Produced by FilmFour, Senator Entertainment and Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions, the German-British-American co-production was released in the United States on March 29, 2002, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb, grossing $8.3 million against a budget of $50 million, but has since developed a cult following.
Plot
"Rainbow" Randolph Smiley hosts a popular children's television show on National Kidnet called The Rainbow Randolph Show, with his friendly and playful onscreen persona masking his alcoholism and criminal behavior. After he is arrested by the FBI at Patsy's Warehouse for accepting bribes, he is dismissed from the network, his show is canceled, and he is evicted from his corporate penthouse and left homeless. Ordered by the network's chairman to find a suitable replacement, executive Marion Stokes selects the naive Sheldon Mopes and his character Smoochy the Rhino. Sheldon is uniquely sincere and dedicated to providing quality children's entertainment with his show Smoochy's Magic Jungle, which puts him at odds with his new producer Nora Wells, Kidnet's vice president of development.
The immense instant popularity of Smoochy's Magic Jungle causes Randolph to fixate his anger on Sheldon. After Stokes declines to help him regain his job, the deranged Randolph hatches several unsuccessful, poorly-planned attempts to have Sheldon removed. Finally hitting rock bottom, Randolph turns to his former partner, Angelo Pike, for help. Angelo consents and allows him to stay at his apartment.
Feeling that he is losing creative control over his show to Nora, Sheldon hires corrupt talent agent Burke Bennett, who assists him in renegotiating his contract to make him the executive producer of his program. During dinner, Burke welcomes him to the dark side of the entertainment business by presenting him with a gun and introduces him to mob boss Tommy Cotter and her cousin Lawrence "Spinner" Dunn, a retired heavyweight boxer with brain damage who currently owns a nightclub and also functions as the mascot for the restaurant she and her fellow mobsters run. Tommy pressures Sheldon into casting Spinner as Smoochy's cousin Moochy, vowing to shield him from subsequent harm.
Increasingly impatient with Sheldon, Burke books him to star in a Smoochy ice show, run by Merv Green and his corrupt charity, Parade of Hope. When he declines despite Burke's warnings, Green personally threatens Sheldon into acquiescing, reminding him that the Parade of Hope has sponsored Kidnet ice shows since 1964. Meanwhile, Randolph manages to manipulate Sheldon into performing at a Neo-Nazi rally. Consequently, Sheldon is branded a racist and loses his job and show, and Nora declines to help him. Randolph visits Nora to ask for his job back but when he accidentally reveals that he set up Sheldon, she notifies Tommy. Tommy tracks down Randolph with her crew and forces him to confess that he tricked Sheldon, whose reputation and show are restored, with Randolph becoming vilified by the media. After Randolph angrily destroys Angelo's television, Angelo ejects him from his apartment. Nora and Sheldon reconcile and begin a romantic relationship.
Sheldon decides to host his own ice show, without the corrupt charities involved. Burke and Stokes, under pressure from Green, plot to kill Sheldon and hire a new host who will accommodate their corruption. Their plan backfires when Green's minions misidentify Spinner in his Moochy costume as Sheldon and murder him, causing an enraged Tommy to retaliatorily slaughter Green and his minions. Randolph confronts Sheldon and Nora in their apartment at gunpoint and reveals that Nora had sexually romantic affairs with several kid show hosts, including himself. Sheldon manages to calm Randolph down and disarm him, allowing Randolph to remain in the apartment until the matter is ultimately settled.
Burke and Stokes decide to hire Buggy Ding Dong, who formerly hosted the program Buggy's Bumpy Railroad but was dismissed when he became a courier for Turkish black mule heroin, to kill Sheldon during the ice show. Randolph intervenes and rescues Sheldon by killing Buggy. Realizing that he was set up, Sheldon threatens Burke with a gun, but Tommy arrives in time with her crew to stop Sheldon, and she decides to handle Burke herself. Sheldon and Nora share a kiss in Times Square in front of Kidnet Studios, and Smoochy and the redeemed Randolph launch a new show on Kidnet together alongside Nora, who becomes an ice skater.
