Clifford the Big Red Dog

This article is about the children's book series. For the character in other media, see Clifford the Big Red Dog (disambiguation).

Clifford the Big Red Dog is an American children's book series which focuses on the adventures of an 8-year old blonde haired girl named Emily Elizabeth and her titular pet: a gigantic, red-furred dog named Clifford. It was first published in 1963 and was written by Norman Bridwell.^[1] Clifford is Scholastic's official mascot.^[2]

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Author	Norman Bridwell
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Children
Publisher	Scholastic
Published	1963–2014

Concept and creation

The character was inspired by author Norman Bridwell's childhood desire to own a dog the size of a horse.^[3] In 1962, Bridwell included paintings of what would become Clifford the Big Red Dog (who was named ‘Tiny’ at the time) in a portfolio of children's literature illustrations. In the process of showcasing his portfolio for publishing houses, Susan Hirschman at Harper & Row suggested Bridwell turned his drawings into a children's story. Bridwell then developed a story around the dog and his owner, which he would eventually submit to Scholastic. His wife suggested the name "Clifford" after her imaginary friend from her childhood, and Emily Elizabeth was named after Bridwell's daughter. The first book in the series was originally published by Scholastic in 1963.^[4]

Characters

• Clifford is a male red dog whose appearance, disposition and behavior are based on a giant dog.^[5] The depiction of Clifford's size is inconsistent.^[a] The character's name is based on the imaginary childhood friend of Norman Bridwell's wife, Norma Bridwell.^[6] Bridwell originally wanted to name the dog "Tiny", but his wife persuaded him that "Clifford" was better.^[7] Clifford's pet owner is Emily Elizabeth. Clifford has a mother, two brothers, and two sisters, all of whom are normal-sized dogs. Clifford was originally the runt of the litter, seemingly fated to be small and sick, but grew to an enormous size apparently due to Emily Elizabeth's love and care. Clifford's character was created when a Harper & Row editor advised Bridwell to write a story to go along with one of his pictures. Bridwell recalls she picked out his sketch of a baby girl with a horse-sized bloodhound, and casually said, "There might be a story in this" because there always was one.^[5]
• Emily Elizabeth is Clifford's owner and human friend, an 8-year-old^[b] girl.^[7] She is frequently portrayed riding him like a horse. She was named for creator Norman Bridwell's daughter and based on the imaginary adventures of Bridwell's wife.^[6] The TV series adaptation gives her a surname, Emily Elizabeth Howard, and changes the background, with her receiving Clifford as a surprise present on her 6th birthday instead of picking him out as a Christmas present.

List of books

Norman Bridwell, creator and author of the Clifford the Big Red Dog book series.

Title	Year	Notes
1. Clifford, the Big Red Dog	1963	The first ten Clifford books were given re-colored illustrations in 1985[citation needed]
2. Clifford Gets a Job	1965
3. Clifford Takes a Trip	1966
4. Clifford's Halloween	1966
5. Clifford's Tricks	1969
6. Clifford, the Small Red Puppy	1972
7. Clifford's Riddles	1974
8. Clifford's Good Deeds	1975
9. Clifford at the Circus	1977
10. Clifford Goes to Hollywood	1980	Reissued in 2010 under the title: Clifford Is a Star
11. Clifford's ABC	1983
12. Clifford's Christmas	1984
13. Clifford's Family	1984
14. Clifford's Kitten	1984
15. Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors	1985
16. Clifford's Pals	1985	Reissued in 2010 under the title: Clifford's Best Pals
17. Clifford's Manners	1987
18. Count on Clifford	1987
19. Clifford's Birthday Party	1988
20. Clifford's Puppy Days	1989
21. Where Is Clifford?	1989
22. Clifford's Happy Days: A Pop-Up Book	1990	Pop-up book
23. Clifford's Word Book	1990
24. Clifford, We Love You	1991
25. Clifford's Animal Sounds	1991
26. Clifford's Bathtime	1991
27. Clifford's Bedtime	1991
28. Clifford's Peekaboo	1991
29. Clifford Counts Bubbles	1992
30. Clifford Follows His Nose	1992
31. Clifford's Happy Easter	1992
32. Clifford's Noisy Day	1992
33. Clifford's Thanksgiving Visit	1993
34. Clifford, I Love You	1994	Pop-up book
35. Clifford the Firehouse Dog	1994
36. Clifford's First Christmas	1994
37. Clifford and the Big Storm	1995
38. Clifford's First Easter	1995
39. Clifford's First Halloween	1995
40. Clifford's Sports Day	1996
41. Clifford's First Autumn	1997
42. Clifford's Spring Clean-Up	1997
43. Clifford's First Valentine's Day	1997
44. Clifford's Peek-And-Seek Animal Riddles	1997
45. Clifford and the Big Parade	1998
46. Clifford Keeps Cool	1998
47. Clifford Counts 1 2 3	1998
48. Clifford Makes a Friend	1998
49. Clifford: Where Is the Big Red Doggie?	1998
50. Clifford's First Snow Day	1998
51. Oops, Clifford!	1998
52. Clifford and the Halloween Parade	1999
53. Clifford Grows Up	1999
54. Clifford's Best Friend: A Story about Emily Elizabeth	1999
55. Clifford's Big Book of Things to Know	1999
56. Clifford's First School Day	1999
57. Clifford Barks!	2000
58. Clifford to the Rescue	2000
59. Clifford Visits the Hospital	2000
60. Clifford's Opposites	2000
61. Clifford's Schoolhouse	2000
62. Clifford's Big Red Reader	2001
63. Clifford's Furry Friends	2001
64. Clifford's Happy Mother's Day	2001
65. Clifford's Puppy Fun: A Lift-the-Flap Board Book with Stickers	2001
66. Clifford's Valentines	2001
67. Clifford Runs to Story Time	2001
68. Clifford and the Bath	2002
69. Clifford's Busy Week	2002
70. Clifford Goes to Dog School	2002
71. Clifford's Neighborhood: Lots to Learn All Around Town	2002
72. A Little Book About Red	2003	Phonics Reading Program
73. Cleo's Fudge Cakes	2003	Phonics Reading Program
74. Clifford and the Squirrel	2003	Phonics Reading Program
75. Clifford Loves Me!	2003
76. Clifford's Class Trip	2003
77. Clifford's Day with Dad	2003
78. Emily Elizabeth Can't Trade	2003	Phonics Reading Program
79. Get That Lunch Box	2003	Phonics Reading Program
80. Good Sports	2003	Phonics Reading Program
81. Jumping in Puddles	2003	Phonics Reading Program
82. Mac the Knight	2003	Phonics Reading Program
83. The Singing Birds' Show	2003	Phonics Reading Program
84. Spring Is in the Air	2003	Phonics Reading Program
85. Clifford's First Sleepover	2004
86. Clifford Goes to Washington	2005
87. Clifford's Puppy Days: Christmas Angel	2005
88. Clifford the Champion	2009
89. Clifford Makes the Team	2011
90. Clifford Goes to Kindergarten	2015	Published posthumously[8]
91. Clifford Celebrates Hanukkah	2015	Published posthumously[8]

