New film Dolittle looks set to earn the dubious honour of becoming ‘the new Cats’ after a flurry of scathing reviews.
Inspired by the series of children’s books by Hugh Lofting, Dolittle sees Robert Downey Jr play veterinarian Dr Dolittle, who has the ability to speak to animals.
It follows Dolittle and his menagerie of creatures as he travels to a mythical island to find a cure for an ailing Queen Victoria.
The film boasts a star-studded voice cast, with the likes of Rami Malek, Emma Thompson, Octavia Spencer, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez and Downey Jr’s Avengers co-star Tom Holland voicing Dolittle’s creatures.
Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent and Jessie Buckley also have live action roles.
The film, which marks Downey Jr’s first project after leaving Marvel’s Avengers franchise, has failed to win over critics, with reviews branding it “anti-cinema” with “few laughs and no charm.”
The Washington Post described it as “a puzzling waste of talent” deserving “a kind of movie malpractice award,” while Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri said that the movie “makes you question the cinematic form itself.”
Other reviews draw attention to Downey’s confusing Welsh accent, with Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly noting that it “occasionally veer[s] into something sort of… Jamaican.” The New York Times described it as “indistinct” and struggled to place it geographically, while The Daily Beast branded it “Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins meets Captain Jack Sparrow with a leprechaunic lilt.”
The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde even claimed that Dolittle “doesn’t have a fraction of the verve of the similarly misguided Cats,” adding: “It does share with that movie a staggering amount of ‘What were they thinking?’ decisions.”
Film fans on Twitter also noted that Cats currently has a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than Dolittle.
The comparisons with Cats come after Tom Hooper’s film bombed at the box office and was described as “terrifying” by critics and filmgoers alike, with the Standard’s David Sexton claiming it was “nearly as obscene as The Human Centipede.”
Some social media users even claimed that they had seen audience members walk out of screenings.
The film underperformed at the box office, taking just $6.5 million (£5 million) in its opening weekend. It is believed to have cost around $100 million (£68.5 million to make)
Dolittle is out in UK cinemas from February 7.
