Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
tedg
I'm absolutely hypnotized by the stories that stories make. I often think of stories having their own agency, doing whatever they need to do to survive. That can take one of two paths I think.The first is the path I normally pay attention to. A story can coax and guide it's tellers and receivers toward paths that matter, that penetrate and dissolve bits of us. These matter, and it's not just interesting to look at what they are and why they affect us, but also how they became so.And then you have other path, which you could consider the quantity over quality model, where a story evolves so that it can simply be repeated. These reflect rather than make worlds and they thrive on a parasitic energy from other stories. I think that is what we have here.The Dolittle story in it's basic form has been around for eons I suppose. In films I first encountered it as something which could carry some simple endearments spiced with enough humor to entertain. But that form has no juice today.So it evolved, attracting Murphy and support to become something more colorfully funny, adapting a raunchy persona. But the fertility fades on that as well.Now I suppose that there is a branch of evolution for all stories where they end up a Saturday afternoon kids babysitting material. And I suppose that this story already was headed in that direction. But the specific form is interesting at least. It has moved to the "black" theme part of the story ecosphere.It's a comfortable, secure niche that guarantees longevity and repetition because it links to an audience that uses such stories to define self.The story form has these elements: the focus is on women and how they make the world right. In every case, there is an environment in which men live and which has a dysfunctional dynamic, needing the common sense of women, common sense that is deeper in the African American woman than anywhere.The chief character is always the same. Here she has poor grades and a focus on "social skills." she seems inept at first, but her pluck allows a situation in which she can apply her "emotional intelligence" to the problem. It invariably is the result of some family dynamic which incidentally explains deficiencies in our heroine.She does her stuff and the world is made right, to the befuddled who lack this gift. In this case, it is the president that needs help, and by implication the soul of Africa (literally) that needs to be saved.An interesting thing here is that the story includes multiple references to endangered species and preserved ecostructure in the context of personal (meaning in this sense, animal) personal inadequaciesSurvival folded into survival.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
Elswet
While this isn't Oscar-worthy, and it will never be nominated for Video of the Year, Kyla Pratt doesn't fail to entertain, in spite of a lax plot so full of holes, it's nearly nonexistent. The dialog is the worst kind of cheese, and the whole execution is completely idiotic. However, the premise is rather cute and amusing, and Kyla Pratt is cute and amusing DOING it. Although suspension of belief is nearly impossible when faced with the horrible dialog and implausible plot elements, contrived story devices, and horrible production quality...and in the face of all that, somehow I don't hate it. That's mainly because of the "cuteness" factor and Kyla Pratt's growing abilities as an actress in spite of the horrible parts she has been shoe-horned into. I liked it...oddly enough.It rates a 4.2/10 on the Str82Video Scale.It rates a 3.6/10 on the Movie Scale from...the Fiend :.
freakfire-1
To call this movie lackluster gives the word a bad name. To call it good is an insult to movie goers everywhere. But to call this movie a waste of time is a good starting point.Somehow, a Dr Dolittle 4 has been made and this time no Eddie Murphy. You probably couldn't pay him to even watch this movie. He probably would rather pick up a transvestite along the side of the road again instead of watch it. Yes it was that bad.The movie is basically the young Dolittle entering college and only gaining 'temporary admission' and having to show some activity to gain full admission. While that is hogwash, it gets better. PUSA (the President) is inviting over a fake leader of a fake African nation to sign a fake treaty. Yes, some evil logging company wants to destroy the rain forest because thats all they want to do.Dolittle saves the day with her animal pals. And evil logging is stopped. Everybody get real excited! I really thought this movie should have been cut in funding to see how ingenious they would have to get with real animals. Instead, its not even entertaining. "F"
Erik S
I actually registered to IMDb just to comment on this extremely bad movie. I've seen all the movies I've got at home about 5 times each (we've got 500 or so), and I'd rather watch either one of them a 6th time, than recommending anyone watching this movie even once.The plot was just silly, even for a child. Maybe a 4-year old could enjoy all the cute animals, but really, everything was just overly "cosy", stupid and there was no real meaning of the whole movie, at all.Examples: (This is where the SPOILER starts, not that it matters in this movie anyway.) They're looking for the runaway dog, and Miss DoLittle asks the President's daughter if there's any place she could have gone. She answers, no, just to get some cheap emotions squeezed out of the audience. Then, after a few seconds, after the audience gave up all hope, she says "No, wait, there's this place where me and the dog used to hang out at all the time". And all I could think was "Duh, why didn't you just say that before?"... The stupidity-levels are at the same level as the joke where the man asks if his friend can see that tree over there, and he answers "No I can't, because the forest is in the way".Another example is the "mean intern girl", who first is very rude towards Miss DoLittle. When Miss DoLittle asks the "nice intern boy" for help, when the intern boy and the intern girl are working, she refuses to help them and the boy gets mad and says that there's more important things in the world than her career. Now, this is a girl who's been struggling all her life to work at "an international level by the time she's 30", but after her partner says that ("There's more important things than your career") she goes out and helps them to look for the dog like a good girl should! All I can say is wow. Just, wow.I like cosy movies, I really do, but when they're sleazy and sickening sugar-sweet like this one, it just gets silly. I'll never watch this movie again. In fact, I'm going to delete it completely (haven't done that with any movie I have, not even Dead or Alive).I'm not sure if I think the acting was really bad though; I'd have to see these guys in a movie with an actual plot to fully pass that judgement, all I know is that you can't make a tasty stew with rotten vegetables and sour cream, so, working from that experience, I won't judge the actors by this movie alone.Summary: This movie is bad, really bad, for whatever the reasons may be.
