Dr Dolittle 2

Plot

Lucky the dog (Norm Macdonald) explains Dr. John Dolittle's (Eddie Murphy) gift of talking to animals. John comes home from France and gives his wife a present from Paris. He also gives his daughter, Maya (Kyla Pratt), a chameleon, named Pepito.

Also, Charisse's (Raven-Symoné) sixteenth birthday is coming today. She is also not doing well in her classes. As a punishment, her father takes her phone away. Later on, Charisse's boyfriend, Eric (Lil Zane), comes over and decides to join the family at the birthday party. A possum (voice of Isaac Hayes) and a raccoon, Joey (voice of Michael Rapaport), tell the doctor that their boss, the Godbeaver, wants to see him.

He meets the God beaver (voice of Richard C. Sarafian) who shows him that the forest is being cut down. John plans to save the forest to get an endangered female Pacific western bear together with a male to save their species.

At a circus, John attempts to get Archie, the surviving male member in his species, to go out into the forest to teach him to become a real bear. Reluctantly, he agrees but John knows that Archie doesn't know what kind of bear he is and never acts as a real animal. Then, after taking his family on a vacation to the forest for the rest of the month, John makes a deal with a female bear named Ava to not make any decisions for the month and promised to turn Archie into someone she will love.

While he unsuccessfully trains Archie, John hires the local forest creatures to make an attempt to stop Charisse and Eric from making out. But during the training, he ignores Lisa for the next few days. Then, John tells Archie that he will find a way to win Ava's heart.

Every animal in the forest watches as John dances with Lisa, and as the two attempt to embrace, Lucky accidentally blows it. Archie attempts to get Ava's attention by singing her a song while imitating John in a smooth voice and on a tree branch, but blows his attempt when he is too heavy for the branch to hold and he falls down.

Archie refuses to come out of his new-found cave because of humiliating himself in front of Ava. Archie proclaims that it was hard but John knows how hard it is when his wife grows mad at him. Frustrated with John's insults, Archie hits John, making him fall on a muddy hole, and he begins to listen to his "inner bear". Later on, he spends the rest of the day with Ava, whose relationship with another male bear named Sonny isn't very well.

Lucky attempts to win the affection of an attractive female wolf (though throughout the film, Lucky attempts to get her attention two times but both are unsuccessful). This attempt was successful as Lucky urinates around her territory and she is about to go out with him but one of her packmates came and finds Lucky urinating part of the pack's territory and they leave, much to Lucky's dismay. On the other hand, Ava is forced to leave Archie by Sonny (voice of Mike Epps).

Afterwards, Mr. Potter, the owner of two logging companies, attempts to make a deal with John, and when Archie arrives, he tells John he has his "big finish", knowing that he will win Ava about John telling him to listen to his "inner bear". Back at the cabin, Charisse is beginning to hate living in the forest and is annoyed with her family talking to the animals, though John doesn't know what is bothering her. Meanwhile, Archie goes after a bee hive on a fallen tree at the edge of a tall hill, and despite commands from John and attacking bees, he manages to get the hive.

In a game of hide and seek with Ava (who dumps Sonny), Archie is shot by a tranquilizer dart fired by Mr. Potter's apprentice. John later learns that Archie had somewhat destroyed the back of a restaurant in the woods. After getting information from a weasel (voice of Andy Dick) of what happened, John visits Archie in a jail and tells the bear that he may be too dangerous to be set free and is going to be sold to a Mexican circus. Then, John realizes that Charisse has developed her father's gift of talking to animals, though it has been in her for two weeks now. Later, John held a meeting for every animal in the forest to not give up without a fight no matter what kind of animal expression they have. Everyone agrees to do it in order to free Archie. The animals, led by Charisse, Eric, and Maya, rebel against the loggers and every animal around the world goes on strikes as an effort to free Archie.

Mr. Potter and his apprentice are then attacked by some of the animals at the company, such as a swarm of rats, a fleet of pigeons, a pack of wolves, and Mr. Potter's apprentice is then attacked by the swarm of bees outside the building, while Mr. Potter is cornered by Ava and Joey. Then, when the animals refuse to have twelve acres in their home, the strike keeps growing (even animal pros, such as racing horses and jumping whales are getting on the act). As a deal is made, the Dolittles and the animals have saved the entire forest outside of San Francisco.

At the end, John and Charisse become closer while Archie and Ava mate and have two cubs (a boy and a girl).

Cast

Reception

Like the original film, Dr Dolittle 2 received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a critic score of 43%.

Box office

On its opening weekend, the film grossed $25,037,039 from 3,049 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office, behind The Fast and the Furious. Like the first film, it was the best debut for a Fox film that week. By the end of its run, Dr. Dolittle 2 had grossed $112,952,899 domestically and $63,151,445 internationally, totaling $176,104,344 worldwide.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on June 5, 2001 by J Records. It peaked at 76 on the Billboard 200, 26 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and 10 on the Top Soundtracks. Five singles were spawned from the album, "Do U Wanna Roll (Dolittle Theme)", "Cluck Cluck", "Absolutely Not", "We Fit Together" and "Life Is Good". Allmusic rated this soundtrack four stars out of five.

Information taken from Dr. Dolittle 2: Original Soundtrack liner notes:

The song "Life Is Good" did not appear in the film.