Doctor Dolittle (1998)

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.

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.

Eddie Murphy is a classic and this movie is just so him: he is fast talking animals and other people trying to convince them that he is not mad even though he is talking to animals. He looks a little more mature and less deceitful in this movie than in others such as A Distinguished Gentlemen and Beverly Hills Cop. Though he is a fast talking genius, he is quite respectable in this movie.Basically this movie is about a man who can speak to animals. The plot is thin but the comedy is what makes this movie. It is full of sexual innuendos and simply cute animals that love to talk back to him, especially the rats. There are is lot of dirty, toilet humour, jokes which are suitable for kids for this movie is marketed as a kids movie. Dr Dolittle comes from children's' books I read when I was young and thus it is a kids movie, but the existence of Eddie Murphy makes it very much an adults movie as well. Eddie Murphy has his legions of fans and I he definitely does not disappoint in this movie.Though this is a great movie, there is little depth to it. This does not mean that it is flawed in that way for not all movies need depth. This is not a feel good movie, nor is it satirical, it is simply an Eddie Murphy comic routine. One thing I wondered though is if the Pushme-Pullyou would be in the movie (for those who do not know, the Pushme-Pullyou if a two headed Llama with its second head where its butt should be). It makes a cameo appearance walking behind Dr Dolittle and you see its reflection in the mirror. It is not a major part of the movie, and I don't think it is meant to be. All I can remember of the old books is that Dolittle had a legion of animal followers, and he wasn't Negro. That is not important, but I doubt the movie would have been any good if any other actor had played the part of Dr Dolittle.

First of all, Let me tell you I am writing this review for the Hindi Dubbed Version, so if you watch the English one, this review is of no use....Man, I never remembered laughing this much in a family Hollywood movie Dubbed in Hindi. In fact the Hindi version takes over the English one. Hats off to the Dubbing Artists, they gave the animal character's voices to different mimicry artist which brings a stupendously funny feeling for the movie..., So if you understand Hindi, then a must watch for the whole family, no explicit content or cheap jokes either, the artists that made the animals speak, the translators adding extra efforts to the dubbings brought it to life, my review, A Must Watch if you understand Hindi and knows Bollywood......