dolittle movie review plugged in

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A physician who can talk to animals embarks on an adventure to find a legendary island with a young apprentice and a crew of strange pets. A physician who can talk to animals embarks on an adventure to find a legendary island with a young apprentice and a crew of strange pets. A physician who can talk to animals embarks on an adventure to find a legendary island with a young apprentice and a crew of strange pets.

• Stephen Gaghan
• Robert Downey Jr.
• Antonio Banderas
• Michael Sheen
• 853 User reviews
• 197 Critic reviews
• 26 Metascore
• 4 wins & 9 nominations

• Dr. John Dolittle

• King Rassouli

• Dr. Blair Müdfly

• Lord Thomas Badgley

• Queen Victoria

• Tommy Stubbins

• Lily Dolittle

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Robert Downey Jr. based his character on Dr. William Price, an eccentric Welshman. Dr. Price is now a revered historical figure in Wales - there's even a statue of him in his hometown of Llantrisant.
• Goofs The plaque on Dr. Dolittle's gates invites people to "Inquire Within". In British English, the sign should say "Enquire Within".

Poly : Sit down, John.

Dr. John Dolittle : Don't embarrass me in front of my crew.

• Crazy credits The closing credits are set in a gallery of paintings/portraits of Dolittle and his crew.
• Connections Featured in Rich Evans Reacts to 2020 Movie Trailers (2020)
• Soundtracks Original Written by Sia (as Sia Furler), Jesse Shatkin and Sean Douglas Performed by Sia Produced by Jesse Shatkin Sia appears courtesy of Monkey Puzzle Music

User reviews 853

• Jan 18, 2020
• How long is Dolittle? Powered by Alexa
• Will Eddie Murphy (Dr. John Dolittle) make an appearance?
• Why is Eddie Murphy not in this film? Does anyone know why he didn't make an appearance at all?
• January 17, 2020 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official Facebook
• Official Site
• The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle
• Menai Suspension Bridge, Anglesey, Wales, UK (on location)
• Universal Pictures
• Perfect World Pictures
• Roth/Kirschenbaum Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $175,000,000 (estimated)
• $77,047,065
• $21,844,045
• Jan 19, 2020
• $251,410,631

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes

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Dolittle will delight small children and drive adults mad

Robert downey jr. takes his hand out of the infinity gauntlet and puts it in a dragon’s butt.

By Joshua Rivera

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Sometimes you just want more for someone, even if they are rich, famous, and probably doing fine. Today, that person is Robert Downey Jr., star of Dolittle , in which he plays an eccentric doctor who can talk to garish, computer-generated animals. Dolittle is Downey’s first big feature film after retiring from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet he exhibits none of the trademark charisma audiences might hope for after ten years of Tony Stark (and a few years as a pretty fun Sherlock Holmes). 

Like a good fairy tale, the movie delivers Doctor Dolittle’s backstory via storybook illustrations: how John Dolittle and his wife devoted their lives to helping animals, could speak their languages, and how her death during a voyage at sea caused him to retreat from the world, becoming a hermit in his manor / nature preserve. He’s forced to abandon his agoraphobic lifestyle when two children intrude to tell him the Queen of England is sick, and if she dies, the successor to the throne has plans to take Dolittle’s estate from both him and the animals he safeguards. 

It’s perfectly inoffensive stuff, until Robert Downey Jr. opens his mouth and starts speaking with a bizarre Welsh accent, one that you’ll refuse to accept for about a third of the movie and yet somehow he just keeps doing it. It’s a performance that’s a bummer in more ways than one. Downey Jr. has excellent manic energy that makes him well-suited to playing weirdos and misanthropes, and plenty of folks are probably hoping to see him loosen up a little post-Marvel. Unfortunately, that’s very hard to do when you barely share the screen with another human being. 

a performance that’s a bummer in more ways than one

This is where it helps to remember that Dolittle is a very expensive, high-profile kids’ movie, and that these days it’s quite rare to get such an expensive failure in this realm. The movie is mostly a vehicle for talking animals, and like any movie with talking animals, the menagerie talks too much. Some of this is mitigated by the fact that their voices are recognizable — Kumail Nanjiani voices a stubborn ostrich, Jason Mantzoukas plays a very annoying dragonfly — but the movie is also aggressively unfunny. The biggest laughs come from surprise at completely bizarre swings: a barely euphemistic dick joke; goofs about divorce and abortion (the ostrich’s dad says he “should’ve been an omelet”); and a bizarre dragon colonic, where Dolittle reaches into the giant lizard’s (obscured) rectum to pull out bagpipes and a set of armor. 

The best stuff is from human actors who briefly appear in somewhat villainous roles. Antonio Banderas plays the king of a foreign land with a bone to pick with Dolittle, and Michael Sheen is the doctor’s longtime rival. Both actors are no strangers to being the best part of whatever they’re in, and they continue the streak here. 

Unfortunately, this movie was a disaster before the cameras even started rolling. It was initially written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, a filmmaker mostly known for serious adult dramas like Syriana . Dolittle — then called The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle , much like the classic novel it’s based on — was retooled by two different filmmakers with more family-friendly bona fides, a process that works for some big-budget films, but absolutely did not help this one. It’s a mess.

Dolittle is repeating history. The original 1967 Doctor Dolittle was a legendary flop that was also a notoriously troubled production, a bizarre role for its star Rex Harrison to choose and a questionable choice for all involved parties. Dolittle is much the same, a big disaster on a scale that’s rarely seen — although this time it’s not because movies are rarely this expensive. It’s because they’re often too expensive to really be a complete failure. These days, money doesn’t buy quality, but it often does buy competence. Just not all of the time.

