Clifford the Big Red Dog review

CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG: 

BOOK-TO-FILM ADAPTATION IS HEARTFELT BUT ALSO RIDDLED WITH TIRESOME KIDS’ MOVIE TROPES AND POTTY HUMOR! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Emily-Elizabeth got a huge new friend in Clifford the Big Red Dog

 

            The enormously playful (As well as enormous literally) red dog from Norman Bridwell’s iconic children’s books comes to life in the film adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog. This wouldn’t be the first time Clifford appeared on the big screen as there was already an animated film that was released in theaters in 2004 known as Clifford’s Really Big Movie, which was based on the TV series that ran on PBS Kids…I didn’t see it, though I’m sure it’s a perfectly serviceable movie for children.

            I grew up on the Clifford books, though I don’t quite hold them as close to my heart as say Dr. Seuss, Arthur, or The Berenstain Bears, I still have a lot of fond memories reading many of the books as a child. I never watched the animated series on PBS Kids as it came out a bit after my time or the previous movie as previously mentioned, but I’ll always have a sense of nostalgia for the books. 

            Now, we have this live-action adaptation of Clifford directed by Walt Becker (National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Wild Hogs, Old Dogs), who gave us the biggest movie of December 2015…Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and produced by Jordan Kerner (The Mighty Ducks trilogy, George of the Jungle, Charlotte’s Web (2006)), the guy who produced Snow Dogs, Inspector Gadget, and The Smurfs franchise! I had extremely low expectations when the teaser trailer was released showing off the live-action/CG Clifford, it wasn’t original Sonic the Hedgehog movie design bad, but something about a realistic-looking giant red dog seemed…off to me. 

            Then again, I had low expectations when Paddington, Peter Rabbit, and Christopher Robin were coming out and those turned out okay (Great in Paddington’s case!), maybe Clifford could follow in the same footsteps as those films. Sadly, that is not the case! 

            Clifford the Big Red Dog isn’t a horrible movie, and it does have some genuinely heartfelt moments, but this dog can’t quite jump over the hurdles of tiresome kids’ movie tropes and a bland, uninspired script. Have you seen a children’s movie about a kid who gets a new friend or pet that happens to be magic, but eventually catches the attention of a corporate villain in a suit? Guess what, you’ve seen Clifford without even knowing it! 

            The film follows Emily Elizabeth Howard (Darby Camp-Big Little Lies, Benji (2018), The Christmas Chronicles 1 and 2), a girl who just moved to New York City and is a social outcast at her new school. When Emily is left in the hands of her clumsy yet good-natured Uncle Casey (Jack Whitehall-Fresh Meat, Bad Education (TV series), Jungle Cruise) while her mother, Maggie (Sienna Guillory-Resident Evil franchise, Eragon, Luther) is away on a business trip, the two of them come across an adorable but abnormally red puppy at an animal shelter run by the mysterious Mr. Bridwell (John Cleese-Monty Python’s Flying Circus, George of the Jungle, Shrek franchise) who gives the puppy to Emily which she names Clifford. 

            However, Clifford the Small Red Puppy (See what I did there?) suddenly grows overnight like magic into a giant, ten-foot hound and all sorts of wacky hijinks start to occur. Clifford is quickly noticed by the public and immediately catches the attention of a biotechnology company owner known as Zack Tieran (Tony Hale-Veep, The Angry Birds Movie 1 and 2, Toy Story 4) who wants to catch Clifford to experiment on him, not if Emily-Elizabeth and Uncle Casey have anything to say about it. 

            The film also stars David Alan Grier (In Living Color, Jumanji, A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix series)) as Mr. Packard, Izaac Wang (Good Boys, Raya and the Last Dragon, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai) as Owen, Russell Wong (Vanishing Son, The Monkey King, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) as Mr. Yu, Kenan Thompson (All That, Good Burger, Saturday Night Live), who also voiced the character Hamburger on the Cliffordanimated series, as Clifford’s veterinarian, Paul Rodriguez (Rat Race, Ali, The World’s Fastest Indian) as Sanchez, Russell Peters (Source Code, Chef, The Jungle Book (2016)) as Malik, Horatio Sanz (Saturday Night Live, Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet) as Rau, Rosie Perez (Do the Right Thing, In Living Color, White Men Can’t Jump) as Lucille, and Alex Moffat (Saturday Night Live, Uncle John, Ralph Breaks the Internet) as Albert. 

            Overall, Clifford the Big Red Dog may satisfy very young viewers, but despite best efforts from the cast, the film feels like a cheaply manufactured cash-grab that replaces most of the charm and magic of the books with an over-reliance on tiresome kids’ movie tropes, toilet humor, and modern slang. Remember the Clifford book when a character said, “Get lit” and used air quotes, or how about the one where someone holds a pug up to Clifford’s rear-end so it could sniff it, perhaps the one where he drinks out of the toilet or the one where he pees on a tree in the park and all the pee sprays all over Emily and Casey might suit you? My favorite is the one where Clifford farts in the back of a van and a kid has to smell it!

            Potty humor aside, the plot itself feels rehashed from other kids’ films, main character is an outcast, befriends a strange animal or creature resulting in something magical happening, the animal becomes a phenomenon, and the stock corporate villain wants to catch it. It’s as if the writers were given a checklist and special instructions by the studio to follow that checklist exactly, I feel like you could make a potentially good Clifford movie when given the right material or if the right people were helming it, this however makes me grateful that Paddington and Peter Rabbit didn’t fall into these generic kids’ movie traps. 

            I will give this film credit that it does try to have heart and most of the heartfelt moments are actually done pretty well. The scenes where Emily-Elizabeth and Clifford (Both as a small puppy and as a giant dog) are bonding with each other are quite sweet and the emotional highlights of the film, if those scenes weren’t there then this would easily be on par with the live-action Scooby-Doo movies, and even Clifford himself is very adorable and while it never looks like he’s really there, at least the CGI on him isn’t distractingly fake, unlike the dog from The Call of the Wild. 

            Clifford the Big Red Dog is harmless if you got little kids who really want to see it, but compared to other, better family films out, it isn’t much of a recommendation. For those feeling Clifford nostalgia on the other hand will have a much better time digging out their old childhood books from the attic than watch this bland and uninspired fluff.