Clifford's Really Big Movie

By Gene Seymour | Staff Writer

Scene from Cliffords Big Movie. (Photo by - 2004 Scholastic Entertainment Inc.)

(G). For centuries, humankind has asked itself: How exactly does one lose a dog as red as a plum tomato and as big as an airplane hangar? This big-screen version of the animated PBS series offers a pallid, yet reasonably painless, reply. Voices include Wayne Brady, Jenna Elfman, John Goodman and John Ritter as the Large Crimson Canine. 1:13. At select theaters.

You know you've watched way too many daytime children's shows when you start recognizing the voices. When Cleo, the poodle who's part of the hero's posse in "Clifford's Really Big Movie," opens her mouth and Cree Summer's voice spills out, you think, "Oh, right. Cree Summer. She's on 'Rugrats,' too." And then, you slowly put your head in your hands and ask whatever became of your life.

Well, what happens to most of our lives is we have kids who watch TV shows like "Clifford the Big Red Dog." And when a movie version of "Clifford" materializes in the marketplace and you've got a toddler old enough to know what a movie version is, you deny them access to such things only at your peril.

And wouldn't you know? It's a variation on "Lassie Come Home" in which Clifford (the late John Ritter), concerned that his devoted owner, Emily Elizabeth, can't afford to feed a dog as big as a Florida condo, leaves home in search of financial aid. Eventually, he ends up with a ramshackle carnival of performing animals, led by an acrobatic blue ferret named Shackleford (Wayne Brady), who sees Clifford as a very big meal ticket for their outfit. When Clifford replaces him as a star attraction, Shackleford's blue gets tinged with green.

There's probably no sense in expecting -- or demanding -- that "Clifford's Really Big Movie" be a breakthrough in feature animation. Still, given the present dire straits of hand-painted animated film, "Clifford's" makers could have done a little more besides making the waters shimmer around Birdwell Island (the hero's bone-shaped home) or inserting visual swoops around Clifford's huge frame, which seem like cost-effective news network simulations of a suborbital flight over Mars. All that said, it's hard to throw too many eggs at a movie in which a tightrope-walking cow (Jenna Elfman) explains Shackleford's petty jealousies to Clifford by saying, "He means well. He's just a very insecure ferret."