5.1 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
A physician discovers that he can talk to animals.
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Jessie BuckleyFamily | 100% |
Fantasy | 96% |
Comedy | 67% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The story of Dr. Dolittle -- the man who can speak to animals -- has now been a part of popular culture for a century. Hugh Lofting's first published story to feature the character released in 1920, and he's been portrayed by screen greats like Rex Harrison and Eddie Murphy over the years. Add Robert Downey, Jr. to the list. The actor who will forever be immortalized as Iron Man leaves behind the mask and the Marvel Cinematic Universe for talking animals and farting dragons. But talk is cheap, as they say, and so too is this movie, not so much in financial cost but in finished product quality. Dolittle rings hollow, tightrope walking that fine line between crudely entertaining and completely disastrous. The movie finds a few moments of fun but it's otherwise a curiosity of missed opportunity and a cesspool of incessantly bad jokes and flat adventure that the filmmakers hope to mask with an endless array of digital wizardry.
The digitally photographed Dolittle looks amazing on Blu-ray. Clarity is off the charts superb, obvious immediately at the opening hunting sequence where intimate skin textures are the norm and sharply defined leaves are visible even at distance. If the movie is good for anything it's the dense production details that are a treasure trove for visual exploration. The Blu-ray brings the movie's front-and-center but also nook-and-cranny details to life with resplendent accuracy, allowing viewers to soak up the costumes and set pieces for all they are worth. Digital workmanship is equally impressive for, say, animal fur definition and distinction. Colors are rich and robust. They are well saturated from end to end, from popping natural greens to subdued, but still generally intense, earthen tones. Skin tones are true and black levels are strong. Traces of noise are sometimes apparent even in well lit scenes, and more so in lower light scenes, such as a dank prison cell in chapter 13. The picture is otherwise blemish free and a pleasure to behold.
Dolittle's Dolby Atmos soundtrack delivers impressive technical results but offers nothing above and beyond. Much of the movie is dialogue intensive and there no problems there for positioning, prioritization, or detail. Music enjoys robust space across all planes and impressive engagement at the low end. Out at sea mid-movie, creaking woods, splashing waters, blowing winds, and a storm in chapter 11 -- which is only heard briefly -- do much to draw the listener into the location, much more than the story to be sure. Chapter 14 is home to some dynamic action that sees cannonballs flying through the stage, explosions sending good depth and hurtling debris through the listening area, and other examples of intensive chaos, all of which blend together in frenzied harmony but at the same time offer enough in the way of clarity excellence and discrete placement to follow individual sounds. The most surround intensive, fluid, and dynamic stretch comes in chapter 16 during an action scene comprised of various sound elements involving chaos in a cavern. Like a couple of chapters before it, everything is in good working order. This is a solid, agreeable track, just not one for the record books.
Dolittle's Blu-ray includes six featurettes. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This
release ships with an embossed slipcover.
Dolittle's story drags, the laughs are flat, the adventure isn't engaging, and the story is not at all captivating. At its absolute best it's passable entertainment, the sort of movie that might work well for the easily amused or as a diversion in trying times when any reprieve from reality might be welcome, as is currently the case. And, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. Worth a look to keep the family, and the little ones in particular, smiling for 100-some minutes. The Blu-ray is of first-rate quality and includes a handful of modest extras, so the technical package is everything it should be.
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