A weird watch, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be closer to the books, or if Disney was just fed up with having wonderful magic in their products, but having Dolittle act out animal behavior in order to communicate to the them really ruins the vibe, as well as making it something you can learn makes it incredibly unremarkable. It should just be something people teach in this movie's universe. Robert Downey Jr., despite claiming he wants to play new characters, basically just played Sherlock Holmes that can talk to animals, to include uncovering a plot to kill the queen. The only real saving grace in this is the pure technical detail in the CG. The cast and voices were all fine, but the animal CG is over the top good, if a little goofy at times. Most of the movie is "what are they doing now?", or more of "why are they doing this now?". It really seemed they had to add a lot to the story of Dolittle, the doctor who talks to animals, to make it worthy of a movie. They also had to shift the focus away from him quite a bit, and while previous iterations have chosen to focus on the togetherness of the family, this movie has chosen to go with the "dead wife so I hate the world" cliche, which is always uplifting. They just made a lot of dark, and weird choices for this movie that did not improve it.

So pointless, so bad. The one solace of praise I have for <em>'Dolittle'</em> is that it at least mixes things up compared to the Eddie Murphy remake, as well as potentially the 1967 original - though I haven't seen that, but this sounds a little different based on '67's synopsis. This film wastes a fantastic cast list. Robert Downey Jr. is of course the lead, but there are also notable appearances from the likes of Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen and Jim Broadbent - as well as voice roles for the likes of Emma Thompson, Rami Malek and Octavia Spencer. Yet, all of those talents are completely wasted - I didn't even recognise some until the end credits. Downey, as the main man, merits the most attention. He is kinda awful, especially with his dreadful attempt at a Welsh accent - which is, I'm sure, ADR'd in places. It never feels like Downey fits as Dolittle, a role which comes across as perfect for Johnny Depp; though I'm glad it didn't fall to him, given how poor this is. The special effects are passable, but not as great as you'd expect from a 2020 (2018? 2019?) film with this budget and production company. The plot is OK, but it's all just a bit limp unfortunately. It needed strong humour, which it didn't get. No idea why they chose to remake this but here we are. Very poor, in my opinion anyway.