Special effects get better and better. That's what gives a freshness to the sequel to Dr Dolittle: Eddie Murphy version, not Rex Harrison one.
The animals the good doc talks to, a mix of puppetry, computer manipulation and real fur and claw, are "voiced" by an excellent cast. I loved the Hispanic-accented chameleon that nearly busts itself trying to become invisible on each patterned texture it encounters, the ageing beaver with the huskiness of Brando's Mafioso Godfather and a raccoon that talks with Wiseguys menace.
The new plot requires Murphy to locate a mate for a forest bear whose line is threatened with extinction, and so help the forest fauna survive the ethnic cleansing threatened by a logging company. He finds a circus bear. But the animal is temperamental. Even the promise that he'll be the most famous bear in the world - "bigger than Winnie the Pooh" - doesn't persuade him to quit showbusiness for the perils of hibernation, foraging for fish in icy streams and forfeiting the applause that comes from riding a bicycle in a tutu.
Shamelessly anthropomorphic - even to the extent of letting a bear sit on the loo - the film nevertheless generates a holistic benevolence. And some quite good wisecracks. "Do you want a mate?" Murphy asks Ava, the last forest bear in this neck of the woods. "You're real cute," she concedes, "but I don't go inter-species."
Dr Dolittle 2
Cert: certPG
