User Reviews

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.

I have seen a fair few comparisons to the 1967 film with Rex Harrison, now I saw the 1967 film as a kid and kind of liked it but it is something I need to re-watch. This film is basically a remake, minus the songs, and while it isn't brilliant and no masterpiece in any shape or form, it does have its good things. The film's plot is very slight, and the script has its weak spots while having some funny ones as well. And there is sometimes uneven pacing and direction. But it is nicely filmed, and the music is nice enough. The acting was also pretty good. Eddie Murphy does a serviceable job as John Dolittle, his role is not really like the ones he had in Beverly Hills Cop or Trading Places which also happens to two of his better movies, but he does well, and I will say he has been worse and he's been in worse films too. Kyla Pratt looks lovely and acts nicely as Maya, and Ossie Davis is good as well. The voice cast carry the picture as the animals who (along with the above average effects) steal the show. Consisting of the likes of Garry Shandling, John Leguizamo and Gilbert Gottfried they do great jobs, however Oliver Platt and Peter Boyle have little to do. Overall, a nice watch but nothing exceptional. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Dr. John Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) can talk to the animals. He used to talk to his dog as a kid, but his father forced him to stop and sent away his dog. He has denied his ability ever since, and is now a family man and a doctor. Then he starts hearing voices from animals.

Norm MacDonald does a great voice as the dog. It would be better to have a buddy comedy with the dog. Eddie Murphy has good chemistry with him. The other outstanding voicework is Chris Rock who does the gerbil Rodney.

It's a generally a nice family movie with some crude humor. It works on that level. Just don't expect more. The potty humor may offend the parents, but there isn't anything to be concerned about.

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to Doctor Doolittle (1998)

Plot In A Paragraph: A doctor discovers he can talk to animals.

Again I watched this one with my girlfriends daughter. Again we had fun watching it. I'm actually amazed at the rating this got, due to some of its humour. Kids tend to love bodily function humour, and she is no exception. I have not decided if I will permanently add it to my collection, but I certainly enjoyed myself, and have worse movies in my collection. All in all, it's a decent family movie.

A few of the animals are voiced by celebs Rocky (Chris Rock) Jacob the Tiger (Albert Brooks) and one of the rats (John Leguizamo) all stand out. Sadly so did the annoying Gilbert Gottfried. Check out a nod to Rocky 3 below.

Dr Doolittle grossed $144 Million at the domestic box office to end the year the 6th highest grossing movie of 1998. Against all odds, Murphy had totally reinvented himself. The brash, vulgar comedian from the early to mid 80's was gone. He was a guy who starred with animals and kids in family friendly movies. Strange to get used to as a fan of his earlier work. But it worked. There's an entire generation that only knows this Murphy. The guy from the family films.

`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.

eddie murphy is incredibly funny again. the animals are funnier still. infact the whole thing is so believable and has the magical quality that makes a kids' movie so endearign.

so why the low rating? cos its so very crude!!! too crude for a kids & family movie. even when u laugh, u feel guilty about it, esp. when kids are around.

heres a good story gone bad, sadly part 2 is worse. would have been a brilliant movie in the hands of disney.

maybe disney should be given the monopoly on kids' movies on a platter. or maybe along with dreamworks, theyve been real good too, so far :) 20th century fox should stick catering to adults.

an average 5

OK, so "Doctor Dolittle" is mostly stuff that would only appeal to little kids, but it is worth seeing (I've actually never seen the original version, which I heard was a pathetic excuse for a movie). Eddie Murphy is, in my opinion, trounced in the movie by Chris Rock as the out-of-control hamster. I almost wish that they could have had more scenes with both Eddie Murphy and Ossie Davis (yes, Ossie Davis went so far as to take a role in this movie).

So, this movie's nothing special, but pretty funny nonetheless. Also starring Oliver Platt, Peter Boyle, Richard Schiff, and the voices of Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres (who would later co-star as the voices in "Finding Nemo").

