Thoughts on Dr. Dolittle

 

via Tumblr/Courtesy 20th Century Studios

"Do you remember when we first started out? We had those little crummy offices in the worst neighborhood in town and we got paid almost no money."
"I've blocked it out."
"Have you really?"
"I guess so, yeah."
"Those were the most exciting times to me, you know? It was like -- you couldn't wait to come to work because it felt like you were making a difference, you know. And last night, I had to treat some -- some emergencies. And I was challenged, and it was difficult. And I kind of -- I got the same kind of rush I had back then. I felt like I was doin' somethin', you know? I felt like I was makin' a difference. And I started thinkin' that maybe here ... I'm not giving my patients the right amount of attention."
"... John, do me a favor. Don't ever confide in me, okay. I'm utterly useless in these areas. I'm a very self-absorbed man. ..."

It takes a certain amount of balls for such earnest words about integrity to come from a shameless cash grab of a movie. Give it up for screenwriters Nat Mauldin and Larry Levin, among the least-heralded members of the people who made Dr. Dolittle. Eddie Murphy received good notices, but the truly acclaimed party was Dolittle's director, Betty Thomas. Forgive the intrusion from another children's story, but critics marveled that for the third straight movie, Betty had spun straw into gold. Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: "She knows how to talk to Hollywood animals so well, they don't even realize they're being trained." 

Dr. Dolittle is one of those movies where appealing parts, like talented castmembers and the crowd-pleasing story of a guy getting his life changed for the better, are undercut by excess. I liked Dolittle's interactions with Lucky the dog (voiced by Norm MacDonald, making a bigger bid for mainstream appeal) and Rodney the guinea pig (voiced by Chris Rock). I didn't especially like Dolittle having to serve as physician or therapist to the likes of a pair of sleazy rats (voices of Reni Santoni and John Leguizamo), unhappily married pigeons (voices of Garry Shandling and Julie Kavner), a blabbermouth owl (voice of Jenna Elfman) and an alcoholic monkey (voice of Phil Proctor). The best animal patient overall is a despairing, blood clot-afflicted circus tiger (voice of Albert Brooks).

"Goodbye, cruel world. Oh, I just remembered. I wanted to leave the whip to the baboon. One of the few animals that enjoy that kind of thing."

Not long into Dolittle, I considered Nathan Rabin's insight in 1998 that movies like Liar Liar married the freedom of the '90s to the tone and content of Disney's live action comedies from the '60s. Hey, it could've been worse. There could've been a revival of bloated '60s movie musicals like Rex Harrison's Doctor Dolittle. Disney itself wasn't shy about making outright remakes or flicks with a throwback feel. Peter Boyle is in the 1998 Dolittle as Calloway, the rich, impersonal owner-to-be of a practice led by Dolittle, self-absorbed Mark (Oliver Platt) and kindly Gene (Richard Schiff). Boyle had a similar role in The Santa Clause. Dolittle, like Clause, didn't quite stick the landing with the family stuff. And the child actors tried.

*Maya (Kyla Pratt) has a heart-to-heart with her paternal grandfather (Ossie Davis) as Dolittle overhears*

"Can I tell you a secret? ... When Mommy called and told me what happened to Daddy, I wasn't afraid. I was happy. Because I believed that he can talk to animals. 'Cause I wanted Dad to be weird ... like me. Is that wrong?"

"No. No, it's not wrong."

"It's just, sometimes I don't think he likes me very much."

"Honey, he loves you."

"I know he loves me, but I don't think he likes me. And I really want him to. I'm gonna try to do things his way, Grandpa ... and stop doing this stupid experiments."

"No, Maya. Don't stop your experiments. Sometimes daddies are the ones who need to change. *meaningful look at Dolittle*"

Dr. Dolittle, also like The Santa Clause, has characters who aren't so likeable when you watch the movie as an adult. Okay, so Grandpa Dolittle learned his lesson. He still called for an exorcist after his elementary-age son acted too much like his dog (voice of Ellen DeGeneres). Between this and Paulie, I'm now wondering if all fathers in the '60s barely tolerated their children's pets and/or imagination, or if it's just common among screenwriters. While we know that Dolittle is eventually going to lighten up and be a better doctor, father and husband, I was still surprised by several of the scenes with Lisa (Kristen Wilson), Maya and Charisse (Raven-Symoné). Simply put, there's only room for one asshole in Dolittle, and it's Mark. Or it's Lucky's.

*Lucky really doesn't like where veterinarian Dr. Fish (Jeffrey Tambor) is getting his temperature from*

"I'm gonna swallow the thermometer, and I don't mean in my mouth. ... It's headin' in. It's goin' south for the winter. ... Well, there it goes. Butt just swallowed it."

*Fish, learning about the thermometer, decides to manually retrieve it from Lucky*

"Oh, my lord! Oh, this is not good! Oh, Lassie, go ho-home!"

