Dolittle hits UK cinema screens this week, starring Robert Downey Jr as the famous doctor who can converse with animals, with a slightly odd Welsh accent.
Doctor Dolittle was the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting, starting with The Story of Doctor Dolittle in 1920. Lofting actually created Dolittle in illustrated letters to his children from the trenches of World War I when actual news was either too dull or too horrible.
There have been a number of screen adaptions over the years but the first was in 1928 in Germany. Early animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger made Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere (Doctor Dolittle and his Animals) as her second feature film. This trailer for a DVD version gives you some idea what it looked like:
The doctor didn't return to screens until 1967 when he was portrayed by Rex Harrison in a musical version. It may seem odd that it took so long for a live-action film to be made but when you consider the books are about voyages involving talking animals you quickly come to understand that it's quite challenge to make. The large number of animals needed for the story and the poorly chosen shooting locations caused numerous setbacks, causing the film to exceed it's $6 million budget by three times.
Filming with real animals was obviously going to be difficult but it seems the crew underestimated just how difficult. Over 1,200 live animals including dogs, pigs, birds and giraffes were used in the film. One giraffe died on set before insurance had gone into effect. There are also some incredible anecdotes from the set- a goat who ate a script, a parrot that learned to yell "cut" and some ducks who were placed on a lake and apparently couldn't swim, forcing crew members to jump into the water to save them.
The film itself is pretty rubbish. Released around the same time as The Sound of Music and The Jungle Book, it was critically mauled and was a box office bomb, though that didn't stop it securing a Best Picture nomination thanks to the studio's intense lobbying. You can see how bad the film is in this clip which features Dolittle singing to a seal he's fallen in love with before throwing it off a cliff:
After an animated series in the 1970s, the next time Doctor Dolittle appeared on screen would be in 1998 with Eddie Murphy playing the doctor. Beyond the concept of the name and a man who can talk to animals it has very little do with the original story. It received mixed but not entirely negative reviews and did pretty well at the box office, making $294,456,605 worldwide, meaning a sequel was ordered.
Doctor Dolittle 2 was essentially more of the same, once again receiving mixed reviews but making a decent amount of money. Eddie Murphy was done with the series but that didn't stop there being three direct to video sequels featuring John Dolittle's daughter Maya, played by Kyla Pratt. Critic Scott Weinberg said Doctor Dolittle 3 was "Cheap-looking, atrociously written, and delivered with all the energy of a breach-birth bovine". Doctor Dolittle: Tail to the Chief and Doctor Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts were of similar quality.
And so we arrive at this year's Dolittle an adaption of the Lofting book The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. Surely modern technology means we can finally get a good adaption of a literary character with great potential?
Well, critics are saying that is not the case- the film has a measly 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is predicted to lose as much as $100 million! It seems this is a film that couldn't work out who it's audience is and is just another to be added to the long list of rubbish Doctor Dolittle films.
There have been a number of screen adaptions over the years but the first was in 1928 in Germany. Early animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger made Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere (Doctor Dolittle and his Animals) as her second feature film. This trailer for a DVD version gives you some idea what it looked like:
The doctor didn't return to screens until 1967 when he was portrayed by Rex Harrison in a musical version. It may seem odd that it took so long for a live-action film to be made but when you consider the books are about voyages involving talking animals you quickly come to understand that it's quite challenge to make. The large number of animals needed for the story and the poorly chosen shooting locations caused numerous setbacks, causing the film to exceed it's $6 million budget by three times.
Filming with real animals was obviously going to be difficult but it seems the crew underestimated just how difficult. Over 1,200 live animals including dogs, pigs, birds and giraffes were used in the film. One giraffe died on set before insurance had gone into effect. There are also some incredible anecdotes from the set- a goat who ate a script, a parrot that learned to yell "cut" and some ducks who were placed on a lake and apparently couldn't swim, forcing crew members to jump into the water to save them.
The film itself is pretty rubbish. Released around the same time as The Sound of Music and The Jungle Book, it was critically mauled and was a box office bomb, though that didn't stop it securing a Best Picture nomination thanks to the studio's intense lobbying. You can see how bad the film is in this clip which features Dolittle singing to a seal he's fallen in love with before throwing it off a cliff:
After an animated series in the 1970s, the next time Doctor Dolittle appeared on screen would be in 1998 with Eddie Murphy playing the doctor. Beyond the concept of the name and a man who can talk to animals it has very little do with the original story. It received mixed but not entirely negative reviews and did pretty well at the box office, making $294,456,605 worldwide, meaning a sequel was ordered.
Doctor Dolittle 2 was essentially more of the same, once again receiving mixed reviews but making a decent amount of money. Eddie Murphy was done with the series but that didn't stop there being three direct to video sequels featuring John Dolittle's daughter Maya, played by Kyla Pratt. Critic Scott Weinberg said Doctor Dolittle 3 was "Cheap-looking, atrociously written, and delivered with all the energy of a breach-birth bovine". Doctor Dolittle: Tail to the Chief and Doctor Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts were of similar quality.
And so we arrive at this year's Dolittle an adaption of the Lofting book The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. Surely modern technology means we can finally get a good adaption of a literary character with great potential?
Well, critics are saying that is not the case- the film has a measly 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is predicted to lose as much as $100 million! It seems this is a film that couldn't work out who it's audience is and is just another to be added to the long list of rubbish Doctor Dolittle films.
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