Clerks

Kevin Smith's animated "Clerks" is pure looniness with a crunchy layer of sweetness at its heart. The stars of the original 1994 indie film are all here, including Smith as Silent Bob. The animation is crisp and the facial expressions alone can be hysterical. [31 May 2000]

A treat while it lasts. [31 May 2000]

In the transformation to animation, Clerks has seen its cutting edge go pretty dull. [31 May 2000]

The new toon's appeal may not go beyond the core audience of mostly male 16-to-35-year-old hipsters.

The endless ironic wit creates a big black hole in "Clerks," and there's nothing left to fill the void but tedious buddy characters doing their slacker thing in an unimaginatively drawn New Jersey setting. [31 May 2000]

It is not, "Beavis and Butt-head" it is not "The P.J.'s," it is not "South Park," it is not "The Simpsons." Heck, it's not even "King of the Hill." "Clerks" is like a more amusing version of my least favorite animated show of all-time, "God, The Devil and Bob," which mercifully went to cartoon hell about four minutes after the premiere.[31 May 2000, p.95]

Clerks is dumber than it is refreshingly risky.

A lot more imperfect than interesting. Smith and Mosier teamed with "Seinfeld" veteran David Mandel, but the sneaky charm and subtlety of the movie and the deft shadings of the main characters - not to mention the joyous profanity, sexual anxieties and many drug references - have all been pretty much washed out. And the snappy dialogue that gave the film much of its energy plays sluggishly here, as if it had been padded in the editing process. [31 May 2000]

It substitutes mocking attitude (or lack of attitude) for wit, has no sense of story and has no discernible jokes - just a lot of ostensibly "out there" ideas it is unable to develop. It isn't as memorable or smart as the "bad sitcom" conventions it spoofs. [31 May 2000, p.3E]

What Clerks doesn't have is a lot of laughs. In fact, the whole concept seems tired and stale. Much of the satire is dated [a "People's Court" parody?], and the jokes and situations look like recycled stuff from old movies and long-canceled series....In other words, unoriginal. [31 May 2000]

Clerks: TAS wobbles along the fine line between "too dumb for Clerks fans" and "too rude for network TV executives."

With its cheap look and gross-out sensibility, Kevin Smith's 1994 movie Clerks wasn't for everyone...A new animated version for ABC isn't for anyone. [31 May 2000]