Dolittle / YMMV - TV Tropes

Audience-Alienating Premise: For fans of the books it repeats the errors of Doctor Dolittle in having a miscast celebrity actor and having only a very general resemblance to the source material. For fans of the Eddie Murphy films you have a movie that has nothing to do with them outside of have a doctor named Dolittle who can talk to animals.
Critical Dissonance: The movie has a 14% Rotten Tomatoes score, but has a 76% Audience score.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Since the fact that he was played by Rami Malek and even if he was a Flat Character, Chee-Chee still had gotten a lot of adoration and love from the audience, especially the fact that he is a Badass Adorable Gentle Giant.
- Betsy and Tutu deserve special mentions for their voice actors and their personalities.
- Kevin, simply due to being voiced by Craig Robinson.
Just Here for Godzilla: Some people were only interested in seeing Robert Downey Jr. in a different role to the Marvel movies.
Like You Would Really Do It: During the whale scene, the rope holding Dolittle snaps and the crew thinks they've lost him overboard. This scene is just at the start of the second act, so of course you're just waiting for him to appear over the side.
One-Scene Wonder: Barry, a vicious man-eating tiger with mommy issues and in desperate need of therapy.
Questionable Casting: Robert Downey Jr. is about as suitable for John Dolitle as Rex Harrison was, playing a character who acts more like his take on Sherlock Holmes (2009) with little to do with the original character in appearance or personality. Mark Williams and Adrian Scarburough have been brought up by fans as better choices.
Signature Scene: The infamous dragon scene, a moment that neither the movie nor Robert Downey Jr. may ever be able to live down.
So Okay, It's Average: Aside from a handful of particularly dire scenes (such as the farting dragon), audiences may discover to their delight that the movie really isn't a bad piece of children's-fantasy froth.
Special Effect Failure:
- Robert Downey Jr.'s audio is quite clearly dubbed over many scenes where his face conveniently isn't facing the camera.
- On many occasions it's obvious the actors are interacting with nothing and are actually on a green screen stage suspended in a harness and climbing on set pieces.
- During the infamous dragon enema scene, the bagpipes Dolittle pulls out are clearly CGI, as Downey's hands are open and not gripping it. He also clips through the dragon at one point when standing beside it.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Several of the animals only get a handful of lines and not much in the way of personality or character arcs.
- Lady Rose mostly exists to deliver exposition about the Queen and plays no important role in caring for her or curing her in the climax.
- Lily is a posthumous character who appears on-screen very little, and we know nothing about her and why Dolittle loved her so much. Her being alive but stranded on the island of the Eden fruit could have been a great reveal.
- Blair Müdfly is so delightfully quirky in his own way that he's a great foil to Dolittle, but they do not interact with each other very much, and it's left unclear what Blair's precise involvement with the assassination plot actually is.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Dolittle actually being a doctor to the animals is an afterthought, only coming up in a few scenes where his medical skills are important.
- Talking to animals is apparently a skill that can be learned, and Stubbins picks some of it up over the course of a few days. What if others could learn the same skill now that Dolittle knows it can be taught? What if Blair learned to talk to animals and tried to turn some of them against Dolittle? Could Lily talk to animals? Her father does seem to have an unusual rapport with animals.
- If the subplot about the Queen had been removed entirely and the adventure instead focused on Dolittle and friends going on a voyage to complete Lily's work and maybe finding some sign she may have survived, it could have given us a much more focused and character-driven narrative.
- The animated opening has enough elements for at least two movies, as it covers how Dolittle becomes a doctor, meets Lily, opens their animal sanctuary, and then he falls into despair and closes the sanctuary when Lily passes away.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The CGI on the animals looks genuinely great and is actually on par with The Jungle Book (2016).

YMMV / Dolittle

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