I do not regret my time spent with Dolittle . No one, as my editor reminded me, made me see it. This was entirely my decision. I do, however, feel preemptive regret on behalf of others, namely the parents who will be made to see Dolittle for what’s likely to be a total of 87 times come December. The movie is dreck made just acceptable enough for children with still-developing frontal lobes, one that would bore most adults to tears if it didn’t stop to do things like give a dragon a colonic. I will think a lot about the Monday night I spent watching it for another two weeks, and then I will likely forget it ever happened. 

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Review: Hasty, hectic and harried, Robert Downey Jr.-starring ‘Dolittle’ is cursed

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In 1967, 20th Century Fox undertook an expensive and complicated production of “Doctor Dolittle,” based on a series of children’s books by Hugh Lofting, about a doctor in Victorian England who talks to animals. Starring Rex Harrison, “Doctor Dolittle” was a notoriously doomed production, troubled by quarantined animals, Harrison’s behavior and a budget that ballooned three times its size. “Doctor Dolittle” received terrible reviews and tanked at the box office, though Fox was able to snag a few Oscar trophies for special effects and song.

Refusing to learn from the past some five decades later, Universal is condemned to repeat it with its own “Dolittle,” starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role, boasting a cool $175-million budget (or maybe more?!), plus rumors of production woes and multiple reshoots. And after getting a gander at the at-best mediocre, at-worst deeply upsetting dreck that “Dolittle” director Stephen Gaghan managed to get on screen, it’s official. Except for the successful Eddie Murphy film series that borrowed the name and conceit, faithfully adapting “Dolittle” is simply a cursed endeavor.

Do little? They could not have done less. The only appropriate adjective for this “Dolittle” is “hasty.” Everything feels slapdash and half-rendered; the plot proceeds in a fashion that could be described only as perfunctory. Everyone on screen seems to be in a stumbling daze, especially Downey as the frazzle-dazzled doctor. You’ll spend most of the movie wondering about the mysterious provenance of his half-Irish, half-Scottish accent and the rest of the time wondering if they actually dubbed his voice along with the rest of the animals.

The story finds Dolittle a hermit, shut up in his estate, grieving the loss of his wife, who disappeared on one of her adventures. One day, an intrepid young man, Stubbins (Harry Collett), and an annoying young girl, Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado), crash his pity party. Stubbins wants to help save animals and Lady Rose wants Dolittle to save the young Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley, not that you’d know), who has taken to her bed with a mysterious illness. Dolittle rushes to her bedside only because his land, deeded as a nature preserve, will be signed off to the treasury upon the queen’s death. Nothing like a real estate quibble to get the blood pumping.

Dolittle determines the queen’s been poisoned and sets off on an oceanic journey to acquire the necessary antidote; it’s also a journey into his past and back to himself. He encounters the dread pirate ex-father-in-law King Rassouli ( Antonio Banderas ), outsmarts the sniveling Mudfly (Michael Sheen) and, distressingly, extracts a wind instrument from a reptile’s “impacted colon,” learning that when he helps others, he’s truly helping himself.

One of the worst tones a film can strike is “hectic” (unless that film is “Uncut Gems” ). Not only is “Dolittle” hasty, hectic and harried but, worse, it is utterly halfhearted. Written by Gaghan , Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Thomas Shepherd, the character development is negligible, the jokes unoriginal, lowest-common-denominator fare. Transitions have been lost along the way, so we’re thrown from location to location with no context or any reason to care about the half-baked adventure. The only thing “Dolittle” does well is out-bomb the infamous bomb “Doctor Dolittle,” and that is one for the history books.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Rated: PG for some action, rude humor and brief language Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Starts Jan. 17 in general release

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Rent Dolittle on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Dolittle may be enough to entertain very young viewers, but they deserve better than this rote adaptation's jumbled story and stale humor.

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Stephen Gaghan

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Dr. John Dolittle

Antonio Banderas

King Rassouli

Michael Sheen

Dr. Blair Müdfly

Jim Broadbent

Lord Thomas Badgley

Jessie Buckley

Queen Victoria

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Movie Review: Dolittle (2020)

Robert Downey Jr. trades in Tony Stark’s armor for Dr. John Dolittle’s amazing ability to talk to animals in the latest (mostly) family-friendly take on this beloved character. (PG)

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Dr. dolittle (1998), common sense media reviewers.

Gimmicky animal tale with Eddie Murphy is crude but funny.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The message ("be who you are and love who you are"

In some scenes, Dolittle is unkind to animals. He

The rat characters keep goading each other into a

Much of the film contains mildly raunchy material,

At one point Dolittle quickly utters "s--t," and t

Parents need to know that Dr. Dolittle is a crude but funny Eddie Murphy vehicle that takes the name and basic concept from Hugh Lofting's famous stories about a man who can "talk to the animals." There is an enormous amount of rude humor -- innuendo, potty humor, iffy language -- involving the animal…

Positive Messages

The message ("be who you are and love who you are") is lost amid the crude humor.

Positive Role Models

In some scenes, Dolittle is unkind to animals. He shouts at a dog and briefly ignores the animals' pleas for medical attention.

