Clifford (film)
Encyclopedia
Clifford is a 1994 comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 starring Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...

, Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...

, and Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...

.

The film was shot in 1990 and originally planned for release in the summer of 1991, but remained in limbo for several years due to Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...

' bleak financial situation. It wasn't released until 1994.

The film's tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...

 is "What's the difference between Clifford and a pit bull
Pit bull
A Pit bull is any of several breeds of dog in the molosser breed group.Many jurisdictions that restrict pit bulls, including Ontario, Canada,, Miami, Florida, U.S...

? One will tear your heart out, scare your friends, and wreck your house. The other one is a dog."

Plot

At a Catholic school
Catholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...

 in 2050, a troublesome boy named Roger is running away after blowing up the gym due to not being allowed to play on the basketball team. The coach had accepted him for the team, but his parents won't allow him to play contact sports. And the boys hate him. He's stopped by Father Clifford (Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...

), a very old priest, who tries to persuade him to change his ways by telling him a story of his own youth.

Flashing back to the present, the 10-year-old Clifford is a deceptive, evil, weird-looking boy who never lets go of a toy dinosaur he calls Stephan. He loves dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s and his dream is to visit Dinosaur World, a theme park located in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

While flying with his parents to Honolulu, Clifford purposely causes a catastrophe on board and puts himself, his parents, the passengers, and the crew in danger, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. His father scolds him because he is not allowed to get back on the flight, though he has an important engagement to attend.

From the airport, Clifford's dad phones his brother Martin (Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin
Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...

), who resides in Los Angeles, to propose the idea of Clifford staying with him for a while. He thinks that this could be the perfect opportunity to prove to his fiancée, Sarah Davis (Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...

), how well he interacts with children, especially his nephew whom he hasn't seen since he was baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

. Little does he know that a calculating monster hides behind Clifford's innocent smile.

Upon their reunion, Martin reveals to Clifford that he designed Larry the Scary Rex (a Dinosaur World attraction) and is able to get into the park free of charge. This only strengthens Clifford's obsession to visit the theme park. Martin promises to take him there, but is ultimately forced to back out because he must finish designing new plans for the transportation system of Los Angeles. This enrages Clifford, who embarks on a path of destruction and sabotage.

Clifford turns his uncle's life upside down, jeopardizing Martin's relationship with Sarah as well as his job. Among other things, he compliments Martin's boss, Mr. Ellis (Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...

), about his toupee
Toupee
A toupée is a hairpiece or partial wig of natural or synthetic hair worn to cover partial baldness or for theatrical purposes. While toupées and hairpieces are typically associated with male wearers, some women also use hairpieces to lengthen existing hair, or cover partially exposed scalp...

 to his face and causes Martin to be humiliated at Sarah's parents' 35th wedding anniversary party by replacing his Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary
- Personalities :* Mary I of England, Queen of England and Ireland* Bloody Mary , a ghost said to appear in mirrors when summonedQueen of England & Ireland in the Tudor era.Daughter of Henry VIII.- Literature :...

 with straight Tabasco sauce
Tabasco sauce
Tabasco sauce is the brand name for a hot sauce produced by US-based McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana. Tabasco sauce is made from tabasco peppers , vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years. It has a hot, spicy flavor...

. Clifford manages to get Martin to do an unprepared toast, which turns into a disaster after Martin drinks the Tabasco and then tries to soothe his mouth by drinking straight out of the punch bowl in front of Sarah's family. Clifford causes further embarrassment by replacing Martin's ChapStick
ChapStick
ChapStick is a brand name for lip balm manufactured by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and used in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Colombia, Italy, Chile, Pakistan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is intended to help treat and prevent chapped...

 with lipstick, and tops it off by getting him arrested in front of Sarah's family after calling in a bomb threat. To add further punishment for Martin's reneging on his promise, Clifford tricks him into boarding a train to San Francisco and destroys all of his work by planting a bomb in a presentation during a press conference, which causes him to be fired from the architectural firm at which he worked.

