Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021) is an animation, adventure, comedy film. The film is rated PG and it is an hour and 37 minutes.
The follows a young girl’s love for a tiny puppy named Clifford makes the dog grow to an enormous size.
And today I’m going to tell you my honest review of Clifford the Big Red Dog and tell you honestly if it’s worth a watch.
Clifford the Big Red Dog Review
Clifford the Big Red Dog 2021 is directed by Walt Becker and he is known for Old Dogs (2009), Wild Hogs (2007), and Van Wilder (2002). It stars Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall, Izaac Wang, amongst others.
And it’s about a girl named Emily who lives in New York City, and she finds this little tiny red dog, and she names him Clifford. And because of her love and affection, he grows to this abnormally large size. Yeah, that’s the story.
Now, is this movie worth the to watch?
No, this movie is definitely not worth the watch.
And I’ll be honest with you guys. As an adult, I can go into a children’s movie or a family movie and still enjoy myself if it’s done well.
Like, for example, Ron’s Gone Wrong. It just came out a couple of weeks ago. I thought that movie was really well done and I really enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to anyone. But only if they’re done well.
So if a children’s family movie is done well, or if any movie is done well, no matter what genre it’s in, then I’ll recommend it to people. This is not one of those movies.
So when the movie starts off, you hear that whimsical Jerry Goldsmith likes to score from the early 90s and 2000s, and I’m like, okay, I feel like I’m going to watch Stuart Little, you know what I mean?
I want to be won over by this movie. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie like this, so sure, let’s give Clifford The Big Red Dog an honest chance, and then you see him and out loud, I’m like, oh, God, he looks terrible.
Like, oh, my God, the CGI was distracting right off the bat, right off the bat. And now I’ve watched Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo Two Monsters Unleashed. I believe what it’s called.
And sure, the CGI in that movie as well. It’s questionable, right? But man, that movie looks like 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The CGI in this movie is bad. Maybe I can still be one over if the movie has heart, interesting characters, it’s funny. It’s lighthearted. I have a good time with it. Sure. Okay. This movie hasn’t lost me yet, but it’s going to be a tough uphill battle.
Then we meet Emily and she’s eating cereal. But the cereal, honeycomb cereal is like, directly in the middle of the frame, showing right at the camera. And I’m like, okay, you need some product placement in a movie. Sure, why not.
But what I noticed is that when she’s talking with her mother, the camera is obviously cutting between different angles. The angle of the cereal keeps changing so that it’s in the middle of the frame showing to the camera.
Even though no one in the scene in the movie world is touching the cereal. And I’m like, okay, movie.
You’ve basically lost me at this point because I don’t feel like I’m watching a movie about learning how to be okay with yourself and learning like, okay, people are different, right?
Of course, this movie has a message that’s tacked on, and we’ll get to that. But I am seeing just a really disingenuous, not even a film, just some shovel where to show your kids. But, hey, it’s not over yet, but we’re off to a really Rocky start.
But then we see Emily go around to see her neighbors, and we see Russell Peters in the movie and right away, out loud, I’m like, What Russell, what are you doing here? The movie lost me at that point.
Now, I’ll be fair. Russell Peters can be in any movie he wants. And if he wants to be in Clifford the Big Red Dog. If they paid him well, great. You could get a new kitchen with the money. I don’t know what he’s going to do with it, but I have no problem with that.
But just immediately, when I saw that, I’m like, my Spidey sense was tingling. I’m like, this movie is going to be just awful. And I knew it was awful at the 29 minutes Mark.
Because I’m like, okay, how long is this movie? Look at the 29 minutes Mark. I’m like, okay, the movie has completely lost me at this point.
So why is this movie not actually worth a watch?
Number one, the pacing, it’s so bizarre. This movie feels extremely long, but at the same time, it feels like it just completely sped by. And the reason for that is because the scenes feel extremely rushed.
For example, we meet Emily and her mother, and the scene is like, 30 seconds long, and you get all the character information out just right away. You go. Hi, I’m Emily. I’m Emily’s mother. I was bullied at school today. Why? Because I’m different. Okay, I got to go. I don’t want to see my uncle two dad, you’re seeing your uncle. Bye. And then the scene’s over.