Violence & Scariness

The rat characters keep goading each other into a fist fight. A rat nearly dies on the operating table. A woman with an allergic reaction to shellfish visits Dolittle's office with horrifically puffed-up eyes (her bruised buttocks also featured).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Much of the film contains mildly raunchy material, including double entendres and sexual innuendo -- expect jokes about a thermometer going into a dog's rear end, and a pigeon preferring "orange breasts."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

At one point Dolittle quickly utters "s--t," and there are many almost-curses that are cut off. Several uses of "ass." Jokes involve excretion, flatulence, and urination; countless gags center around animals' "butts." The terms "crap" and "nooky" are also utilized.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Dr. Dolittle is a crude but funny Eddie Murphy vehicle that takes the name and basic concept from Hugh Lofting's famous stories about a man who can "talk to the animals." There is an enormous amount of rude humor -- innuendo, potty humor, iffy language -- involving the animal patients added to the mix. Because many of the jokes include toilet humor and crude references to the human body, parents may want to decide whether or not they feel comfortable with this type of content for younger kids, though those children will certainly be charmed by the animal characters. Older kids will enjoy the jokes, but parents may still wish to exercise discretion, due to the nature of the humor and some language ("ass," and one use of "s--t"). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (16)
• Kids say (14)

Based on 16 parent reviews

Full of sexual references and near sex scenarios

Has adult themes not appropriate for small children, what's the story.

DR. DOLITTLE ( Eddie Murphy ), an upwardly mobile San Francisco doctor, only wants the best for his wife and two daughters. One night driving home, Dolittle almost hits a dog and is subsequently gifted with a unique ability: he can "hear" the thoughts of any animal he encounters. Dolittle ignores the upcoming sale of his clinic to a conglomerate in order to care for the injured and sick animals who invade his house and office, having heard of his gift. After a stay in a mental institution, Dolittle avoids the animals completely, but his humanitarian instincts soon reemerge. On the night of the big press conference that will announce the sale of his clinic, Dolittle must perform an operation on a sick circus tiger. The operation is a success, and Dolittle's family accepts his peculiar "talent." The sale of the clinic falls through; henceforth, Dolittle will treat humans and animals.

Is It Any Good?

This gimmicky talking animal comedy contains many rude jokes, some of which are actually amusing, thanks to a talented voice cast. Although it's unexceptionally directed, with unimpressive songs on the soundtrack, the star-studded voice cast brightens up the proceedings. Norm MacDonald and Chris Rock entertain with their popularly-established personas, and other comic actors ( Albert Brooks , John Leguizamo , Jenna Elfman ) affect colorful tones for their animal alter egos.

The moment when two pigeons (voiced by Garry Shandling and Julie Kavner ) discuss the male pigeon's impotence is clearly meant to amuse adult viewers -- who will have long since tuned out or left the room, having been numbed by the chronic repetition of animal butt jokes. Dr. Dolittle 's message ("be who you are and love who you are") is lost amid the crude humor. Similarly, Dolittle's transition from money-hungry yuppie to altruistic animal lover is unconvincing, due to sloppy scripting and the fact that Murphy is still a better comedian than he is an actor.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the relationship between Dr. Dolittle and his animal patients. How does it compare to the way he treats his human patients?

Families can also talk about what they think it would be like to be able to talk to animals. What animal would you most want to communicate with? What questions would you ask?

What role does Dr. Dolittle's family play in this movie? How does his relationship with his wife and kids change throughout the story?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 26, 1998
• On DVD or streaming : September 2, 2003
• Cast : Eddie Murphy , Peter Boyle , Raven Symone
• Director : Betty Thomas
• Inclusion Information : Black actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Cats, Dogs, and Mice
• Run time : 85 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : crude humor and language
• Last updated : November 8, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

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Now streaming on:

It's hard to know what, exactly, went wrong here. The concept is fine, even the adaptation is fine: eccentric doctor who can talk to animals goes on a series of madcap adventures! Sure! Nothing wrong with that! Hugh Lofting's popular children's book series, published in regular intervals during the 1920s and '30s (with a couple of books of previously uncollected stories appearing posthumously), has been adapted many times before, for film, for television, animated, live action, etc. The "property" has been its own little franchise for a century now. But "Dolittle," with Robert Downey Jr. in the eponymous role, is a wild whirlwind of a mess, without any coherence, without even a guiding principle. Maybe the problem is that director Stephen Gaghan is known mostly for " Syriana ," as well as writing the screenplay for "Traffic," and so he would not be the most obvious choice to helm a light-hearted mischievous romp—like "Dolittle" is so clearly meant to be.

At the start, Dolittle is holed up in his mansion, unable to recover from the death of his wife, lost at sea during one of her expeditions to the remote corners of the world. (This is shown via animated prologue, with voiceover by Emma Thompson , who plays Polynesia the parrot.) Now a hermit, with long straggly beard, Dolittle spends his days hiding from the world, chattering away with his animal friends, a duck, a polar bear, a gorilla, an ostrich, etc. (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani , Rami Malek , Selena Gomez , Octavia Spencer , Craig Robinson ). His exile is interrupted by two visitors who show up on the same day (in a sloppily handled coincidence): Tommy Stubbins ( Harry Collett ) bears a wounded squirrel to Dolittle's door, and Lady Rose ( Carmel Laniado ) summons Dolittle to the Palace to help save the ailing Queen Victoria. If Dolittle doesn't help the Queen, then the land on which his manor sits will be taken away from him, and his menagerie dispersed right in the middle of hunting season. After examining the Queen ( Jessie Buckley ), Dolittle suspects she is being poisoned by her sinister ministers ( Jim Broadbent , Michael Sheen ). The only antidote is in the blossoms off the Eden Tree, found on only one island, so he and his merry band of mammals sail off into the ocean to retrieve it, hopefully in time to save the Queen. The ship stops off at an island known to be inhabited by bandits, led by Antonio Banderas , who also has a vendetta against Dolittle. The plot thickens. And thickens again.

