Animal attraction
Robert Downey Jr. joins flock of stars who’ve played ‘Dolittle’
This weekend Robert Downey Jr. takes a deep dive into his future standing as a star with his family fantasy “Dolittle.”
It is, intentionally, a long, long way from Marvel’s “Iron Man” and Richard Stark, the billionaire inventor role that made him millions and solidified his position as a Hollywood titan.
As producer and star with a new take on a century old property, Downey is, at 54, testing his appeal with a non-Marvel vehicle.
Dr. John Dolittle, the physician who learns how to talk to animals, began life as a 1920 children’s story by Hugh Lofting and has continually enlisted A-listers to tell its fanciful tale of a doctor who is troubled by humans but loves, just loves, animals of every kind. For the first big-screen Hollywood version, agent turned producer Arthur P. Jacobs assembled a spare-no-expenses musical take on the story with England’s Oscarwinning “My Fair Lady” icon Rex Harrison as the doctor. That production became legendary for its many, mostly self-inflicted, troubles, pitifully poor planning and soaring budget. Plagued by ill-chosen locations, unable to manage the merry menagerie that constantly surrounds Dolittle — over 12,000 animals in total! — and with a cantankerous star in the legendarily difficult Harrison, the film went from $6 to $18 million in costs and took an incredible four years to complete.
My own favorite tale of ineptitude?
The company arrives to film in England but had somehow overlooked the long-standing, well-known fact that, as an island nation, any arriving animal gets a six-month quarantine. Consequently many “Dolittle” animal scenes had to be shot later in California at great additional expense.
The only way for this musical “Doctor Dolittle” to recoup was to score hit records, big box-office and Oscars.
They had one hit, Sammy Davis Jr. singing “Talk to the Animals.”
Hoping to counter mostly negative reviews, “Doctor Dolittle” unleashed one of the biggest ad campaigns ever, wined and dined Oscar voters and did nab nine Oscar nominations, including best picture.
It couldn’t sell tickets however and rates as both a colossal bomb and beloved cult favorite.
In a 1998 non-musical remake, Eddie Murphy in the title role scored a hit that prompted a sequel and three direct-to-video installments.
Murphy’s “Dr. Dolittle” ignored the book to offer a new story. Among the many stars who voiced animals: Ellen Degeneres is a dog, John Leguizamo a rat and Chris Rock a guinea pig.