Movies - Doctor Dolittle

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	Movies - Doctor Dolittle

:This page deals with the 1967 musical film starring Rex Harrison. For the 1998 film starring Eddie Murphy, and its 2001 sequel, see Dr. Dolittle (film)
.

Doctor Dolittle is a 1967 musical film which tells the story of a doctor who learns from his pet parrot to talk to animals. The film stars Rex Harrison
, Samantha Eggar
, Anthony Newley
and Richard Attenborough
. It was also the last film appearance of chimpanzee actor Cheeta.
Plot synopsis
In the mid 1800s, in the town of Puddleby-by-the-Marsh, England, Irishman Matthew Mugg (played by Anthony Newley
) takes his adolescent friend Tommy Stubbins (William Dix) to visit eccentric veterinarian Dr. John Dolittle (Rex Harrison
). Dolittle, a former doctor, lives with a house full of animals - pigs, monkeys, goats, and a talking parrot named Polynesia (voiced by Ginny Tyler) among them.

The night is stormy, so Tommy and Matthew stay with Dolittle, and he tells them the story of how he learned to speak animal languages, of which he can now speak almost 200. He is currently attempting to master goldfish, so he can go on a quest for the mythical Great Pink Sea Snail.

The following day, a short sighted horse seeks Dolittle's optometric assistance, but the horse's owner - General Bellowes (Peter Bull) - takes offence to Dolittle's notions of talking animals and the disagreement leads to an argument in which several animals get involved. Bellowes' niece Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar
) chides Dolittle for his irresponsibility, but all it gets her is the nickname "Fred" given her by Dolittle and a slightly attracted Matthew.

Things take a turn, however, when a friend of Dolittle's from Africa sends him the rare two-headed llama-type creature, the Pushme-Pullyu. Matthew and Dolittle take the creature to a nearby circus, run by philanthropist Albert Blossom (Richard Attenborough
), who immediately makes the Pushme-Pullyu the star attraction. Emma is less than enchanted by society's sudden interest in Dolittle. Meanwhile, the doctor befriends a seal named Sophie who longs to return to her family. He sneaks her from the circus, disguises her as a sickly old woman, and throws her into the ocean from some cliffs. However a witness - seeing the seal's clothing - thinks he threw a woman into the ocean, and Dolittle is arrested.

During Dolittle's trial, he is horrified to learn that General Bellowes is the judge; and his defense - that the seal asked him to do it - is mocked openly. Emma, Matthew and Tommy take pity on the doctor and attempt to get him out, but even when Dolittle seems to prove his abilities in court, Bellowes orders him to be locked up in an insane asylum. With the help of Polynesia and the chimp Chee-Chee (Cheeta), Dolittle's friends break him out of prison and he, Matthew, Tommy and several of the animals take a ship out onto the ocean to search for the snail.

To the men's surprise, Emma has snuck on board with them and she asks to be treated as one of the crew. At dinner, Dolittle tells them the method he uses to find out where they will go - randomly sticking a pin into any page of the map and going where it tells them. Despite Emma and Matthew's fantasies of Tahiti or Barcelona, the map directs them to Seastar Island, a floating island off the coast of Africa. It is a legendary island apparently broken off from the mainland, which wanders the sea.

During a fierce storm, the ship is torn apart and the group separately float, on wreckage, to a nearby island. Emma and Dolittle, when reunited, both realize that they share an attraction with each other. Reunions are interrupted, however, by the native population who take the human members of the party captive. The island's leader, William Shakespeare the Tenth (Geoffrey Holder
) becomes impressed by the doctor's knowledge, especially when Dolittle asks a blue whale to help push the island back on course. However the whale's help also pushes a revered rock into a volcano, which earns the foursome a death sentence. Before it can be carried out, the island is pushed back to the mainland where it belongs and - for their part in it - Dolittle's team are welcomed as members of the tribe.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Doctor Dolittle (film) ]

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