Have you ever fantasized about strangling Barney? Ever wanted to pull a rock star thing and throw the Teletubbies out of a high-rise hotel window? Are you plotting Mr. Wizard's "unfortunate accident" with his next experiment? If that's how your mind works, then Death to Smoochy, the story of rivalrous child's television show hosts, is for you. As director and co-star Danny DeVito says, "We're always looking for movies to take our kids to. This is not that movie!" Deservedly rated R, Death to Smoochy is a very dark comedy riffing on a subject overripe for satire. Too bad it doesn't quite work. The irrepressible Robin Williams stars as Rainbow Randolph, the sunny, sparkly top-hatted host of a kiddie TV show, who isn't so perky when the cameras aren't rolling. While in a bar knocking back hard liquor, he gets caught in a bribery scandal and immediately gets the old heave-ho from his employer, Kidnet. The search is on to find a new, squeaky clean host, and when Randolph is replaced by Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), a scrupled simp whose character is a lovable fuchsia rhinoceros named Smoochy, he hits the skids, big time. Going on a major drinking binge and forced to move in with a midget bit-player from his old show, Randolph plots his revenge against the hapless, happy-go-lucky Sheldon. Catherine Keener plays Nora Wells, a hard-nosed network executive, and Danny DeVito is Burke, Smoochy's unscrupulous agent (complete with pencil moustache). Harvey Fierstein and Jon Stewart shine in supporting roles.
The concept is fantastic. The idea of agents and lawyers and plotting and throat-cutting in the seamy underbelly of the candy-coated world of children's television is hilarious. And the movie is mostly funny -- I just think it could have been better had Danny DeVito written the script, and someone like Woody Harrelson had been cast as the moralistic, naturalistic hippy-dippy Smoochy. Norton is one of my favorite actors of all time, but I do feel he was miscast as Smoochy. There's nothing wrong with a little typecasting now and then; in this case, going against type really didn't pan out. I did get chuckles out of Death to Smoochy, and there were a few laugh-out-loud detours (there's a scene in which Randolph bakes some rather interesting cookies for Smoochy, and another where he disguises himself as an accent-challenged limo driver), but it just didn't quite hit the target of excellence I expect from DeVito as a director.
The movie could have been a killer black comedy, but as it turns out Death to Smoochy is only near-fatal.
The concept is fantastic. The idea of agents and lawyers and plotting and throat-cutting in the seamy underbelly of the candy-coated world of children's television is hilarious. And the movie is mostly funny -- I just think it could have been better had Danny DeVito written the script, and someone like Woody Harrelson had been cast as the moralistic, naturalistic hippy-dippy Smoochy. Norton is one of my favorite actors of all time, but I do feel he was miscast as Smoochy. There's nothing wrong with a little typecasting now and then; in this case, going against type really didn't pan out. I did get chuckles out of Death to Smoochy, and there were a few laugh-out-loud detours (there's a scene in which Randolph bakes some rather interesting cookies for Smoochy, and another where he disguises himself as an accent-challenged limo driver), but it just didn't quite hit the target of excellence I expect from DeVito as a director.
The movie could have been a killer black comedy, but as it turns out Death to Smoochy is only near-fatal.