Thoughts on This Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8_QnNtVvhQ Okay, this is funny.

So I have been diagnosed with Covid and quarantined. I took this as a sign that in my continuing project of watching movies based on Newbery Award books, I should watch all these movies I skipped because they were pay per view, so I went back to the beginning of the Newbery list for The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, which along with some other books in the series formed the basis for the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle, which I rented and watched this afternoon because I didn't feel like doing anything else. Now, you may ask, am I with Principal Skinner here or with the kids? I'm going to go with about 75% Principal Skinner and 25% with the kids. On the Principal Skinner side, I have a lot of nostalgia with this movie. I watched it when it first came out and several times since. It is an absolutely beautiful looking film shot entirely on location--no cheap sets here--and this copy is perfect. All the animals were live except for the fox (which switched between a real fox for the running scenes and what must have been an early audio-animatronic for closeups), the pushmi-pullyu, the crocodile, the whale, the Great Pink Sea Snail, and the Lunar Moth. A similar thing was done with the seal as with the fox. The pushmi-pullyu was particularly well-done and I really enjoyed that part of the movie. The others were all real animals, which must have been incredibly difficult to pull off. The actors were good in their roles and the animals managed to not entirely steal all the scenes. It has some good songs. When I was in high school someone decided we were going to sing "Talk to the Animals" for a little skit. Naturally everyone knew the tune and no one knew the words. No one had a book or a record with them, and the internet didn't exist, so we just had to sit around throwing out whatever phrases we remembered. I came up with several, including "chatting with a cheetah, what a neat achievement that would be." I ended up playing the cheetah. There are pictures of this somewhere (not any better quality than our recollection of the song). We came up with a song that was a heck of a lot shorter than in the movie and not entirely accurate, but very cute. So I jumped out on "chatting with a cheetah" and the girl playing the mouse jumped out on "squeak." It was great fun. So at least 75% Principal Skinner here.

On the flip side, the kids' side, the movie is at least 45 minutes too long, and gets particularly so during many of the songs. It would be difficult, though, to know what to cut if you were determined to do so. Now, the question also would be, is anything in this movie objectionable for kids (keeping in mind the odd scene in which the unmarried Dolittle sings a love song to and kisses a married seal). Well, yes, he steals the seal from a circus when with the money he made exhibiting the pushmi-pullyu he should have had enough to just buy the seal. He then steals a perambulator and some clothes to transport the seal. On the way he also steals a lady's shawl and bonnet to further disguise the seal. Then he hijacks a hay wagon to transport the seal to the ocean, sings to and kisses it (sexual harassment), and ends by throwing the poor animal into the ocean fully clothed, leaving it to fight its way out of the disguise. For this he is jailed and tried in court, but his friends arrange a jailbreak. Later there are some civilized Africans who still happen to practice some rather savage customs. Other than that I'd say nothing objectionable. This movie is set in 1845 and, I am pleased to say, not a single "bro" or "okay" is to be heard here. See, Robert Downey Jr., it is possible! One of the few ways the Downey film is closer to the book is that in the Downey film and the book, it is an injured squirrel that Tommy Stubbins brings to the doctor, while in the Rex Harrison film it is a duck.

As for how the movie compares to the book, in the book Matthew Mugg never went on the voyage and Emma Fairfax did not appear at all. Tommy and the Doctor went with Prince Bumpo and a few of the animals. I was surprised to learn that William Dix, who was wonderful as Tommy in this and in his earlier film, was only in those two films as a child and another many years later. The parrot Polynesia was very well portrayed in both films. I guess I would recommend this for all ages. Fast forward during some of the songs if you must.