Dudley Do-Right (film)

Dudley Do-Right is a 1999 American slapstick comedy film written and directed by Hugh Wilson, based on Jay Ward's Dudley Do-Right, produced by Davis Entertainment for Universal Studios. The film stars Brendan Fraser as the cartoon's titular Mountie with supporting roles from Sarah Jessica Parker, Alfred Molina, and Eric Idle.

Dudley Do-Right
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHugh Wilson
Screenplay byHugh Wilson
Based onCharacters & The Dudley Do-Right Show (Dudley Do-Right and Friends)
by Jay Ward
Produced by
Starring
Narrated byCorey Burton
CinematographyDonald E. Thorin
Edited byDon Brochu
Music bySteve Dorff
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • August 27, 1999 (1999-08-27)
Running time
77 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70 million
Box office$10 million[2]

Plot

Three children are with a horse. These are young versions of Dudley Do-Right, Nell Fenwick, Snidely Whiplash, and Horse. The three talk of their aspirations; Dudley believes he is destined to be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer (Mountie), and Nell wishes to see the world, while Snidely wishes to be the "bad guy".

Several years later, all three have fulfilled their supposed destinies. Dudley is now a Mountie (but always adheres to the rules and is frequently oblivious to even the most obvious of things), and Snidely has become an infamous bank robber. After Snidely and his gang rob a bank of its money and gold, Snidely tricks his entire gang into believing he has fled with all the gold to the Sudan and going on a wild goose chase after him. Snidely subsequently salts local lakes with the stolen gold. Dudley catches him in the act, but Snidely fools him into thinking he is vampire hunting, and uses a similar tactic to scare Horse off. Not long after, Nell returns from her world tour and reunites with Dudley, and the two spend the night attending a festival at the nearby Kumquat tribe.

Meanwhile, Prospector Kim J. Darling, the poorest man in Semi-Happy Valley, stumbles across the gold in the river and is made into a media sensation by Snidely. The subsequent gold rush boosts Snidely's popularity and, after foreclosing many local mortgages, he quickly takes control of the town, renaming it "Whiplash City". Eventually, Snidely's men return from the Sudan to kill him for his deceit, but Snidely convinces them otherwise by offering them lives of luxury in his new town. Dudley becomes convinced that Snidely is up to something and confronts him, but Snidely laughs him off and snatches Nell from him. Snidely sends his second-in-command, Homer, to assassinate Dudley with a bomb, but Dudley is absent when the bomb goes off. Nell's father Inspector Fenwick, who is in good favor with Snidely, discovers Dudley's feud with Snidely and discharges Dudley from the Mounties. Dudley falls into a depression and wanders across the town until he runs into a drunken Kim, who offers him shelter at his cave in the woods. Darling tells Dudley of Snidely's plans and newfound popularity and takes him to see a Gala Ball in Snidely's honor. Despite Kim's warning not to challenge Snidely due to his loss of favor, Dudley comically attempts to take Nell back from Snidely, but loses pathetically.

Feeling sympathy for Dudley, Kim decides to put him through a very harsh training regimen to make him a more formidable opponent and take back Semi-Valley from Snidely. Dudley's first act is to intimidate one of Snidely's men into telling him the next gold shipment. Disguised as a motorbike-driving vigilante, Dudley sabotages the shipment and leaves his mark on Snidely's workshop as well as his favorite golf course. Snidely, unaware that Dudley lost his job, is offended by this and more so with his men's incompetence to stop him, believing Dudley is enjoying the perks of being the villain. Eventually, Kim leaves to find his family and parts ways with Dudley, thanking him for his friendship. Dudley then uses his new training to win Nell back from Snidely, who swears revenge. At a nighttime town meeting, Snidely attempts to rally the people against Dudley, but it falls on deaf ears. The populace have grown weary of Snidely and shows more respect for Dudley in his efforts to retake their town.

