YMMV / Clifford

• Cult Classic: Its bizarre setup and premise ensured it'd be slammed by critics and fail to win over audiences, but this film has earned a surprising cult following over the years precisely for how bonkers it is.
• Designated Hero: Martin. While Clifford ruining his life does make us sympathize with him, he was still willing to let his nephew die. Clifford, though selfish and destructive, never tried to kill anyone. Sure he made a bomb, but he only intended to destroy Martin's project with it. And yes, he did nearly cause a plane crash, but he never intended to have the people on the plane, his parents included, killed and just wanted it to make an emergency landing. So by all accounts, Martin trying to have him killed only barely outweighs Clifford's mischief.
• Nightmare Fuel: Larry the Scary Rex. A ginormous, animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex which goes haywire and nearly kills Clifford at the film's climax. Not helped by the fact that, at one point, a good deal of the rubber skin covering its head is destroyed, revealing the metal framework inside, making the robot look like a dinosaurian version of the Terminator.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Believe it or not, Clifford. While all of his bad deeds are in no way excusable (after all, Martin does give a realistic reaction to Clifford ruining his life), that fact that his parents (or more appropriately his father) treat him less like a son and more like a crook sort of gives the impression that he was never taught any better and he sees his deeds as okay.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Julian, Clifford's father. While he is meant to be another victim of Clifford's mischief, the fact that Julian seems to be more concerned with making money than raising his own son sort of gives Clifford's cruelty an Alternate Character Interpretation as he's being raised by a father who can't be bothered to raise his son and focus more on business. The fact that he's labelled as a workaholic doesn't really help matters. What also hurts his case is the fact that he lied to his brother about why he must look after Clifford and he also states that he never made an attempt to keep in touch with Martin over the years, meaning that he distances himself from not only his son but his brother. His giddiness after making the phone call shows that he was all too happy to dump his mischievous son on his brother rather than be responsible and teach Clifford right. One last thing that makes him unsympathetic is that when he lashes out at his son, he takes his anger out on a female stranger who reprimands him for his behavior and makes fun of her weight, showing that he's not above hurling abuse at innocent bystanders.

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