The reviews for Robert Downey, Jr.-led talking animal adventure Dolittle  are in - and they're non practiced. Directed by Stephen Gaghan and based on Hugh Lofting's 1922 book The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, the Universal Pictures flick stars Downey every bit Dr. John Dolittle, a physician with the ability to talk to animals.

Dolittle was arguably in problem from the start, with a bloated $175 million production budget that seemed to vastly overestimate public interest in a Doctor Dolittle reboot. It ran into further problems later on principal photography was consummate, with poor exam screenings leading to the studio bringing in directors Chris McKay and Jonathan Liebesman to try and dial up the material during reshoots.

If the overwhelmingly negative reviews are anything to go by, the reshoots were too piddling, too late.Dolittle currently has a dismal score of 14% on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, and 28/100 on Metacritic. It has attracted more than than a few comparisons to Cats, some other recent movie that featured an abundance of CGI and talking animals, and was similarly trashed by critics. And so, how did a family-friendly movie about a kindly medico who talks to the animals go and so wrong? Hither's what the reviewers had to say.

Rolling Stone:

"Dolittle [is] an object lesson in cinematic incoherence that would be easy to dismiss as a hot mess if it could even heighten a temperature. Instead, this out-and-out disaster dissolves in a puddle of botched intentions that will leave children sad and confused and adults scratching their heads... The low point comes when the doctor pulls a bagpipe out of a dragon's ass."

The Atlantic:

"I of the worst cinematic fiascos I've seen in years... It would be an exaggeration to say that Dolittle has a plot. The viewing experience more resembles a series of malfunctioning screen savers in which Downey Jr. twitches his head left and right while animals gallivant around him, complaining of various ailments while tossing off hacky one-liners."

AV Order:

"The picture's sense of humor... reeks of after-the-fact punch-upwardly prompted past negative test-audience feedback. That is to say, Dolittle is full of anachronistic pop civilization references and poop and fart humor, jokes delivered in suspiciously low-impact manner by the film's animated animals."

Chicago Sunday-Times:

"If I could talk to the animals, I'd say one affair: Please brand it stop... The adventures at sea and on the islands play out like depression-rent, animal-axial scenes from a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Past the time the doc endures massive dragon flatulence while performing emergency surgery on the fire-breathing fauna, Dolittle has solidified its standing as a spectacularly terrible multi-vehicle pileup."

The full general theme of Dolittle's negative reviews is that there'southward not much to love almost the movie: the jokes aren't funny, director Stephen Gaghan (all-time known for serious dramas and thrillers like Syriana) was an odd option for the material, and the movie is not helped past most of the supporting characters beingness CGI. Even Robert Downey, Jr. - fresh off his get out from the Marvel Cinematic Universe - wasn't enough to save it, with critics calling out his bizarre choice of accent (an attempt at Welsh) and strange grapheme tics.

The full general consensus is that Dolittle is an early on contender for the worst film of the twelvemonth - though it did manage to garner a handful of positive reviews. Here are some of the nicer things that critics had to say about Dolittle:

The AU Review:

"Once a standard voyage sets in, and the various A-list voiced animals collaborate with each other... Dolittle's family-friendly mentality kicks in, and the journey is perfectly harmless... As a vibrantly coloured, loud, rather ridiculous, age-advisable adventure film, information technology's very much in the lane it needs to exist; and, sometimes, there'southward zilch wrong with a moving-picture show that aims for simplicity."

The Mary Sue:

"The best way to draw this film is madness. With a Michael Sheen performance to rival his Breaking Dawn laugh and Antonio Banderas existence a hot king, the movie is very much a family adventure and 1 that should be approached with an open listen and heart. If you want to go into something and just laugh and accept fun, and then you'll savor Dolittle."

If you're feeling brave (or savor seeing railroad train wreck movies for the entertainment value), Dolittle is at present in theaters. However, if it'due south a large screen revival you're looking for this weekend, yous may exist better off sticking with Bad Boys For Life.

More: Read Screen Rant'due south Review of Dolittle

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Hannah Shaw-Williams (3313 Articles Published)

Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

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