With his life in ruins as a result of Clifford's destructive behavior, Martin's sanity snaps. He finally takes Clifford to Dinosaur World, after hours, to make him ride the Larry the Scary Rex ride until he can no longer take it. After going through it once, Clifford seems to enjoy himself, so Martin ups the ride's speed again and again, to the point where, he says, he puts it on hyperdrive
Hyperdrive
Hyperdrive is a name given to certain methods of traveling faster-than-light in science fiction. Related concepts are jump drive and warp drive....

. The ride malfunctions and Clifford's cart crashes, leaving him dangling above the jaws of a robotic dinosaur.

Clifford cries out for Martin to save him. Martin hesitates because he worries about what could happen in the future of mankind if he saves Clifford's life. He does the right thing and risks his own life to save Clifford, and the two escape just before everything collapses. Clifford finally apologizes for his behavior, but Martin is fed up. He tells Clifford that he is a destructive thing, not a human. Clifford, who was upset, decides not to go home with Martin.

We momentarily return to the future when Father Clifford says that this experience made him turn his life around. He wrote hundreds of letters asking his uncle's forgiveness, to little avail. But later on, Martin gave him "the bestest request in the whole wide world," inviting him to Martin's and Sarah's wedding, which meant that he had finally forgiven Clifford.

Roger decides to not run away and to write hundreds of letters, asking for forgiveness. Father Clifford then takes Stephan (which as a child he kept talking to and blaming for his own actions), saying, "Mission accomplished, old friend."

Cast

  • Martin Short
    Martin Short
    Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...

     as Young Clifford Daniels/Father Clifford Daniels
  • Charles Grodin
    Charles Grodin
    Charles Grodin is an American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. He had a small part as an obstetrician in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby in 1968...

     as Martin Daniels
  • Mary Steenburgen
    Mary Steenburgen
    Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...

     as Sarah Davis
  • Dabney Coleman
    Dabney Coleman
    Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...

     as Gerald Ellis
  • Richard Kind
    Richard Kind
    Richard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...

     as Julien Daniels
  • Jennifer Savidge as Theodora Daniels
  • Ben Savage
    Ben Savage
    Bennett Joseph "Ben" Savage is an American film and TV actor and child star of late 1980s and 1990s. Savage is best known for his role as lead character Cory Matthews on the TV sitcom Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000....

     as Roger
  • Don Galloway
    Don Galloway
    Donald "Don" Galloway was an American actor of stage, film and television, a political libertarian and journalist, perhaps best-known for his role as Raymond Burr's protégé, Detective Sergeant Ed Brown, on the long-running crime drama Ironside...

     as Captain
  • Tim Lane as Navigator
  • Timothy Stack
    Timothy Stack
    Timothy Stack is an American film and television actor and screenwriter.-Life and career:He was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Joan and Tom Stack. He graduated from the esteemed Philadelphia-area prep school Germantown Academy in 1973 and graduated from Boston College in 1978...

     as Kevin's Father
  • Marianne Muellerleile
    Marianne Muellerleile
    -Life and career:Muellerleile was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Margaret and Cecil E. Muellerleile, an oil company executive....

     as Kevin's Mother
  • G.D. Spradlin as Parker Davis
  • Anne Jeffreys
    Anne Jeffreys
    Anne Jeffreys is an American actress and singer.- Career :Born Anne Carmichael in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Jeffreys entered the entertainment field at a young age; her initial training was in voice , but she decided as a teenager to sign with the John Robert Powers agency as a junior model.Her...

     as Annabelle Davis
  • Richard Fancy
    Richard Fancy
    Richard Fancy is an American actor known for his long recurring role on Seinfeld as publisher Mr. Lippman, Elaine Benes' one-time boss. He appeared on the third and fourth seasons of It's Garry Shandling's Show as network boss Mr. Stravely. He also plays the Priest in the 1991 Film What About...

     as Detective

Reception

The film was critically panned. It currently holds a 9% approval rating at Rotten tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 based on 22 reviews (20 negative, 2 positive). Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 gave the film a half-star of a possible four. Writing: "The movie is so odd, it's almost worth seeing just because we'll never see anything like it again. I hope."

External links

  • Clifford at Rotten Tomatoes
    Rotten Tomatoes
    Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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