Dr. Dolittle (1998)
After his successful re-thinking of the Jerry Lewis classic The Nutty Professor, Eddie Murphy decided to re-think another classic movie character with lesser success. His 1998 reboot of Dr. Dolittle was a barely funny remake of the 1967 musical that starred Rex Harrison, was nominated for the 1967 Best Picture Oscar, and almost put 20th Century Fox out of business.
Based on the Hugh Loftin stories, the 1967 musical was about a turn of the century London doctor who discovers an ability to communicate animals and decides he would rather treat them as opposed to treating human beings. In this new version, we meet John Dolittle as a child and observe him communicating with an animal and being told by his father that he is never to speak to animals again. The story then switches to 1998 San Francisco where Dr. John is now married with two daughters and is now a partner in a profitable medical practice when animals begin confronting him directly demanding treatment.
Murphy, director Betty Thomas, and screenwriter Nat Mauldin decided they had to go a different way with the story in order to make it more accessible to 1998 audiences, the younger ones in particular. In the 1967 musical, Rex Harrison is observed talking to animals while they communicate the way we expect animals to (with the exception of his parrot Polynesia). In this non-musical version, the animals are given celebrity voices so that the viewer is privy to both sides of Dr. Dolittle's conversations with the animals.
I will admit that a lot of the fun in this movie comes from trying to figure out who some of the famous voices are, but the problem is that the dialogue the animals are given is often juvenile, tasteless, and downright crude and once the celebrity voice has been identified, we just don't care what the animals are actually saying. The scene where the animals just barge into Dr. Dolittle's townhouse and make themselves at home was kind of stupid.
With celebrity voices coming out of animals, Eddie Murphy is relegated to the position of straight man, a position that Murphy has never really been in before making it really hard to get behind the character. I did like the fact that this John Dolittle did realize that there was something wrong with him talking to and treating animals and knew that it would endanger his cozy existence which is something the Rex Harrison version of the character never acknowledged.
Murphy, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, and Peter Boyle work hard at not being blown off the screen here, but the talking animals really steal the show here, such as it is, with standout work from Norm McDonald as a dog named Lucky, Chris Rock as a guinea pig named Rodney, Phil Proctor as an alcoholic monkey, Garry Shandling and Julie Kavner as an old pair of married piegons, and Albert Brooks as a very sick tiger named Jacob. Once the novelty of the celebrity animal voices wears off, this one is pretty rough going, but it might keep very young children amused.
After his successful re-thinking of the Jerry Lewis classic The Nutty Professor, Eddie Murphy decided to re-think another classic movie character with lesser success. His 1998 reboot of Dr. Dolittle was a barely funny remake of the 1967 musical that starred Rex Harrison, was nominated for the 1967 Best Picture Oscar, and almost put 20th Century Fox out of business.
Based on the Hugh Loftin stories, the 1967 musical was about a turn of the century London doctor who discovers an ability to communicate animals and decides he would rather treat them as opposed to treating human beings. In this new version, we meet John Dolittle as a child and observe him communicating with an animal and being told by his father that he is never to speak to animals again. The story then switches to 1998 San Francisco where Dr. John is now married with two daughters and is now a partner in a profitable medical practice when animals begin confronting him directly demanding treatment.
Murphy, director Betty Thomas, and screenwriter Nat Mauldin decided they had to go a different way with the story in order to make it more accessible to 1998 audiences, the younger ones in particular. In the 1967 musical, Rex Harrison is observed talking to animals while they communicate the way we expect animals to (with the exception of his parrot Polynesia). In this non-musical version, the animals are given celebrity voices so that the viewer is privy to both sides of Dr. Dolittle's conversations with the animals.
I will admit that a lot of the fun in this movie comes from trying to figure out who some of the famous voices are, but the problem is that the dialogue the animals are given is often juvenile, tasteless, and downright crude and once the celebrity voice has been identified, we just don't care what the animals are actually saying. The scene where the animals just barge into Dr. Dolittle's townhouse and make themselves at home was kind of stupid.
With celebrity voices coming out of animals, Eddie Murphy is relegated to the position of straight man, a position that Murphy has never really been in before making it really hard to get behind the character. I did like the fact that this John Dolittle did realize that there was something wrong with him talking to and treating animals and knew that it would endanger his cozy existence which is something the Rex Harrison version of the character never acknowledged.
Murphy, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, and Peter Boyle work hard at not being blown off the screen here, but the talking animals really steal the show here, such as it is, with standout work from Norm McDonald as a dog named Lucky, Chris Rock as a guinea pig named Rodney, Phil Proctor as an alcoholic monkey, Garry Shandling and Julie Kavner as an old pair of married piegons, and Albert Brooks as a very sick tiger named Jacob. Once the novelty of the celebrity animal voices wears off, this one is pretty rough going, but it might keep very young children amused.
Last edited by Gideon58; 01-08-21 at 09:07 PM.