DUDLEY DO-RIGHT
The show starts promisingly enough with an enjoyable "Fractured
Fairy Tales" cartoon which, if it is not lifted from the original TV
series, is an excellent imitation. But it has nothing to do with Dudley
Do-Right, and after it's over, the proceedings go rapidly downhill. First
we see a painfully lame prologue starring three child actors playing our
three leads as children, and then the action cuts to their adult counterparts.
Snidely Whiplash (Alfred Molina), having somehow acquired a British accent
while growing up, takes over the small, Canadian mountain town of Semi-Happy
Valley. He does this by buying the town with stolen money and establishing
a huge tourist trade with a fake gold rush. He re-opens all the businesses
and staffs them with his large gang of outlaws, becoming so popular and
successful that he actually begins to be thought of as the "good guy."
Dudley (Fraser), having failed to stop Whiplash, gets fired from the
RCMP and meets a bum (Monty Python veteran Eric Idle) who teaches
him how to beat the villain: with no job and therefore no moral requirements,
he is free to succeed by becoming the "bad guy." The addition
of a black leather jacket and motorcycle not only makes Dudley a better
match for his lifelong foe, but also more attractive to the insipid Nell
(Sarah Jessica Parker), who has apparently spent her life vacillating between
the affections of the two gentlemen.
This live action version is a hollow shell of its cartoon inspiration,
lacking the subtle wit and tongue-in-cheek delivery that separated Rocky
And Bulwinkle from its contemporaries. Moreover, Fraser, distinguished
in such films as Gods And Monsters, George Of The Jungle,
and Blast From The Past, shows
here that he is not perfect. His Dudley is flat and uninteresting, constantly
upstaged by Molina's Whiplash. Molina's part is hardly any better in Wilson's
weak script, but at least Snidely gets a few good lines in now and then.
Also showing us he can do wrong is writer/director Wilson; after such
noble projects as Guarding Tess and the aforementioned Blast,
his attempt at a Mel Brooks style is mostly a failure sprinkled with occasional
bits of success. The ever-present narrator device is occasionally cute,
but doesn't work like it did in George. A few dynamic dance numbers
show off Fraser's rug-cutting skills, but they seem included solely for
that purpose. The action sequences are likewise pointless and disjointed,
as if written separately from the film's plot and plugged in when Wilson
felt they were needed. Lending a modicum of success is Idle, who delivers
a few laughs, but like Molina he can only do so much with his lackluster
part. Meanwhile, Parker is no less boring than Fraser: while Nell's cartoon
persona was pretty-but-brainless, an apt counterpart for Dudley, Parker's
characterization seems to have no personality at all.
Though occasionally producing a minor chuckle, Dudley Do-Right is mainly characterized by good artists making bad choices. *½