Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)

Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)

 

5/10

Starring

Jack Whitehall

Darby Camp

Tony Hale

Sienna Guillory

Directed by Walt Becker

First thing to note is, this is a children’s movie and it does not try at any point to be more than that. I have never seen any animation or read the source material so to me this was my first introduction to Clifford the big red dog. The movie will pass for younger audience, but for more matured viewers they could be some form of reservation in the way the movie develops. I for one, enjoyed how this comedy adventure movie changed course and became a chase film. We had Clifford, Emily and Casey just running about town trying to avoid being caught by the bad man. He like all children film bad men, just wants to have Clifford for his own so he can experiment on him.

Children do not need depth to enjoy this, but a typical adult will see the lack of depth in the characters and may not be cool with the transition from comedy to chase.

The acting was not grand and there is no showboating when it comes to the CGI used for Clifford. At times you can see it that the was not much put down for this, which is reasonable.

The movie has some magical elements introduced into it, guided by John Cleese who plays Mr. Bridwell. How Birdwell comes to make some magic happens, begins when he gives Emily a small red puppy. Emily lives with her mother (a single mum) who had to travel for work and got her jobless brother Casey to come babysit Emily until she gets back. Casey is not just jobless, he is very clueless and appears lazy. Their union alone was like leaving a twelve year-old in the care of a thirteen year-old. It was their walk one day that led them down the path to where Mr. Birdwell keeps his animals who are all looking for a home. We later come to understand that Birdwell seems to know the right pet for the right person and for Emily the right pet was Clifford.

How Clifford found his way into Emily’s backpack is one of the Birdwell magic that is not explained, but after meeting Clifford her uncle (Casey) had to turn down the idea of them keeping it as a pet, because Emily’s apartment do not allow pets.

Now Clifford is in the house, and they decided that next day they have to find a way to give him back. But when the next day came Emily awoke to find Clifford more than ten feet high. He had grown overnight and their problems seem to have too. Now they have to find Birdwell to either take Clifford and shrink him back. Their walk around town turned them into an internet sensation and a company who have been working for years to know how to make food huge, wanted to capture (by all means) Clifford and study him.

It is a children's movie and noting more than that.