In 1998 version of Dr. Dolittle it stars Eddie Murphy. This is a remake of the 1967 version of this movie which starred Rex Harrison.
There was a little boy named John Dolittle (Dari Gerard Smith) who could talk to animals. He was best friends with his dog (Ellen DeGenneres). He would sit and talk to it for hours. He asked his dog why dog sniff butts. The dog says it’s just like a handshake. His Dad, Archer (Ossie Davis) sees him talking to the dog. He tells John not to do that because Archer believes dogs can’t understand humans. One day Archer takes his son and their dog out for a walk when they come across some friends. He introduces John to his friends and when the man sticks his hand out to John then John goes to sniff the man’s butt. When they get home Archer brings over a Reverend to get rid what they think are evil spirits in the little boy. The dog doesn't like what the Reverend is doing and attacks him. This is when the dog is taken away and John never talks to animals again.
Now we see a grown up John (Eddie Murphy) with wife and kids. He grew up to be a normal regular guy just like everyone else, miserable. One morning when breakfast is being prepared, John’s daughter, Maya has an Swan Egg that is ready to hatch and doesn't want to go to camp before it does. John says she has to go to camp. She wants to stay around because she said that when the egg hatches the baby will get attached to the first thing it sees. John says no that she still has to go. He says it is not normal that she spends all her time with her experiments and more time with people her own age. He thinks her “pet rat” as he refers to her guinea pig, Rodney is dead but Maya tells him no that he is in her room. Meanwhile, his older daughter Charisse (Raven-Symoné) informs him that she has changed her name to Paprika. John ask his wife Lisa ( Kristen Wilson) what that means. Lisa tells him it is just like Salt and Pepper. John leaves for work.
At his medical practice he sees his patient Mrs. Parkus (Cherie Franklin) has once again not listen to him and has eaten shellfish. She is covered in a rash and her eyes are swollen. He asks her what she ate and she tells him it was soft shell crab. He tries once again to explain to her why that was wrong.
Back at home as they are getting ready to leave for camp, Maya tells everyone that Rodney is missing. As they are walking out to pack the car up Lisa tells John not to sell his practice to the HMO. He says it will give them more money. Lisa says sometime it is not about the money but his patients. John says money is good and that is why he bought her the Mercedes convertible that is parked out front. She gets excited only to find out he is joking. The girls get in the car and Maya makes John promise to bring Rodney when he finds him.
That night as lays in bed, he had set all sorts of traps for the guinea pig only Rodney crawls under the blanket. This scared John. He puts Rodney back in the cage and tells him to stay there. He then gets a call from work saying that Mrs. Parkus is there and once again sick. He goes down to work and yells at the intern for calling him. Saying unless it was a real emergency don’t ever call again.
On the way home, in the car, John is listening to music and drinking coffee. He goes to put his cup down and looks down for a second. When he looks up there is a stray dog (Norm MacDonald) who is crossing the street. John swerves not to hit the dog. He crashes his car on the sidewalk. John hits his head. Then he looks to see the dog is laying in the street. The dog does get up and tells John he should watch where he is going the next time. The dog walks away.
John is at lunch with the other doctors in his practice Dr. Mark Weller (Oliver Platt) and Dr. Gene Reiss (Richard Schiff) and the person who wants to buy their business Calloway (Peter Boyle). John starts to hear the voices of the little squirrels and pigeons near by. This scares John and he runs off. When he gets in the car a Police Officer on horse comes by to tell him to move the car but all John sees at first is the horse and thinks that is who is telling to move the car. Then the Officer bends down and John is relieved.
The next day John is in his car with Rodney the guinea pig. Then Rodney (Chris Rock) talks and John hears. This freaks him out. He tells Rodney to shut up. Then he pulls over to the side of the road and takes Rodney out. There are some people who see this and ask if something is wrong. John says no. Rodney tells him to ask them for lettuce. John tells him again to shut up The people leave then John leaves Rodney and his cage on the side of the road and starts to drive away. Rodney shouting at him to come back. He then backs the car up. He tell Rodney he will take him but he needs to keep quiet for the rest of the trip. He straps Rodney to the roof and drives. This doesn't please him and starts singing to John. John blasts the music in the car.
As they are getting ready for bed, John is still freaked out but his wife has other plans. While she is getting ready for bed he steps out on the patio and an owl flies to him. The owl (Jenna Elfman) asks him if he is the one who can hear all the animals. Then asks John if he can take the stick out of her wing. John does that then his wife comes out to join him but he makes them go back inside and locks all the doors. He then tells he wants to make sure his daughters are okay and to lock all the other doors and windows. As he does this all the other animals come by and tell him what is wrong with them. John then becomes frazzled and leaves the vacation house to go home to the city. On the way home he calls his friend Dr. Sam Litvack (Steven Gilborn) to meet him at the hospital because he wants him to do a catscan on him. On the way in to the hospital John hears some rats (Reni Santoni and John Leguizamo) arguing in the garbage pails and stares at them. They see him and tells John to stop it. He argues with them just as Sam drives up. Sam does the scan and sees nothing. He asks him if he did anything to his head. John tells him about running over a dog. Sam asks if the dog was okay. John said yes he got up and called John a bonehead. Sam said the dog couldn't have done that.
