Robert Downey Jr. has had himself quite the interesting past decade. He became one of the biggest stars alive playing Tony Stark/Ironman in ten different films while turning down other roles in films such as Gravity and Spotlight. Now his first post-Marvel role is coming in the form of a reboot of Doctor Dolittle simply called Dolittle, a role Eddie Murphy once made famous. This movie looks like something insane so you wonder, what did Downey Jr. see in this script? After seeing the movie, I honestly have no clue. This is one of the strangest choices I have seen a high profile actor make and the result is just baffling.
The plot behind Dolittle is not what you’d expect. John Dolittle, a doctor who can talk to animals, is requested by the queen of England to come and heal her after she gets sick with a life-threatening illness. The only cure to this illness is a berry on an island nobody has seen before, so Dolittle must voyage off with his assortment of animals and a young boy he just met to find the berry and save the queen. All along he is in danger of being killed due to the poisoning of the queen being intentional by a man hoping to succeed the throne. Yes, the entire plot is centered around attempted murder! A kids movie nonetheless. This movie is going in so many different directions at the same time that it never finds its footing. On one hand, it wants to be a light comedy and on the other hand, the film opens with a young boy shooting a squirrel. The original Dolittle films were mediocre at best but didn’t leave much of an impact so it makes little sense to reboot this property. They did it though, and I am blown away by the result.
There never seemed to be a true vision in Dolittle. The film had so many ideas going on that never agreed with one another or went together. First off, the rules of this film make zero sense. You have a man who can talk to animals. Ok fine, I can go with that, just don’t overcomplicate it. The way they explain how Dolittle can talk to animals is that he makes noises and sounds that animals make so fluently that the animals understand him. Each animal has its own unique language, so how are the animals able to talk to other animals? Do those animals also make other animals noises? They also treat this ability like a gift only Dolittle possesses but then this random kid who runs away from home starts to learn how to do it. If this kid can figure it out, why can’t everyone else? No explanation is given and we just see this kid make polar bear noises to terribly animated animals that is just ridiculous. Everything about this film is absolutely absurd, from its conception to execution, yet somehow it weirdly works.
Nothing about Dolittle makes sense and it makes you wonder the entire time how it got made but somehow it is so ridiculous that it has some sense of enjoyability. It has such craziness to it that it adds a watchability factor to it. The boy makes a noise at a bear and the bear goes “Pickles? Oh! You mean warship!”. I guess the words ‘pickle’ and ‘warship’ sound the same in polar bear. There is a rabbit in a prison with an eyepatch who has a gambling problem. You would think a mythical creature would be the most outlandish thing this movie comes up with until you see a whale give someone the middle finger. Maybe this is why Robert Downey Jr. signed on for this role. He gets to do a dumb accent and play with dirty CGI animals. You can at least tell he is having fun. Same with Michael Sheen, but everyone else is just confused. Antonio Banderas better pray the academy doesn’t see him in this film before they vote or he might lose a nomination. The voices of the animals are just there to collect their checks and they really add nothing to the characters except John Cena who is at least trying to do something with the polar bear. All of this is very bizarre but it is watchable just to see how crazy it is.
By the end of the year, Dolittle will be one of those films we look back on and wonder just what was going on with that one. Everything about this film is so looney that you eventually just have to appreciate the giant’s swings they are taking. Kids will find enjoyment in this and some adults will also for different reasons, but that is really where it stops. Robert, ok, you had your fun, now go make a smart comedy or intense drama now. I’m glad you got this out of your system, it is time to move on to something better.
The Verdict