Doctor Dolittle

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis Director: Betty Thomas Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 2nd July, 2001 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding Subtitled In: Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish

Article Index: [Background Info] [DVD Extras] [DVD Review] [Biographies] [Articles/Resources] [Link To This Article] Looking To Buy? Buy This DVD Here

Doctor Dolittle is a 1967 musical film which tells the story of a veterinarian who can talk to animals. It stars Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley & Richard Attenborough. It was also the last film appearance of chimpanzee actor Cheeta. The movie was adapted by Leslie Bricusse from the novels by Hugh Lofting. It was directed by Richard Fleischer. It won Academy Awards for Best Effects, Special Effects & Best Music, Song. It was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Music Score, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment, Best Picture & Best Sound. Alan Jay Lerner was originally chosen to write the script, but due to creative differences, he left & was replaced by Bricusse. This gave Rex Harrison the chance to sit out his contract & he was to be replaced by Christopher Plummer, but when Harrison agreed to stay, the producers paid Plummer his total agreed-upon salary to leave the production.

DVD Extras: The DVD edition features scene selection & a trailer.

Betty Thomas directs & Eddie Murphy stars in Doctor Dolittle, the 1998 hit film which, while ostensibly aimed at children, has a high quotient of hip & even mildly gross humour. Murphy stars as John Dolittle, whom we see as a child talking to a neighbourhood dog who explains that the reason mutts sniff each others butts is to assess their characters when first meeting them. Little John promptly tries this out on being introduced to his school principal. Warned off such social eccentricity, Dolittle stops talking to animals & as an adult becomes a respectable doctor running his own medical practice, until a bump on the head revives his capacity to understand animals, whereupon mayhem, mortification & a menagerie of needy & freeloading creatures are heaped upon his ordered existence. Murphy plays it relatively straight. Its the animals, some of them vividly enhanced by Jim Hensons animating team, who provide the real laughs here, & a thoroughly worldly, wisecracking bunch of characters they prove to be. Theres a couple of hard-boiled, squabbling rats, a pigeon who complains of impotence, Rocky the guinea pig with a neat line in hip backchat, while Albert Brooks voices the gruff, melancholy tiger whose life Dolittle must try to save. A sweet but by no means saccharine comedy.

Eddie Murphy is an African-American comedian & actor. Murphy began his comedy career at the young age of 19, as a performer on NBC s Saturday Night Live television show. His characters include a parody of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals & of Fred Rogers. Murphy later starred in many comedies including the Beverly Hills Cop series, Trading Places & Coming to America. He is a versatile voice actor & voiced the donkey in the Shrek series & the dragon in Disney s Mulan. In many of his films, he plays multiple roles in addition to his main character. A perfect example of this is The Nutty Professor, a remake of the Jerry Lewis classic in which Murphy plays several members of the Klump family as well as Sherman Klumps arrogant alter ego, Buddy Love. His early comedy was racy, akin to Richard Pryor, whom Murphy says was the one that wanted to get into comedy. Characterized by excessive swearing & making fun of gays, singers & others, Murphy became, in a sense, the Pryor of the 1980s. Posters Of Eddie Murphy

Editors Choice: Shrek, The Haunted Mansion, Daddy Day Care, I Spy, Showtime, The Adventures Of Pluto Nash, Doctor Dolittle 2, The Nutty Professor, View DVDology

Betty Thomas is an American actress & director in television & motion pictures. She was born Betty Thomas Nienhauser in Saint Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She worked as an artist & taught school in Chicago before deciding to pursue a career in show business. Thomas joined The Second City comedy group & appeared in the films Tunnel Vision & Chesty Anderson, USN, Used Cars & Loose Shoes & on the TV series The Fun Factory. While Thomas had been building her career in comedy, her breakthough role as an actress came when she was cast in the dramatic role of police officer Lucille Bates on the TV series Hill Street Blues. She was nominated for six Emmy Awards for this role & won one for Best Supporting Actress in 1985. Following the end of the series, Thomas moved into directing. She first worked in TV, directing episodes of series such as Doogie Howser, M,D. Posters Of 28 Days

Editors Choice: I Spy, 28 Days, Doctor Dolittle, Private Parts, The Brady Bunch Movie, Dr Dolittle, View DVDology

©2004-2008 DVDArk.co.uk