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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.Read critic reviews
Audience Says
Whether they're fans of the books or new to the title character, Clifford the Big Red Dog is fun viewing for little ones.Read audience reviews
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Clifford the Big Red Dog videos
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Sniffing Butts
CLIP 2:00
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Saving Clifford
CLIP 2:38
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - At the Vet
CLIP 2:22
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Let Me Keep My Dog!
CLIP 2:57
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Clifford to the Rescue
CLIP 1:15
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Hiding Clifford
CLIP 2:49
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Clifford Comes Home
CLIP 2:41
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Clifford's Car Chase
CLIP 2:38
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Clifford Meets the Bully
CLIP 1:23
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Official Clip - Clifford Gets Big
CLIP 2:42
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Lyric Video - Room for You
1:46
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Movie Clip - Hiding Clifford
CLIP 0:42
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Movie Clip - Clifford Goes to the Vet
CLIP 0:51
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Movie Clip - Emily Meets Clifford
CLIP 0:56
Clifford the Big Red Dog: Featurette - Book to Screen
When middle-schooler Emily Elizabeth (Darby Camp) meets a magical animal rescuer (John Cleese) who gifts her a little, red puppy, she never anticipated waking up to find a giant ten-foot hound in her small New York City apartment. While her single mom (Sienna Guillory) is away for business, Emily and her fun but impulsive uncle Casey (Jack Whitehall) set out on an adventure that will keep you on the edge-of-your-seat as our heroes take a bite out of the Big Apple. Based on the beloved Scholastic book character, Clifford will teach the world how to love big!
What can one expect from the 80-minute live-action feature film of a children's book series that was about a giant red dog? While ostensibly made for little kids, like those strictly under ten, Clifford the Big Red Dog (not to be confused with the equally alarming Clifford) is banal entertainment that's inoffensive as long as you don't have a deep personal attachment to the best-selling source material. It's your standard children's fantasy come alive with a giant dog that needs to be cared for as well as kept a secret. There are rambunctious moments of quelling the dog, mischievous moments of chasing the dog, and frantic moments of running away from a gene-splicing tech guru (Tony Hale). And oh, you bet there is scatological humor. We got dog farts. We got dog butt humor. We got dog pee. We got dog poop, at least in reference though thankfully never seen. I don't know why we needed an added story of a little girl struggling to fit in at middle school with preppy, mean girls. I guess because a big red dog is also struggling to fit in? For that matter, the movie never returns to the opening scene of Clifford's dog family being taken from him (a baffling and sad opening). There's a more charming, heartfelt movie somewhere in here, akin to a Paddington where the central character changes those around them for the better, but our little New York City neighborhood is strictly in a more plastic and safe world. There are a few jokes that slipped past and made me laugh, so it's not all a loss. Clifford doesn't pretend to be anything more or less than its meagerly stated goals, and it's a serviceable family film as long as your little ones have a low threshold for realistic-looking CGI dogs.
Nate's Grade: C, for Clifford
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