Robert Downey Jr. portrays the charismatic children’s book hero Dr. Dolittle, a physician with the ability to talk to animals. In his first role outside the MCU since 2014’s The Judge, RDJ teams up with writer/director Stephen Gaghan instead of the Avengers to bring us a family adventure nobody really asked for.

Dolittle’s production process was reportedly a huge mess in the editing room because of Gaghan's lack of previsualization. Throughout the 100 minute runtime, there are several sequences in which Robert Downey Jr.’s character isn’t even looking at the right spot. It feels like a big chunk of the work was simply handed off to the animators to figure out where animals would end up in shots that weren’t properly blocked and staged for them. All the conversations between the animals and Dolittle are noticeably disjointed and lack chemistry and cohesion between the animated and real-life characters. There’s a scene between Emma Thompon’s duck and RDJ in which he just stares of into the distance even though the duck is right in front of him. The voice acting cast for the animals is impressive with the likes of Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Najiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, and Ralph Fiennes. However, all of these (mostly) great actors are heavily underutilized in the plot and undercut by the limitations of realistic animal animations. I personally don’t think that the use of talking animals will ever work outside of animated films and silly kids movies, but if definitely does not work in Dolittle.

When it comes to story it is basically an exact copy of Up just with fewer balloons and therefore less fun. We do get John Cena as a cuddly polar bear, but even that can’t prevent this ship from sinking. There’s the reluctant hero, who shuts down after the death of his wife until a young kid comes along and he sneaks onto the journey with him. They run into talking furry creatures and eventually complete the adventure that Dolittle's dead wife wasn’t able to complete.

This visualization of the relationship between the animals and Doctor Dolittle is a really helpful reminder for the waste of talent on this production. Honestly, I probably would have enjoyed it more if they went full-on Cats and morphed these stars into their animal counterparts. Now that would have been something. Even more of a fever dream, but certainly entertaining.

For anyone still indecisive about whether they should give this a chance or not, I want to highlight a scene in which a tiger named Barry, voiced by Ralph Fiennes, is kicked in his groins and yells “My Barry Berries!”.

★☆☆☆☆

Dolittle falls short on almost every level. It lacks humor, charm, and originality and wastes a star-filled cast in favor of a simple cash-grab

Swiss Release Date: 30.01.2020

Film data: Dolittle - Regie: Stephen Gaghan - Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Harry Collett, Rami Malek, Michael Sheen, Emma Thompson, Antonio Banderas, Octavia Spencer, Carmel Laniado, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Jessie Buckley, Jim Broadbent, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Holland, Kasia Smutniak, Selena Gomez - USA - 101 Minuten