Dr. Dolittle
I cried during _Babe_. I admit it. The special effects, the story, the great dialogue were woven together so delicately and successfully that my mind lost track that this was a "children's film"--so much so that, yes, I got a little overly sentimental. Such, my friend, is the power of cinema.
When word came out that they were using this newly developed F/X for a Doctor Dolittle update, in which Eddie Murphy plays the title character, and many great comic actors supply the voices, my anticipation rose to great expectations. They can't possibly drop the ball on this one. Can't miss. Can't possibly miss.
They missed.
What went wrong? After much thought, I supply three general rules.
(1) Don't let a television actress-turned-comedy movie director near an urbanite script (i.e., Penny Marshall's dreadful "Preacher's Wife"). Betty Thomas worked wonders with "The Brady Bunch Movie", but the same sitcom-airiness doesn't quite work here.
It's as if she lifted a generic sitcom, and iced it with light doses of modern R&B. Take away the black cast, take away the atrocious soundtrack, and you have the residue of some mid-80's Kirk Cameron show.
(2) The greater the cast, the less the individual cast-member has to do (i.e., "Con Air"). It is great to have the comic voices of Jenna Elfman, Garry Schandling, John Leguizimo, Ellen Degeneres, and Gilbert Godfried in your lineup, but they have nothing to do but improvise their underdeveloped, stereotyped characters, one-line-at-a-time. It's even worse, because sometimes their voices are so unrecognizable that you don't get the satisfaction of linking the voice to the comedian until the credits.
Now there are three character actors who do get special treatment: Albert Brooks brings dignity to nearly every project he's in, and the scenes as a depressed tiger do resonate a certain poignancy. Norm McDonald fares nearly as well, as a stray dog who learns to bond with Dolittle. But there's little humor here. That rests on the shoulders of Chris Rock, sorely miscast and unfunny as the voice of their wise-ass guinea pig. Even the mouth is ill-synched.
(3) Don't let the Special Effects technicians walk away with the script. There's a certain timing that's mandatory in comedy. To have this timing usurped by the brilliancy of computer generated mouths or lifelike creations of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, is a travesty. This is not to say that special effects filled comedies or Muppet movies aren't well-timed laughfests; with the right director, they can be and have. Here, Betty Thomas is clearly over her head.
I wish I could commend the special effects, but they're merely average. Count the number of times where the animal's mouth is turned away from the camera, or too far to notice, or ill-synched. This is less a "Babe" and more of a "Look who's Barking" clone.
You may be wondering, 'How does Eddie Murphy fare?' Well, he came back with the exceptional "Nutty Professor", and I don't doubt he can come back again. Here, he's tied into a straight man and given little to do. The exceptions are when he fears he's going crazy: a far cry from his smarter-than-you'd expect routine that he's more adept at. It's unfortunate that he is where Richard Pryor was ten years ago, making lame comedies without the same bite he had given in his early years.
After all this, what's left? Butt jokes. A _lot_ of butt jokes. I guess for kids that may be funny, but I was stone-faced. If there's a lesson the film may be telling us, is that animals have feelings too, and they care way too much for your butt.
Nick Scale (1 to 10): 4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews