Dr. Dolittle 4

OK, my disclaimer here is that I've seen all the DoLittle movies now, because they're safe and my son loves animal movies and I figure there could be worse things to watch (like Garfield the movie, oh lord don't get me started...) And I actually didn't mind DoLittle 1. DoLittle 2 wasn't so great but at least it had Eddie Murphy in it, and the man knows funny. OK wasn't his funniest movie by a long shot, but at least he's animated. By DoLittle 3 I was pretty tired of the franchise and I think it definitely lost a big something with Murphy's departure. Everyone says how 'cute' Kyra/ Maya (?is that her name) is but I just find her yawn yawn yawn. Well, it still wasn't the worst thing to have to watch. Guess what was? Yep, DoLittle 4. Finally hit the almost bottom of the barrel (ok that's reserved for Garfield the movie - and before you tell me Garfield 2 the movie is worse, I DON'T want to know - have hidden the DVD in the cupboard and am hoping the 6 yr old doesn't remember we haven't seen it yet and start asking questions)

So I suppose I should review this movie huh, after all that preamble? Well my 6 yr old laughed at the monkey, and he was right - the monkey had the best scenes in the movie (and even he was under par this time). And I guess Mr. 6 laughed at a few other of the animal scenes too, so at least one of us was happy. But I found the animals in this movie painful (especially the wallaby, and Lucky the dog was particularly subpar this time). Anyway let's face it, Mr. 6 is at that age of no discerning taste in movies whatsoever.

So Maya has come to the end of high school and wants to go to college to a vet school that has her Dad's name and endowment, but has been getting crappy grades and the review panel is unimpressed - they put her on a waiting list. Already by this point I'm annoyed by the sheer laziness of the writer/ director -no explanation for why she no longer has a sister, or why the very promising boyfriend she had at the end of the last movie is no longer on the scene, or why her Dad no longer lives with them (ok he's 'off in Antarctica' this time but there was no explanation for why he was no longer around in the previous film in which Mommy was flirting with Maya's boyfriend's Dad, so clearly they are actually no longer together - why not just say so??), or why the college doesn't just accept her because ?hello?! SHE CAN TALK TO ANIMALS - who needs good grades when you have that advantage over, um, every single other person in the world (except for Daddy). And who needs good grades when your Dad OWNS the school?!? Whatever, movies can be implausible right? Suspension of belief right? OK sure, if there is a theme/ point to it. But this movie requires you to constantly ignore gaping plot holes and inconsistencies for no reason other than the writers' laziness. Everything about this movie just felt so incredibly cheap and lazy.

Moving on...

Maya needs to show the school she's got the goods, and luckily enough who happens to swing by needing some help but the President's staff, hoping Daddy can cure the First Dog who has gone rogue. As Daddy is AWOL, Maya fits the bill for the job, and is whisked away to the white house without so much as a security check to meet the President and go camping with him and his daughter for the week to work on the dog. Maya isn't at all phased about meeting the President, it's like she's greeting her taxi driver.

Now, I want to know, what's up with every adult character in this franchise after DoLittle 2 being a single parent? Ms DoLittle, the Dad in the last movie, and now the President (no explanation ever given). Not that I have any problem with it, I just find it weird... Anyway so they all go to the ranch, which is actually an animal conservation ranch as the President is a knowledgeable conservationist (convenient plot device!). There's some ridiculous story about saving a forest and a bunch of animals, which is not only ill-explained but also a bit of a lazy rehash of the DoLittle 2 plot. The First Dog story is also pathetic, lazy and dealt with in clichés. The 'romance' isn't a romance at all and similarly dealt with in a pathetic way - despite the cute boy seeming to have no romantic interest in Maya, his girlfriend is absurdly rude to Maya right off the bat for no reason whatsoever other than a silly attempt to provide an atmosphere of drama.... As if in the professional environment of the Presidency a staffer could get away with being outright hostile to the President's latest favourite go-to girl? And then all of a sudden she realises her mistake and that Maya is actually cool and they are all friends. No explanation for this sudden and clunky change of heart.

Oh god why am I writing this essay?? I was clearly damaged by the experience of having to sit through this movie. I won't continue.

2 words: excruciating and lazy

(But I guess at least it's 'safe' viewing for kids if that's what you're looking for - no swearing or inappropriate sexual references at all. And at least it's not Garfield!).

This movie was bad enough for me to want to come onto IMDb and submit my debut review, so here it is: When faced with a family comedy, you'd hope that at least one member of the family audience would laugh a few times. At least. Unfortunately, only two or three times during this movie was there an attempt at humour just funny enough to ALMOST make me smile, or indeed to make the five and seven year olds I watched this movie with almost lift out of the stupor they were thrown into by the horrifying monotony that was Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief. At these moments of near-humour, I would hope that perhaps the movie was improving, but then my foolish optimism would fizzle out again as the movie sank back into its dreary dialogue and dull acting. Of course, the acting isn't something that would be such a big importance in this kind of movie, but here it is so terrible that it is one of the straws that broke the camel's back. I believe this was the fourth film in a series. That fact alone speaks volumes. It was boring in almost every respect and not worth anybody's money or time.

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"

If there's one good thing that can be said about this movie it's that at least Kyla Pratt is dedicated to the character of Maya Dolittle. She debuted as the nerdy animal girl in the first Dr. Dolittle film when she was 12 years old, and ten years later here she still is, playing the character. That is dedication to your craft, and I can respect that.

That being said, this is an awful film. Pratt is actually one of the better actors in this whole lackluster borefest and even she isn't great, merely slightly above average. Though I mostly blame poor writing. None of the jokes are funny, the conflict is laughably out there - and not in a good way - most of the characters have no motivations, backstories or even characteristics. All the animals especially are just bad, being either stereotypical, rude, full of lowbrow humour or all of those at once.

The plot is one of those B-movie comedy plots mainly written to give room for all those wacky characters to spout wacky dialogue and to get into wacky situations. But, as already established, both the dialogues as well as the characters are poorly written and the plot itself is the poorest of them all. One of those three can be poor, and the two might be able to pick up the slack, so you can only imagine what happens when they all fail.

Still, there's really nothing actively harmful in this film. You can see that at least some of the actors believe in their roles and it has a good, if a bit clichéd, message it tries to convey. I guess that if you honestly have nothing else to do, this will pass the time, but I wouldn't recommend it. Kyla Pratt sure is cute, though.

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 inadequacies

Survival folded into survival.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.