Volume CXXXI, Number 20 April 5, 2002 f

Williams switches gears in Smoochy
MONICA GUZMAN
COLUMNIST

"I hate you, you hate me/ Let's join up and kill Barney/ With a great big punch, Barney's on the floor/ No more purple dinosaur!"

If you remember singing that song in grade school, you'd better get down to the movie theater, 'cause they actually made a movie about it.

Death to Smoochy features an impressive A-list of stars including Edward Norton and Jon Stewart. (rottentomatos.com)

To the casual passerby, Death to Smoochy is the story of a happy fuchsia rhinoceros who brings joy, morals, and soy products to kids everywhere through his hit TV show. But in reality, it is dark satire about how psychotic has-beens, shady charity organizations, money-bent studios, and even the Irish mob can corrupt the seemingly wholesome world of children's entertainment.

When Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams), KidNet's kid show star, is arrested for taking bribes from kids' parents, Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) and Frank Stokes (John Stewart) find a squeaky-clean replacement in Sheldon Mopes's character Smoochy (Edward Norton), a fuchsia rhinoceros with a heart of gold, and a love of organic food. But the innocent and idealistic Sheldon learns that the backstage world of KidNet is a dangerous place as he struggles against evil forces to keep Smoochy on the air-and alive.

Danny DeVito's direction proved perfect for the mood of the film. The sequences are as twisted as the plot, and the cuts are as demonic as the characters. As for the acting, I must say that it is oddly refreshing to see Mrs. Doubtfire and Patch Adams do a 180 and become the deranged clown Rainbow Randolph. Why? I don't know-maybe just because no one ever thought he'd do it.

On the flip side, Norton is so cute as Smoochy, singing songs to kids like "Stepdad's Not Mean He's Just Adjusting" in his Magic Jungle, that you just want him to do the Jiggy Ziggy dance with you all day long. On the other hand, the film points out just how annoying over-idealists like Sheldon can be, and you just may catch yourself sympathizing-not agreeing-with his enemies' homicidal intent. Like Barney, you don't really want Smooch to die; you just want him to get a life.

Is this a good movie? It depends on the answer to the following question: did the filmmakers mean to make any part of the film sentimental and touching? If they did, then they entered the corny zone and this was a horrible film. If, however, they were making a hard-core black comedy with all the fixin's and no humanity required, then the corniness is excused as part of the lampoon and this is cinematic cynicism at its greatest. Sure, Barney's a weird subject to satire, but hey-at least it's a unique plot. You don't see those around much these days.

Death to Smoochy is not for the faint of heart, and due to the vulgarity of word and action that pervades, no child under 13 should step anywhere near it. Watching it, however, will bring all of us mature viewers back to our childhood-back to the days on the recess field where we'd bond over cult-like chants of the "Kill Barney" song and feel impishly evil-yet secretly satisfied.