"Dr.
Dolittle" is a cute, crude and good-hearted movie about a doctor
who can talk to the animals--and listen, too, often as they loudly
pass gas. It combines the charm of the 1998 movie with the current
Hollywood obsession with intestinal tracts, resulting in a movie
that kids, with their intense interest in digestive details, may
find fascinating.
Eddie
Murphy stars as a famous veterinarian, who now runs his own animal
clinic (complete with 12-step therapy groups for ownerless dogs).
His homelife is almost more demanding than his work: His daughter
Charisse (Raven-Symone) is 16 and starting to date, and his wife
(Kristen Wilson) is remarkably patient with a house full of pets
and a yard full of animals, including a raccoon who comes to summon
the doctor to an emergency.
The
crisis: A forest is about to be leveled by a plump, sneering enemy
of the ecology (Jeffrey Jones), and the animals, led by a Godfather-style
beaver, hope Dolittle can help. The forester is represented by a
slick attorney (Kevin Pollak), and Dolittle recruits his lawyer
wife to defend his case in court.
Much
depends on the fact that the land is the habitat of a female bear,
a member of a protected species. But since she can't reproduce all
by herself, the villain's lawyer argues, what's the use of preserving
her habitat? Dolittle, thinking fast, recruits a male performing
bear from a circus. Can the bear be persuaded to perform those functions
that a male bear in the wild does naturally? When the bear proves
shy, Dolittle turns into an animal sex counselor.
All
of this is helped immeasurably by the doctor's ability to speak
to the animals (who all speak the same language--English, curiously
enough). There are no nasty animals in the movie, except for a crocodile
who does his dirty work just offscreen, and the bear is so accommodating
he actually visits Dolittle in a rustic restaurant, enters the toilet,
and seems familiar with the function, if not the limitations, of
a toilet seat. The bear in fact is one of the funniest elements
in the movie; it is about as happy to be in the forest as Woody
Allen would be.
There's
also a sequence, perhaps inspired by a scene in "The Edge," where
the bear creeps out onto a precariously balanced log to try to grab
some honey and prove himself a man, or bear. Will the bear master
the intricacies of the reproductive process? Will Dr. and Mrs. Dolittle
accept a measly compromise offer of 10 acres? The story takes an
unexpected twist when the animals of the world go on strike and
shut down Sea World.
"Dr.
Dolittle" is not the kind of movie that rewards deep study, and
it's an easy assignment for Murphy, whose work in the Nutty Professor
movies is much more versatile (and funnier). As the PG rating suggests,
this is a movie aimed at younger audiences, which are likely to
enjoy the cute animals, the simple plot, the broad humor and Dolittle's
amazingly detailed explanation (to the bear) of how a bear's elimination
system shuts itself down during hibernation.
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