Dolittle has talking animals and potty humor — two things kids are sure to love. But is it a movie that the adults can enjoy too?
When my daughters first saw the trailer for Dolittle they started begging me to watch it. We didn’t make it out to theaters, but were able to sit down and watch it at home recently. My girls? They loved it. They told me they both give it a five stars out of five stars. In just one week they watched Dolittle four times. But how did I feel about it? MEH.
This movie starts out with Dr. Dolittle living alone with animals because he lost his wife. Since then he has vowed to never care for another human being again. However, he is forced to go on an adventure to save the Queen or risk losing his sanctuary. He takes a group of talking animals with him, and a new acquaintance, Tommy Stubbins, who seems to have the same gift of understanding animals that he does.
The rest is pretty predictable. The group gets into some trouble along the way. Another Dr. who is very jealous of Dolittle is trying to stop them from getting to the cure before him. It also becomes painfully obvious that someone has poisoned the Queen (and you figure out who almost immediately).
But will Dolittle make it back in time? Of course he will. Just in the nick of time to save the Queen actually. Dolittle then discovers the plot to kill the Queen from a stickbug he left behind to keep an eye on things and exposes the plan to the Queen. He reopens his sanctuary and decides to teach young Stubbins everything he knows.
RDJ’s Accent Is Distracting
It’s not that the movie is horrible. Because it isn’t. But I just could not get past Robert Downey Jr.’s accent. If you watched my trailer reaction, I even brought it up then. While watching the movie I had to put on captions because I had no idea what he was saying half of the time.
I am not sure what this brilliant actor was thinking to sign on to this movie — and then to go with an accent that was not even a real accent. And one that was incredibly hard to decipher. It took away from the whole movie for me, honestly. I truly think I would have enjoyed it more had he spoken normally.
Potty Humor & Talking Animals
Why did my kids like this movie so much? Talking animals and potty humor. While I personally think the animals looked ridiculous trying to talk — they CGI was not too bad overall. I have seen worse (much worse) so I cannot complain.
In Dolittle there is a moment where a dragon literally sprays poop out of it’s mouth, and then RDJ pulls things out of it’s butt, while it is farting. Yes. You read that right. So if you like silly potty humor, you will like this movie. My daughters made me watch that scene over and over to the point where it had me rolling my eyes.
Overall Thoughts
Is Dolittle a bad movie? No, not really. It has a decent plot and is a safe for family movie that kids are sure to enjoy. Parents may have a hard time getting through it as some moments are slow, it is ridiculously predictable, and like I said RDJ is very hard to understand. If you put the closed captions on you should be able to watch it from beginning to end while keeping both eyes open.
Dolittle is slow, predictable, and RDJ is extremely hard to understand. But kids will love the potty humor and talking animals, so there is that.
About Dolittle
Dr. John Dolittle lives in solitude behind the high walls of his lush manor in 19th-century England. His only companionship comes from an array of exotic animals that he speaks to on a daily basis. But when young Queen Victoria becomes gravely ill, the eccentric doctor and his furry friends embark on an epic adventure to a mythical island to find the cure.
Dolittle is available to take home now.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.