Garfield creator Jim Davis had input in the screenplay and worked with the animators trying to get the computer-generated image of Garfield just right.

Davis is no stranger to screenwriting. He's written 13 Garfield TV specials. The Marion native and Ball State University alumnus also helped direct the "Garfield and Friends" cartoon show.

Davis also makes a cameo appearance in the movie as a drunken conventioneer.

The cynical, sarcastic voice of Garfield will be supplied by comic actor Bill Murray ("Groundhog Day," "The Royal Tennenbaums").

Breckin Meyer ("Rat Race") and Jennifer Love Hewitt ("Party of Five") fill the human roles. Hewitt is also starring this year in "Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn," written by Warren Central High School graduate Ryan Murphy.

Kim Campbell, spokeswoman for Paws Inc., the creative and business complex of the Garfield empire just outside Muncie, said she couldn't reveal much about the movie, but Garfield and Odie "really look like real animals more than like the cartoon character you're used to seeing in the strip. With computer-generated imagery, these animals really look alive. These are cartoony, but they're more realistic. The cat has fur."

Meyer plays Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's nerdy, single, human owner. "He's darling," Campbell said. "He's kind of got that everyman face. I don't think any of us would have thought of him in the beginning, but once he was cast, yeah, that's perfect. Jennifer Love Hewitt, also again, kind of a surprise to us, plays Liz, the veterinarian."