Dolittle (2020)

Dolittle seems like a wonderful and delightful kids movie. Doctor Dolittle and all his animal friends have emotional issues that they are working through, and this can only serve to help kids learn how to express similar feelings they might be having.

Dolittle is basically a Doctor Who movie where The Doctor is sad instead of angry. He, his companion and his animal friends go on a grand adventure where everyone finds healing for their emotional issues.

I understand storywise why Lady Rose stays with the Queen instead of going on the adventure, but I think it would have been a better movie if both kids had been companions to The Doctor.

A lot of people spend a lot of ink trying to place the accent Robert Downey Jr. is doing and that misses the point. He’s doing a unique Dolittle accent in a fantasy movie with a fantasy England where his character can talk to animals.

It feels like they were aiming at the absurd art direction of Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events but that their art director wasn’t as good. Slightly. Or maybe someone was pulling on the reigns and saying they were going too far, and that the movie about talking animals needed to be more realistic.

Review by mickdansforth