Cast: Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Danny DeVito, Jon Stewart, Catherine Keener, Harvey Fierstein, Pam Ferris, Michael Rispoli
Director: Danny DeVito
Producers: Andrew Lazar, Peter MacGregor-Scott
Screenplay: Adam Resnick
Cinematography: Anastas N. Michos
Music: David Newman
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
After watching Death to Smoochy, you'll probably never look at Barney the Purple Dinosaur in quite the same way again. A black comedy/satire from Danny DeVito, Death to Smoochy has all the ingredients necessary to take a vicious jab at kids' television programming, but it pulls its punches. Yes, the film is sporadically funny, and, yes, it satirizes the genre, but I left the movie feeling like I had seen a missed opportunity. Death to Smoochy has its moments, but they don't add up to a complete motion picture. The movie has a premise, but the storyline isn't sufficient to sustain things for 100-odd minutes. In general, parodies may not rely overmuch on plot, but they need more in this department than Death to Smoochy possesses.
Death to Smoochy has a solid pedigree. Director Danny DeVito has a dark, offbeat sense of humor, as was evident in some of his other films, like Matilda and The War of the Roses. Screenwriter Adam Resnick, whom I'm willing to forgive Cabin Boy, used to write for "The Larry Sanders Show". Given the chance, Robin Williams can electrify a film. And Edward Norton is one of the best young actors working today. Putting all of these people together in the same production, one has a right to expect something a little more effervescent than the result. Unfortunately, it's like a can of 2-day old Coke. You can taste it, but there's no fizz.
Rainbow Randolph Smiley (Robin Williams) is the host of Kidnet TV's most popular show - until a scandal resulting from his accepting illegal payoffs brings him down. Randolph is replaced by Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), who, in his guise as a purple rhinoceros, goes by the name of Smoochy. He's just what Kidnet has ordered in the wake of the Randolph scandal - a guy who is rigorously ethical. Of course, his bosses, Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart) and Nora Wells (Catherine Keener), just want Sheldon to stand in the background and do his thing while they make millions off of merchandising. But Sheldon won't play ball. So he hires an agent named Burke (Danny DeVito) to help him take control of his empire. Soon, he's the executive producer and the show is under his creative control. But that doesn't keep a Irish mob madam (Pam Ferris) and a crooked charity spokesman (Harvey Fierstein) from wanting a piece of his action.
Death to Smoochy lets Barney off easily. In fact, it lets the inanities of childrens' television off easily. And it doesn't really go after its other targets, which include network backroom politics and corrupt charities, with any real gusto. Sure, there are a few songs that poke fun at the kind of things that Barney sings (including one number that grafts new lyrics onto a familiar tune), but at no time does DeVito really stick the knife in deep and turn it. Most of the laughs in this film come from Robin Williams' manic performance as the deranged Randolph, who becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of wiping Smoochy from the face of the planet. Williams is the film's bright spot. When he's at his best, we get a sense of what Death to Smoochy might have been. Meanwhile, Norton and Keener are largely wasted. He plays a straight-as-an-arrow guy who doesn't give in to the lure of fame and fortune. I suppose there's something that's supposed to be ironic or amusing in this, but it escaped me. Likewise, I wasn't enamored with the romance between Sheldon and Nora. She's more enjoyable in the beginning, when she's a bitch, than later, when Sheldon's innocence melts her heart.
The ending, which features the surreal marriage of a cheap, cheesy kids' skating show with an operatic tragedy, is certainly bizarre, but not all that innovative or comically successful. The concluding moments seem to be poking fun at the "happily ever after syndrome", but, because they have no teeth, they appear to be joining the club rather than satirizing it. Like much of Death to Smoochy, this aspect doesn't work. In fact, the words, "close, but not quite" hang around this film's neck like an albatross. The movie diverts for its running time, and, unless you're a hopeless curmudgeon, you'll laugh on a few occasions. But there's nothing about the film that lingers, even for a few moments. Smoochy, unlike Barney, is destined for oblivion.
© 2002 James Berardinelli