Thoughts on This Film

So last night I watched Dolittle from 2020. I am pleased to report it was not nearly as awful as I expected. It is extremely fast-paced and never lags. The CGI is good and the voice work is by an all-star cast. At one point, when Dolittle goes to leave his house for the first time in years, Robert Downey Jr. looked somewhat like the book character. Rex Harrison never looked remotely like him. Tommy Stubbins is present, but unlike the book and the 1967 movie he is not nine years old but appears to be around sixteen. I guess modern moviemakers didn't want to make Dolittle look like a kidnapper, and needed a boy old enough to serve as a useful apprentice. This boy, Harry Collett, had a lot of charm and contributed much to the movie. The movie had similarities to the book and the 1967 film, such as a long sea voyage with fantastical elements and human and animal characters with the same names, although Chee-Chee is a gorilla and not a monkey small enough to be owned by an organ grinder.

The movie never gives a year as to when it is set but it is presumably in 1840 after February 10 and before November 21. I say this because the plot revolves around an attempt to kill Queen Victoria and steal her throne, and a man resembling her husband Albert is present at her bedside so it's probably supposed to be after they were married on February 10. It is certainly before November 21 of that year because that is when their first child was born and if Victoria had a legitimate heir the would-be assassins would have to target the child as well, and no mention is made of such a child. There are many anachronisms for 1840. The ones I notice are mainly in language. "Okay" is used a whole lot. This term was unknown even in the United States in 1840 and did not catch on in Britain till much later. I heard at least one "shut up." This may have been used at the time but was not considered common. I didn't hear any "dude" that I recall but there was a whole lot of "bro" and other modern turns of phrase that wouldn't have been used even when the book was written let alone in 1840. Chee-Chee is a gorilla. Gorillas weren't even proven to exist until 1847, previous to which they were considered mythical beasts, and weren't seen by white explorers until the late 1850s, but we can give the movie that as Dolittle was supposed to have been a great explorer before becoming a recluse. Also there are characters calling Dolittle and Stubbins "boy scout." The Boy Scouts were founded on February 8, 1910, in the United States. Even had they existed in 1840, they wouldn't have been known in the remote location where the term was used.

The film is mostly family friendly. There is one sequence involving a dragon which could be scary for children in parts although most kids are now exposed to that much and worse at young ages. Otherwise I'd say parents could definitely take kids to this film, a rarity since at least the 1970s, and the kids would not be bored. I don't understand all the complaints against this film.