Dolittle

“He’s just not a people person.”

Filmology Rating: 1.25 out of 4

Looking at the past few years, this is the period of time when everyone is still recovering from the holidays so that they don’t need the escapism that a film can offer,, you discovered some gems released in January like Split, The Kid Who Would Be King, and Kung Fu Panda 3 just to name a few; so you have to have a glimmer of hope that Dolittle was going to be yet another hidden gem.  Sadly, Dolittle has as much of a wondrous shine to it as rusted nail that is waiting to attack an unexpected worker, keep in mind that pain from the nail might be more enjoyable than watching Dolittle.  

Doctor Dolittle, played by Robert Downey Jr, has become a reckoose after the death of his wife.  Dolittle cares very little for humanity outside of his office but when he is told that the entire estate will be taken from him if he doesn’t assist the dying queen of England, he quickly rushes out on another adventure.  

It should be noted that Dolittle had some major production problems and had some extensive reshoots that changed the original vision of the film, which was meant to be The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, into this new fart joke laced film Dolittle.  While Stephen Gaghan’s name is still on the final project, it would seem that his initial version of the film has been cannibalized by studio heads who can’t seem to get off YouTube videos released ten years ago.  Many of the problems with Dolittle probably go back to those reshoots, but since we cannot claim to know the original version we will simply have to judge the film at hand.  

One would hope that Robert Downey Jr would have a grand breakout role again after doing so many Marvel films.  One would hope that he could channel the fantastic actor that he truly is, however nothing Downey is doing in this film seems to work.  From the moment that you first see him appear on screen you cannot help but laugh at how ridiculous and grandiose his performance is. If you were to be drinking a soda during the film I can almost guarantee that you will be spitting it out due to the pure insanity of the performance on display.  It feels like everyone on the set was afraid to tell Downey that his performance wasn’t working and his ever changing accents were distracting to the point where you just become numb every time that a line of dialogue is delivered. Downey is one of the best actors working right now and it seems that he has fallen deep down the rabbit hole of giving performances that would make Johnny Depp feel sorry for him.  

The concept of casting celebrities to voice the talking animals isn’t something that should surprise anyone, and in fact it isn’t a bad concept.  The issue however is that most of the characters in the film don’t have any development and are completely one note that you could have easily thought that pages from the script were simply missing when filming was occurring but instead of pausing filming for a few moments to find them,  the director decided that they weren’t actually important and the show should go on. Someone decided that it was a good idea to cast such celebrated actors as Emma Thompson, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, Marion Cotillard, among many others but then decided to just leave it at that. These are true thespians who should be able to turn any line into gold but when they are given absolutely nothing to work with, you just feel that everything going on in the film is a wasted opportunity.  

I have said this before and I will say it a thousand more times until the point actually begins to stick in with someone; children are not stupid and they deserve good entertainment.  When making a fantastic adventure film like this I would hope to have daring adventure that has me on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen next, what doorway leads to the next awe inspiring moment, but nothing in Dolittle ever comes close to that. When looking back at some of the best children’s films of the past decade: Coco, How to Train Your Dragon, The Lego Movie, Paddington, just to name a few, you see films that dare to take risks and craft captativing stories that take families on journeys that are emotional impactful and offer those awe inspiring moments that will live with those children for years to come.  

In some fantastical universe the film the concept that was started with The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle could have been good but at this film currently stands in its Dolittle state, the film is a complete atrocity of a film.  I strongly urge all families who think this looks interesting to go see Frozen II for the fifth time instead of rewarding sloppy filmmaking.  You, your family, all of us deserve better!

Rating: Let It Burn

-Jonny G