Certain scenes are so confusingly shot, and put together so haphazardly, that watching it is, at times, like floating in a sensory-deprivation chamber, where up is down, or down is over there, and voices come at you in disorienting surround-sound. "Dolittle" feels like someone tossed a bunch of random scenes into the air, let them fall onto the ground, and then tried to connect up the fragments through weirdly looped dialogue that seems to be emanating from a recording studio halfway across town. It's not clear which animal is speaking when, and it's also not clear where any given voice is coming from. Every voice, including Downey Jr.'s, has this strange disembodied quality, like there's a small space around it, each voice in a little separate pod. Since the majority of the film is group scenes, with a lot of chattering dialogue coming from many different sources, this results in a feeling of almost total dissociation. The animals are mostly computer-generated, too, which adds to the feeling of unreality.

The 1967 musical version, starring Rex Harrison , was a legendary flop, so much so it's now seen as one of the death knells of the long overdue collapse of Hollywood's bloated studio system. Watching it now is a surreal experience. All you can see is all that money just pouring down the drain. In 1998 and 2001, respectively, Eddie Murphy starred in two versions, and they were goofy and sometimes gross and kind of sweet, too. Just what the doctor ordered. "Dolittle" doesn't manage to hit any of those easily-hittable marks, although it tries. Michael Sheen is legitimately funny in his impotent blustering villainy, and the squirrel with the soul of a paranoid SEAL commando is also funny. A "bit" with an observant squid had potential.

"Dolittle"'s post-production was troubled and turbulent, with other directors brought in to do last-minute surgery (if you believe the reports), and three weeks' worth of re-shoots. That speaks to pretty severe problems. The release date was pushed back for months (usually an ominous sign). None of this would matter, though, if the confusion didn't show so clearly on the screen.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Dolittle (2020)

Rated PG for some action, rude humor and brief language.

101 minutes

Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. John Dolittle

Antonio Banderas as King Rassouli

Jessie Buckley as Queen Victoria

Michael Sheen as Dr. Blair Müdfly

Jim Broadbent as Lord Thomas Badgley

Harry Collett as Tommy Stubbins

Emma Thompson as Polynesia (voice)

Rami Malek as Chee-Chee (voice)

John Cena as Yoshi (voice)

Kumail Nanjiani as Plimpton (voice)

Octavia Spencer as Dab-Dab (voice)

Tom Holland as Jip (voice)

Craig Robinson as Fleming (voice)

Ralph Fiennes as Barry (voice)

Selena Gomez as Betsy (voice)

Marion Cotillard as Tutu (voice)

Carmen Ejogo as Regine (voice)

• Stephen Gaghan

Writer (character created by)

• Hugh Lofting

Writer (screen story by)

• Thomas Shepherd
• Craig Alpert
• Danny Elfman

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Dolittle review – Robert Downey Jr does nothing in pointless remake

Deploying a terrible Welsh accent and surrounded by CGI-mouthed animals, the eccentric Victorian gent comes to the aid of the sickly queen

A n exotic new film accent has arrived, to be treasured alongside Dick Van Dyke’s Beverly Hills cockney in Mary Poppins, Michael Keaton’s lockjaw Mummersetshire in Much Ado About Nothing and Russell Crowe’s Geordie-Cornish-Glasgow in Robin Hood. Robert Downey Jr has had a crack at being Welsh (or has suffered a minor stroke) in Dolittle, a new version of Hugh Lofting’s novels about the eccentric Victorian gent who talks to the animals.

This is the family movie we didn’t know we needed. Because we really didn’t. The only justification of Dr Dolittle is to facilitate rude jokes in a Viz comic, but he has nonetheless made it to the screen with Eddie Murphy in 1998 and in the 1967 musical with stately Rex Harrison – a movie featured in Mark Harris’s brilliant book Scenes from a Revolution for being the hilariously out-of-touch best picture Oscar nominee alongside The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Chinatown and Bonnie and Clyde.

As played by Downey, Dr Dolittle has retreated into a hermit existence since the death of his wife, surrounded by GCI-mouthed animals, voiced by stars taking the easy paycheck; but he is summoned to the bedside of Queen Victoria ( Jessie Buckley ), who is gravely ill and surrounded by malign courtiers such as Lord Badgely ( Jim Broadbent ). Dolittle decrees that the cure comes from the fruit of the Eden tree on a remote island and so must voyage there with his animal pals in a Pirates-of the-Caribbean-y way and then voyage back, hoping against desperate hope that he is not too late.

Ranged against him is his dastardly brigand father-in-law, Rassouli ( Antonio Banderas ). There is also a spiteful and envious rival physician named Dr Blair Mudfly – Michael Sheen , playing someone called Blair for the second time in his career. What Sheen, born in Gwent, makes of Downey’s accent can only be imagined. It really is horribly inert, and every time Downey opens his mouth to say something unintelligible, the film dies a bit more. After just a few minutes, it is clear. He has done quite enough.

Dolittle is released in the UK on 7 February.

• Action and adventure films
• Family films
• Comedy films
• Drama films
• Robert Downey Jr
• Michael Sheen

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'Dolittle' Review: A Messy, Ill-Conceived Voyage You're Better Off Not Taking

Everyone was a little baffled when Robert Downey Jr. chose to follow his career-defining role as Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with... Dolittle . It turns out, they were right to be. The Stephen Gaghan -directed family adventure film reboots the Doctor Dolittle films, which last saw Eddie Murphy taking on the role of the animal-talking doctor in the 1998 modern-day comedy and its sequels. But Gaghan's new film, like the 1967 musical starring Rex Harrison, takes more direct inspiration from the Hugh Lofting children's novels set in the Victorian era. And like the infamously embattled Harrison film, it is a haphazard mess.

