Dolittle (2020)

China, United States of America

Family, Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure

Universal Pictures, Team Downey, Perfect World Pictures, Roth-Kirschenbaum Films

Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley, Harry Collett

Stephen Gaghan

Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Thomas Shepherd

Taglines: He's just not a people person.

ship, island, based on novel or book, victorian england, doctor, based on children's book, animal, veterinary, talking to animals, voyage

After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company. But when the young queen falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.

Reviews:

Author: Kamurai
A weird watch, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be closer to the books, or if Disney was just fed up with having wonderful magic in their products, but having Dolittle act out animal behavior in order to communicate to the them really ruins the vibe, as well as making it something you can learn makes it incredibly unremarkable. It should just be something people teach in this movie's universe. Robert Downey Jr., despite claiming he wants to play new characters, basically just played Sherlock Holmes that can talk to animals, to include uncovering a plot to kill the queen. The only real saving grace in this is the pure technical detail in the CG. The cast and voices were all fine, but the animal CG is over the top good, if a little goofy at times. Most of the movie is "what are they doing now?", or more of "why are they doing this now?". It really seemed they had to add a lot to the story of Dolittle, the doctor who talks to animals, to make it worthy of a movie. They also had to shift the focus away from him quite a bit, and while previous iterations have chosen to focus on the togetherness of the family, this movie has chosen to go with the "dead wife so I hate the world" cliche, which is always uplifting. They just made a lot of dark, and weird choices for this movie that did not improve it.