Dr Dolittle Dir Betty Thomas PG THERE'S an old thespian adage which says 'don't work with children or animals'.

But Eddie Murphy seems to come away unscathed in the role of talented medical physician Doctor Dolittle.

Eddie Murphy plays a zany doctor who has a thriving career, beautiful wife, gorgeous children and is about to embark on the biggest deal of his life when, to his absolute horror, he finds out he can talk to animals.

This unique gift turns out to be most distressing for him at first because he doesn't even like animals, but slowly a guinea pig called Rodney and dog called Lucky win him over.

Then a tiger, who is suffering from headaches and double vision, is in need of his expert medical knowledge and skill. Only Dr Dolittle can save his life.

Eddie comes to the tiger's rescue and, in doing so, jeopardises the business deal.

Of course, his wife Lisa, played by Kristen Wilson, and colleagues, played by Oliver Platt and Richard Schiff, all think the doctor is stark raving mad when they see him talking to the animals.

And when they catch him giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to a rat he ends up in a mental clinic which threatens the business deal and the livelihoods of the his colleagues.

If you can remember Rex Harrison in the 1967 version of Doctor Dolittle where he talks and sings to the animals and dances with a two-headed llama, you won't find any similarties with the latest version.

Eddie Murphy's Doctor Dolittle is very nineties. There are no sickly sweet scenes.

But it is the animals who are the real stars.

Although Eddie Murphy does give a great performance he is constantly upstaged by Rodney the guinea pig and Lucky the dog.

Chris Rock is the voice for the guinea pig and Norm MacDonnald is the voice for Lucky.

Their voices come alive with amazing special effects from John Farhat, who worked with Eddie Murphy on Nutty Professor and with Jim Carey on the Mask.

The movement of mouths of the animals is very realistic, very human and quite incredible to watch.

John Farhat has even given the animals expressions which gives more depth to each of the characters.

Credit must also go to Jim Henson's animatronics.

The director, Betty Thomas who is best known for Private Parts and The Brady Bunch Movie, keeps the comedy alive and the film doesn't really have a dull moment.

Where the film fails is in the lack of a sub-plot.

Even my 11-year-old son felt the story was too one dimensional. It would have made for a much richer film, if there had been even one other story running along-side the main theme.

Also although the film is quite hilarious, the humour stays very very much on a children's level throughout.

This is a great holiday movie. You will come out with a smile on your face and it's definitely one that all children should see before they go back to school.

Lindi Bilgorri

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