I just did not enjoy this film. But then I loved Babe, a Pig in the City and have been spoiled by talking animal films that are exceptionally well done in every way. The animals were not likeable. They were all irritating especially Chris Rock's guinea pig, but then what could I expect, it's Chris Rock. I believe I smiled once or twice at a couple cute lines, but that's it.

This version of "Doctor Dolittle" came into stores back when I was twelve years old, which was when I first saw it. I think I liked it a lot at the time, and watched it again a few months later. After many years, I just decided to check it out again. Since I'm obviously not as easily amused as I was when I was twelve, and was aware that it generally wasn't considered that great, I didn't have very high expectations. Afterwards, however, I certainly can't say that I think it's as bad as some do.

During his childhood, John Dolittle talks to animals. It seems that he can understand them, and they can understand him, but when his dad sees this, he thinks it's ridiculous. After John's dog is taken away, he is obviously not happy, and stops talking to animals for a long time. When he grows up, he becomes a physician, and has a wife and two daughters. It seems that Dr. Dolittle's communication with animals is long gone, but one night, after he nearly runs over a dog on the road, he hears it say something! Now, his childhood ability has come back, and soon, he finds many different types of creatures following him around! How will people be able to believe that he actually has this remarkable gift, and that it's not just a mental illness, as one would probably assume?!

As you would probably expect, this movie has its fair share of lame jokes (such as a rat farting), and like you've probably already heard, the movie would overall appeal more to kids than anyone else. However, certainly not all of the gags are lame. During my most recent viewing, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had kept a straight face through the entire thing, but that's not what happened. I found no huge laughs in the film, but there were several times when I smiled and snickered. I also found that the story gets suspenseful to some degree towards the end. Eddie Murphy's performance is also a highlight. Some of the voice-overs for the animals are silly, maybe the majority of them, but this isn't much of a problem.

For kids, this movie could be very funny, though it is somewhat crude at times, remember the PG-13 rating. So, I don't know how appropriate for kids it is (that's for parents to decide). For adults, and probably adolescents, this version of "Doctor Dolittle" is certainly nothing special. It could be mildly amusing, if you don't mind extreme silliness and crude toilet humour, but there's probably also a fair chance that you would find it absolutely revolting (I think some clearly have). Without a doubt, this movie is pretty cheesy, and skipping it wouldn't be a great loss for most people, but it's certainly not one that I advise everyone to avoid at all costs (though that would probably be a good idea for some people).

Released in 1998 and directed by Betty Thomas, "Dr. Dolittle" is a family comedy starring Eddie Murphy as a doctor in San Francisco who re-encounters a curious talent he had as a child, the ability to understand the speech of animals. Kristen Wilson plays his wife while Oliver Platt and Richard Schiff are on hand as his colleagues. Peter Boyle plays a businessman who wants to buy their practice.

With Eddie Murphy and talking animals, I expected "Dr. Dolittle" to be better than it is. It's okay; there are some fun moments, but it never rises above decent. Kids should like it though.

The film runs 85 minutes and was shot in San Francisco, Busch Gardens and San Bernardino National Forest, California.

GRADE: C+ or B- (5.5/10)

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.

This is really an everage run of the mill kids movie based losely on the the Doctor Dolittle film. Eddie Murphy plays the doctor who finds that he can comminicate with all animals.This leads to every type of animal coming to him for help for their medical problems. The Special affects are not very special but i'm sure a lot of kids would love this film. There are a few funny one liners that will go straight over childrens heads and that are quite funny but all in all this film is just plain OK. 6 out of 10.

Here we go again: Hollywood "modernizing" a comedy by adding tons of sleaze to a nice story and a film that was first made 30 years prior to this. There is no excuse for all the inappropriate words and sexual innuendos that are in this "family film." Give me a break! That fact that it's rated PG-13 ought to tell you something.

Comedy is about the only genre of film making that I think has gone way downhill since the classic era. It's like the stand-up comics: we've gone from clean, clever material to raunchy.