*The next shot is of Lucky walking funny out of the examining room*

Several reviewers in 1998 were appalled at the amount of gross-out humor in Dolittle. Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "If this is supposed to be family entertainment, it's frightening to wonder exactly what kind of family it's intended for." Roger Ebert, on the other hand, shrugged it off, noting that "too many adults have a tendency to confuse bad taste with evil influences." Peter Bart's The Gross mentioned Fox's change of strategy when it came to promoting Dolittle. At first, the feeling was that the movie was a "presold title," one that would immediately appeal to parents worldwide. Research revealed that if Fox went that route, they could say goodbye to the youngsters ages 10 and older, who wouldn't want to see an uncool family movie.

Dr. Dolittle also happened to be Eddie Murphy's first starring vehicle in more than a year. I didn't know this until I read The Gross, but just before Dolittle came out, Shalimar Seiuli died accidentally. Seiuli was the transgender sex worker who was offered at least a ride from Eddie in April 1997. Seiuli's death and Eddie's reduced time spent plugging Dolittle apparently didn't hurt the movie. Audiences seemed to have been glad to have him back. Who can blame him? While I'm not especially fond of the movie, I think Dolittle features one of Eddie's best performances. We didn't know then that the family-friendly chapter of his filmography would eventually include some movies as or even more bad as the worst during his adult-friendly heyday.

*Dolittle, calling home while at a mental hospital, ends up talking to Rodney*

"You get your little furry ass back in your cage, Rodney! Right now! I don't want your droppings on -- *realizes he's being watched by a doctor* Bye-bye. ... My son Rodney. Little hairy boy, sleeps in the cage. I have to keep him in the cage 'cause he has a hygiene problem."

Ulitmately, not recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "Hey, why they call me 'guinea pig' anyway? I'm not Italian, and I'm not pork."

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $144.2 million on a $71.5 million budget, this opened at No. 1, spent six weekends in the top 10 and ranked No. 6 for 1998. Dolittle was not, however, Fox's most successful movie of the year. That honor goes to There's Something About Mary.

-- Awards Watch: While Murphy, Platt and Pratt received Blockbuster Entertainment nominations, each lost (to Adam Sandler for The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, Matt Dillon for There's Something About Mary and Kathy Bates for The Waterboy, respectively). Over at the Kids' Choice Awards, Dolittle was defeated by The Rugrats Movie (FIX! Gotta be rigged!), while Eddie lost again to Adam Sandler (again for both of his 1998 star vehicles). Finally, Pratt lost the NAACP Image award to Jurnee Smollett for her work on Cosby and the Young Artist award to Brigid Tierney in Affliction.

-- Memorable Music: The score is 23-21, still favoring non-original songs. Dolittle has one entry, "Are You That Somebody?" I didn't even notice the song's use, which should probably merit a disqualification, but I'm not going to do that. "Somebody" reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, but was also an across-the-board also-ran. It lost the NAACP Image Award for Ourstanding Music Video to "Just the Two of Us," the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance to "Doo Wop (That Thing)," the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Song to "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," the MTV Movie Award for Best Song from a Movie to "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," and the MTV Video Music Awards for Best R&B Video and Best Video from a Film to "Doo Wop (That Thing)" and "Beautiful Stranger," respectively.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Thrusting the story into the present day regrettably robs the material of its storybook magic," according to Leonard Klady, Variety.

-- Critic's Corner, Eddie: "While Murphy is stuck playing second fiddle to the film's menagerie of nutty animals, he makes an engaging straight man," Rabin wrote. "(He plays) the straight man with hilarious aplomb," Janet Maslin declared in The New York Times. Ebert: "Murphy, I think, finds the right strategy ... He's mostly quiet, calm, not trying too hard for laughs." Turan: "It's frankly depressing to see Murphy, who had moments of pure hilarity in The Nutty Professor, recede into a role so bland that some of his co-stars -- animal and human -- get more laughs than he does." Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "By all appearances (Dolittle) does seem shamefully, boringly sane, which is the last thing an audience wants Eddie Murphy to be."

-- Hey, It's ...!: Beth Grant, Paul Giamatti and the voices of Brian Doyle-Murray, Paul Reubens, Gilbert Gottfried and Jonathan Lipnicki.

-- Hey, It's 1998!: I'm still laughing over the fact that not long after this movie opened, a production of the stage musical based on the 1967 movie musical opened in London. You just know that at least one audience member went to the wrong theater. Also, Schwarzbaum's review alluded to Seiuli: "The best route to letting the extravagantly gifted but exasperatingly inconsistent Eddie Murphy be Eddie Murphy has been under reconstruction lately (professionally speaking; his personal drama is a whole other zoo)."

-- Hey, It's the Late '90s!: Lucky does an Austin Powers impression ("Yeah, baby!") when watching Dolittle and Lisa prepare to get intimate.

-- Today in Gay Panic: I give Dolittle blackmailing the mental hospital director (Giamatti), his frienemy from medical school, a 4 out of 10. "You sign my release form, and I won't tell our fellow doctor friends about that little pink tutu you keep in your closet. With the thong back." Dolittle got the details from Blaine's cat.

-- "What's his name?" "His name is Lucky." "Does he do any tricks?" "He does a trick with a thermometer that's kinda funny."

-- Next: Out of Sight. On deck: Hands on a Hardbody.