Posted: 06/25/2001

Dr. Dolittle 2

(2001)

by Hank Yuloff

What? You’ve never seen animals talk before?

97. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

98. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

99. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

100. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

101. I will…

Oh, hello. I was just in the middle of a bit of self-flagellation for having reserved responsibility to review Dr. Dolittle 2 for FilmMonthly.com and was reminding myself to not reserve the next one by writing 150 times: I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3, if there is one.

But, on with the current responsibility.

Being a fan of Eddie Murphy, I was looking forward to this one. He’s so edgy. So off the cuff. So… oh, this one is rated PG? I should have checked that before setting my expectations. Talk about beginning with one hand behind your back. Ever since the original 1968 version with Rex Harrison, my imagination has been afire with the possibility that I might be able, some day, to talk to the animals. How cool could that be?! And when the new, 1998 version came around I thought it was great. So now, we had another remake and I had extremely high hopes. My recommendation? Your little kids will enjoy all the cute little (and big) animals talking and the older ones will enjoy how the doctor’s daughters shows their independence, but there isn’t much of a story to hold your attention for long. It’s a rental. Spend the .99 but not the $8 plus corn and coke. Murphy did a good job and was continually entertaining, but I didn’t laugh out loud enough and wouldn’t want to have my friends question my sense of humor if I gave it a strong recommendation.

I think I have to place the blame on the sophomore effort of Director Steve Carr combined with writer Larry Levin’s decision to rely on a lot of toilet humor. Come to think about it, that seems to be a trend this summer. There was a bunch of it in Shrek, Murphy’s other movie this summer, as well. I bet someone went back and watched Blazing Saddles for the 100th time and thought they’d steal from the “Holy Grail.” You remember THAT SCENE. You know, the Beans around the Campfire scene.

A couple of things have changed from the original. Dr. D has become an international celebrity and things have gone nuts at his office and house with animal clients making a mecca-like trek to seek his medical assistance. In the middle of everything we are given a Save the Earth plot complication which calls for Murphy to be called to the forest to meet with the God Beaver (cute, very cute), who explains that they need his help to save their home from the nasty, bad developer played by Jeffrey Jones and his smarmy lawyer, Kevin Pollak. I could have guessed that Jones would take the part of “the bad guy in the funny movie” since he has made a living repackaging this same character from Easy Money (1983) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) at least 10 times.

It seems that just having an animal talk isn’t enough anymore. The bar was set in 1995 with Babe and we’ve been wowed a couple of other times by animals-speaking-movies to take most of the newness out of the genre. It’s time to have a good story, too! I will give Dr. Dolittle 2 a thumbs up for delivering its environmentally friendly message to the target PG audience, but for anyone out of their teens, there just isn’t enough cute stuff to sustain interest.

102. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

103. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

104. I will not reserve Dr. Dolittle 3

105. I will …

Hank Yuloff is an entertainment industry entrepreneur living in Hollywood. He doesn’t know any talking animals personally, but won’t confirm whether or not they really exist.

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