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A DVD Review of...
  
Images (C) Warner Bros. |
Genre: Black Comedy
Cast: Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Catherine Keener, Danny DeVito, Jon Stewart, Harvey Fierstein
Synopsis: Dark satire set against the cutthroat world of children's television, Death to Smoochy tells the story of Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams), the corrupt, costumed star of a popular children's TV show, who is fired over a bribery scandal and replaced by squeaky-clean Smoochy (Edward Norton), a puffy fuscia rhinoceros. As Smoochy catapults to fame ‚ scoring hit ratings and the affections of a jaded network executive (Catherine Keener) ‚ Randolph makes the unsuspecting rhino the target of his numerous outrageous attempts to exact revenge and reclaim his status as America's sweetheart
Film Review: As much as I admire what Danny DeVito was trying to do with 'Smoochy', sadly this ultra-cynical
almost cartoonish black comedy about children's television is nowhere near as biting as it wants to be. The setup is
a perfect idea for a dark satire about children's television, and DeVito definitely knows how to direct comedies, but considering the production values and the sheer cast quality - the execution leaves somewhat to be desired. Adam Resnick's script has a lot of clever ideas and elements which SHOULD be funny, but for some reason the way they're organised or just the sheer unrelenting dark edge is too much and as a result there's only a few guffaws at most. There's a lot of excess in here that should've been trimmed including a totally unneeded subplot about a rather dim-witted ex-boker.
Its finally very cool to see Williams without the reigns that hold onto his good behaviour in most of
his comedies. Here he takes great joy in throwing out the foul language, over-the-top impersonations and such
but sadly the script - whilst giving him a few good lines, doesn't do much with the character other
than have him shouting and screaming about what he wants to do to Smoochy. On the few occasions he actually
goes out and tries stuff the results are quite funny (such as his jokes about Keener's sex life and of course the 'charity event') but simply not enough. Norton's character, the one sympathetic one of the whole batch, is just plain annoying more than anything whilst Keener's ice queen bitch tirade at first and then transformation into a somewhat gentler lead isn't particularly believable which sinks that performance. Casting wise there's some fun choices with Harvey Fierstein as the gangster head of a corrupt charity organisation, DeVito himself as a shady agent and Vincent Schiavelli as an alcoholic assassin. Considering these performers have given such great roles in the past, this time around they're all sadly rather blank.
Nevertheless when it clicks on occasion there's some great stuff here including a large scandal involving
Sheldon's "political alliances", satire of the commercial product-driven nature of kids shows, and a quite fun
ending. In the end though its not enough. This is a film which is screaming to be funny but barely gets out
a whisper. There's too many attempts to be clever and too much happening at once to result in a convoluted mess.
A simpler, darker and less-quip/more savage satire driven effort would've resulted in a much better film. Far from the "Wag the Dog" of the kids show arena, 'Smoochy' nevertheless is watchable and has its moments. Its a shame though that overall they dropped the ball - great premise but weak payoff. - Garth Franklin
"Death to Smoochy"
DVD Details In Brief (Region 1)
Rating: R
Runtime: 109mins
Versions: 16:9 Enhanced Widescreen, 4:3 Letterboxed
Aspect Ratio: 1.85: 1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Language & Sub-Titles: English, Spanish, French
Commentary: Director Danny DeVito & DOP Anastas Michos
Documentaries: Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
Clips: Additional Scenes, Outtakes, Trailers
Other: Interactive Ice Show, Still Galleries, Artwork
Region 1 vs. Region 4: No Region 4 Available. |
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DVD Review: Despite a poor critical reaction and box-office performance, 'Smoochy' comes to DVD in a quite
well packed single-disc set. Some of the menu backgrounds are hilarious including a NYC street corner with a Smoochy shaped body outline and police radio scanner voice in the background. The film itself is transfered decently but certainly nothing special - colours and backs do overrun on occasion but for the most part its solid work with detail level on a decent setting. Audio is again somewhat standard with little use of suround but what is here is nice and clear. The commentary by DeVito and DOP Anastas Michos is surprisingly weak. DeVito will occasionally drop an interesting factoid (such as why Williams' accent swaps between Scottish and Aussie in the limo scene) but only after many minutes of just pure kiss assing. Michos pipes in occasionally but also doesn't have much to add.
Extras wise the ten deleted scenes seem to be the big feature, each one is preceeded by a text screen indicating why the scene was chopped. Amongst these there's a darker and bloodier ending to one of the characters, a third replacement kids show host (a badly dressed Japanese piano player), and an extra song entitled 'Last Nappy Time' (a tribute montage to a character death). There's a 4.5 minute outtakes reel which is genuinely funny thanks to Williams and Norton, and its a shame some of the lines didn't end up in the final cut (eg. "That's why men are men, and sheep run"). A 7.5 minute behind-the-scenes featurette is good fun because there's a TON of on-set offbeat footage with no annoying voiceover or cheap interviews, rather just the actors either at work or goofing off.
"Interactive Ice Show" is a multi-angle look at the 9-minute ice show sequence in the movie that allows you to swap between four different cameras capturing the action. Its quite fun actually though the footage is on a rather small display screen. There's three trailers - the film's theatrical preview and two further trailers which were done but never released. 'Magic Cookie Bag' is an extensive set of stills, artwork, behind-the-scenes shots and the aptly named "Smoochy's Summer Vacation" which has Michos himself snapping shots of a small Smoochy doll whilst on his world vacation (much like some people do with garden gnomes). A short set of cast & crew filmographies, and a DVD-Rom copy of the website cap off the disc. Fun for fans but not enough to enlighten us as to what really went wrong with the film. - Garth Franklin
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