Clifford is a 1994 comedy film starring Martin Short, Charles Grodin, and Mary Steenburgen.
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' bleak financial situation. It wasn't released until 1994.
The film's tagline is "What's the difference between Clifford and a pit bull? One will tear your heart out, scare your friends and wreck your house. The other one is a dog."
Plot
At an orphanage in the future, a troublesome boy named Roger is running away, but is stopped by Father Clifford, a very old priest, who tries to convince the boy to change his ways by telling him of his own youth.
Flashing back to the present day, the 10-year-old Clifford is a deceptive, evil, weird-looking boy who never lets go of a toy dinosaur he calls Steffen. His dream is to visit Dinosaur World, a theme park located in California.
While flying with his parents to Hawaii, Clifford purposely causes a catastrophe on board, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles.
From the airport, Clifford's dad phones his brother Martin, who resides in Los Angeles, to propose the idea of Clifford staying with Martin for a while. Martin thinks this could be the perfect opportunity to prove to his fiancée Sarah Davis how great he interacts with children, especially this nephew he hasn't seen in years. Little does Martin know that a conniving 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 Dinosaur World 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, thus beginning his path of destruction.
Clifford turns his uncle's life upside-down, jeopardizing Martin's relationship with Sarah and his job. Among other things, he causes Martin to be humiliated and arrested in front of Sarah's family at a party, tricks Martin into flying to San Francisco and destroys all of his work.
Martin's sanity snaps. He finally takes Clifford to Dinosaur World, after hours, to make Clifford take 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 speed of the ride again and again. 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 relents 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.
We momentarily return to the present when old Father Clifford says this was what 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 best gift in the whole wide world," inviting him to his wedding to Sarah, which made him think Uncle Martin had finally forgiven him. (Which may or may not be true.)
The boy Roger decides to not run away. Father Clifford then takes his toy dinosaur Steffen (which the younger Clifford kept talking to during the film), saying: "Mission accomplished, old friend."
Cast
Reaction
In his review of April 1, 1994, Roger Ebert gave the film a half-star of a possible four. He wrote: "The movie is so odd, it's almost worth seeing just because we'll never see anything like it again. I hope."
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