In the annals of history, is Robert Downey Jr. going to be remembered most fondly for his turn as Tony Stark/Iron Man or the great Doctor Dolittle? It’s a tough question, I know. It’s such a close call that it’s probably too soon to tell…… Naww, I’m only joking 😊. I had you going though, didn’t I? Little bit?
Dolittle sees the famous… I want to say veterinarian, but he does get called upon to inspect the Queen of England so let’s stick with “doctor”, living in isolation after his wife died at sea many years ago. Since then, Dolittle has stayed aloof, cooped up in his sanctuary surrounded solely by his many animal friends. On the very same day, a young boy, Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), breaks into the sanctuary with an injured squirrel requiring medical attention, and a young girl, Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado), calls upon the doctor to visit Buckingham Palace to aid the Queen in her sickly hour of need. Stubbins decides he would like to be Dolittle’s apprentice, and accompanies Dolittle across the seas in search for the Queen’s miraculous medicine; the very same voyage that took the doctor’s beloved.
When I first heard of a new Dolittle movie I was excited by the prospect of a Dolittle movie that resembled the old books as I knew them, once produced under the banner of Dr. Seuss. An original Doctor Dolittle would be set with all the trappings of the nineteenth century instead of the, albeit fun, suburban doctor of the 2000s played by Eddie Murphy. But bits of the trailer brought back painful memories of Kevin James’ Zookeeper and I remembered that talking animal companions aren’t always fun. Dolittle found itself on my backburner, and not a must-see. Dolittle is directed by Stephen Gaghan, with Jim Broadbent, Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen also popping up in supporting roles.
I would have loved some more backstory as to how each animal ended up staying with Dolittle after, I assume, he treated them – not for every animal I suppose, but enough so I could feel a connection between Dolittle and his supporting posse. We do see Dolittle present the cold Polar Bear with a beanie at the beginning of the film, but why did he decide to follow Dolittle home? Why is the dog wearing glasses, and in what circumstance did it become apparent that the gorilla was in need of therapy? The movie does offer small snippets of backstory occasionally, through the tiger and the dragonfly, but I envision a scene where the animals tell Stubbins what Dolittle means to them. With this movie, we essentially enter Dolittle’s life with the majority of his big exciting adventures behind him, but a plethora of inferred experiences to call on. Therefore, I would have expected more banter between Dolittle and the animals to establish their history and kinship; like when Dolittle is helped by the whales, it might’ve been more sophisticated for the whales to have had a previous connection to Dolittle. In a way, Doctor Dolittle should be like Professor X of the X-Men, having gathered a team (or a family, if you want to get ‘Vin Diesel’ about it) through his altruism around the world. With that said, it kind’ve bugged me that these animals didn’t at least have specific accents to their native homelands, like an African gorilla, or an English fox; to match a Russian Colossus or a German Nightcrawler. I think this would have helped give the animals more identity, which was missing for me. It’s so funny – this criticism comes after I praised the animated film Sing for not succumbing to stereotypical nationality-based accents for its animals, but that was an alternate cartoon universe where the animals co-existed in big cities like people. Although Dolittle is fantasy, it still takes place in the real world in more ways than not. So, I guess, with Dolittle it’s quite apt to say, horses for courses.
I left the movie shockingly content with how the caper ended up, but I can’t forget how tiresome I found the majority of the adventure. The movie tries, with a fairly typical McGuffin storyline definitely dampened by more body humour than necessary, and a larger quantity of buzz-killing jokes than happy rib-ticklers. I would suggest that Dolittle would suit really small children best; anyone over ten is probably not going to find it funny. And the movie sort’ve goes back on itself in a few surprising ways that really hurt any chance I had of getting invested in the characters or the action – the squirrel saved by Stubbins becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the young boy that clearly just ran him to the doctor; that might have been funny if the squirrel had stayed a disturbed outsider, and not been swiftly accepted by the other animals as part of the Dolittle clan. Stubbins is also praised by Lady Rose for being brave and not giving up, but then he gives up, almost instantly, after Dolittle turns him away; if it wasn’t for Polly the Parrot, Stubbins wouldn’t have even made it along with Dolittle on his quest. The film also sways back and forth from Dolittle speaking in animal languages to communicate with his furry and feathered friends, to also being understood by his human compadres. The animals can also understand each other, yet Dolittle needs to tweet, and blub, and growl, and woof to speak to them individually. All these things might’ve been acceptable on their own, but collectively, they are detrimental in trying to establish any heart or tone for the film. Robert Downey Jr. brings Dolittle to life with what I think is a Welsh accent (?, I want to say Welsh accent) and for the first half of the movie at least, it’s such a shame that RDJ has already been called upon to play a famous and competent Brit in Sherlock Holmes, because that voice would have been perfect.
Dolittle started off wonderfully; I was pleasantly surprised at how Stubbins was presented to us as a boy who buked at hunting animals, and I lapped up the epic otherworldly quality of Dolittle’s sanctuary as Stubbins first experiences it – it reminded me of the best moments of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, or what it would feel like to enter the Secret Garden. Unfortunately, from then, Dolittle peters out; I searched and I searched for something to latch on to but I found nothing. The movie isn’t quite a howler, but there’s certainly nothing there to bring me back. Let me put it this way, if I shook my tailfeather down to my local perch and paid big bickies to see this movie I might be barking mad.
1.5
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