The premise of the Doctor Dolittle character is at its core fanciful and a little childish. After all, what kid doesn't want to talk to animals? Dolittle is a film that needs the light, whimsical touch of a director like Paul King, who turned the beloved marmalade-eating bear of Paddington into the Buster Keaton-esque hero of a wondrous fable. Instead, Dolittle is an incomprehensible swashbuckler wannabe whose swings between bald-faced sincerity and clumsy attempts at humor make it a chore to watch. This is a movie that features a scene in which Dolittle sticks a leek up a dragon's ass to dislodge skeletons, pieces of armor, and what looks to be the entire Spanish Inquisition. At the end, the dragon rewards him with a tender thank you and a long, drawn-out fart in his face.

At first, the film shows promising glimpses of the brightly colored whimsy that it could be. Downey Jr.'s Doctor Dolittle is an eccentric recluse who has shut himself away from the world in his animal sanctuary after the death of his wife Lily (Italian actress Kasia Smutniak , appearing exclusively in dreamy, sun-dappled flashbacks). Sporting wild hair and a Rip Van Winkle-length beard that he has braided with dozens of little bows, Dolittle spends his days playing chess with a cowardly gorilla ( Rami Malek ) and making breakfast with a host of increasingly ridiculous Rube Goldberg machines. It's a charming introduction of the title character as seen through the eyes of the sensitive local boy Tommy Stubbins ( Harry Collett , giving major discount Tom Holland vibes) who stumbles upon Dolittle's manor, and a young royal Lady Rose ( Carmel Laniado ), who arrives at the behest of the sick Queen Victoria ( Jessie Buckley ).

But a series of increasingly bizarre acting choices and cringe-worthy anachronisms turn Dolittle into an unwatchable circus. Let's talk first about Downey Jr.'s garbled accent, which sounds like a Welsh man was put through a meat grinder. His mumbled delivery and irregular speech pattern seem to be trying to recall that of Johnny Depp's massively popular Captain Jack Sparrow — a similarity that becomes more apparent when Dolittle suddenly transforms from a domestic comedy into a grand seafaring adventure. Suspecting that the Queen is poisoned, Dolittle embarks on a quest to find a mythic fruit that will cure all ails. But Dolittle fails at its Pirates of the Caribbean -level ambitions, which it can't reconcile with the countless modern jokes that the film can't help sneaking in. The animals crack jokes about healthcare, a revived squirrel's life flashes before its eyes in the form of a film reel that includes a nuclear blast, two bugs re-enact the opening scene from The Godfather , and the villain of the piece, a mustache-twirling Michael Sheen , arrives on an advanced steel ironclad warship. These anachronistic elements would work in a more self-aware satirical film, but Dolittle doesn't have the capacity for that.

What a waste of a cast too — from esteemed veterans like Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, and Marion Cotillard to rising stars like Tom Holland and Wild Rose 's Jessie Buckley (who admittedly gets the best deal out of this film by being knocked out cold for the majority of it as poisoned Queen Victoria). Barely any of them, apart from Thompson, Malek, Kumail Nanjiani (as a snarky ostrich), and  John Cena (as a cold-averse polar bear), get more than a few lines (Cotillard gets a measly two-minute appearance where she churns out the most extremely accented lines). When they do, it's something like Fiennes' hostile tiger Barry crying out, "My Barry berries!" after Malek's gorilla kicks him in the groin. Even the live-action cast are given precious little to do unless they chew up as much scenery as possible — Antonio Banderas gets to don gaudy make-up to play a vaguely South American ruler in a sequence of the film that looks like it's shot on a leftover set from Aladdin . One of the most perplexing twists from the film is that Banderas, who is 5 years older than Downey Jr., is playing his father-in-law. It's the equivalent of Russell Crowe calling Tom Cruise a young man in The Mummy .

Dolittle is by no means making an attempt at realism — the CGI animation of the animals looks appropriately cartoonish and the geography vague. But that doesn't excuse how lazy the film's editing can be, and how shoddy the digital slip-ups are considering the hefty $175 million budget. But everything about Dolittle seems hastily put together — from the whiplash-inducing tonal shifts, to the potty humor, to the poor use of a star-studded cast. Dolittle is the kind of film made to the appeal to what Hollywood deems the lowest common denominator of audiences, to hell with smart writing and messages that treat children like human beings. We have to get that dragon fart joke in there. /Film Rating: 4 out of 10

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Dolittle Parent Guide

Limp acting, incoherent plot lines, and a very unpleasant scene involving a dragon make this a mildly hallucinogenic experience..

When his wife dies, Dr. John Dolittle retreats behind the walls of his manor to the company of his menagerie of exotic animals- until Queen Victoria falls ill, and the only cure lies on a mysterious island...

Release date January 17, 2020

Run Time: 106 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kirsten hawkes.

I have never experimented with hallucinogenic drugs, but after sitting through Dolittle, I started wondering if the sweet potato soup I ate for dinner had mind-bending properties. Talking animals, bright swirls of colorful action, incoherent storylines… Dolittle isn’t much of a movie, but the good doctor’s voyage definitely feels like a trip for tired adults trying to stay awake in a dark theater.

