Clifford the Big Red Dog has been around since 1963. The big lovable dog with a bright red coat has been featured in a series of popular books and an animated series featuring the voice of the late John Ritter. The movie version takes the books’ approach and just blows it up for 96 minutes. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know.
The movie stars Jack Whitehall as Casey Howard, an unemployed, irresponsible man who lives in his van. His sister Maggie (Sienna Guillory) asks him to watch her daughter Emily Elizabeth (Darby Camp) while she goes out of town on a business trip.
While visiting an animal carnival run by a mysterious rescuer (John Cleese), Emily comes across a small red dog and begs Casey to let her keep him. He says no, but the dog finds its way into her bookbag and, once they’re home, she makes a wish that the dog could be bigger. The next morning, her wish is granted.
Casey and Emily don’t know what to do with the dog who she names, you guessed it, Clifford. They try to keep it out of the hands of everyone from the New York police to the head of a gigantic corporation (Tony Hale) who sees big (no pun intended) money-making potential.
Clifford’s adventures for the rest of the plot involve him discovering NYC with the bad guys on his tail (pun intended). This takes the film into constant slapstick territory that feels forced and inorganic.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with Clifford the Big Red Dog. It’s innocuous almost to a fault and Clifford is convincing in CG form, but the plot falls apart mostly due to being too safe and predictable.
Every time it seems Clifford’s in jeopardy, we know he’ll make it out just fine. We know the baddies will be punished. We know that this is a story that is packaged to have a happy ending.
Maybe this is trying to test the waters and see if it can spawn a franchise. Only time will tell.
Kids will certainly love it and it’ll occupy their time for an hour and a half. Adults who are susceptible to this kind of storytelling might be engaged as well. As for me, I’d like Clifford 2 to come up with a script as obedient as a well-trained dog.
Grade: B-
(Rated PG for impolite humor, thematic elements and mild action.)
