Clifford

Clifford is a 1994 American slapstick black comedy film directed by Paul Flaherty, written by Jay Dee Rock and Steven Kampmann (under the alias of "Bobby Von Hayes"), and starring Martin Short, Charles Grodin, Mary Steenburgen, and Dabney Coleman with supporting roles by G.D. Spradlin, Anne Jeffreys, Richard Kind, and Jennifer Savidge. It tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who stays with his uncle while his parents are on a business trip in Honolulu. Clifford was filmed in 1990 and originally planned for release in the summer of 1991, but was shelved for several years due to Orion Pictures' bleak financial situation. The film was not released until 1994, and was a critical and commercial failure. Plot At a Catholic school in 2050, elderly priest Father Clifford Daniels catches a boy named Roger running away after blowing up the gym because he was not allowed on a basketball team. The priest tells the boy a story of his own youth. As a 10-year-old in the 1990s, Clifford is an obnoxious and eccentric boy who never lets go of a toy dinosaur named Steffen and wants to visit Dinosaur World, a theme park in Los Angeles. While flying with his parents to Honolulu on his father Julian's business trip, Clifford intentionally causes the pilot to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles. Father Clifford takes this moment to tell Roger about his father's brother, Martin, a famous architect who is working for Gerald Ellis. Martin wants to marry his co-worker Sarah Davis, though Sarah wants to have kids with him. Because Clifford is now banned from the flight, Julian phones Martin to have Clifford temporarily stay with him in Los Angeles. Martin thinks that this is the perfect opportunity to prove to Sarah how well he interacts with children and is unaware of Clifford's antics. Upon their reunion, Martin reveals to Clifford that he designed Larry the Scary Rex, a Dinosaur World attraction, and can get into the park free of charge. Martin promises to take him there but has to break it the next day, as Ellis wants Martin to redesign his plans for the city's public transit system in two days. At a gas station, Clifford attempts to sneak away by posing as someone else's son in a dinosaur costume, but Martin catches him.