One simple phrase: “live-action/CG Hybrid film.” This is… sub-optimal. You see, when it’s all animated it’s no big deal that Emily Elizabeth has A GIGANTIC TWENTY-FIVE FOOT BIG RED DOG because Clifford never actually really breaks anything except as the episode’s plot demands. He doesn’t interact with the world around him permanently; because in animation if you don’t draw it, it doesn’t happen.
But if you put Clifford in the real world, guess what? Suddenly you have A GIGANTIC TWENTY-FIVE FOOT BIG RED DOG running around and breaking the sidewalks (the Internet calculated once that he weighs about as much as a blue whale). Clifford stops being a lovable pet at that point, and starts being an unstoppable kaiju. …Which is, sure, not incompatible with also being a lovable pet, but it still makes things awkward.
This is gonna give kids screaming nightmares. I’m telling ya.
“Unstoppable”? Not unless you make even bigger leaps than regular kaiju films (“natural EMP plus they can smell plutonium 100 miles away”, indeed).
I figure an Abrams could handle ol’ Clifford. Hell, a single .50-cal would chop him into mega-kibble with a few good bursts.
Not the point of your post, but still…
Well, if they can make “Pete’s Dragon” work (facts not in evidence, to be sure) they can probably make Clifford work too.
Also, you’ve seen this, right?
Your comments make me WANT to see that movie.