The story opens with Dr. Dolittle (Robert Downey Jr.) nursing his grief after the death of his beloved wife and living as a recluse on his estate. But then Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) falls ill and sends a tween-aged friend (Carmel Laniado) to extend an invitation the physician can’t refuse. Dolittle’s medical skill and his dog’s refined sense of smell lead to a diagnosis, but, alas, the only possible cure is the fruit of the Eden Tree, a semi-mythical plant which has never been proven to exist. The doctor, apprentice Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), and most of the talking menagerie head off on their ocean voyage, unaware that there are members of the court who don’t want the queen to recover and will stop at nothing to ensure Dolittle’s failure.

Sadly, Dolittle also has some unexpected content problems. Parents will be pleased that there is no swearing, sexual activity, or alcohol consumption. But they won’t be happy to see Dolittle sedated against his will so his animals can “groom” him. Forced use of a drug is a big red flag in any movie; particularly one for kids. But the most grotesque moment in the film is when the doctor has a most unusual patient – a very cranky dragon (Frances de la Tour). With his usual acumen, Dolittle diagnoses her with an “obstruction” in her nether regions. He grabs a trusty leek (yup, the onion-like vegetable) and sticks it up her…rectum?...oviduct?...and starts extracting armor, bones, bagpipes, and other items I can’t remember. Frankly, I was too annoyed at being forced to consider what kind of orifices a dragon would have to do a complete inventory. The movie is also chock-full of moderately violent action scenes, but everything else fades into insignificance after seeing the doctor up to his elbow in a dragon’s backside.

If you’re looking for a fun family movie night, Dolittle is unlikely to fit the bill, unless your kids really love talking animals, fart jokes, and dragon posteriors, and don’t care if the plot hangs together. The film does contain some solid messages about teamwork and loyalty, but there are better children’s movies where the same positive themes are, dare I say, “unobstructed”.

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Dolittle Rating & Content Info

Why is Dolittle rated PG? Dolittle is rated PG by the MPAA

Violence: Multiple scenes of violence – humans harming animals, animals harming humans, and humans harming humans. A family is hunting with firearms; a boy deliberately aims away from the geese and accidentally hits a squirrel. The boy is given a knife and told to put the squirrel out of its misery. Animals roar in the faces of people or other animals at various times throughout the movie. Mice are used in place of chess pieces; one hits another with a scepter. A man is kicked by an ostrich. A gorilla punches a man during a boxing match. A ship is hit by lightning. A tiger attacks a man and animals and attempts to kill them. Cannons are fired at a ship; it sinks and the animals on board barely escape. A man holds a knife to an enemy’s throat. A dragon sprays fire at people. One man throws another into the dragon’s path. A man pulls a knife on another man. A squid grabs a man by the throat. Sexual Content:   There is no sexual content but there is a very unpleasant scene involving Dr. Dolittle removing large items from inside a dragon’s rear end. Profanity:   There is no swearing but there is crude humor based on gas. There are rude jokes made about “doo-doo” and a scorpion’s “massive stinger”. Whales make a joke about “flipping him off”. Alcohol / Drug Use: A man is forcibly sedated against his will. There is reference to a woman being poisoned.

Page last updated April 7, 2020

Dolittle Parents' Guide

If you could talk to animals, which ones would you be most interested in talking to? Why? What would you ask them about?

Dr. Dolittle becomes a hermit after his wife dies. Have you ever suffered a loss that has been difficult to deal with? What are some healthy ways you can cope with grief?

Sesame Street: Grief

Aap.org: After a Loved One Dies – How Children Grieve

Loved this movie? Try these books…

This movie is based on the Doctor Dolittle series by Hugh Lofting. It begins with The Story of Doctor Dolittle and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. Readers who enjoy Lofting’s zany sensibility might also get a kick out of his book of silly verse, Porridge Poetry.

In The Last Wild, young Kester Jaynes discovers he can talk to animals and they can talk back, leading to adventures with a wise stag, a bossy militaristic cockroach, a zealous wolf cub, and a flock of pigeons.

A mouse is raised with his human family in Stuart Little, by E.B. White. Adventures ensue when Stuart’s best friend, a bird, disappears from her nest. Also by the same author is Charlotte’s Web, the beloved story of a young girl, her pet pig, and the pig’s best friend – a spider named Charlotte.

A young girl lives a carefree life on a South Sea island surrounded by animals in Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking.

Young readers who enjoy stories about animal adventures will dive right into Erin Hunter’s Warriors series which begins with Into the Wild.

Did you ever wish you could talk to animals? Author Jon Katz believes we can and in his book Talking to Animals: How You Can Understand Animals and They Can Understand You he shares his experiences communicating with the animals on his farm.

The most recent home video release of Dolittle movie is April 7, 2020. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

Rex Harrison stars in the classic 1967 movie adaptation of Doctor Dolittle .

Instead of people talking to animals, plenty of movies have been made about animals who can talk. Babe features a charming pig who wants to learn how to herd sheep like a dog.Talking guinea pigs are effective secret agents who save the world in G-Force. And a zebra wants to be a racehorse in Racing Stripes .

Related news about Dolittle

Upcoming Movies: Winter 2020

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‘Unsung Hero’ Review: Music Dedicated to the One They Love

In fact, there’s a lot of singing in the clan whose members inspired this movie and who have racked up five Grammy Awards for their Christian recordings.

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By Nicolas Rapold

In the faith-based drama “Unsung Hero,” an Australian concert promoter trying to earn a living makes a last-ditch move to Nashville with his wife and six children. Based on an actual family of musicians, it mostly plays as a treacly tribute to the parents of Joel and Luke Smallbone — a.k.a. the Christian pop duo For King & Country — and their sister, the singer Rebecca St. James.

