Death to Smoochy

Death To Smoochy
Death to Smoochy poster
Directed by	Danny DeVito
Produced by	Andrew Lazar Peter Macgregor-Scott
Written by	Adam Resnick
Starring	Robin Williams Edward Norton Danny DeVito Catherine Keener Jon Stewart
Music by	David Newman
Cinematography	Anastas N. Michos
Editing by	Jon Poll
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 29, 2002
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$51,000,000

Death to Smoochy is a 2002 dark comedy film directed by Danny DeVito. It stars Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Jon Stewart.

Plot

Randolph Smiley, a.k.a. "Rainbow Randolph" (Robin Williams) enjoys his life and career as a happily corrupt children's television show host until he is caught in a FBI sting for accepting bribes from parents who want their children on the show. He is soon replaced by the "squeaky clean" Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton) and his character, Smoochy the Rhino (a parody of Barney the Dinosaur). Randolph finds himself unemployed and homeless, virtually outcast from television by his two-faced associate Marion Stokes (Jon Stewart). In an effort to return to his life in the spotlight, Randolph develops several schemes to bring down Sheldon Mopes in hopes of reclaiming his time slot.

Mopes quickly finds himself losing creative control over his show to his hardened producer Nora Wells (Catherine Keener). With the help of his new agent Burke Bennett (Danny DeVito), Mopes renegotiates his contract and is named Executive Producer. He is also approached by Irish mob boss Tommy Cotter (Pam Ferris), who wants Mopes to create a spot on his show for her cousin Spinner (Michael Rispoli), a former boxer. Sheldon reluctantly adds Spinner to the show, first as a cowbell wielding game warden, and later on as Smoochy's cousin Moochy.

Rainbow Randolph barges onto the Smoochy set

In between all of this, Mopes has to contend with the constant interference of Rainbow Randolph, who hatches several unsuccessful schemes for destroying Smoochy's character and regaining his show. Mopes is also enraged to learn that Burke signed him up to star in a Smoochy ice show, something Mopes refuses to do because he feels they exploit children. Burke warns Mopes not to back out of the ice show, and when he does anyway he is approached by Merv Green (Harvey Fierstein) on behalf of the Parade of Hope charity. Green reveals that the Parade of Hope is corrupt, and that they are counting on an ice show to generate money for them. Smoochy again refuses to do the show and is warned by Green to reconsider. Shortly afterward, Smoochy is approached by Rainbow Randolph in disguise, who asks him to do a charity children's show at a tractor parts warehouse. Smoochy quickly accepts and is led to a stage where he cannot see the audience. Smoochy quickly discovers he's been duped into performing at a neo-Nazi rally, which is raided by the police. Smoochy is labeled a racist and is fired from Kidnet, replaced by cartoons. Rainbow Randolph then approaches Nora Wells for his old job back, but accidentally lets it slip that he framed Smoochy. Randolph is arrested and Smoochy's reputation and show are restored.

With his clout restored, Smoochy decides to do the ice show after all. He decides that all the profits will go to the drug rehab clinic he used to work at, which was closed due to lack of funding. He offers the kids free souvenirs and healthy snacks. Angered by being cut out of the take, Burke approaches the Parade of Hope and offers them a deal: They kill Smoochy, he installs a new show host that will cooperate with their profit skimming. Green orders his men to "kill the rhino", but in their stupidity they accidentally kill Spinner in his Moochy costume. They are quickly discovered by Tommy Cotter, and she and Irish mob kill Green and his men in revenge. Meanwhile, a destitute Rainbow Randolph corners Mopes and Nora in their penthouse and threatens to kill them. They talk him down and discover that he's very depressed. Mopes offers to be his friend and let him stay in the penthouse until he's better.

Burke and Stokes hire heroin addict Buggy Ding Dong (Vincent Schiavelli), another former children's show host, to assassinate Mopes during his ice show. Buggy attacks Angelo (Danny Woodburn) and steals his backstage pass. Angelo calls Rainbow Randolph, who rushes to the ice show and stops the assassination by tackling Buggy just as he fires his sniper rifle from the rafters. Randolph and Buggy struggle for control over the rifle until Buggy falls to his death. After Sheldon realizes that Burke and Stokes set him up, he chases after Burke into an alley. Sheldon pulls a gun and threatens to kill Burke, but Tommy and her men arrive just in time to stop him. The movie ends with Smoochy and Rainbow Randolph launching a new show together.

Cast

• Robin Williams as Rainbow Randolph
• Edward Norton as Sheldon Mopes/Smoochy the Rhino
• Catherine Keener as Nora Wells
• Danny DeVito as Burke Bennett
• Jon Stewart as Marion Frank Stokes
• Pam Ferris as Tommy Cotter
• Michael Rispoli as Spinner Dunn
• Harvey Fierstein as Merv Green
• Vincent Schiavelli as Buggy Ding Dong
• Danny Woodburn as Angelo Pike

Production

The movie was filmed in Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario^[1] and New York City. Including Union Station, all of the TV studio scenes were shot at the Toronto Film Studios. The scenes involving ice-skating were filmed at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and were choreographed and performed by Canadian figure skaters.

Reception

The film was poorly received by many film critics. Exceptions though included J. Hoberman of The Village Voice, who wrote that "Death to Smoochy is often very funny, but what's even more remarkable is the integrity of DeVito's misanthropic vision."^[2]

Though it received a wide release, playing in some 2,164 theaters its opening weekend in the United States, the film was a box office disaster, grossing $4,266,463 its opening weekend, and a mere $8,382,691 overall, with negligible foreign box office receipts.^[3] Considering it had a production budget of some $50 million, Death to Smoochy was a financial flop. Danny DeVito begins the DVD audio commentary with the lines "Hello. It's Danny. It's been, um... I guess now a few months since the release of Death to Smoochy, so the mourning period is over."

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Death to Smoochy

• Official website
• Death to Smoochy at the Internet Movie Database
• Death to Smoochy at Allmovie
• Death to Smoochy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Death to Smoochy at Box Office Mojo