved, most of these had been replaced with new performances from our final cast, which were subsequently turned over to animation. In some rare instances, we would still record ADR style if we needed to tweak a performance that had already been animated to. However, the bulk of our post-production ADR was centered around breaths/efforts/screams, etc. (there are many!)

In some rare instances, we would still record ADR style if we needed to tweak a performance that had already been animated to.

We actually worked our way through the many hours of existing dialogue recordings to help cover as much as we could, but filled any gaps using traditional ADR. We were keen to offer as much as we could to Mark D to help us maintain a sonic connection with our characters whenever possible.

We recorded every line in the film using a dual Neumann U87 setup, so these were always available for Chris Burdon, as the second mic offered a slightly softer perspective.

There are so many fun, one-off sounds in the film. What were some of the most fun to create and how did you create them?

JP: We were definitely spoiled for opportunities to create fun sounds in this film. One that I remember enjoying creating was the sound for the milk lorry. The lorry was created using a number of manipulated electric vehicles. The sounds were morphed with synth sounds, beefed with bx_subsynth (Developed by Brainworx), some were put through Ghz Trem Control 3 (by Goodhertz) especially to help the powering up and down. TONSTURM’s Doppler Pro was used to help the passes, and finally, we used Serato’s Pitch ‘n Time Pro to vary the pitch to get the sound to really fit the picture with changing speeds of the vehicle.

LG: I provided the silly voice of the happy snail in ‘the plan’ sequence for temp but it managed to stay in the final mix.

TS: Myself and Mark K (Editor) spent a fun Sunday with a wonderfully talented bunch of young loop groupers, recording additional voices for the restaurant and amusement park at Lactose Farms (that name still cracks me up!). Also, just any dialogue recording session on this film! They were all so packed with energy, fun, and great ideas that it was just a pleasure to be part of.
 

Let’s dive into some of the most sound-intense, action moments:

What were some of your challenges or opportunities to use sound for the break-in of the Lactose Farms facility? There was this cool moment where Odie, Garfield, and Vic were going through the ventilation ducts; it’s this ‘tube ride’ moment…

JP: The challenge for the break-in was to make it exciting and fun, but to keep clarity with all that was happening.

Using metallic impulse responses to provide the reverb on the voices, we were able to create a really impactful and fun sonic quality for our main characters.

The vent sequence was a really fun moment for sound. We wanted to have fun with the tube sounds. We recorded pulling apart, pushing back together, and bending an exhaust tube for a portable air conditioner. It gave that great ridged boing sound that pitches up and down. Then for entering the different tube, we recorded hitting the tubes from the center of carpet rolls.

CB: The vent sequence was so much fun to mix. Using metallic impulse responses to provide the reverb on the voices, we were able to create a really impactful and fun sonic quality for our main characters. We were also able to use Dolby Atmos for extremely dynamic and accurate panning. As I said, it was great fun to mix, layering music, effects, and dialogue.

TS: Yeah so many dialogue objects! We had some great fun with Atmos on this project.

What were some of your challenges or opportunities to use sound for the “pinecone”/factory floor scene with the production machines – the shredder, fondue, string cheese, knife machine cutting slices, etc? Can you talk about the sounds you made for this sequence?

JP: The whole dairy facility wanted to sound futuristic and foreboding, like a “Dairy Death Star.”

We started by creating a menacing throb with Serum (by Xfer Records) for the moment they entered the pinecone to give it a huge, powerful atmosphere.

We put…elements through Pitch ‘n Time and Tonsturm Doppler Pro to match the action.

Then we created the Cheese transportation system using synth sounds created on Native Instruments Absynth for the sci-fi element then morphed with smooth metal sounds to give it the realism and anchor it to the picture.

The shredder was made from a number of created elements. Knife shings were edited together to make a constant sharp metal sound, and then Ghz Trem Control was applied to create the sense of grating. This technique was applied to a number of different audio elements to give the cheese a sound, too. We put these elements through Pitch ‘n Time and Tonsturm Doppler Pro to match the action.

For the Fondue, we did a number of recordings with the Sanken CUX-100K so that we could slow sounds down but keep the clarity. We then applied library sounds of geothermal pools and lava.

