How Would YOU 'Fix' Dr. Dolittle?
If you could go back about 45 years, sign on as a producer at Fox and put out the absolutely best version of this film that would have made it a surefire hit, what would you do? Here's what I would have done:
1.) Hire Julie Andrews as Miss Emma Fairfax. Think of it--Harrison and Andrews together on film at last! Now not only would Julie have been able to sing her own songs (take that, Samantha!) but her chemistry with Harrison would have been undeniable, taking into account her totally believable May/December love/friendship with him onstage in My Fair Lady. Now I don't think Julie was actually available to do this film (she was probably working on Millie or Star or something at the time) and I don't know if she would have done a movie in which she wasn't first-billed at that very point in time, but wouldn't it have been loverly?
2.) Make the animals talk! If you want kids to get interested in a film you've got to have a little magic. And talking animals are magic. Dolittle should have been the forerunner of "Babe." Polynesia aside, we have no clue what the animals are thinking, although we're expected to believe that Dolittle can understand them. We only have his word to go by, and it's just not enough. The animals should have talked and been voiced by famous Hollywood personalities. Think of Buddy Hackett as the monkey or Phyllis Diller as the macaw. Okay, I'm kidding, but it would have added a huge amount of magic and kid-interest for this flick!
3.) Fire the kid. I don't even remember his name, but oh he did suck. He played it too safe and rather than drawing the kid audience's interest, he detracted them. Possibly Harrison and Newley didn't want some clever tot stealing their scenes, but a livelier kid actor is what the film really needed to draw attention for the real kids in the audience, is all I'm saying. And wouldn't you know--this kid's identical clone co-starred in "Mame," and was equally repellent!
4.) Things to keep: the score. Now if Andrews had been in it, it would have made the movie that much more serious as a musical and likely the two main deleted (romance) numbers would have remained. There also likely would have been another Emma song or two had Andrews starred. I rarely hear people complain about the existing score, which is rather nice (although not on a par with Broadway's best). But it was a strong score and deserved the royal treatment which I feel (with Emma being dubbed) it never received.
Keep Richard Attenborough; his number was the highlight of the picture, although it's such a show-stopper that the picture deadens afterward.
Keep the costumes, settings, cinematography, the cats chasing Matthew down the street--all of that was great.
5.) Things to get rid of: the script. It was a suck-fest. They should have stuck closer to the books thereby adding to the whimsical feel and gaining kid-interest.
Reel in Anthony Newley. I know he was a ham, but his singing voice can become grating after 2 and 1/2 hours. His larger-than-life stuff probably worked best on stage. "After Today" was so over-the-top it's embarrassing. I'm not saying Newley was miscast, but he was mis-directed. Maybe he shouldn't have been sharing screen time with Rex Harrison; they don't gel very well.
Get rid of dull courtroom scenes, the bitterness following the doctor's conviction--all of that just dragged down the movie, grounded it too much and killed the fantasy. The scenes do provide an ideal setting for one of Harrison's best numbers ("Like Animals," the closest he got to his "My Fair Lady" patter speak/song glory days), but still you're talking a good 20 minutes of the movie which are a total downer.
Altogether, the movie was in dire need of fun. Mary Poppins had fun. The Sound of Music had fun. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang had fun. All of these were hits and sold tickets to kids. Dolittle took itself far too seriously and didn't realize that you can be a "Tiffany" film and still sell tickets to children. They weren't cueing off their most recent antecedents...it's almost like they were trying to make a kid film out of "Citizen Kane" or something. And even that film had more laughter and fun than did Dr. Dolittle.