The next day as John is driving, he is talking to Lisa who tells him to come back to the vacation home. John says he can’t he has some things to do. He sees the dog that he ran over being taken to the pound. John then goes to the pound to see the dog. When he enters where the other dogs are he hears them all talking. John takes this dog. He asks him why he can talk to him. The dog doesn’t know. He first leaves the dog on the street but the dog acts sick. He brings the dog to a Vet. John hears all the other patients at the Vet’s office while they are waiting their turn. They are finally called in. John tells the Vet, Dr. Fish (Jeffrey Tambor) what he thinks is wrong with the dog. The Vet instantly knows that John is a doctor. Dr. Fish begins to examine the dog. He lifts it by the tail to put a thermometer up the dog’s butt. The dog isn’t happy about that and tells John to have the doctor stop. The dog tells him that thermometer is going up his butt. Dr. Fish tells John how regular MD’s try to believe they think they know what is wrong with their animal. Dr. Fish says his patients are different that he has to interpret what is wrong with the animal. John tells the Vet that thermometer is gone. The Vet checks and sees that it did disappear up the dogs butt and then gives options on how to retrieve it. As they leave the Vet’s office the dog is now walking funny. John tries to leave the dog on the street but the dog doesn’t want to go. John’s family calls him. The dog starts barking and the Lisa and Maya here. They think John got them a dog and is happy.
John drives back to Maya’s camp with the dog in the car. The dog has his head stuck out the window and is getting sick. When they arrive at camp they come up with a name for the dog. He names him Lucky. Maya is happy to see the dog but not stay at camp. John tries to convinced his daughter to stay saying that it is a nice place and has fresh air. He tells Maya that if she stays she can keep the dog when she gets home.
The owl holds a meeting the forest telling all the other animals about the human doctor who can understand and talk to the animals. She shows them how he removed a stick from her wing and cured her.
Back at home, in the bedroom, in their bedroom, Lisa is giving John a back rub when Lucky walks in. John chases him out. John goes back into the bedroom when the doorbell rings. It is a bunch of animals wanting him to treat them. He tries to hide all of them when his daughter Charisse wakes up and wants to use the bathroom. He tells her she can’t because Lucky is using it. Lucky flushes the toilet and walks out with a piece of toilet paper stuck to his back paw. John makes sure that the other animals can’t be seen and lets Charisse use the bathroom.
John goes on to treat all the animals that have come to his house. The drunk monkey tells him there is a sad circus tiger who needs help. The tiger (Albert Brooks) is on top of building threatening to kill itself. It says it is in a lot of pain and can’t take it anymore. John talks to it and says it will make him feel better that he should go back to the circus. The tiger agrees.
The next day John calls the vet to ask advice about cats. He then goes to the circus to tell the tiger he will find out what is wrong with him.
John’s partner at work calls Lisa to find out where John is. That he missed a meeting. Lisa says she doesn't care about that but would like to talk to him about the animals in her home.
When John arrives back at work the rats call him over. One of them says the other is sick and need his help. John agrees to work on the rat. He does so in the examining room when Lisa and the other doctors walk in. They think he is crazy for treating the rat. They are disturbed by the fact he has to do CPR on the rat. He brings the rat back to life and all that is wrong with the rat is it has gas.
They put him in a mental hospital. He gets all sort of tests to prove that he can but none work. Lisa comes to visit and tells him she doesn't believe him. His partner Dr. Weller comes to visit and tells him he has to get better by the time they sign the merger contracts. The Hospital’s doctor gives him a test and tells him to talk the Orangutan (James F. Dean) which he does but the Orangutan won’t talk back. Then John is being taken back to his room when the Orangutan talks to him in Spanish.
At the circus the tiger is sad because John hasn't been around. Lucky goes to see him and sees how sick he is. Then Lucky goes to the hospital where John is to tell him about the tiger. John wants nothing to do with talking to Lucky or any animal anymore. He goes Hospital’s doctor and tells him he wants to be released. That doctor holds a grudge for John since medical school and doesn't want to let him go. Then John uses some info that the cat told him as blackmail and John is released.
John goes home and his family is happy to see him. Maya has left camp and is now home. John does his best to ignore Lucky and Rodney talking to him.
He goes to work and ignores the pigeon (Garry Shandling) on the window sill. He tells the receptionist to call maintenance to get something on their windows so the animals won't bother them.
Now is the time you will go to watch the movie so you can see what happens next...
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