Doctor Dolittle (film) - Plot

Plot

During the early Victorian period, in the town of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, England, Irishman Matthew Mugg (Anthony Newley) takes his young friend Tommy Stubbins (William Dix) to visit eccentric Doctor John Dolittle. It is Matthew's wish that the Doctor tend to an injured duck Tommy has found and upon arrival, Tommy finds that Dolittle, a former people's physician, lives with a houseful of animals - pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, horses, cows, a chimpanzee named Chee-Chee (Cheeta), a dog named Jip, and a talking parrot named Polynesia (the uncredited voice of Ginny Tyler) among them.

The night is stormy, so Tommy and Matthew stay with Dolittle. He tells them the story of how he learned to speak animal languages, 497 to be exact. He was once a doctor, but he preferred animals to people. He kept a menagerie, which was causing havoc and losing him patients. A casual comment by Polynesia revealed that animals can talk to each other, prompting Dolittle to study the languages of the animals so that he could become an animal doctor instead. The following day, a short sighted horse named Tubble seeks Dolittle's assistance, but the horse's owner - General Bellowes (Peter Bull) - takes offence to Dolittle's notions of talking animals. Bellowes' niece Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar) chides Dolittle for his irresponsibility and rudeness to her uncle. Dr. Dolittle is unmoved, however, and she storms off in a huff. For Matthew, by contrast, it is love at first sight. He nicknames her Fred on the spot, due to her wishing she were a man, with the power to punish Dr. Dolittle, and when she has gone, he admits he finds her attractive.

Long Arrow, a friend of Dolittle's, sends him the rare two-headed Pushmi-pullyu, a creature that looks like a llama with a head on each end of its body, from Tibet. Matthew, Tommy and Dolittle take the creature to a nearby circus, run by the lovable yet greedy Albert Blossom (Richard Attenborough), who makes the Pushmi-Pullyu the star attraction. Meanwhile, the doctor befriends a circus seal named Sophie who longs to return to her husband. He disguises her in women's clothing, sneaks her away, and throws her into the ocean from some cliffs. However, two fishermen mistake the seal for a woman, and haul Doctor Dolittle off to court. Dolittle is horrified to learn that General Bellowes is the judge. Dolittle proves he can converse with animals, but the judge and jury agree that Dr. Dolittle belongs in a lunatic asylum. Dolittle's friends break him out of prison, and he, Matthew, Tommy, Polynesia, Chee-Chee and Jip take the doctor's ship, the Flounder, out onto the ocean to search for the legendary Great Pink Sea Snail. Emma sneaks aboard as well. After sticking a hatpin at random into an atlas to determine their destination, they set their course for Sea-Star Island, a floating island.

The ship is torn apart during a fierce storm, but everyone makes it to what turns out to be Sea-Star Island. Emma has arrived ahead of them, and when she and Dr. Dolittle are alone briefly, they admit they have grown to like each other. There is implication Emma has begun to fall in love with him, though the doctor simply respects her cleverness. The party is met by the natives, who are highly educated and cultured due to all the flotsam and jetsam that have floated ashore from shipwrecks over the centuries; their leader is William Shakespeare the Tenth (Geoffrey Holder). Sea-Star Island is endangered by climate changes due to its drifting further north than usual into colder waters. When Dolittle persuades a friendly whale to help push the island south, a balancing rock is shaken into fire mountain and the party are sentenced to "the death of ten thousand screams." However, when the whale pushes the island so that it rejoins the mainland, the doctor and his friends are freed. While treating the animals on the island, Dolittle encounters a surprise patient - the Great Pink Sea Snail itself, who has caught a severe cold. Dolittle cures him and discovers that the snail's shell is watertight and can carry passengers. Dolittle sends Matthew, Tommy, Emma, Polynesia, Chee-Chee, and Jip back to England with the snail. Emma finally admits her feelings for the Doctor, and kisses him goodbye. She expresses a wish to stay on the island with him, but the Doctor is adamant that a relationship would never work, though he does wish to stay in touch.

Doctor Dolittle himself cannot go back, since he is still a wanted man; furthermore, he wishes to investigate the natives' stories of the Giant Lunar Moth. As his friends leave, however, Dolittle finds he is not so impervious to feelings as he thought. Dolittle is still living amongst the tribe when Sophie the seal turns up, accompanied by her husband, with a message: the animals of England have gone on strike without him, the people have changed their views towards him, and even Bellowes has agreed to pardon him if he returns home. Dolittle and the tribesfolk then construct a saddle for the Giant Lunar Moth, and he flies back to England.