Doctor Dolittle [1998] ~ Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis, Oliver Platt, and Peter Boyle (DVD - 2001)

• Actors: Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis, Oliver Platt, Peter Boyle, Richard Schiff
• Directors: Betty Thomas
• Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Language English
• Subtitles: Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
• Region: Region 2 ( DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Classification:
• Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: 2 Jul 2001
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review:  (6 customer reviews)
• DVD Features:
  • Main Language: English
  • Available Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Sub Titles: Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
  • Hearing Impaired: English
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Interactive Menus
  • Scene Access
  • Original Theatrical Trailer

Betty Thomas directs and Eddie Murphy stars in Doctor Dolittle, the 1998 hit film which, while ostensibly aimed at children, has a high quotient of hip and even mildly gross humour. Murphy stars as John Dolittle, whom we see as a child talking to a neighbourhood dog who explains that the reason mutts sniff each others' butts is to assess their characters when first meeting them. Little John promptly tries this out on being introduced to his school principal. Warned off such social eccentricity, Dolittle stops talking to animals and as an adult becomes a respectable doctor running his own medical practice--until a bump on the head revives his capacity to understand animals, whereupon mayhem, mortification and a menagerie of needy and freeloading creatures are heaped upon his ordered existence. Murphy plays it relatively straight. It's the animals, some of them vividly enhanced by Jim Henson's animating team, who provide the real laughs here, and a thoroughly worldly, wisecracking bunch of characters they prove to be. There's a couple of hard-boiled, squabbling rats, a pigeon who complains of impotence, Rocky the guinea pig (voiced by Chris Rock) with a neat line in hip backchat, while Albert Brooks voices the gruff, melancholy tiger whose life Dolittle must try to save. A sweet but by no means saccharine comedy