On 2 March 2020, I took a much-needed break from work to view at my local cinema the newly-released movie Dolittle, directed by Stephen Gaghan.
Having already seen trailers for it on YouTube, I knew not to expect a faithful rendition of the thoroughly delightful original Doctor Dolittle novels by Hugh Lofting that I absolutely adored as a child, so in this respect I was not disappointed, as it certainly bears only scant resemblance to them. True, its resemblance is less scant than that of the Eddie Murphy Dolittle movies, which were unequivocally scant, but scant is still scant.
For instance: one of this new movie's main hooks is how the good doctor locked himself away on his animal sanctuary in profound grief after the death at sea of his explorer wife Lily – none of which, Lily included, is derived in any way from Lofting's books. His animal friends have experienced some dramatic changes as well, with Too Too the owl in the books inexplicably replaced in the movie by a fox named Tutu; and Chee Chee, the original cheeky little monkey in the books, becoming a ginormous gorilla with lack of confidence issues in the movie.
As for Dolittle himself – in the books he was a somewhat short, tubby, mild-mannered, self-effacing, and quintessentially English academic, whereas here in the movie he is played by a much taller Robert Downey Jr who never misses an opportunity to channel his inner Captain Jack Sparrow and also bewilder everyone with his ever-changing accent. One moment it's straight from the Welsh valleys, boyo, the next it's racing through the Scottish Highlands, och aye th' noo, and then heading across to the Emerald Isle of Ireland, so it is.
But when portraying a polyzooglot character like Dolittle (yes, I know I just invented that word, but if I say so myself it very succinctly and satisfyingly describes someone who speaks many different animal languages), I suppose that we must expect not only linguistic fluency but also linguistic fluidity.
Despite advance publicity for Dolittle claiming that its plot is based upon the second Lofting novel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, it bears no resemblance to it whatsoever except that the characters set forth in a ship. There is also a major villain, Dr Blair Mudfly, conspicuous only by his absence in the novel, who is played here in best boo-hiss pantomime style by Michael Sheen – I fully expected him to twirl his moustache and snarl "Curses, foiled again" whenever his foul schemes were thwarted.
Comparisons with the 1967 Doctor Dolittle film musical are inevitable, in which Dolittle was played in surprisingly reined-in fashion by Rex Harrison, and in which the animals were real rather than CGI creations as they are in this new movie, though for the most part they are still very good. Having said that, the feathers of Polynesia the parrot, or blue-and-gold macaw as represented here, are not so much bright as positively fluorescent!
One of the highlights for me was how Dolittle's youthful apprentice Tommy Stubbins, a character whom I identified with immensely when reading the novels as a youngster but was relegated to little more than a walk-on part in the Harrison movie, occupies a much more integral, near-central role in this new movie. He is played delightfully by Harry Collett – surely a name to keep watch for in the future.
Dolittle also commands a very respectable roll call of famous names voicing the animals – including Rami Malek as Chee Chee, Emma Thompson as Polynesia, former WWE wrestler-turned-actor John Cena as polar bear Yoshi (not found in the books), Marion Cotillard as Tutu, Tom Holland as Dolittle's dog Jip, and Frances de la Tour as Ginkgo-Who-Soars, a decidedly non-Loftingian fire-breathing dragon with a blockage. (Yes indeed, if I say that the scene in which Dolittle and friends successfully remove said blockage made me very glad that the cinema in which I was watching this film was not equipped with Smell-o-Vision, you should get the basic idea of what this scene entails...)
Despite the CGI spectacle provided by the animals, midway through the movie it definitely palled for me, the constant stream of quips and one-liners becoming tedious, but once the dragon appears, the pace picks up nicely again. I also enjoyed the scene in which Dolittle battles a tiger named Barry, voiced menacingly by Ralph Fiennes, who suffers from inferiority issues that readily recalls a highly amusing scene from Walt Disney's 1970s animated movie Robin Hood featuring a Peter Ustinov-voiced Prince John portrayed in a similar manner.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Dolittle would have benefited immensely from some measured editing, but overall it was fanciful and eyecatching enough to retain my interest through much of it. Well worth a view, but like I said at the beginning of this review, don't be disappointed to find that it shares little with Lofting's original creation.
So click here if you'd like to acquaint yourself with this sometimes fantastic if somewhat bombastic big-screen and big-ego incarnation of the good Doctor D by watching the official Dolittle trailer on YouTube.
And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
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