Review of Dolittle (2020) by Chrismizerak — 19 Jan 2020

I think most if not all of us can agree on one thing. “Dolittle” seemed set up to fail from the start, and hardly anything about the current final product could fix that. Now before we call the vet, doctor, pet detective or ambulance onto this typical crime scene, let’s acknowledge a few things the film gets right. It starts off just fine with a 2D animated sequence detailing Doctor Dolittle’s backstory. In fact, I think if the entire film were done in traditional animation, that would have made much more sense. It would bring something new to the table in comparison to the previous live-action film adaptations before it. Unfortunately, it’s just a few minutes. But imagine the possibilities of this film working had they attempted going for this approach. I will also commend the filmmakers for not doing wall-to-wall excremental humor jokes throughout the entire feature, which considering the subject matter they could very well have done. Don’t get me wrong, that juvenile humor is still ever present in the final product, but it isn’t as in your face as something you’d get from a standard Happy Madison production, at least not yet. And finally, the film has its mind set in the right place in terms of its concept. The idea in question being the befriending of animals and coming to their aid, which in return results in vice versa. The spirit behind this attitude is well meaning, as proven by the box office success of films tackling similar subject matter: “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and the Eddie Murphy version of “Dr. Dolittle”. If done the right way, a film about an animal doctor or detective can work. Needless to say, this is not the right way.

You don’t need a medical professional to tell you that “Dolittle” is in dire need of a cure for its inconsistent direction and tone alongside its thoroughly confused script. The dialogue is handled either one of the following two ways: it’s Victorian-era authentic or common sayings you hear in the 2010s. About a hundred years worth of difference in speech styles is easily noticeable and distracting, and a lot of this goes a long way. The characters, both human and mammal, are incredibly weak. Character development and motivations are not set up properly. The young boy aiding Dolittle in his quest brags about doing this and that throughout his arc, but his self-weighted importance never matches his actual contributions to the story, which is simply nothing. The young English girl that we see at the film’s beginning and end was a more suitable sidekick in my book. Antagonists to Doctor Dolittle are established, but the motivations and reasons why they were established seemed to be forgotten about. Some of you may be bold to ask: how many times do we see our titular character do anything resembling an animal doctor? Thankfully, yours truly has an answer ready: TWO! One takes places early on and is handled alright, all things considered. The other takes place in the third act with a dragon of all creatures, and reminds me how badly the film lost its way. You know you’re in trouble when something such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”, a film that barely focuses on pet detection half the time, does more with animal doctors than this film does. “Dolittle” hardly does anything with an interesting concept, instead following a tired family formula of going on a globe-trotting adventure around the world in search of an immensely valuable resource. I would have liked this film much better if it dared to do something more grounded in reality. In other words, follow the everyday life of an animal doctor that can care for multiple species and speak all of their diverse languages. Maybe have this doctor promote world peace amongst the humans, birds, dogs, elephants, lions, tigers, bears, and insects that populate Earth. Maybe Dolittle could have training schools to teach aspiring students what he knows, have students open up different divisions for animal care (psychologists, dentists, things of that sort), just go all out with this idea. Anything but this stale formula family film template that doesn’t take advantage of the possible quirks of the main protagonist’s profession. Because as it is now, there’s no way that a disjointed, tone-deaf and unimaginative mess such as “Dolittle” is going to make it in the long run. Not with an overdependence on CGI and animals that are never there, not with soulless personalities on screen (despite the talented cast in its realm), and certainly not with an incompetent script that can’t decide what kind of movie this should be in the first place. Ace Ventura, call an ambulance. I’m hit.