Clifford the Big Red Dog – Film Review

When Emily Elizabeth (Darby Camp) meets a magical animal rescuer named Mr. Bridwell (John Cleese) who gives her a little red puppy, she never anticipated waking up to find a giant, ten-foot hound in her small New York City apartment. With her single mother away on business, Emily and her fun but impulsive uncle set out on an adventure that takes a bite out of the Big Apple.

Trust me, I was probably having the same reaction you are when you remembered that a Clifford the Big Red Dog movie was really happening. Hollywood really is running out of ideas and it’s apparent. Meanwhile, amazing indie films get released in theatres and almost nobody sees them and it’s genuinely crushing because a lot of them are so well-done. But, surprisingly, Walt Becker‘s Clifford the Big Red Dog film adaptation isn’t terrible. It’s not good, but hey, at least it’s a step up from being abysmal, right?

This movie is one-hundred-percent strictly for kids though. There have been a handful of children’s films in recent years that both adults and their children can enjoy such as Kubo and the Two Strings and Isle of Dogs but this movie aims straight for young children and that’s fine. As a matter of fact, I think that a lot of toddlers are going to absolutely love this film and that’s largely in part due to the title dog. He’s extremely cute here and it’s amusing to watch him get himself into trouble and see the human characters try to rescue him.

But honestly, when you really whittle it down, this movie has zero substance of any kind which is terribly disappointing considering we live in a day and age where children’s films have been proven time and time again to be legitimately amazing with the right script. This film, however, genuinely only cares about telling a story about a man and a young girl trying to shrink a gigantic dog down back to regular size. That’s it? Seriously? It’s incredibly lazy, actually.

But the reason why I say this movie isn’t terrible is because it is watchable. Nothing about it is offensively bad to the point where you feel awful after watching it. It actually does have some cute moments and there were some moments that actually made me laugh but as soon as the credits roll, you’ll feel absolutely nothing which is a shame because a great film should leave you feeling something by the time the credits roll. This movie doesn’t.

Not even the amazing Jack Whitehall – one of the most charming actors working today – can save this movie from mediocrity. Darby Camp does a fine job in the role of the young Emily Elizabeth, but sadly, the legendary John Cleese gets reduced to such a bit role here that anybody going to see this movie just for him alone should just save a few bucks and keep their wallet a bit more hefty. I won’t say this movie is soulless because it started off quite okay and it doesn’t do anything absolutely mind-numbingly dumb, but it most definitely is a frustrating watch. If you take your kids, they’ll probably have a good time, but you’ll certainly walk out of the theatre and forget about it in a day or two.