For the knife machine, we layered lots of blade slices and chops and performed them through Soundminer Radium to get a natural rhythm.

My favorite part was the train scene with the swarm of drones delivering food. This was so fun in 3D, and such a cool sequence for sound. Can you talk about your challenges/opportunities here? (That drone swarm was awesome!)

LG: I was honored to have been given the drone sequence to do. I really wanted them to be high-tech and aggressive but also not interfere with the music. From the start, we realized real drone recordings were too harsh and not interesting enough so I recorded a lot of source tracks with the Moog One and my Waldorf Quantum. These were then processed (compression, EQ, distortion), tremolated using Ghz Trem Control 3, and then dopplered. These were then layered with processed recordings of F1 cars, Harleys, and helicopters. We allocated a fair bit of mixing time to getting this right and Chris and John [Johnathan Rush, re-recording mixer] really brought that sequence to life in Atmos.

What scene went through the most iterations mix-wise? Can you talk about your different approaches and what was ultimately the best way to mix it and why?

Even though we’d been given the go-ahead to go all guns blazing, it was nice to back off slightly in these scenes and give the viewer a rest sonically…

BM: I think the quieter sequences like Garfield’s and Vic’s flashbacks. This was where it was great to get the input from Chris Burdon, to help us shape the dynamics of the mix. Even though we’d been given the go-ahead to go all guns blazing, it was nice to back off slightly in these scenes and give the viewer a rest sonically – especially with children as their hearing is much more sensitive than ours. Kids can get fatigued quicker than adults when watching films. I think that sound can contribute to this, so it’s good to not blast everyone’s eardrums for a full 90 minutes. This is where Chris is great, as he is able to take a step back and go, “hang on people, let’s just let the dialogue and music do some lifting for a few minutes, have a breather.”

CB: Maybe not the most obvious example, but the “Mission Impossible” sequence where Otto describes the master plan to enter the Lactose dairy facility needed a lot of detailed attention mix-wise. It was so important to keep the dialogue clear and intelligible while at the same time pushing music and effects where possible to match the fantastic visuals in the sequence. This was one of so many examples across the film where the brilliant sound team interacted so well.

What has the experience of working on the sound of The Garfield Movie taught you? Now that it’s all finished, what has stayed with you the most about this experience?

LG: I learned that “pushing it until it breaks” was sound advice from Mark Dindal and an approach I’ll take with me into future projects.

BM: I think when the enthusiasm and trust comes from the top – like Mark Dinadal and Mark Keefer gave us – it truly helps to deliver a great soundtrack. The whole crew had fun creating this soundtrack. Though it was tough at times, due to huge last-minute animation drops, it was an absolute pleasure working on. Working on animation is so much fun. You kind of have a blank canvas. There are no wrong sounds. It’s just taking the time to pick the sounds everyone is happy with. Plus, we had a real laugh working on this film.

…when the enthusiasm and trust comes from the top – like Mark Dinadal and Mark Keefer gave us – it truly helps to deliver a great soundtrack.

TS: We had such a fun time on this movie and we owe so much to our wonderful director and editor, and also to the whole team at Alcon and in the cutting room. We always felt so supported by our Producer Craig Sost and Post Supervisor Brad Arensman, which allowed us to focus on the creative aspect of our work more than ever.

CB: We all enjoyed working on Garfield so much. The enthusiasm and encouragement provided by the two Marks was infectious and this created the perfect working environment.

JP: I learned a great deal working on Garfield. Pushing the boundaries as far as possible can create a really fun soundtrack. Now that it’s all done, I miss it. I echo what the others have said. Working with Mark Dindal, Mark Keefer, Craig Sost and Brad Arensman was an utter joy – a real high point in my career. The nicest people you could hope to meet. It was also wonderful to work with the whole team at Warner Bros. De Lane Lea. Chris Burdon and Johnathan Rush are such talented and collaborative mixers. Finally, we’ll always be thankful to Michael Hamilton for working with us on this film and helping us get it over the line.

A big thanks to Luke Gentry, Ben Meechan, Jeremy Price, Tim Siddall, and Chris Burdon for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of The Garfield Movie and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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