Clifford the Big Red Dog

I enjoy all of the songs. They are catchy and fit the stories. Our toddler hums the song from the Aunt Violet episode while he plays.

When this was announced in May of 2018, I was excited since I loved the original 2000 cartoon as a kid. I even have a plush of Clifford, and read many of the books.

However, this reboot turned out to be disappointing, very much so. It can easily be compared to the Powerpuff Girls reboot in terms of how far removed from the original it is. In this review, I will eloquently explain my points instead of insulting everything with no evidence. Also, here's a disclaimer: The people working on this show are super talented and I wish no harm on them (unlike some people on this site...), and the show clearly had a lot of heart put into it, however I just can't get into it.

If you look at some of the older Clifford books, and compare it to this reboot, you'll notice that they don't really look similar. Instead, this reboot's animation and art style looks like a poor man's Peg + Cat. I know it's by the same company (100 Chickens) but that doesn't mean you have to make the shows look nearly identical. The tweening also looks off in some scenes, like in the theme song when the kids are running. The character designs are pretty forgettable. The kids in the original show had memorable designs, but the characters in this show have the same body type (all skinny; no plus size people; so much for diversity, huh?) same head shape, just with a different skin tone and clothes.

Aside from the designs, the characters themselves are pretty bland. All the characters have the exact same trait: they're all nice. That's it, just nice. They have different interests, like sailing and music, but they're all goody two-shoes besides that. A show where everyone is a perfect angel is super boring and uninteresting, because there's no variety. The original show had jerks like Jetta, Mac, and Mr. Bleakman to contrast the relaxing, nurturing tone of the show. No such characters exist in the reboot.

Like I mentioned before, this reboot makes so many changes that it's hardly recognizable to the original. The original show had the plots of the humans and dogs separated. In the reboot, they're intertwined and it feels so unnatural. On top of that, Emily Elizabeth and Clifford talk to each other, which, too, feels unnatural. It ruins the sense of dramatic irony that the original series had, that the humans didn't know that the dogs could talk. T-Bone and Cleo were removed from the reboot in favor of Bailey and Tucker, as were Jetta, Charley, and Vaz in favor of Samantha, Pablo, and Jack.

This was extremely disappointing, and I can recommend many other kids stuff to watch (that are good, contrary to popular belief) such as the original, Clifford's Puppy Days, Ready Jet Go, Steven Universe, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Its a Big Big World, Bluey, Gravity Falls, Green Eggs and Ham, Blue's Clues and You, Molly of Denali, Nature Cat, Oswald, Xavier Riddle, Let's Go Luna, Frozen II, Andi Mack, Gumball, Infinity Train, Bee and Puppycat, and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast

This is not for the child now adult that grew up with the old Clifford! Was the old one teaching kids how to be mean? maybe yes, maybe not, but at the toddler age there is not need for that negativity, the drama. To me, as an outsider, I did not grew up with Clifford, this new series is better, is positive, the songs are awesome for a toddler to sing along, it has a simple story easy to follow.

My toddler girl chooses this one over the old one, even my 8 year old, when he is stuck watching it with his sister, prefers this one.

For the kids this is the winner.

This show is good... to a kid who's never seen the original. To a person who has grown up with Clifford, it just pales in comparison to the old show. I don't have anything against them playing pretend, it's just that I would appreciate it if they would also tie in more of the friendship values that the original series taught. I also don't really mind Clifford's voice because since John Ritter's gone, having the exact same voice is too much to ask for. I am also iffy on how Emily Elizabeth and Clifford talk to each other. I usually like shows where animals and humans communicate, but with Clifford it just seems weird.

The thing I miss the most are the characters. Emily Elizabeth and Clifford are the only characters from the original series (although I'm not sure about Emily Elizabeth's new look). The rest of the cast are replaced by entirely new characters. Yes, I didn't really like Mac and Jetta when I was younger, but I guess the saying is true anyway: You don't really notice how much you appreciate someone until their guy. And yes, I even miss Mr. Bleakman. He was more like Mr. Wilson then a complete jerk.

In conclusion, your kids might find this show interesting; however, I do like the original better.

Great show, music is entertaining, can sit and not get super bored while watching this with my 2 y.o.