Guaranteed to please anyone who thinks Barney is Satan's spawn,
i Death to Smoochy
i0 mines comedy gold by skewering children's television. Adam Resnick's easy-target satire blossoms under the demented influence of director-costar Danny DeVito, who honors his legacy of venom-laced humor with the raucous rivalry of scandalized former kid-show host Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) and his squeaky-clean replacement, Sheldon Mopes, a.k.a. Smoochy the Rhino (Edward Norton). Randolph is insanely obsessed with getting his job back, but Smoochy's a smash, and their war for kid-vid supremacy places a jaded "KidNet" producer (Catherine Keener) in the middle of a Rainbow/Rhino smackdown. A few lulls are easily forgiven since much of
i Death to Smoochy
i0 is laugh-out-loud hilarious, with DeVito, Robert Prosky, Jon Stewart, and Harvey Fierstein in choice supporting roles. It's no wonder DeVito's taboo-busting drew fire from family groups and actual kid-show producers; only the humorless would fail to laugh at
i Smoochy
i0 's uncompromised irreverence.
i --Jeff Shannon