Dr. Dolittle

absolute peak

1

Eddie Murphy stars as the titled character, a veterinarian who has the gift, or curse, of being able to talk to the animals and be able to hear them talking back to him. The film is funny to an extent but the routine wears a bit thin throughout several instances during the movie's running time. The voices of Norm MacDonald and Chris Rock are used for two of the various animals that Murphy converse with. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

This movie was a total disgrace to Hugh Lofting and to Sir Rex Harrison's original portrayal. Where is Puddlby- on-Marsh? Where is England in the 1840s? And most of all, where is the charm. if murphy wanted to make this movie why call it dr. doolittle? this film is about as close to dr. doolittle as Hamlet is to Die Hard !

One of my favorite kid movies from my childhood and still love it! It's hilarious, heartwarming, amusing lines, and solid plot. Eddie Murphy is gold like many of his roles! I absolutely love all the animals they're so endearing and funny. Doctor Dolittle is underrated too, I'm probably one of very few that is enlightened by this movie.

Doctor Dolittle (1998) I was surprised to see this movie got such a low rating—it's not so bad. Oh, for sure it's not so great, either. But Eddie Murphy alone makes it something worth watching (he's one of the few perfect-pitch comedians out there). And the story, a 1920 classic for children, is something of its own. What falls apart is the slightly pushy sentimentalism and the generally mediocre secondary cast. That might be enough to push it into mediocrity, for sure, but it's not meant to be a deep classic, and it plays with the story nicely. That story is not just about a doctor (of the human type) who can hear animals talking. It's more about how society condemns hims and tries to help him with psycho-care. His bland wife (with the gorgeous eyes that get overplayed) is typical of his "friends," all nice people with distractions and no time for the possibility that he might, in fact, hear animals talk. The talking animals are of course great fun, from the rats to the tiger. This is the part of the movie that is meant to appeal across the board, and it does, including its good special effects. The feeling of family, not dysfunctional, is another bit of warmth, not to mention that the family is African American, a nice twist on the original story based on an English doctor. And though the movie was not liked by critics, it has made a third of a billion dollars, which speaks for itself. Not a masterpiece, and not even a classic, it still has wonderful aspects including a very wonderful basic concept.

Doctor Dolittle is a 1998 family comedy starring Eddie Murphy,Raven Symone,Kirstin Wilson and Oliver Platt. Murphy plays the title charcther Dr John Dolittle who isn't like many veterinarians as he can talk to animals,ever since he was a kid. Now as an adult he tries to ignore the animals talking to him,as he fears that he'll be known as a freak from his society. Things change however when he later befriends a dog named Lucky(the late Norm McDonald) who needs John to help a circus tiger(Albert Brooks). Will anyone believe him? Overall I always enjoyed this film having been a fan of Eddie Murphy since I was a kid and no matter what film he is in he always cracks me up like Jim Carrey and the late Robin Williams. If you love animals then this is for you. Very underrated film.

`Doctor Dolittle'. ***. (1998, USA, PG-13, 85 min. Directed by Betty Thomas with Edie Murphy, Ossie Davis, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, Kristen Wilson, Kyla Pratt). John Dolittle (Murphy) can talk to the animals and they can talk to him. At least he/they could when he was a kid. His dad thought he was nuts and though the use of an exorcist and some stern fatherly persuasion John looses or suppresses his talent/curse. When we next see John, he is Dr. Dolittle, M.D, happily married, father of two girls. He's a respected partner in a very successful medical practice and is about to become very rich. He and his partners are about to sell to an HMO. Everything seems to be going great until Dr. Dolittle almost gets into a car accident with a dog. A bump on his head brings back the voices. Is he going nuts, are life's stresses too much, or does Dr. John just need to find his inner child? The rest is a rather silly man-gets-in-touch-with-soul type movie, except for the animals. They have all the good lines. There's the lascivious German shepherd that can't control himself even when he's pleading his reformation on the way to being clipped. The pigeon couple; she's a nag, he's a wimp. There are the quarreling rats, the neurotic terrier, the tiger, and of course Lucky, the dog Dr. Dolittle hit in the car accident. To his credit Murphy let's the animals have their say while he plays straight man to their lines. One other thing about Murphy's acting; Dr. Dolittle is not the least bit comfortable around animals. When Dr. Dolittle has to catch daughter Maya's (Pratt) guinea pig, he holds it in a folded pillow so he doesn't have to touch it. (Having similar feelings about pets, I was amused by Dr. Dolittle's behavior around animals.) What's funny about this is, apparently Murphy wasn't acting. But this all added up to a fun movie. I recommend it.

Dr.Dolittle is a nice family movie, but I would not recommend this to people expecting something hilarious like Big Daddy. Dr. Dolittle, played by Eddie Murphy, is a doctor who can hear the voices of animals. Eventually, he becomes a animal doctor and he must save a few animals. Overall, this film is not really funny, but it had a few laughs. The idea(or remake)of this film was great. The acting was good, but not great. Eddie Murphy was alright, but Chris Rock rocked as the guinea pig. There is no original music score, but there are a couple upbeat songs. The only reason I saw this film because I saw the sequel to the film before this. There were only a couple major disappointments, but not many. I rate this film a 7/10.

I've always thought Eddie Murphy did comedy better than action, but now I have to add honesty and integrity to his repetoire. He does such a wonderful family film here that it's almost hard to believe he got his start on Saturday Night Live. The mere concept of talking with the animals is created quite believably in the film even though you have to consider the detail that would go into such a feat actually existing. Considering the sheer diversity of the animal kingdom and the limited scope of animals to rationalize, Murphy as Dolittle would have to have considerable telepathic and clairvoyant prowess as well the data-crunching power of a computer in order to decipher instantly the motivations and inclinations of two to three animals at one time as well as come up with the human equivalent of the animal's personality. The concept of animals conversing inter-species wise would have to involve some sort of Mother Earth Theory that all animals wild and domesticated are linked by a central innate consciousness. That said, this movie is quite enjoyable despite the theories and examination it entails. Actress Kristen Wilson as Murphy's wife is a very lovely presence to the movie and former child actress Raven-Symone is becoming a lovely young actress herself far removed from that annoyingly unbearable kid she played on The Cosby Show. The rest of the cast are second stringers to the animal cast whose voices are brought to life by the vocal talents of Norm MacDonald, Julie Kavner, John Leguizamo, Garry Shandling, Jenna Elfman, Gilbert Gottfried and sounding eerily like James Belushi, Albert Brooks. This is one wonderful movie that belongs in your video collection at home.