Dr. Dolittle 2 (Rental) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	83:49
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Steve Carr
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Eddie Murphy Kristen Wilson Jeffrey Jones Kevin Pollak
Case	?
RPI	Rental	Music	David Newman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

    After the success of Doctor Dolittle, it was somewhat inevitable that the studio would fall over itself to issue a sequel, and so it is that I find myself sitting down to once again return to that world of the talking animals and the only man that can understand them. Looking back over my review of the original film, it is fairly clear that the highlight there was indeed the talking animals (and especially a certain guinea pig atop a car singing The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind), so it is to be expected I guess that the sequel should attempt to out-animal the animals.

    Dr John Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) is coming to terms with his rekindled ability to converse with the animals, and is in demand around the world as a communicator with and facilitator of problem solving to the animal world. Not that this is being held in that high a regard by his wife Lisa (Kristen Wilson), owing to his absences away from the family, and his daughter Charisse (Raven-Symoné), who is positively mortified at the embarrassment her father is causing her as she celebrates her sixteenth birthday. It seems only youngest daughter Maya (Kyla Platt) is happy with the deal, and spends much of her time trying to kindle the same sort of talent as her father's. During something of a forced family birthday celebration, John is "requested" to attend an audience with "the boss" - a beaver whose forest is being destroyed by loggers. Coerced into doing something about it, John reneges on a plan to head to Europe for a family holiday and sets out to save the forest as only he can. Well at least he and a rare Pacific Western bear known as Ava (Lisa Kudrow). With Lisa arguing the legal battle, they obtain an injunction that gives them 30 days to achieve the impossible - to reintroduce into the wild the only other Pacific Western bear alive, a performing bear called Archie (Steve Zahn). Thus the story unfolds as the Dolittle family heads off into the forest to live as they try to reacquaint Archie with all those lost instincts, as well as getting him set with the sexiest Pacific Western bear around. Well, the only Pacific Western bear around actually. Can John Dolittle achieve the impossible and bring back the entire Pacific Western bear species with the aid of a performing bear straight out of the Country Bear Jamboree? And just exactly what is Charisse so desperately trying to hide?

    Just as the first film saw the acting talent upstaged by the animal talent, so it is here. Mind you, it has to be said that the acting talent is a bit closer this time round as the story is nowhere near as fresh in this incarnation. The unfortunate result of that lack of freshness is the fact that most of the jokes here are somewhat more forced than they were in the first film. Unfortunately too, the film simply lacks the ace-in-the-hole of a singing guinea pig atop a speeding car. Which is not to say that there are no good one-liners here, for there are and the result is the occasional, genuine bout of laughter. It is just that they are fewer and further between than in the first film. The continuing upturn in the career of Eddie Murphy is perhaps starting to show signs of withering, but this remains a decent performance. A pity that the chronic under-characterisation of the rest of the family members continues here, as Kristen Wilson certainly deserves more than she gets here. Even the pompously named Raven-Symoné is not entirely undeserving of better. The rest of the technical side of things is quite decent without being especially terrific, with some of the special effects with respect of the talking animals looking just a tad too obvious in my view. Such is the pace at which we see dazzling new CGI work being done, this is not a great example of pushing the boundaries.

   All in all, a thoroughly competent, if not especially memorable, sequel that pushes all the right buttons but seemingly not in the right sequence as the film never really fires. Certainly not a dog by any means but equally not a diamond either.

Video

    The video transfer ultimately left me just a little bit disappointed. The overall look seems to be slightly "off", and displays a little too much noticeable, albeit generally minor, aliasing.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    So exactly how is the transfer "off"? It is sharp enough but could perhaps have been a little sharper. The detail is decent enough but could have been a little better. Shadow detail is more than acceptable, but could perhaps have been a little better. Clarity is good with no real grain to speak of, but it could perhaps have been a little better. It really is just a bunch of little things that just leave me with the niggling feeling that what we have here, whilst quite acceptable, is not as good as perhaps it should have been. Perhaps one place that this is best illustrated is during the earlier part of the film where John Dolittle's shoulders seem to display what appears to be dot crawl (between 9:00 and 9:25 being the best illustration), mixed with a bit of aliasing. It is no biggie but certainly is noticeable and detracts a tad from the film.