Viewer beware: Between the uplift and the cringe, this movie may cause whiplash. Joel Smallbone plays his own father, David, who faces financial and reputational ruin after booking a big concert and failing to pack the house. He resettles the family in the United States, but no job materializes. His pep-talking spouse, Helen (Daisy Betts), and their beatific children pull up bootstraps and practically whistle while they work, but it’s not enough.

Community, humility and the power of prayer are the lessons on offer in their story, set in the 1990s, bathed in warm light and interspersed with home video segments. Fellow churchgoers pitch in, and David gets over himself; he secures auditions for his teenage daughter, Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger), who keeps breaking into dulcet song about how everything is beautiful. The outcome of “Unsung Hero,” as written and directed by Richard L. Ramsey and Joel Smallbone, is never in doubt, though the climax has a kicker line that genuinely surprises with its laughable shamelessness.

The family business has become a success: Rebecca, Joel and Luke have won five Grammys among them. But despite the fuzzy good intentions, it’s tough to make much of this making-of story.

Unsung Hero Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters.

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In Theaters

• April 12, 2019
• Regina Hall as Jordan Sanders; Marsai Martin as Little Jordan Sanders; Issa Rae as April Williams; Justin Hartley as Mr. Marshall; Tracee Ellis Ross as HomeGirl; Tone Bell as Preston; Mikey Day as Connor; JD McCrary as Isaac; Tucker Meek as Devon; Thalia Tran as Raina; Marley Taylor as Stevie; Eva Carlton as Caren Greene/Jasmine; Luke James as Trevor; Rachel Dratch as Agent Bea

Home Release Date

• July 9, 2019
• Tina Gordon

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• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

Middle school is rarely something people look back on fondly. Kids can be awkward and mean, and everyone is trying to find where they fit. It can be scarring.

Which is why Jordan Sanders is doing her best to forget about her days at Windsor Middle School in the early 1990s. No more crazy hair. No more awkward phases. No more mean girls. No thank you.

A highly successful business woman now, Jordan prefers to leave her bully-laden past, well, in the past. She’d rather focus on keeping up with her promising tech company. And ruining everyone’s lives while she’s at it.

That’s right: No one likes Jordan. Especially her well-meaning personal assistant, April. And that’s because Jordan vowed, after middle school, to be the bully, instead of being bullied.

And she’s kept that promise.

But Jordan’s success covers deep insecurities. So much so that one day she unleashes a verbally abusive tirade on, you guessed it, a middle school girl who becomes the latest target of the tech mogul’s uncontrolled anger.

The girl—who’s trying to show Jordan a magic trick—sarcastically uses her wand to cast a curse-like spell on Jordan. A spell so powerful that Jordan wakes up the next day years younger. Like, ready-for-middle-school younger.

Now, Jordan must relive the worst years of her life, relearning painful lessons about dealing with bullies . And if she ever hopes to become an adult again, Jordan’s going to have to learn some humility … as well as learning what it means to truly be a friend to others.

Positive Elements

While Jordan initially believes that “it’s better to be broken-hearted than broke,” being “little” again teaches her a number of important lessons.

First and foremost, perhaps, she’s humbled because she can no longer just order people around. She realizes that she has to depend on others—especially April, but also three young friends she makes at school.

That process helps her to see how much she never really dealt with old wounds from her childhood. Instead, she just built a suit of emotional armor, vowing never to let anyone in. That’s made her very successful, but very lonely as well.

So throughout the film, Jordan learns how to let her guard down, to trust others, to depend upon them, and to realize that she doesn’t have to control everything and everybody around her. She slowly lowers her exterior walls as she develops friendships with unlikely people. She eventually learns to include others, to support and encourage them. She also apologizes for years of nasty, negative behavior.

Jordan, as mentioned, wrestles with issues of control and outward appearance. And her rather casual boyfriend, Trevor, sees this. He talks about wanting to support and encourage her, even though she pushes him away. He’s willing to get more serious, especially when he mistakes Little Jordan for being her secret daughter, something that brings out a surprisingly tender father impulse in him.

Positive themes such as innocence, optimism, healthy introspection, healing and forgiveness are all present at various points in the story. We also learn that when our friends succeed and “win,” we also win. Finally, we’re challenged not to let others’ criticism or negativity define us, and to love and embrace the best parts of who we truly are instead.

Spiritual Elements

As mentioned, Jordan is magically transformed into a 13-year-old girl after a young girl casts a spell on her—something that the girl herself apparently didn’t realize or understand was happening. Part of the plot involves finding the girl again to see if she can cast another spell to reverse this curse.

We hear a joke about someone who has “black girl magic.” An adult calls a young girl a “Chocolate Hogwart” (referencing Harry Potter ). A woman meditates in her room, palms upward, her thumb and forefinger together.

A woman jokingly quips that those who don’t eat carbs will “see Satan.” A mean group of girls are called “demons.” Little Jordan asks God to “send her a sign” as she wonders what decision to make. A young girl sarcastically quotes Proverbs 18:22: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing.”

Sexual Content

Adult Jordan has a very casual sexual relationship with Trevor, whom she crudely refers to as her “d-boy.” She clearly views their relationship almost exclusively in sexual terms (even though Trevor would like to take it more seriously on an emotional level).

Trevor dances provocatively, grinds against inanimate objects and strips (down to his boxers). He’s horrified at one point when he realizes that Little Jordan (whose real identity he doesn’t know) is watching him. Elsewhere, he and Adult Jordan kiss, flirt, dance closely and are seen in bed together (Jordan in an oversized sweater and Trevor in his boxers). Another scene pictures their mingled clothes strewn on the floor. Trevor is shown shirtless in several scenes.

