 | |
List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 5088
Released: October 31, 2000 |
| Our Price: $8.58 |
| Used Price: $6.99 |
|
MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Get ready for the wildest adventure of a lifetime in the most ambitious musical production ever brought to film. Earning a 1967 Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, this dazzling fantasy turns both ordinary and exotic animals into talking, dancing and singing sensations! Rex Harrison is unforgettable in this inspiring adaptation of Hugh Lofting's classic stories. Step into the English country home of the good doctor as he performs remarkable treatments on the wildest variety of patients you could imagine. Discover his secret cures and watch with wide-eyed excitement as he and his four-legged, fine-feathered friends charm their way into your heart!
Description of Doctor Dolittle:
So, they let both Rex Harrison and Anthony Newley sing. This 1968 family musical is classier than the 1998 Eddie Murphy remake, with all of its scatological humor. This won a couple of Oscars (Best Song, Best Effects) and was nominated for seven more, including Best Picture. At the time of release, however, this was a box-office dud. Based (in part) on the magical Hugh Lofting book, it begins in Puddleby-by-the-Marsh, England, from which the world-renowned veterinarian Dolittle (Harrison) begins his quest for a giant pink sea snail. Children should find this enjoyable for its exotic creatures, such as the Pushme-Pullyou. Most adults may not agree as readily, although some of us consider this a guilty pleasure. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Doctor Dolittle Reviews:
Pretty Good 
2009-12-15 - "Doctor Dolittle" is one of those fun movies that kids and their parents can enjoy together, and it's a picture that people will want to watch again and again.
It follows the adventures of a man who can talk to animals. Dr. John Dolittle was an unhappy people doctor when he realizes his calling as a very happy animal doctor. Thanks to the help from his 188 year old parrot Polynesia the doctor learns the languages of animals and then proceeds to set up a veterinarian clinic in his home where scores of animals ... domesticated and wild ... come to him ... of their own accord ... to complain about their various ailments and then to be cured, always, by the good doctor.
As a result of some bad luck and a magistrate (judge) who seems to have a personal vendetta against the him, the doctor is, because of his talking to animals, deemed to be insane and is committed to an asylum. Not to worry though as the doctor's faithful parrot Polynesia orchestrates a jail break. Doctor Dolittle, his friend Matthew, Matthew's young friend Thomas, and a lady friend Emma then board the doctor's sailing ship and make good their escape from the law.
Being at sea allows the doctor to pursue the one overriding passion in his life: To find ... and talk to ... the legendary giant pink sea snail. This quest produces some fun, but it also gets our little crew into some trouble. The ending of the movie is, however, a happy and satisfying one.
If "Doctor Dolittle" is so good, why only 3 stars? Well, it's a solid piece of entertainment. It takes a great movie idea and fills it with good acting, good special effects, and songs and dancing that are mostly delightful and fun, but the writing is a culprit here. It lets us down.
It's good writing ... most of the time ... but it goes off course here and there and we are given scenes and dialogue (not the fantastic scenes and dialogue ... which are fun ... but the human nature type ones) that are hard to buy into, that is to say, hard to believe would ever happen.
Rex Harrison plays the articulate, urbane, and unflappable Doctor Dolittle, and he is his usual excellent self. Anthony Newley plays the doctor's friend and admirer Matthew, and he is a lot of fun as the wise-cracking Irishman. I love that quick-witted Irish sense of humor. Peter Bull plays the tag along boy ... the innocent youth of the movie. And Samantha Eggar starved herself to play Emma, and she does OK, but her character is not easy to like.
I don't know why movie makers do that, but they often make the female lead character be mean. Maybe they believe it will appeal to the women in the audience, but, whatever the reason, they do it here in "Doctor Dolittle" and it is hard to take and makes no sense at all.
The special effects in "Doctor Dolittle" work very well. It's hard to figure out how they are done and, for 1967, that's pretty good special effects work.
But there is a lot of fun to be had watching "Doctor Dolittle." It's a movie to be kept up front on the movie shelf so it can be easily gotten to.
great movie 
2009-12-02 - great faamily movie that is often forgot-- better than the eddie murphy remake
Disappointed
2009-11-08 - "Like New" was the description given for this item, but when I received it, I was disappointed right away. A corner of the case is cracked and the case is clearly "old" looking as it has yellowed. The tape itself is fine.
Great children movie
2009-11-02 - It's a fun movie for kids. I loved it as a kid and so do my children. I did not like the remake. Too bad they take a great movie and remake it. The DVD is great, no regrets.
As far as it bombing in the box office, I suspect that one of he reason is that the meat eaters that are so called "animal lovers" did not like being reminded that they are hypocrites!
Even meat eaters do not like to be reminded that that steak or coat was someone's mother or brother! How many people would eat steak, chicken, pig or lamb if they had to go out slit it's throat, skin it and then cook it! Not many. But a piece of meat has no identity!
So it no doubt made lots of people mad.
Yes, by the way I have been a vegetarian most of my life (my first day on my own), and Dr Doolittle was part of my motivation. I tell kids that ask "Animals are my friends and I do not eat my friends". Most kids understand that, most adults just give me a bad look.
Doctor Dolittle
2009-07-15 - Always enjoyed this picture, one of Rex Harrison's best. I received the movie before Father's Day for a good price. Highly getting it for your video library.
