“Dolittle” is the latest adaptation of the classic series of books starring Robert Downey Jr. as the famed doctor who can talk to animals. The Stephen Gaghan directed fantasy follows Doctor Dolittle, who became a recluse after the death of his wife, as he is forced to go on a journey to find a magic fruit from the Tree of Eden to cure the queen of England with a new young apprentice Stubbins and his animal friends. The film is a messy children’s adventure that rushes through any core character development or interesting set pieces in favor of bland storytelling filled with constant humor from the animals that never truly works.
The film has some good intentions and a fairly invested cast, but this simply does not add up to much because of its bland story and choppy editing, which suggests the film was cut down to just over 90 minutes. Robert Downey Jr. tries to give a good performance as Dolittle, and yet the accent that he uses throughout the film is simply not convincing enough to carry it. The crew of voice actors from John Cena and Kumail Nanjiani to Emma Thompson and Octavia Spencer are very underutilized as Dolittle’s animals and are only there to give either story narration or corny jokes that did not evoke a single laugh in my case.
There are a lot of well-designed sets and good CGI animal designs that simply do not blend well into the real world environments in the film. The closest animal character that was slightly charming was a squirrel named Kevin who wants to have revenge against Stubbins for accidentally shooting him on a hunting trip. The film’s main adventure of finding a mythical island to acquire a cure is full of fantasy elements without any real time for the audience to immerse themselves in the environments.
“Dolittle” continuously moves at a very fast pace with its action sequences, villain subplots and constant humor from the animals that underplay anything dramatic that occurs during its runtime. Even the film’s supporting roles such as villain Blaire Mudfly, played by Michael Sheen, is over-the-top cartoonish and only Antonio Banderas as pirate Lord Rassouli gives a pretty good yet underutilized performance. In contrast, “Dolittle” does introduce its main character with a fairly interesting animated prologue that quickly turns into the basic structure of its adventure.
The film’s main problem is that it does not know what direction it wants to go and constantly rushes through its predictable plot without taking a second to develop any real characters. One moment, Dolittle is a complete recluse who avoids human contact and the next he is sporting jokes with his ongoing nemesis Blair Mudfly. This could be attributed to the film’s inconsistent editing. It feels as if several scenes are missing from the visually interesting yet tonally dull adventure that constantly changes locations. “Dolittle” also features an ending that becomes rather weird and overtly convenient for a main character who deals with a dragon and gets back to save the queen without any consequence.
“Dolittle” is a choppily edited and thoroughly uninteresting children’s book adaptation that lacks a sense of scope and real character in its predictable story that is instead replaced by constant annoying animal humor and rushed scenes to try to keep audience interest. I’m gonna give “Dolittle” a three and a half out of 10