Doctor Dolittle

Directed by Betty Thomas, Doctor Dolittle follows Eddie Murphy’s title character as he discovers that he can communicate with animals. It’s a kid-friendly premise that is, by and large, employed to watchable effect by Thomas, as the filmmaker, armed with Nat Mauldin and Larry Levin’s screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced comedy that benefits from its raft of agreeable performances – with Murphy’s entertaining (and periodically hilarious) turn matched by a top-tier supporting cast that includes Oliver Platt, Peter Boyle, Richard Schiff, and Paul Giamatti. (And this is to say nothing of the first-class vocal work of folks like Norm MacDonald, Garry Shandling, and Albert Brooks.) And while the whole thing remains agreeable enough for the duration of its appreciatively brief running time, Doctor Dolittle less-than-adult sensibilities, coupled with a fairly melodramatic closing stretch, ultimately does cement its place as a decent yet completely forgettable endeavor.

**1/2 out of ****