#dr.dolittle

MY DOCTOR DOLITTLE IS BLACK!

HIS DAUGHTERS ARE BLACK AND ONE CAN SEE INTO THE FUTURE!

MY BLACK DOCTOR DOLITTLE GOTTA AALIYAH SOUNDTRACK SONG!

Kyla Pratt Is Ready To Take Over TV...Again Between the late 90s and 2000s, you couldn’t turn on your tv without seeing, or hearing the voice of Black America’s sweetheart, Kyla Pratt. Recently, the 35 year old actress discussed the impact she’s had on Black culture. She talked the reprisal of her role as Penny Proud in the new Proud Family reboot. “My mom is an actress, so I enjoyed watching her work, and I wanted to be like Mommy,” she said about her beginnings in the industry.

“And literally everything I auditioned for, I was that young girl, I would let you know if something was too grown for me.”

Pratt began her acting career shooting commercials for brands like Nike. We later saw the young starlet in one of her first film roles in Dr. Doolittle, and as the tween version of Monica Wright, the Love and Basketball lead depicted by Sanaa Lathan. Ask any Black millennial woman you know- they’ll recall Kyla Pratt as the "it" girl taking over for the 99 and the 2000s. Her characters in shows like One on One go down in Back girl history for the fashion alone. And let us not forget her first ever voice over role as Penny Proud in one of the highest viewed Black led animated shows of all time, “The Proud Family.” This month, Pratt happily reprises her role as the spunky teen in the show’s reboot, “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder”

“I’m just so excited that a newer generation also gets to enjoy what we had back in the day,” she said.

“And then also we can go back and go back to that space of being 10, 11, 12, and take us to that area where we were first watching it.” Many tv fans have been left yawning at the thought of another 2000s era reboot. Pratt says that she never had that fear about the new Disney+ version of the classic show. “I think knowing the situations that we had, and the story lines that we had, and the people that we have working on the project, I never felt that way. I felt like they were about to kill it in every single way,” she said.

Many of Pratt’s Proud Family co-stars have returned to reprise their roles as well.

Like the first, Dr. Dolittle 2 is aimed at- and will only appeal to- young children. I can’t imagine an adult sitting leaving this movie satisfied, certainly not if they had paid to see it in theaters. Aside from the cast, nothing about this says “silver screen”.

A few years after the events of the first film, an entire forest of creatures asks Dr. John Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) for help. To prevent a logging company (run by Jeffrey Jones as Mr. Potter) from destroying their home, they must get their endangered female Pacific western bear (voiced by Lisa Kudrow) to mate with Archie (Steve Zahn), another Pacific western bear who was raised in captivity. As Dolittle does his best, he finds himself constantly distracted by his 16-year-old daughter, Charisse (Raven-Symoné) and her new boyfriend, Eric (Lil Zane).

This is the kind of movie that references The Godfather, Terminator 2, Silence of the Lambs, and the Rocky franchise, even though anyone watching will be too young to understand what’s being quoted. These gags - trademark of any lazily-written film - feel particularly out of place in a story about a bunch of wildlife creatures (are they watching TV in their caves?) but anywhere, they'd be bad.

Eddie Murphy is the funniest thing in this adaptation of the books by Hugh Lofting but that doesn’t mean anything. He’s given few opportunities to cut loose. When he does become manic, it’s because of his teenage daughter and none of those scenes work. Either he comes off as ridiculous and overbearing, or everyone around him does. Charisse's boyfriend gets dropped off in the middle of the woods to spend time with the young lady. You know he’s got something nasty on his mind but everyone looks at the doctor as if they’re just going to have a picnic of Domino’s pizza, Burger King, KFC (the product placement is particularly glaring) and not sneak away into the woods to succumb to their primal instincts. Obviously, they don’t because this is a movie for kids but any responsible adult would be suspicious.

Everything about this follow-up is obvious. Once again, the animals are not really animals, they’re personalities dressed up in fur coats, given funny accents or vocal quirks. Every conflict’s solution can be seen a mile away. People don’t act logically at all and you’re not supposed to you have eyes and a brain so you will. No one could miss Dolittle screaming loudly while trapped in a bathroom with a bear that's noisily using the toilet but the people in this movie do.

There is a clever development towards the end that wraps up the picture nicely so at least it ends on a high note. You may also get some mild entertainment figuring out which celebrity is voicing which animal. Even so, anyone reading this review has no business watching Dr. Dolittle 2. If you do, however, stick around for the end credits, which feature several short scenes. (January 25, 2020)

A mercifully short running time of 85 minutes makes the 1998 Dr. Dolittle far more bearable than the 1967 adaptation, with which it shares few strands of DNA (though keen eyes will spot the pushmi-pullyu in on background shot). It benefits greatly from Eddie Murphy - who was in his heyday at the time - but only the youngest audience members will tolerate the menagerie of annoying animals found throughout.

Dr. John Dolittle (Murphy) nearly hits a dog with his car one night and is shocked when the pooch (voiced by Norm MacDonald) angrily shouts at him in a language he understands. Dolittle discovers he can understand the language of animals. Wondering if he’s losing his mind, Dolittle must make sense of this “gift” in time to finalize the sale of his practice to Mr. Calloway (Peter Boyle).

If you grew up in the ‘90s, you’ve seen this movie: A working father with no time for his daughters (played by Kyla Pratt and Raven-Symoné) or his beautiful wife (Kristen Wilson) sees his world turned upside down by a supernatural event. Hilarity ensues as the magical gift he’s been given wreaks havoc on his day-to-day responsibilities. His co-workers look at him cock-eyed, his family wonders what’s happening but give it time and you’ll see, what he believed was a curse is actually a gift that’ll help him realize where his priorities should lie. Between the familiar beats, we get a bunch of recognizable voices playing overly quirky characters: Chris Rock as a randy Guinea Pig, John Leguizamo and Reni Santoni as a couple of fast-talking rats, Gilbert Gottfried as a dog, Julie Kavner (whom you’ll recognize from The Simpsons) and Garry Shandling as argumentative pigeons, and so on.

The disappointment to anyone watching is the lack of imagination. Anytime we see a movie in which someone talks to animals, it’s always the same thing. The animals are not REALLY animals, they’re people dressed up in furry suits that sing pop songs, crack jokes and say what we imagine a dog would say when given a rectal thermometer (there’s a lot of butt stuff in this movie). It’s good for some chuckles but isn't enough for a whole movie. It’s only a matter of time before you start asking questions like “if these animals are all so smart and they understand each other, why are they being served up at McDonald’s?”

There are some nice warm moments in which Dolittle bonds with his youngest daughter. You wish the movie delved deeper into those emotions because you know Eddie Murphy can handle material that’s richer than this kiddie stuff. At least the special effects are solid. They hold up and feature solid puppet work from the Jim Henson company.

If it weren’t for Murphy’s performance, this family comedy would be completely forgettable and as is, Dr. Dolittle still doesn’t make much of an impact. There are some nuggets of goodness here and there but you leave feeling underwhelmed. (January 23, 2020)

Darke Reviews | Dolittle (2020)

I think as a child I knew *of* Dr. Dolittle, but I really cannot remember anything with the character itself. I mean I know I knew the Rex Harrison movie from 1967, which apparently was written by the lyrcisist (Leslie Bricusse) for one my favourite musicals ever and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the good one). I don’t think I ever read, and I know they were never read to me,  the…