Produced by FilmFour, Senator Entertainment and Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions, Death to Smoochy is a German-British-American co-production and was released in the United States on March 29, 2002, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was met with mixed to negative reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb, grossing $8.3 million against a budget of $50 million. The film has developed a cult following.
Plot
"Rainbow" Randolph Smiley is the host of a popular children's television show on National KidNet called The Rainbow Randolph Show. Despite appearing friendly and playful onscreen in the studio, he is in reality an alcoholic and a criminal. The FBI arrests him for accepting bribes and he is fired, his show is canceled, and he is evicted from his penthouse and left homeless. National KidNet orders executive Marion Stokes to hire a new host who is "squeaky clean". 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.
Smoochy's Magic Jungle quickly becomes popular, causing Randolph to fixate his anger on Sheldon. Randolph turns to Stokes and pleads for help to get his job back, but Stokes refuses. The deranged Randolph hatches several poorly planned attempts to have Sheldon fired, all of which fail. Finally hitting rock bottom, Randolph turns to his former partner, Angelo Pike, for help. Angelo feeds Randolph and allows him to stay at his apartment.
Sheldon feels that he is losing creative control over his show and hires corrupt talent agent Burke Bennett to renegotiate his contract. Burke introduces Sheldon to the dark side of the entertainment business by giving him a gun and trying to convince him to work with a corrupt charity. While having dinner with Burke, Sheldon is introduced to mobster Tommy Cotter. Tommy pressures Sheldon into giving her cousin Spinner a role on his show, and Sheldon casts him as Smoochy's cousin Moochy. Tommy tells Sheldon that in return for casting Spinner, she will make sure he is protected.
Burke becomes impatient with Sheldon and books him to star in a Smoochy ice show, run by Merv Green and his corrupt charity, Parade of Hope. Sheldon refuses to do the show despite Burke's warnings; in response, Green personally threatens Sheldon to do the show. In the meantime, Randolph manages to trick Sheldon into performing at a Neo-Nazi rally. Sheldon is branded a racist and loses his job and show, and Nora refuses to help him. Randolph visits Nora to ask for his job back but accidentally reveals that he set up Sheldon. Nora tells Tommy, who tracks down Randolph with her crew and forces him to confess that he tricked Sheldon. Sheldon's reputation and show are restored, and the media dubs Randolph the most hated man in America. Angelo kicks Randolph out of his apartment after Randolph angrily destroys his television. Nora and Sheldon reconnect 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 men mistake Spinner in his Moochy costume for Sheldon and murder him. An enraged Tommy retaliates by killing Green and his men. Randolph confronts Sheldon and Nora in their apartment at gunpoint and reveals that Nora had 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 Sheldon can explain everything to the police.
Burke and Stokes decide to hire former KidNet host Buggy Ding Dong to kill Sheldon during the ice show. Randolph intervenes and saves Sheldon by killing Buggy. Sheldon realizes that Burke and Stokes set him up and threatens Burke with a gun. Tommy and her crew arrive in time to stop Sheldon, and Tommy decides to handle the matter herself. Sheldon and Nora kiss in Times Square in front of KidNet Studios, and Smoochy and 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 who 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. She 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 The Smoochy Show. Sheldon gives Spinner the role of Moochy at the urging of Tommy Cotter.
Harvey Fierstein as Merv Green, the morally corrupt organizer of the Parade of Hope charity. Green 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 The Smoochy Show. 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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