User:The Dunkman/sandbox/Clifford

Clifford the Big Red Dog is a 2021 American-Canadian live-action/computer animated fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Walt Becker with the story written by Justin Malen and Ellen Rapoport, the film is based on the Schoolastic book series of the same name by author Norman Bridwell, it is the first film in the Clifford franchise since the animated film Clifford's Really Big Movie, the film follows a 12-year-old named Emily, who befriends a little red puppy that grows up one day, and mishaps happen when the giant dog creates havoc in the city of New York City.

Plot
When Emily Elizabeth meets a magical animal rescuer who gives her a little red puppy, she never anticipated waking up to find a giant, 10-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.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While the idea of a Clifford film sounds good on paper (and has been done before), making it a live-action one is very questionable, since in the mid-2000s, there has been tons of live action films that were based on kids media, and most of them suck due to being very unfaithful to the source material and due to the horrible amount of toilet humor, which this film also contains.
 * 2) Poor grasp of the source material:
 * 3) * Emily Elizabeth looks nothing like the book counterpart, as she doesn't have her famous blonde hair and classic pink outfit that made her design so iconic.
 * 4) * Apart from being huge, Clifford is just portrayed as a regular dog and doesn't speak at all.
 * 5) * Not to mention, this film's version of Clifford depicts him as a Labrador Retriever rather than you know, a Vizsla!
 * 6) Despite being done by Moving Pictures Company, the same visual effects company for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), the visual effects for Clifford look rather uncanny, as although the film correctly depicts Clifford as a red, giant dog, his design looks off due to just looking like a regular dog that happens to be big and red rather than looking close to his iconic design we all know, and his obviously computer-animated face and the way he moves look off. To rub salt to the wound, the aforementioned Sonic the Hedgehog film had Sonic's design being redone to look closer to how he does in the video games due to backlash, while this film just kept Clifford's design the same, which shows how Paramount doesn't care about the Clifford fanbase at all.
 * 7) Some of the characters are very unlikeable, like Uncle Casey for instance, as he's basically the most dumbest character in the film.
 * 8) Most of the humor is very atrocious, such as the scene where Clifford eats a dog and then spits it out is disgusting to watch (though Clifford didn't actually mean it), it's also pretty disturbing since Clifford is a dog, which is cannibalism, in a kids film,.
 * 9) Zac Tieran is a generic villain who is kind of forgettable, since all he does is to get Clifford as a lab rat for the company Lyfegro, which somewhat feels out of place in Clifford related media, also, he's basically James Suggs from Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, as they're both villains played by the wasted talent of Tony Hale, and are also generic villains.
 * 10) * Additionally, both films are also directed by Walt Becker, and speaking of Lyfegro, the name for the company is very atrocious, even for a villainous company.
 * 11) The film is too cliché and predictable, as it tries to hide the fact that Emily and Casey would find a way to get Clifford from Lyfegro and that it uses the "power of love" cliche that is being used to death in so many films.
 * 12) It has a largely unnecessary product placement for Bodega, which appears in a scene where Emily tries to get dog food for Clifford.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The movie can be considered "so bad it's good" thanks to the direction of Walt Becker, who also directed the infamous Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
 * 2) The acting is good, especially from Jack Whitehall despite the wasted talent, as he does a good job at being a clueless uncle and also seems to enjoy his acting.
 * 3) If there's anything funny from Uncle Casey, it's when Uncle Casey was about to cuss, and then it cuts right before he can say the word, despite being somewhat unoriginal.
 * 4) Aside from a few characters, most of the characters  are likable like the sympathetic Emily Elizabeth (despite not looking like the book counterpart) and Clifford (despite his design being uncanny).
 * 5) The humor, despite being unfunny, surprisingly has no toilet humor at all, so at least it's watchable towards families and fans of the original books, despite having a giant uncanny red dog.

Reception
Clifford the Big Red Dog received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences with criticism aimed at the CGI, humor and the unfaithfulness to its source material, but praised its visuals, the soundtrack and Darby Camp's performance as Emily Howard, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a "rotten" score of 48% with a critic consensus that says "It may get younger viewers to sit and stay, but Clifford the Big Red Dog is nowhere near as charming as its classic source material." On Metacritic, the film has 55 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews", whilst IMDb has a rating of 6/10.

Videos
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Trivia

 * This is the first film to be based on Clifford after the 2004 film Clifford's Really Big Movie!
 * A novelization of the film was released on December of 2021.