The fact that Eddie Murphy and (the voice of) Chris Rock play major roles kind of give you a hint of where this film goes morally. This is a famous kids story and I'm sure many parents took their children to see this film....and were totally embarrassed. If it was advertised as an adult movie: fine, I would have no problems with it. But that's not the case, and so it's a disgusting sham, typical of low-life Hollywood.

In addition to the onslaught of language (which includes Jesus's name in vain three times among the other offenses) and fecal matter/fart jokes, the film basically wasn't that funny to begin with It's also not a shock, either, when you discover that Betty Thomas directed this film. This is the same woman who the year before directed "Private Parts," the story of shock jock Howard Stern.

As another reviewer aptly put it, "Come back, Rex Harrison. All is forgiven!"

John Dolittle was a worrying child – his father always caught him pretending to talk to animals and eventually had to get him to stop it. As an adult, his gift is long forgotten until he hits a dog with his car and hears it talk to him. When he realises that he is not going crazy and he can talk to them he is suddenly inundated with animals to treat, his family is falling apart and his business partners think their whole business is at risk.

Eddie Murphy basically rebuild his career around a couple of big comedy remakes which relied on humour and effects. Here the humour consists of good lines and the effects the animatronic animals. The plot is the weakest point of the film and, although it has a basic story, it never really involves or becomes important. Supporting the film then is some funny lines (rather than consistent jokes) from the animal support cast – whether it be main characters (Rodney the hamster) or quick one-liners (`I am Kyser Soze').

The effects are surprisingly ropey – they look good but they don't move naturally and the cuts between the real animals and the puppets are very clear. The support cast basically carry the movie and save it from being pretty dire stuff. Rock, Brooks, MacDonald, Leguizamo, Shandling etc all do good work and their dialogue basically consists of one-liners rather than anything else. Beside this the adult cast look like straight men. Murphy is quite dull and even the likes of Platt and Boyle (who usually do OK in small roles) have little to do.

Overall this is fun to watch simply because of the support cast and the regular sharp lines of dialogue from the animals. However, look for any more than that and you'll be disappointed.

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 !

Doctor Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) could talk to animals as a child. After being deemed crazy by his father and other adults, he effectively shut down his ability. Then one day, as an adult with a successful medical practice, he regained his ability to talk to animals. This "ability" was more like a nuisance as it only caused him again to look crazy.

I thought the movie was refreshingly light and thereby enjoyable. There was no relationship drama and no petulant teenagers needing to be reformed. His daughter Charisse (Raven-Symone) was a bit of a wildcard, but it was nothing that dominated the plot, plus it was funny. Even with other things going on like a potential buyout from a wealthy company, and his family, it was still about the animals. We were treated to the voices of Chris Rock, Norm MacDonald, Chris Rock, Reni Santoni, John Leguizamo, Julie Kavner (Marge from The Simpsons), Garry Shandling, Ellen DeGeneres, and Gilbert Gottfried. They all contributed and they were all amusing.

In my opinion, "Doctor Doolittle" will fail to connect with most adults. Its humor is of the pre-adolescent potty variety, and the few jokes aimed at older viewers are not very funny. Although Eddie Murphy gives a good comedic performance, he is let down by the script and his fellow actors. "Doctor Doolittle" doesn't strike me as much of a kid's movie (although I did not view it with kids), and as for adults, there is much better in the genre such as "There's Something About Mary". This movie is caught betwixt and between kid and adult and should have satisfied neither. But it made tons of money so that just goes to show you what I know.

While this is not an "awesome" movie, it IS entertaining and clean enough for the whole family. Eddie Murphy's declining career not withstanding, this is actually fun to watch. Although this work falls far from the Beverly Hills Cop tree, and does not quite match the quality of any of his pre-1995 films, it still holds some entertainment value, however mild it may be.

It is a modernized version, of course, of Rex Harrison's 1967 classic, but without the charm, the sophistication, or the talent. Unfortunately, while this remake is fun, it is only mildly so, and really quite silly in a wholly unimaginative kind of way. Frankly, the best bit was Norm MacDonald's "Lucky" voice part. Eddie Murphy's best post-1995 roles have been voice parts, in my opinion (Donkey & Mushu).