Adaptations

Clifford The Big Red Dog mascot with Laura Bush and children at the White House Easter Egg Roll, 2007.

Clifford with former congressman Tom Tancredo

Videos

Karl-Lorimar Home Video released the video Clifford's Sing Along Adventure around 1986. Warner Home Video re-released it in the mid-1990s.

In July 1988, Scholastic Studios, Nelvana Limited, and Family Home Entertainment released Clifford's Fun with..., a videotape series with a theme song composed by Phillip Namanworth and Benjamin Goldstein. Only six episodes on the release were produced, which are: "The ABC Message Service", "Clifford's Birthday Surprise", "The Scavenger Hunt", "The Rhyme Cat Rescue", "Clifford Goes to Hollywood", and "The Pet Show". Musician Brent Titcomb was the voice of Clifford, and actress Alyson Court was the voice of Emily Elizabeth. Despite this being a direct-to-video series in the United States, a handful of European television stations aired the series during the 1990s, including one in Spain in the latter half of the decade.

Television

Further information: Clifford the Big Red Dog (2000 TV series), Clifford's Puppy Days, Clifford's Really Big Movie, and Clifford the Big Red Dog (2019 TV series)

Scholastic Media produced a 65-episode adaptation shown on PBS Kids, which aired from September 2000 to February 2003. Clifford was voiced by John Ritter, and Emily Elizabeth was voiced by Grey DeLisle. There was also a 39-episode prequel series that took place during Clifford's puppyhood, broadcast in the same period three years later, with Lara Jill Miller as the voice of young Clifford. During that time, a theatrical film was released in February 2004 and served as the series finale, as there were not any new episodes released after John Ritter's death. However, a new series was released on December 6, 2019 for Amazon Prime Video and December 7, 2019 on PBS Kids with Adam Sanders and Hannah Levinson as the new voices of Clifford and Emily Elizabeth respectively.^[9][10] They are returning on CBC Kids and CBBC and TG4.

Film

Main article: Clifford the Big Red Dog (film)

In May 2012, it was reported that Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment would make a live-action/CGI animated feature film based on the book. Matt Lopez had been hired to write the script, while Chris Meledandri and Deborah Forte would produce the film.^[11] In July 2013, it was reported that Illumination had dropped the project.^[12] Two months later, it was reported that the film was still in development at Universal and that there were negotiations to have David Bowers direct the film.^[13] Like the 2011 film Hop, Clifford the Big Red Dog will be animated while the other characters would have been live-action.^[13] On August 1, 2014, Universal scheduled the film for a release on April 8, 2016.^[14] In the beginning of 2015, another Universal film took over the film's release date, The Boss.^[15] On June 30, 2016, it was reported by Deadline Hollywood that Paramount Pictures had picked up the rights for the film. According to the report, "Forte decided to take the material in a new direction," and "Universal let the option lapse." It was further announced that Justin Malen was hired to write the screenplay.^[16] On September 25, 2017, it was announced that Walt Becker would direct the film, replacing Bowers.^[17] The film is now produced by Scholastic Entertainment and Paramount Animation.^[18] On February 27, 2019, Paramount set the film for a November 13, 2020 release, taking over the slot for the cancelled live-action/CGI Rugrats film.^[19] The film features child actress Darby Camp as Emily Elizabeth and Jack Whitehall as a new character, Uncle Casey, in their starring roles with Tony Hale as Zac Tieran, the main villain of the film.^[20][21] On August 28, 2020, the film release was pushed back to November 5, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[22] On November 25, 2020, a 20-second teaser trailer from the feature film was released.^[23] Then, on May 26, 2021, the film was rescheduled to be released on September 17, 2021, but the film was pulled from the release schedule due to the rise of the Delta variant.^[24] Although it was surprisingly screened at CinemaCon on August 26, 2021,^[25] it was later announced that the film would be released theatrically and digitally on Paramount+ on November 10, 2021.^[26]

Video games

Book series (2000)

• Clifford's Reading
• Clifford's Thinking Games

2000s TV series

• Clifford's Learning Activities (2001)
• Clifford's Musical Memory Games (2002)
• Clifford's Phonics (2003)
• Clifford's Big Puzzle Game (Wendy's Kids' Meal DVD game)

Notes

1. While he is often shown being about 25 feet (7.5 m) tall from paws to head, Clifford can appear far larger.
2. 12-year-old in the 2021 film as well as its sequel.