Film Review: CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG (2021): A Sweet, Formulaic Presentation Based On Popular Children’s Books

Clifford the Big Red Dog Review

Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Walt Becker and starring Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall, Izaac Wang, Tony Hale, John Cleese, Sienna Guillory, David Alan Grier, Horatio Sanz, Paul Rodriguez, Russell Peters, Keith Ewell, Bear Allen-Blaine, Tovah Feldshuh, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Ty Jones, Russell Wong, Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Mia Ronn.

Director Walt Becker has brought the beloved character from the Scholastic book series, Clifford the Big Red Dog, to the silver screen. This movie has taken a long time to arrive but it is entertaining enough to please children although their parents may find the movie a little too corny for its own good. It is set in New York City and has some nice, visually attractive scenes of the city.

The performances in the film are a lot of fun. Jack Whitehall, in particular, stands out as the main character Emily (Darby Camp)’s uncle Casey. There’s also a fun but predictable series of scenes with Tony Hale’s character, Tieran, trying to steal Clifford from Emily for his own profiteering scheme. Let’s not forget John Cleese as Bridwell, the older gentleman who introduces Emily to the big red dog, Clifford, when Clifford is actually small. It seems this dog will grow bigger as a result of how much Emily loves him.

Uncle Casey lives out of the back of his truck but has a heart of gold so when his sister, Maggie (Sienna Guillory) asks him to babysit her sixth grade daughter, Emily, Casey has no choice but to help Maggie out. When Bridwell introduces Casey and Emily to a tiny Clifford, Casey is reluctant to let his niece take home the dog. But, Clifford proceeds to follow her home anyway and all seems to be well until Clifford soon grows 10 feet tall. They try to take the over-sized dog to the vet but the vet (a funny Kenan Thompson) sees that the dog seems to be pretty normal. He’s just huge.

The plot thickens when Tieran sees the dog and decides that his company (which experiments on animals) could benefit from pretending Clifford was their own invention. Tieran is so desperate to get his hands on the dog that he tries to steal it from Emily. But, a classmate of Emily’s, Owen (Izaac Wang) helps hide Clifford and it turns out his dad (Russell Wong) can save Clifford by moving him out of the country. I was pretty sure that unless Emily was going with him, Clifford wasn’t going to end up anywhere else other than in New York right beside her. But, kids will probably be in suspense.

Darby Camp was a delightful choice to play Emily and she does an admirable job in the role. Camp’s character is on the poorer side so the kids at her school call her “food stamp” and it’s easy to feel for her. As her uncle, Jack Whitehall is charismatic and energetic and adds a considerable amount of charm to his character. Clifford is well conveyed on screen although pee jokes and the like tend to bog the movie down as it progresses.

Clifford the Big Red Dog is a movie that was a long time in the making. It’s not as good as I wanted it to be but it was nevertheless entertaining. The movie relies too heavily on jokes that are recycled from other films but its characters are charming throughout. The action scenes are also fast paced although showing children driving is always something that I find unnecessary and irresponsible. This film also showcases a song called “Room For You” by Madison Beer which has a lot of heart. The picture has a big heart as well and it is almost impossible to not be won over by certain aspects of it. You’ll know if you’re the right audience for this movie and can decide accordingly whether you should see it or not.

Rating: 6/10

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