Death to Smoochy

Death to Smoochy is a 2002 satirical black comedy crime film directed by Danny DeVito and written by Adam Resnick. Starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, DeVito, Catherine Keener and Jon Stewart, the film centers on "Rainbow" Randolph Smiley (Williams), a disgraced former children's television host who attempts to sabotage his replacement, Sheldon Mopes (Norton), and his character, Smoochy the Rhino. Produced by Film4 Productions and Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions, Death to Smoochy was released in the United States on March 29, 2002, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was met with mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and was a huge box office bomb, grossing only $8.3 million against a budget of $50 million. Plot "Rainbow" Randolph Smiley is the host of a popular children's television show on Kidnet. Despite appearing friendly and playful on-screen in the studio, he is actually an alcoholic and criminal in reality. The FBI arrest him for accepting bribes and he is fired, his show is canceled, and he is thrown out of his penthouse and left homeless. Kidnet orders executive Marion Stokes to hire a new host who is "squeaky clean", Stokes selects the naive Sheldon Mopes and his character Smoochy the Rhino. Mopes is uniquely sincere and dedicated to providing quality children's entertainment, which puts him at odds with his new producer Nora Wells. The Smoochy Show quickly becomes tremendously popular, causing Rainbow Randolph to fixate his anger on Mopes. Randolph turns to Stokes and pleads for help to get his job back, but Stokes refuses. The deranged Randolph then hatches several poorly planned attempts to get Mopes fired, all of which fail. Finally hitting rock bottom, Randolph turns to his former partner Angelo Pike for help. Angelo feeds Randolph and allows him to stay at his apartment. Mopes finds himself losing creative control over his show and hires corrupt talent agent Burke Bennett to renegotiate his contract. Bennett introduces Mopes to the dark side of the entertainment business by giving him a gun and trying to convince him to work with a corrupt charity. While having dinner with Burke, Mopes is introduced to mobster Tommy Cotter. Tommy pressures Mopes into giving her cousin Spinner a role on his show, and Mopes casts him as Smoochy's cousin Moochy. Tommy tells Mopes that in return for casting Spinner, she will make sure he is protected.