Clifford The Big Red Dog (2021.) Quick Review.

When the trailer for this new live-action incarnation of the popular children’s property came out the internet seemed desperate to turn it into an ironic meme. This request typically came from the type of audience still be yearning for midnight screenings of Cats (2019.) Their knowledge of so bad it’s good entertainment typically only extends as far as The Room. Don’t get this writer wrong. There is a mild descent into the uncanny valley with how Clifford looks As a live-action/CG hybrid creation. That said trying to turn this into something ironically enjoyable is given the creative team behind the 2021 incarnation of this franchise far too much credit. In a way, this is a good thing. Clifford 2021 is one of the most aggressively harmless films this viewer can remember seeing. Beyond advances in technology If one were to make this film 15 to 20 years ago, it would have been the same piece of work This whole project feels like it’s trying to ape the sort of family movie that came in the wake of Chris Columbus era Harry Potter in the early 2000s. Nanny McPhee anyone. Within that context, the new Clifford is absolutely fine for what it’s trying to do. There are some half-assed attempts at social commentary. The protagonist In 2021 is a girl from Harlem on a scholarship at a posh private school. All the Slapstick beats You would expect from doing the premise in live-action or hit across 97 minutes. Well, none of these particularly work for an adult audience they’re also not unbelievably grating in the same way as lower-tier kids entertainment targeted exclusively at children. If an adult was to put this on as a piece of distraction media to keep their kids quiet for the running time they could do worse. This author was somewhat surprised it has been given a big theatrical exclusive UK release. It has the aesthetics on pretty much every level of a straight to the streaming movie. Thinking about this further he thought it was probably as a piece of counterprogramming for kids too young to see Spider-Man No Way Home. Within that context, it may well do perfectly fine. Its aggressive lack of anything either praiseworthy all super negative makes it a good fit for the role. It’s Clifford in live-action. What did you expect?
The writer is sure certain watches will attempt to frame the new live-action version of Clifford The Big Red Dog as great for ironic group viewings of the future. Well, there is some novelty in seeing the central hound realise in a live-action environment the prospect of it having any kind of audience beyond the underate is giving the film far too much credit. Proceedings inoffensively hit all the basic slapstick scenarios the premise would entail. The creative team doesn’t do this well enough to give it any broader appeal. Critically the film it’s also incredibly harmless In 2021 there is far more grating children’s media out there.
5/10