Clifford is a 1994 American slapstick black comedy film directed by Paul Flaherty, written by Will Porter (under the alias of "Jay Dee Rock") and Steven Kampmann (under the alias of "Bobby Von Hayes"), and starring Martin Short, Charles Grodin, Mary Steenburgen, and Dabney Coleman with supporting roles by G.D. Spradlin, Anne Jeffreys, Richard Kind, and Jennifer Savidge.

Clifford was filmed in 1990 and originally planned for release in the summer of 1991, but was shelved for several years due to Orion Pictures' bleak financial situation.

At a Catholic school in 2050, elderly priest Father Clifford Daniels catches a boy named Roger running away after blowing up the gym because he was not allowed on a basketball team.

While flying with his parents to Honolulu on his father Julian's business trip, Clifford intentionally causes the pilot to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles.

Upon their reunion, Martin reveals to Clifford that he designed Larry the Scary Rex, a Dinosaur World attraction, and can get into the park free of charge.

Clifford later tricks Martin into catching a train to San Francisco, where Sarah has traveled on the request of Ellis attempting to seduce her.

A now psychotic Martin kidnaps Clifford from Sarah's house and takes him to Dinosaur World after closing hours, and makes him ride Larry the Scary Rex.

When set to hyper speed, the ride malfunctions and Clifford's cart crashes, leaving him dangling above the jaws of a robotic dinosaur.

Kampmann was hired as director, but disagreements emerged between him and other members of the creative team, and Orion brought in Paul Flaherty to replace him.

The film was not released until April 1994, a year in which the highest-grossing comedies were The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, and enthusiasm for marketing it was low.

[5] Desson Thomson for The Washington Post praised Grodin but said everything else was "an awful piece of business"; Variety called it "gimmicky" and "poorly conceived".