A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Dudley Do-Right

Date Viewed: 8/28/99

Details:

Brendan Frazer

Eric Idle

Alfred Molina

Sarah Jessica Parker

Director, writer and executive producer: Hugh Wilson

Score: 0

The Review: This will be very familiar to anyone of the generation who appreciated Jay Ward's prime-time cartoon feature Rocky and Bullwinkle, and its associated cartoons "Fractured Fairy Tales" and "Dudley Do-Right of the Canadian Mounties." And almost as (if not more) silly. Stereotypes abound: the klutzy, gullible, accident-prone hero Dudley Do-Right (Frazer), his trusty mount Horse (an unattributed cameo), the adorable, true-blue, fluttering damsel in perpetual distress Nell Fenwick (Parker) -- who in this edition seems neither as true-blue nor as distressed as the original cartoon -- and the archetypal evil do-badder Snidley Whiplash (Molina), who buys off entire towns and gleefully evicts widows and children.

The humor is closer to The Three Stooges than The Princess Bride, but there are some clever exaggerations (the young Whiplash dressing in black cape and attire) and a few icons which are deservedly flogged to (an amusing) death. Eric Idle starts off as a drunken prospector who eventually, reluctantly, becomes Master to Dudley's Grasshopper -- the bizarrely twisted wisdom and training of the "East" becomes the highlight of the movie. Its downfall? Even though the movie is noticeably shorter than 90 minutes, it still drags something fierce -- the middle half is good medicine for insomniacs.

But the movie is coupled with a new episode of "Fractured Fairy Tales," so it's not all bad. But perhaps they should have reversed the order.

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