Snidely ultimately discovers that Dudley and Nell are at another festival with the Kumquat tribe and leads a full-scale attack on them. The Kumquats flee for their lives until Horse reappears and helps Dudley sabotage Snidely's tanks by making Snidely and Homer accidentally shoot each other. A cavalry of Mounties appears and arrests Snidely and his men. Kim also arrives with his wife, the Prime Minister of Canada (Jessica Schreier), and is reunited with Dudley, revealing that they called out the cavalry. Inspector Fenwick reinstates Dudley in the Mounties. The final scene shows Dudley and Nell living together in Dudley's rebuilt house, sharing a kiss.

Cast

Production

Hugh Wilson was signed to write and direct the film in July 1997 for a fee of $5 million.[4]

The film was shot on-site in Vancouver, British Columbia and Santa Clarita, California.

Dudley Do-Right was Fraser's second film based on a Jay Ward cartoon, 1997's George of the Jungle being the first. Despite the different studios producing each film (George of the Jungle was adapted by Disney), advertising for the Dudley Do-Right film made open reference to this coincidence: "From the creator of George of the Jungle…and the star of George of the Jungle…and the acclaimed director who saw George of the Jungle…"

Reception

Box office

The film was a box office bomb. In its opening weekend, it grossed $3,018,345 - ranking eleventh for the weekend - and went on to gross just $9,974,410 domestically[2] against a budget of $70 million.[5]

In theaters, the film had a theatrical short attached to it, The Phox, The Box, and The Lox, an animated short produced by Universal Cartoon Studios based off the Jay Ward series Fractured Fairy Tales marking the first short based off a Jay Ward property since 1967.[6]

Critical response

The film received unfavorable reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 16% based on reviews from 45 critics, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's consensus states: "Gags aren't that funny".[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C+" on scale of A to F.[9]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, said that it "disappoints in every way possible, forcing its failed tongue-in-cheek humor and proving one more time that not all successful cartoons cry out for live-action treatment".[10] The film did get a positive review from The New York Times' Janet Maslin, who said that the film "attempts to be both zany entertainment for children and nostalgic fun for those who grew up on this and other deft, snarky Ward creations. (Rocky, Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle are other well-loved Ward characters.) And it works pretty well, too. Beyond the sure-fire goofy presence of Brendan Fraser and the comic possibilities of a Canadian mountie who rides his horse backward, this jokey romp written and directed by Hugh Wilson has an appealing try-anything spirit. It's a movie that can start with Mr. Fraser buttoned into his stiff red uniform and have him dancing shirtless in a Las Vegas-style Indian act before its story is over".[11]

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a two and a half stars out of four, writing: "Dudley Do-Right is a genial live-action version of the old cartoon, with a lot of broad slapstick humor that kids like and adults wince at. I did a little wincing the ninth or tenth time Dudley stepped on a loose plank and it slammed him in the head, but I enjoyed the film more than I expected to. It's harmless, simple-minded, and has a couple of sequences better than Dudley really deserves".[12]

Home media

Dudley Do-Right was released on VHS and DVD on December 28, 1999, and on Blu-ray on October 8, 2019.

Notes
  1. Kehler is erroneously listed in the end credits as Howard

References
  1. "Dudley Do-Right (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  2. Natale, Richard (August 31, 1999). "The Summer's Other Hitting Streak : The major studios are on a record pace, slugging at least 11 films into $100-million territory. The final tally will approach $3 billion". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  3. Roos, John (April 12, 1999). "Keeping Her Father's Legacy Alive". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  4. Fleming, Michael (June 17, 1997). "Wilson inks deal for U's 'Do-Right'". Variety.
  5. "Dudley Do-Right". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  7. "Dudley Do-Right (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  8. "Dudley Do-Right". Metacritic. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  9. "DUDLEY DO RIGHT (1999) C+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  10. Turan, Kenneth (August 27, 1999). "'Dudley Do-Right': Deadly Dud Does It All Wrong". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  11. Maslin, Janet (August 27, 1999). "Film Review; He's Still Backward, But Nell's Got Moxie". The New York Times. p. 14.
  12. Ebert, Roger (August 27, 1999). "Review of Dudley Do-Right". Chicago Sun-Times.
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