Clifford the Big Red Dog: First Look at the 2021 Movie

Today, Paramount Pictures revealed and official first look at Clifford the Big Red Dog — the movie, and character of the same name. Almost a year after a “first look” from behind the scenes leaked, and a day after a Carl’s Jr. display featuring a low-resolution look at the titular pup made its way online, Paramount has released a version of the first look that’s…well, he’s a dog. And he’s red. And big. The live-action/CG-hybrid movie will be released on November 5, 2021, nearly a year from now, but was originally expected to be a 2020 holiday season movie.

Clifford the Big Red Dog stars Darby Camp, Jack Whitehall, Kenan Thompson, Paul Rodriguez, Rosie Perez, John Cleese, and David Alan Grier. The live-action adaptation brings to life the series of beloved children’s books by Norman Bridwell, which have been the subject of a number of animated adaptations over the years.

The image, which you can see below, resembles a life-like, CG labrador — but red, and with black eyes, true to Clifford’s appearance from the children’s books, in which Clifford is adopted by a family, but quickly outgrows their house. Depending on the story, his size can vary from about adult-human size, to much, much bigger.

Clifford the Big Red Dog currently appears in an animated series on Amazon Prime. Its previous incarnation, on PBS Kids, featured the voice of the late John Ritter and debuted in 2000. 2004 saw the release of Clifford’s Really Big Movie, recorded before Ritter’s death but not completed and released until the following year. As far as we can tell, the new version of the movie will not feature a talking Clifford.

In general, the books don’t feature a talking Clifford, and in the PBS animated series, the dogs only spoke to one another, and interacted with the human characters as if they were regular dogs.

Bridwell created the character of Clifford in 1963 and went on to write and illustrate more than 150 titles, all published by Scholastic, with 129 million books in print in 13 languages.

Clifford the Big Red Dog has been in some form of development since 2014, originally with another studio. It stalled out in 2015, and found a new home with Paramount, who brought it across the finish line. Of course, then the pandemic happened and Emily Elizabeth’s best friend is stuck in the doghouse for just a little longer.

What do you think of the first look at Clifford? Let us know in the comments below.