The young actresses who play Murphy's daughters are great in their own rights; Raven-Symone and Kyla Pratt, the latter of which continues on with this franchise long after the rest have bailed, creating a nice outlet for her own growing talents. Check them out.

All in all, this is fun, if only mildly so, and totally silly. The kids will love it.

It rates a 5.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.

There are some movies that may have a poor history but make up for being fun and making us laugh. This is one of them. It tells the story of John Dolittle, a doctor who has been talking to animals since he was a child. But thanks to his parents' efforts, he has forgotten this gift as he grows up ... until suddenly, for no apparent reason, he begins to hear animals talk and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown over it.

Sound improbable? In fact, it is ... if I had such a gift, I certainly would not suddenly discover it after years and years without using it. The movie does not explain how Dolittle managed to go years without hearing animals and suddenly begin to hear them so clearly. It is a sudden and unbelievable change. However, the whole plot of the movie is weak. There is truly no story to tell ... what we have here is a basic script skeleton that only serves as the basis for a succession of jokes presented to us by Eddie Murphy and all the animals with whom he plays. The humor is based on dialogues, speech and situations involving animals, to the point that they become the real protagonists and Murphy loses relevance in the film. But trying to see this movie from the logical side means taking all the fun out of it. In fact, we enjoy the movie better if we tolerate the faults of the poor and poor script and simply get carried away by what we are seeing and enjoying the jokes.

Eddie Murphy, with this movie and others that followed, probably lived his golden age as an actor. He got money, fame, popularity, good deals ... but in fact he never shows value as an actor. Not because he doesn't have it - he showed it in other movies - but because he had so little to do in this movie! Murphy does little while he is Dolittle (curious!). Of the rest of the cast it is better not to speak. The voice actors (notably Norm MacDonald and Chris Rock) shone more brightly than the entire human cast.

Technically, the movie is quite regular. Not excellent and having very poor visual and sound effects. The soundtrack is virtually non-existent and even the opening and ending themes are uninteresting.

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.

Eddie Murphy is a great actor but he has so many clunkers on his filmography unfortunately. This is another stinker that might struggle to even amuse children with less refined tastes. I suppose the effects were good for the time, yeah let's go with that so I have said at least something positive.

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.

Dr. Dolittle was funny. It made some jokes that really made me laugh but others I was like kind of confused from. There are corny little jokes though. Like Lucky the dog and those little mice or rats or whatever were kind of corny or just had corny lines. I did like them though, they were pretty funny. I actually liked the mice better in the second one. Eddie Murphy was good in it, not his best but was definitely worth starrring in it. I don't think anyone could've played his part any better than he could, well maybe Bill Murray could've been a Dr. Doliitle but I already liked those characters. The old sister that's in That's So Raven is very pretty. A good film to look at.

7/10

Just what we need! Another remake of vintage Hollywood cinema, with Eddie Murphy miscast again in his second time around after THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1996)! This shows why we're running out of special ideas in making a quality movie, ladies and gentlemen! It has some signs of hope for its likeable and delightful imagery of animals who can act and speak with humans. Things can only get more worse, unfortunately. Bathroom jokes and sexual references kill this piece of "family" funfare instantly. Even parents and children saw the trailer ad on The Family Channel, which was followed by utter angst and disgust in the movie theater. Sad to say this is the more progressive pre-millennium era, but enjoy it while it lasts 'cause things can only get worse with time. More went wrong with the all-new DR. DOLITTLE. It is absolutely plotless, feeling too flat. I also hate that irritating voice of Chris Rock!!! We need more talented voice-overs than a bunch of overpaid celebs who don't want to declare bankruptcy. I'll have to agree on my local newspaper giving this among the top five worst movies of 1998. Then again, the original version wasn't any good, either. Murphy's next project could be PATTON if he's not careful!