Let's make no bones about it - Clifford The Big Red Dog's leap onto the big screen is purely for the anklebiters...and pretty much nobody else.

The rather duff children's cartoon gets a extended plotline involving the "run away to the circus" routine and bumped up animation.

Clifford - the canine inhabitant of a bone-shaped island where everyone regards his size as normal - heads for the mainland to join Larry and his Amazing Animals.

He's decided to make the move after overhearing an innocent discussion on the burden his outsize food bill places on his family.

However, Larry and his circus performers - including a wire-walking cow with vertigo and Shakelford, a vain flying ferret - are facing closure if they don't make money.

Cue Clifford and his mutt pals T-Bone and Cleo, who give the tired acts a shot in the arm and inspire Larry to enter a talent competition where the top prize is free grub for a lifetime for Clifford.

Tots who have yet to endure the stresses of school may enjoy this sweet if slight yarn (it runs at just over an hour) and the odd line will raise a smile with mum and dad.

However, their main interest is likely to be the fact that this was the late John Ritter's final movie before he died of a heart attack in 2003.

What a way to go.

Tim Evans