A 1967 film by the same name starring Rex Harrison had won the Oscar award for best special effects, but it ended up driving its makers Twentieth Century Fox to bankruptcy. Three decades later, Fox has finally struck paydirt with this one.

The film's paper thin plot has Eddie Murphy in the title role of Dr John Doolittle, whose small hospital is set to merge with a hospital conglomerate. That's when an accident leads to his rediscovery of a childhood talent, talking to animals. When he does an Androcles on an owl, he's besieged by the animal kingdom who turn to him for succour.

Soon a circus of dogs, rats, monkeys, goats and hamsters (voiced by an assortment of actors Albert Brooks, Chris Rock, John Leguizamo, Garry Shandling and Paul Reubens) descend on him.

Naturally, nobody believesMurphy and the good doctor is coaxed to do a stint in the mental hospital. The animals follow him there.

Milked to the maximum, the film's basic premise begins to wear thin after the half-way mark, and director Betty Thomas is quick to wrap it up with the climax, which has delicate surgery on a nervous tiger.

Continuing his bull run of 1960s film remakes, motor mouth Murphy is perfectly cast. Co-stars Ossie Davis , Oliver Platt and Kristen Wilson have little to do in this animal farm. Good special effects (aren't they always?) and the animals have the film's best lines. Worth a watch.

English version playing at New Excelsior, New Vijay.Hindi version playing at Maratha Mandir, Milap.