Doolittle: Bad Accents and Bad Writing

Dolittle is another attempt to reinvent a franchise long dormant. Doctor Dolittle were books from the fifties, then a musical movie with Rex Harrison in 1967, and finally a remake in 1998 starring Eddie Murphy which spawned four sequels. The movie from 1967 was silly and a product of the sixties. While the movie from 1998 was a contemporary take on the story and the best version in my opinion. So when the new Doolittle came out it looked like a remake of the story form the sixties but it was far less of a movie.

Robert Downey Jr. stars as Dr. Dolittle and he is attempting a Welsh accent and it’s absolutely atrocious. It was he own choice to do the accent but it really hurt the performance. This movie is aimed at children but instead of writing clever smarter jokes for children, the writers resort to poop and fart jokes and internet lingo to appeal to kids. It was a little insulting. Michael Sheen, who plays a rival doctor is really having fun with his role and is easily the best part of the movie. He is chewing scenery and jamming it up and it’s wonderful. The animal voices which include John Cena, Rami Malek, Kumail Nanjiani, Jason Mantzoukas, Emma Thompson, Octavia Spencer, Ralph Fiennes, and Tom Holland. Nanjiani, Fiennes, and Mantzoukas are easily the two funniest voices.

The writing and plot as a whole is frustrating in Dolittle because the opening sequence is beautiful. It explains the backstory and exposition in a wonderfully animated sequence and I wish the whole movie was animated like that. But the rest of the movie is just action set piece after action set piece. But the biggest plot point that’s just really dumb and childish is SPOILERS. Dolittle needs to get to a tree guarded by a dragon. The dragon is angry because she is constipated and Dolittle uses a leek to unplug the dragon ass and then pulls out knights armor and a set of bagpipes. Then the dragon farts in Dolittle’s face. This movie was a poor attempt to revitalize a franchise. 🍔 and 1/2 🍔