Doctor Dolittle
“Doctor Dolittle” marks the beginning of Eddie Murphy doing family-friendly comedies on a regular basis. It’s interesting that this and “Mulan” came out the same month, a week from one another, because one has Murphy voicing an animal in Mushu the Dragon, the other one has him talking to animals. Neither one was something I was terribly interested in at the time in 1998, but they are endearing now to watch. I definitely gave “Dolittle” an unfair shake in 1998, because this is pretty funny for what it is.
I still haven’t really made my way through the hard-edged Eddie Murphy that dominated in the 1980s and early ’90s save for the occasional episode of “Saturday Night Live.” I’m not sure if it was because what I did see in the ’90s was not terribly exciting or interesting, but I definitely plan on rectifying that now. With “The Nutty Professor,” Murphy began to transition to PG-13 comedy, and “Doctor Dolittle” is the next part of that transition, where it could almost be PG save for some toilet humor. In updating the story of a man who can talk to animals for a contemporary setting, director Betty Thomas could not have had a better star than Murphy, as he brings his personality and irreverent sense of humor to what is, fundamentally, a family film.
When he was a child, John Dolittle used to talk to animals, but his father (Ossie Davis) thought he should focus on making friends when him reflecting animal behaviors gets problematic when it comes to dealing with people. As an adult, he has a wife and children, and he’s become a doctor. His youngest daughter, Maya (Kyla Pratt), is showing an interest in science and animals, trying to hatch an egg she finds while also keeping a guinea pig. Meanwhile, John is getting ready for a big corporate sale of his doctor’s office with his partners (Oliver Platt and Richard Schiff), and it’s impacting his time spent with his family. One night, he’s driving home and has to swerve to miss a dog, and he hears the dog talk (voiced by Norm MacDonald). All of the sudden, he begins hearing animals all over the place. After he helps an owl who has something in its wing, he’s suddenly seen as an animal doctor, and he starts to lean into it. With the pending buyout and his family life still feeling strained, this probably isn’t the best time for something so crazy.
I’ve never watched the original “Doctor Dolittle” musical from the the 1960s, but Betty Thomas’s film doesn’t miss being a musical at all. It brings the story down to a character level and emotional level that is engaging and entertaining. The voice cast of the animals provide the most comedic parts of the film, with MacDonald being joined by Chris Rock as Maya’s guinea pig, Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks as a neurotic tiger and Julie Kavner as part of a pigeon couple, and giving Murphy more to play off of when he’s treating the animals. It comes down to staying true to who you are, and the film makes that theme land successfully. It’s ironic that that comes from an outing by one of Hollywood’s funnymen shifting his persona away from who he was up to that point. The result is an enjoyable change-of-pace for its star.
