'Dolittle': Robert Downey Jr's film deserves to be seen despite lack of Eddie Murphy and box-office results
Fans of Robert Downey Jr felt their hearts sink after finding out that 'Dolittle', his first movie after 'Avengers: Endgame', has a measly 13% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's picked up since then and now stands at 19% but that hasn't stopped a barrage of negative criticism from hitting the film.
That's actually quite unfair because, in all honesty, it's not as bad as some people would have you think. Sure, the movie's plot progresses in a haphazard, positively chaotic way and there's plenty of scenes that felt far too rushed but that said, 'Dolittle' did introduce a very interesting cast of characters, animal and human alike.
Part of the problem may have been the expectations people had for the movie. Most people expected to see Downey Jr. playing something similar to Eddie Murphy's extremely loose adaptation of the character, which made the Dolittle name popular among a new generation of fans.
That's a pretty unfair comparison because 'Dolittle' has nothing to do with Murphy's movies except for the name and the concept of a doctor talking to animals. In fact, a better comparison would be between Downey Jr.'s take on the character and Rex Harrison's version of Dr. Dolittle, which came out back in the 1960s. Compared to that movie, 'Dolittle' has done a much better job, partly because we have much better technology available to filmmakers today than we did in the '60s.
'Dolittle' does a bang-up job in terms of its art and animation, using all the tools of the trade to deliver a spectacular watch. In terms of music as well, 'Dolittle' scores above its much earlier predecessor, which is ironic because the Rex Harrison movie was actually a musical.
As far as faithful adaptations of Hugh Lofting's books go, 'Dolittle' more or less hits the nail on the head. Even the introduction of a dragon into the story, while not something that's there in the books, isn't completely out of place in the world created by the movie. At the end of the day, 'Dolittle' hasn't exactly been a box office success but that doesn't have to mean the franchise is dead in the water. The movie has a mid-credits scene that sets up a potential sequel and there's plenty of stories left to tell in this world.
We'd love to see more of King Rassouli (Antonio Banderas), Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), and the assorted animals of Dolittle's menagerie. Not to mention it would be a real treat, at least for the younger people in the audience, to see Downey Jr.'s eccentric Welshman, Doctor John Dolittle, grace the screens once again.
'Dolittle' was released in theaters on January 17.