Review of Clifford (1994) by Nonna V — 19 Oct 2007
The tagline for "Clifford" reads, "What's the difference between Clifford and a pit bull? One will tear your heart out, scare your friends and wreck your house. The other one is a dog.
" Martin Short relies heavily on facial movement and voice tonal changes to make his character Clifford funny. Clifford's story begins in present day. Clifford is now a small boy, but he is still played by Martin Short, oddly enough.
At first he appears a normal enough child, happy and bright and just a bit overly creepy. Clifford and his parents are on a flight to Hawaii for business purposes. Clifford wants to land in LA to visit "Dinosaur World".
Clifford is the ultimate pest, a spawn of Satan. Everyone knows someone like Clifford, but Martin Short stretches his character a bit more. Clifford is an odd child. He responds with gleeful joy and says things like, "Oh, yes, my dear Uncle Martin!" We are supposed to sympathize with Clifford by the end of the film, but the problem is that we don't know how or what to sympathize with.
Short makes Clifford more of a devil than a rascal, and we never truly get the sense that he is a human. By the end of the film, we're not all that sure if Clifford is human or not, or whether that evil streak is gone, and that is one of the film's flaws.
Other than that, it's a general its a really funny movie.
This review of Clifford (1994) was written by Nonna V on 19 Oct 2007.
Clifford has generally received mixed reviews.
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