Watch it at Amazon
13 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Amusing lines but weak plot, 2 October 2003 Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK
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.
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful: An average Kids film, 11 August 2000 Author: John Taylor (jdtaylor@btinternet.com) from Bedfordshire, England;
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.
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: animals steal the show, 23 September 2001 Author: m_madhu from chennai, india
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
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: He Talks With The Animals....., 9 July 2001 Author: William C. Uchtman (aesgaard41@hotmail.com) from Hendersonville, TN
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.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: "Doctor Dolittle" does a lot with Chris Rock, 1 May 2006 Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA
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").
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Not great, but personally, I found it funnier than I thought I would, 19 August 2007 Author: Electrified_Voltage from Guelph, Ontario, Canada
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).
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: To his credit Murphy let's the animals have their say while he plays straight man to their lines, 3 August 2000 Author: Duane A. Neitzel from Richland, Washington
`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.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: A Funny but yet corny film, 12 May 2004 Author: OriginalMovieBuff21 from United States
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
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Highly underrated, 22 May 2002 Author: Jerry Smith from USA
This is a very underrated movie. The comedy was pretty good. This one is just too underrated by many people. Acting was good enough. Eddie is still good and I enjoyed him as Dr. Dolittle, a doctor who can talk to animals. The plot is Dr. Dolittle finds out he can talk to animals. When he tells people this, they think he's crazy. Soon enough he has to save a tiger in the zoo. The plot is a little dumb but overall I liked the movie.Overall the acting is good enough, the plot isn't that bad but it's not good, and this had enough laughs to pass by. Rating 7 out of 10.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Genuinly Funny!, 25 July 2001 Author: YankeeJD from New York
Dr. Doolitle was a genuinly funny movie. The voices of the animals were great by some of many respectable actors and Eddie Murphy was the perfect character for Dr. Doolitle. This was great Eddie Murphy comedy. Great jokes and plot but the movie could have used an additional 30 minutes or so. Great to watch with the family. 3 STARS!
Add another review