Cast
Robin Williams as "Rainbow" Randolph Smiley, a television kid show host who falls from grace after being arrested for accepting bribes. The loss of his job and home causes Randolph to become emotionally disturbed, and he becomes fixated on having Sheldon Mopes fired so that he can return to his old life.
Edward Norton as Sheldon Mopes/Smoochy the Rhino, a struggling entertainer whom Kidnet taps as Rainbow Randolph's replacement. He is considered "squeaky clean" as he lives a scandal-free life and teaches positivity and healthy living with his act. He is also very idealistic and struggles to adapt to the dark world of television.
Danny DeVito as Burke Bennett, a corrupt talent agent who represents Sheldon in his contract negotiations with Kidnet. Burke is involved in embezzling money from charity events that his clients host, and he pressures Sheldon to cooperate with the scheme.
Catherine Keener as Nora Wells, a bitter, disillusioned television producer who coordinates the filming of Kidnet's shows and has a fetish for men who perform children’s programming. She and Sheldon clash at first but develop a romantic relationship.
Jon Stewart as Marion Frank Stokes, a Kidnet executive who oversees the network programming. He is also involved in embezzling money and is torn between the network's orders and the pressure that he receives to get skimmed money flowing again.
Pam Ferris as Tommy Cotter, a boss in the Irish mob. She convinces Sheldon to give her cousin Spinner a part on TV; to show her gratitude, she vows to protect Sheldon from harm.
Michael Rispoli as Lawrence "Spinner" Dunn/Moochy the Rhino, a retired boxer with brain damage who becomes obsessed with Smoochy's Magic Jungle and is cast as Moochy at the urging of Tommy Cotter.
Harvey Fierstein as Merv Green, the morally corrupt organizer of the Parade of Hope charity who uses KidNet talent to host fundraising ice shows, with the proceeds syphoned for personal gain.
Danny Woodburn as Angelo Pike, a former cast member on Rainbow Randolph's show who goes to work for Smoochy's Magic Jungle. He is the only person willing to help the deranged Randolph, giving him a place to stay and taking care of him.
Vincent Schiavelli as Buggy Ding Dong, another former Kidnet show host who ends up a homeless heroin addict. In desperation, Burke and Stokes hire him to murder Sheldon, with the promise of getting his old show back if he succeeds.
Robert Prosky as the Chairman of KidNet. He orders Stokes to find a new show host that won't generate any controversy.
In November or December 2000, screenwriter Adam Resnick wrote the screenplay for the film, while art designers sketched designs for the characters. In the original screenplay, the Smoochy costume was orange. The final film used a pink costume instead.[citation needed]
Resnick said the film mostly stayed true to his script, although the original was fifteen pages too long, and that subplots and a narrator had to be removed. Edward Norton was the first person Resnick brought the script to, as the character had been written for him.[4]
On Rotten Tomatoes, Death to Smoochy holds an approval rating of 42%, based on 119 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus states: "The talent involved can't save a script that has nowhere to go with its promising premise."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 38 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[8] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on a scale of A+ to F.[9]
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film an extremely negative review (giving it half a star out of four), saying, "Only enormously talented people could have made Death to Smoochy. Those with lesser gifts would have lacked the nerve to make a film so bad, so miscalculated, so lacking any connection with any possible audience. To make a film this awful, you have to have enormous ambition and confidence, and dream big dreams." He named the film the Worst of the Year.[10]
Todd McCarthy of Variety also gave the film a negative review, saying that it "pushes its dark, smart, clever, cynical, satirical, nasty, provocative and sarcastic instincts to the point of heavily diminished returns—to the point where the very amusing premise just isn't funny anymore."[11]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "This black-comic assault on family entertainment is going to set a lot of teeth on edge—If only his [DeVito's] material were better this time."[12]
Conversely, J. Hoberman of The Village Voice praised the film, saying, "Death to Smoochy is often very funny, but what's even more remarkable is the integrity of DeVito's misanthropic vision."[13]
Although it received a wide release in the United States by playing in 2,164 theaters during its opening weekend, the film was a box-office bomb after grossing $4,266,463 in its opening weekend and $8,382,691 overall against a $50 million budget, with negligible box-office receipts outside the North American market.[3][15][16]
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