Little Jordan may be biologically small, but she still has Adult Jordan’s mind and experiences inside. Accordingly, she flirts with her adult, male teacher, insinuating her sexual interest and desire. (Her flirtation horrifies her teacher and, later, Trevor as well, who still has no idea who she is.) A number of jokes turn on the tension of Little Jordan behaving like an adult around the men she’s with—something that’s played for humor but which also creepily sexualizes Little Jordan .

April is very open to a sexual relationship with a few men, one being a love interest at work and the other being an attractive male teacher. She makes various comments about sex and arousal, as well as telling coworkers that Adult Jordan hasn’t been at work because she’s caught at nasty sexually transmitted infection.

We hear a lot of sexual jokes and plenty of suggestive innuendo, throughout the film. Verbal gags about sex, intimacy, divorce, desperation, same-sex attraction, genitalia, breast size, breast implants and losing one’s virginity are all heard before the credits roll.

Adult Jordan mocks a young child’s appearance, asking the little girl how far along the child is in the sex-change process. The scene is played for laughs to illustrate Jordan’s nasty character, but the mother is offended and horrified at Jordan’s words.

A woman is also offended when a random woman rubs her husband’s bald head. A woman rubs a man’s bare stomach. A group of middle school girls perform a provocative dance routine. Women wear cleavage and midriff-baring outfits.

Violent Content

Jordan was bullied as a young girl (and is again in her present, “little” state). A mean and popular middle school girl hits Jordan with a large ball, knocking her off a high platform during a talent show. Later, Jordan’s seen in a wheelchair with a broken arm and injured neck. Later, Little Jordan falls down some riser steps as well.

Jordan has become a bully as an adult, verbally and sometimes physically, too. She knocks one of her employees in the head, rams another into a wall and throws things at others out of anger.

An adult woman gets into a fight with Little Jordan. Later, another woman threatens to spank Little Jordan for her bad attitude.

A witch gets crushed in a movie. A young girl pierces a friend’s ear, and we see the bloody result. A young boy is accidentally hit in the crotch (a scene played for laughs). Jordan (both as an adult and as a child) drives her sports car aggressively and recklessly.

Crude or Profane Language

God’s name is misused more than 15 times, and Jesus’ name is misused twice. (One of those exclamations is, “What in the black Jesus!”). A woman mouths the f-word once and begins to say it again, but is cut off. Similarly, the word “b–ch” is mouthed once. Other profanity we hear includes multiple uses of “h—,” “d—,” “d–mit” and “a–.”

A woman often tells her employees to “shut up” and calls them “dumb.” Elsewhere, she calls one of her female associates a derogatory name. A kid screams “You suck!” at a fellow classmate.

Drug and Alcohol Content

When Jordan turns into a child, it takes her a while to understand that she can’t drink alcohol. A few times she grabs wine (or asks for hard liqour) in an attempt to drink, but never actually consumes any beverages. However, she does make a comment about taking tequilia shots and drinking to “take the edge off.”

Jordan’s nightstand by her bed holds multiple bottles of presecription medication, a wine glass and a bottle of wine. She has a mini-bar inside her home, too. April jokes about snorting sprinkles off of a donut, and another woman makes a comment about giving a child alcohol. A man smokes marijuana from his car, and a little girl apparently gets a whiff of it.

One of Jordan’s employees talks about taking anti-anxiety medication (Xanax). A woman jokes that a young girl’s mother is a “crackhead.” Jordan’s employees joke that their staff meeting is similar to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Other Negative Elements

Middle school kids, as well as adults, can be very rude in both speech and action. Both groups make harsh comments, disregard others’ feelings and purposefully embarrass those whom they deem to be “less” than themselves. A group of kids makes fun of a young boy for his speech impediment, as well as other sweet young students who are ostracized for being socially awkward.

Little Jordan encourages her middle school friends to skip school. We hear some light-hearted banter about racial and physical stereotypes. Jordan’s life is one of opulence and extravagance, and she’s grown used to her staff and administrative assistant meeting her every whim or need.

Little Jordan is referred to as a “crazy little Chuckie doll.” Adult Jordan is described by her employees as being a “vampire” and “plain evil.” April listens to a self-help audio book titled So You Want to Slap Your Boss? in the hope of overcoming her frustration with Jordan at work.

The wonder, innocence and creativity of childhood sometimes get lost by the time we make it to adulthood. And the wounds we’ve received as children may very well influence our success, failure and relationships as adults.

Add to that our culture’s pressure to have life all figured out, and too often the result is a life that may seem pretty and successful, but one that is quietly missing the stuff that really matters.

That’s what Little is about. It reminds us that the dreams we had as children—before our hearts were crushed by adulthood—still matter. It tells us that it’s never too late to reconnect with our inner child and remember what really matters most. Life’s not about success at any cost; it’s about building relationships with the people who matter most to us.

There are a lot of sweet moments in this film. But those sentiments don’t outweigh this movie’s PG-13 content issues. Sexual innuendo and language are the two big contenders here. Adult Jordan’s sexual advances on men in Little Jordan’s body feel particularly creepy.

For a movie that might naturally seem to appeal to young viewers, I’ll end by saying that Little isn’t appropriate for the littles in your family.

It’s easier to look back and see the mistakes you made, as Jordan does. However, we as parents are trying to help our kids move forward into adulthood. For some ideas on conversations about the type of adult God is calling your teen to become, take a look at:

Equipping Your Teen With Character

What the Bible Says About Beauty And Appearance

Godly Encouragement for Tween Daughters

Five Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter

Kristin Smith

Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).

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