    The "off" aspect of the transfer extends to the colours, which at times seem to have a digital, silvery look to them. Whilst they are generally quite vibrant, there tends to be a slight disappointment in the saturation of the colours - not all the time I might add either. At times the colours are very nicely rendered with nice tonal depth and plenty in the way of a bright and vibrant look to them. So basically, more than acceptable but perhaps not quite as good as we could have expected. There are no oversaturation or colour bleed problems that I could see.

    There did not appear to be any MPEG artefacts in the transfer, apart from some rather noticeable blockiness in the picture at 73:57. It does not last long but if you happen to notice it.... The main issue with the transfer as a whole is the consistent presence of minor aliasing. It manifests itself in minor things like John Dolittle's glasses and animal whiskers just about all the time. Aliasing is also present in the end credits. In themselves these instances would be virtually ignorable, but as they are constantly present, the moment you spot it, you will see it every time thereafter. The transfer is quite clean and generally free from film artefacts.

    There is just the one subtitle option on the DVD, being English for the Hearing Impaired. Well presented and entirely legible, they are quite accurate with only some odd lapses here and there, where the dialogue gets rather verbose. At one point they did seem to be marginally in front of the spoken dialogue, but nothing that would be overly bothersome.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is just the single, solitary soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. With the advent of 448 Kb/s soundtracks as the norm on releases, it is a bit disappointing that this is only a 384 Kb/s soundtrack.

    In general, the dialogue comes up very well in the transfer, with only the odd animal voice here and there being just a bit difficult to comprehend. Obviously the animal voices are something of an audio sync nightmare, but in general they have been quite well handled. In all other respects there are no issues with audio sync in the transfer.

    David Newman is responsible for the original score here, and it is pretty good all things considered. It does not draw too much attention to itself, meaning that you do concentrate on the dialogue as you need to in a film of this nature.

    Basically, this is a thoroughly competent soundtrack with little of note to comment upon. Sure, I could have wished for a more distinctive presence through the rear surround channels and a bit more support from the bass channel, but that is merely what we do not get. What we do have is some good rear surround channel support where necessary, some reasonable (if occasionally slightly heavy handed) bass channel support and a very decent frontal soundscape that does all that is necessary to give the dialogue the sort of presence it needs. The sound is quite open and there is nothing to detract from the sound at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    "Extras, n. (pl): supplementary material added to a DVD to enhance the value of the package and improve the enjoyment of the film". Just thought you would like the definition, since that is all you are going to get here - well, apart from a bunch of adverts for six other recent or forthcoming DVD releases, noteworthy for the fact that they seem to be lacking sound. Well, I certainly cannot get any sound on my setup... We also get an advert for the sell through version of the DVD, which is coming soon - not soon enough in my view.

Menu

    Since this is a rental only release, the sell through Region 1 release at this time remains the vastly preferred version. Naturally, this recommendation may change upon subsequent release of the sell through version in Region 4.

    It is not a classic film and it is a renter only at this time. The latter point is enough for me to condemn it anyway. However, being fair, the actual video transfer afforded Doctor Dolittle 2 to me seems to smack a little of being done with a lack of care, but is otherwise quite acceptable. The film suffers a bit from the sequel syndrome but nonetheless there are a couple of genuine laughs to be had in the film and by the end of the long school holidays, you might just be needing any help that you can get to keep the kids happy. So all in all you might well find this a decent enough DVD to rent after they have grown tired of watching the infinitely-superior-in-every-way original film (which by the way is available to buy rather than just rent).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall