Posted: 03/30/2002

Death to Smoochy

(2002)

by Hope Villanueva

Can we save kids’ TV from the steaming heap of shit it has become?

The sheer amount of garbage on television is amazing and the garbage shows we feed to kids are ten times worse. And to complicate matters, not only do we watch this junk, but overly lenient parents will spend hundreds of dollars buying crap merchandise: candies, sweatshirts, bed sheets and toys that run one time before breaking down. For what? Because lazy parents won’t teach their kids to behave without bribery. So the cycle perpetuates and TV goes down the crapper to be replaced by multi-colored fatties and yellow Japanese rodents.

Enter Smoochy, a large fuchsia rhino that sings and dances while playing the guitar. Smoochy’s creator, Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), is different from the rest of the kids’ show herd. Not only does he have a clean criminal record, but he actually has the best interests of children at heart. So, when the previous star of kids’ TV, Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) is caught taking bribes from parents trying to get their brat on his show, he is replaced with the squeaky clean Smoochy. And well, if I were replaced by something as big and as purple as Smoochy, I’d go insane, too.

So begins the game of cat and rhino of Death to Smoochy, and it isn’t a kid game or a kid movie. We all knew that executives can be money-grubbing jerks and that anyone who would put on sequins and dance badly on TV is probably a whack-job, but who though that the Mafia would be skimming profits off ice shows and the Irish Mob would defend a singing rhino? Oh, and did I mention that skinhead-Nazi types like little ditties about friendship?

Maybe this movie should have been titled “When Williams Attacks.” For anything else that may be said about the film, it let Robin Williams do what he does best and has been kept from doing for far too long: Going completely postal on camera. Teamed with the exceedingly talented and versatile Edward Norton and a supporting cast that includes Catherine Keener and Danny DiVito, he makes Andy Resnick’s script a blast. Don’t go in expecting intellect, but while you are laughing your head off, every once in a while, you’ll be surprised to find subtle, touching moments.

I had thought that Smoochy would be a Barney hate-fest and I did get my fun as William tried time and time again to sabotage the naïve Sheldon’s Smoochy. Not wanting to give away fun plot surprises, you have everything from laser scope rifles to decapitation and from Nazi rallies to phallic snacks. Don’t ask. Norton, who has only jumped into the comedy pool directly with his self directed project, Keeping the Faith, is wholly committed to Sheldon and is the sweetest, best looking man in a rhino suit I’ve seen. While best known for darker, heavier films, like American History X and Fight Club, has great comedic timing. Keener, who also plays a bitchy exec in Being John Malkovitch, has the hard-shelled Nora down to a tee. Williams, as Rainbow, seethes with fury and psychoses, making a much-awaited return to the type of comedy that made him a name in the first place.

Resnick’s script, combined with Danny DiVito’s direction resulted in a very stylized movie, full of over the top characters and sometimes strange choices of camera techniques. In any other but a Baz Luhrmann movie, these would have been out of place, but they work as homage to the wackiness of the world of kids’ TV that the characters work in. At the film’s best moments, we see the worst side of what children’s television has become: mind-numbing and profit centered, but the filmmakers also give us a peek at the intentions of someone who honestly puts the health and education of his audience before merchandising. Sheldon believes that he can use Smoochy to teach while he entertains, as shows like Rainbow Connection and Sesame Street did. Admittedly, the Smoochy Show is annoying and that suit is so bright that you’ll want to poke your eyes out with a hot knife, but before improved results come improved intentions.

Hope Villanueva is a thespian and 4th Grade teacher living in LA and has had to suffer through nine-year-olds going on about Pokémon and Dragonball Z one too many times.

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