Dr. Doolittle

[Ben]

"Is there a doctor in the house? No doctor can cure what ails this Dolittle!"

Ouch... https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/revie ... ew-1269681

Not surprising, but kind of a shame. I’d still like to see Dolittle done rightly sometime.

[EricJ]

Not surprising, but kind of a shame. I’d still like to see Dolittle done rightly sometime.

Counting this one--and especially counting Rex--we've never really had a good "old-school" adaptation of the books. (Which aren't complex, but have a nice simple crumpety flavor to them.)

Movie execs giggle so much over the Christmas-vacation-week "sell to the parents" concept of CGI talking animals, the usual Eddie Murphy instincts kick in once the marketing division gets a hold of it.
A shame, as Downey could have played Hugh Lofting's mild-mannered Edwardian doctor to perfection.

[Ben]

Yes, that’s what I was hoping for from Downey, alas.

...we've never really had a good "old-school" adaptation of the books.

Well, except for the perfectly lovely animated series (and I’m not talking about the WTF 1970s Rex tie-in).

[EricJ]

Well, then, which never-seen-in-the-US version are you talking about?
(And thank you, I'd almost forgotten that 70's thing... )

[Ben]

Well that’s scary...I can’t find anything on the 1984 series at all, other than the date on IMDB saying it was shown in the US in the September of that year:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219462/

I remember it being Japanese-produced, in the same style as Miyazaki's Sherlock Hound of the same time, so it may have been the same studio, most likely TMS. Same kinds of designs, anyway. IMDB says Fox was involved but I don’t remember their name or logo on it. Ahh...yet another bunch of VHS off-airs I should have kept!

I have that 70s show's theme tune on a kids themes album, always found it very strange. I’m surprised Kino didn’t put it out with their other DePatie-Freleng collections to coincide with Downey, but guess it’s now tied up in Fox-Disney red tape. Maybe D+ will be brave...

[Daniel]

Looks like the series was translated to "Dolittle-sensei Monogatari". This sheds some light:

It is a co-production between the US and Japan. First aired in the US in 1984. The beginning 6 episodes were released in Japan as OVAs in 1990, while the rest were dropped. Then in 1997 the anime started to air on Japanese TV where all 13 episodes were shown. Due to the non-traditional release format, this entry reflects the whole 13 episode TV run rather than being split as an OVA for ep 1-6 and a TV for ep 7-13.

Managed to find this!



I like what I see.

[Ben]

Cor, well done for digging that up! Yes, that’s the one, although we got nice English voice tracks when it aired here in the UK in what must have been around '86 or '88.

[Daniel]

Yeah, can't seem to find any clips in English or much else. It's really obscure!

[Randall]

All of this is news to me. I never knew there were animated versions.

[Daniel]

No surprise, Dolittle... did little.

[Ben]

Funny...if it hadn’t cost so much that $30m would have been praised as a strong start. At least it’s already made more than Cats!

[ShyViolet]

All of this is news to me. I never knew there were animated versions.

[Ben]

You can’t just come in here and start hitting people with your Rex Harrison hat!

[ShyViolet]

[Daniel]

"This birds gonna fly!"