Respond to these rapid questions in our Dolittle Quiz and we will tell you which Dolittle character you are. Play it now.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong here. The concept is fine, and the adaptation is fine as well: an eccentric doctor who has the ability to communicate with animals embarks on a series of crazy escapades! Sure! That’s perfectly OK! Hugh Lofting’s popular children’s book series, published at regular intervals between the 1920s and 1930s (plus a few posthumous books of previously uncollected stories), has been adapted for film, television, animated, live-action, and other media numerous times. For almost a century, the “property” has been its own small franchise. However, “Dolittle,” starring Robert Downey Jr. as the titular character, is a cyclone of a muddle with no logic and no guiding concept. Perhaps the issue is that filmmaker Stephen Gaghan is best renowned for directing “Syriana” and authoring the screenplay for “Traffic,” so he wouldn’t be the most obvious candidate to direct a light-hearted naughty romp like “Dolittle.”
Dolittle is locked up in his house at the start of the story, unable to recuperate from the death of his wife, who was lost at sea during one of her expeditions to the far reaches of the globe. (Emma Thompson, who plays Polynesia the parrot, provides the voiceover for this animated prologue.) Dolittle, now a hermit with a long straggly beard, spends his days hiding from the world, chatting with his animal companions, which include a duck, a polar bear, a gorilla, an ostrich, and others (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, Rami Malek, Selena Gomez, Octavia Spencer, Craig Robinson). His isolation is broken when two visitors arrive on the same day (in an ill-advised coincidence): Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado) invites Dolittle to the Palace to assist save the dying Queen Victoria, while Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett) bears a wounded squirrel to Dolittle’s door.
Dolittle Quiz
If Dolittle does not assist the Queen, his manor will be taken away from him, and his menagerie will be scattered right in the heart of hunting season. Dolittle suspects the Queen (Jessie Buckley) of being poisoned by her nefarious ministers after examining her (Jim Broadbent, Michael Sheen). The sole cure is located in the flowers of the Eden Tree, which can only be found on one island, so he and his merry band of mammals set sail into the ocean in the hopes of saving the Queen. The ship docks on an island rumored to be home to bandits led by Antonio Banderas, who has a grudge against Dolittle. The mystery deepens. And then it thickens up again. Also, you must try to play this Dolittle Quiz.
Certain sequences are shot in such a bewildering manner, and put together in such a haphazard manner, that watching it feels like floating in a sensory-deprivation chamber, where up is down, and down is over there, and voices come at you in a disorienting surround sound. “Dolittle” feels like someone flung a lot of random sequences into the air, let them fall on the ground, and then tried to piece them together using strangely looped speech from a recording studio halfway across town. It’s unclear when and which animal is speaking, as well as where any given voice is coming from. Every voice, including Downey Jr.’s, has a peculiar disembodied quality to it, as if it’s surrounded by a small space, each voice in its own little pod. Because the majority of the picture is made up of group scenes with a lot of chattering language coming from a variety of sources, it creates an almost total sense of detachment. The animals are primarily computer-generated as well, adding to the surreal atmosphere.
About the quiz
The 1967 musical version, starring Rex Harrison, was such a fiasco that it’s now regarded as one of the final harbingers of Hollywood’s bloated studio system’s impending demise. It’s a strange feeling to watch it now. You can only see all of that money going down the drain. Eddie Murphy featured in two versions, one in 1998 and the other is 2001, and both were funny, nasty, and sweet at the same time. That’s exactly what the doctor prescribed. Despite its best efforts, “Dolittle” fails to strike any of the easily-reachable targets. Michael Sheen’s impotent blustering villainy is legitimately humorous, and the squirrel with the soul of a paranoid SEAL commando is equally amusing. A “bit” with a perceptive squid had promise. Also, you will find out which character are you in this Dolittle quiz.
Other directors were brought in to undertake last-minute surgery (if tales are to be believed) and three weeks of re-shoots during “Dolittle’s” post-production. That points to some serious issues. For months, the release date was postponed (usually an ominous sign). All of this would be irrelevant if the confusion wasn’t so obvious on the screen.
For more personality quizzes check this: Which Stuck In The Middle Character Are You.