I’m like, what the hell just happened? And there are many scenes like that in this movie. There’s no breathing room.
When John Cleese, the animal caretaker, meets Clifford in the park, he goes, oh, Hello. You’re a red dog. That’s kind of weird. Ok, you’re coming with me? 30 seconds. It’s done. I’m like, let the scene play out a little bit.
Now, those two scenes are examples of scenes early in the movie. And I’m like, okay, sure. Maybe we’ll have some time for the more emotional scenes or the more heartfelt moments.
But no, Jack Whitehall plays the bum uncle, the kind of screw-up uncle of Emily. And he’s sitting down with her on a bench talking about, oh, I’m such a screw up, like your mother’s going to kill me. I’ve really failed you. The scene is over in, like, 30 seconds.
And I’m thinking, okay, this is your emotional moment in the movie. This is where the two characters can come together. They can bond, they can talk about their problems and they can really form a relationship. But, no, it’s over in 30 seconds.
And I’m like, okay, movie, you want to have a heartfelt message? These are the scenes where you really build that up and they just don’t make time for it.
And speaking about the message of the movie, it feels extremely tacked on. Now, the message that it’s trying to portray, I think, is a rather good message, of course.
It’s that unique people can change the world. And yes, people will look at you because you’re different and will judge you because you’re different. But we should be happy about our differences and celebrate them.
Right? Of course, when you have a movie about a big red dog, people will be looking at that and going, like, oh, that’s strange.
Yes. But we should celebrate that. By all means, that’s a great message, but it doesn’t feel earned.
Whatsoever. She has, like, this speech at the end of the movie that she’s, like, spoiler. I guess you’re not going to see this movie. It’s not good.
She’s like, we need to stop bullying because people are different. And I’m like, okay, little girl, I understand what you’re trying to do here.
And by all means, I agree with that message. But you showed me nothing in this movie that shows me that you deserve to have this moment. This movie is way too disingenuous for that.
Because who is the villain of this movie? Who is the obstacle that is basically trying to say the opposite of that message? Well, you have this evil Corporation called Life Grow, I believe.
And what’s their evil plan? They want to get food and make it bigger to feed people so scary. So, like, what I’m thinking, this is not a good thing. But then again, so I guess they do testing on animals, which is a bad thing.
I understand that we have the bullies at school who make fun of Emily because she recycles and what? And we have the landlord who’s, like, just no pets, no animals and not no big red dogs. It’s just no animals whatsoever.
So he’s bigoted towards animals. I don’t feel like there’s a giant force trying to tell us opposite of that message.
And like I said earlier, this movie just feels extremely disingenuous. It tries to disguise itself as having heart and having a message. And having, like, this is what we should do kids. But it’s full of just really lame jokes, bad CGI, like, terrible CGI.
And the score really dictates how you’re supposed to feel every single moment that is somewhat sad gets the really sappy score.
The happy moments are like the most happiest moments of all time. In terms of the score. There’s one moment where Clifford just tries to be small, like, he’s kind of crying and he puts his head on the ground. I’m like, okay, that’s kind of cute. But it’s because I like dogs.
But Clifford doesn’t even really look like a dog, not just like a bad CGI dog. It gets into, like, Lion King territory, which is just if you guys know anything about that movie or what my thoughts are in that movie.
So I am going to give Clifford the Big Red Dog 2021 movie an F.
This movie is just not for me. Honestly, the only way I could see this movie being redeemed is that this movie is shovelware for your DVD player on the back of your Dodge Caravan, right to shut your kids up on a long road trip.
But what about you guys? What do you guys think of Clifford the Big Red Dog? Did you watch the show growing up? The show actually aired when I was five years old. Whatever your thoughts are, leave them down in the comment section down below.
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of Clifford the Big Red Dog. See you next time with another movie review.
Clifford the Big Red Dog Trailer
Check out the trailer of the new animation, adventure, comedy movie; Clifford the Big Red Dog 2021.
