hugh lofting's classic doctor dolittle novels have been a source of versatile inspiration for hollywood. the books about an eccentric doctor who can talk to animals has been adapted into everything from musical comedies and plays to eddie murphy's five-part film franchise, with varying levels of success. but they've also always been a bit of an odd duck (excuse the pun) in terms of films; the rex harrison musical was panned and a financial failure, while even the successful murphy films quickly fell off a cliff into straight-to-video territory (at which point murphy fled the franchise). so why in the name of all that's holy, with so much evidence that these aren't incredibly sought-after movies, did universal pictures think that spending an astounding $250 million to make a fantasy adventure flick was a good idea? the answer lies in star robert downey jr., perhaps the most marketable name in hollywood. credit to downey for swinging big, but even his considerable charisma can't save this tired story that coasts its way through on the hopes that the visuals and lame jokes might make people forget the meandering story. stephen gaghan is a particularly strange fit as a director; the man behind syriana and gold is completely out of his element here and it shows. the production on dolittle was notoriously troubled, with massive reshoots when it was realized the comedy wasn't working. i don't know what they changed, but the comedy doesn't work in the finished product either as the voice actors mostly ham it up with a lot of body humor and the like. and that stuff has its place, but it's not in a film like this. meanwhile, downey is essentially playing a minor variation on his sherlock holmes interpretation and doesn't offer anything really new, more or less ambling his way through the movie without direction. the most puzzling thing about dolittle is that for all the money spent on it, it doesn't look that good. there are moments where the cgi animals take the audience completely out of the moment, and the action doesn't do anything to impress. dolittle actually could have worked if universal and team downey had wanted to make a mid-budget period comedy, but trying to supersize it into the animal avengers is a disastrous decision that makes the film an absolute flop by any definition you can imagine.