Tag Archives: animals

Film and TV Reviews

Dolittle

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Please note: There may be spoilers in this post.

So last night me and the hubby watched Dolittle starring Robert Downey, Jr. I was a bit sceptical because I had seen that the reviews weren’t that great.

Previous Versions

This isn’t the first time the story of Dr Dolittle has been told, we’ve had two previous versions starring Rex Harrison and Edie Murphy. The Rex Harrison version which was filmed in 1967 gaining 6.2/10 from IMDb and Edie Murphy’s version marked 5.4/10. IMDb gave Robert Downey Jr’s version 5.6/10.

My Thoughts

My first concern regarding this film was Robert Downey Jr’s accent. I had read comments that he chose to use a Welsh accent, which is notoriously hard for actors to nail and I’m not sure that Robert Downey Jr nailed it either! A lot of the lines he said were mumbled and it was hard to hear what accent he was using. I did wonder why he chose a Welsh accent as the author of Doctor Dolittle, Hugh Lofting, didn’t depict him as Welsh. Rex Harrison gave a very English gentleman performance and Edie Murphy, obviously, had an American take on it.

But on researching the reason, I found out that Robert Downey Jr based it on a man named William Price. He was a Welsh druidic doctor in the 19th century who had controversial ideas, including cremation of bodies, which was very taboo back in those days. Dr Price was a colourful figure who wore unusual, bright clothes and a fox-fur hat.

The premise of the film is that the Queen of England lies near death and in order to save her and at the same time save his house, which only belongs to him whilst the Queen is alive, he embarks on his journey to find the cure.

I thought that overall the film was quite entertaining, I think it would appeal to children, as there is a lot of body humour, like when a dragon he cures from belly ache manages to break wind in Dr Dolitte’s face for a solid ten seconds, (my husband laughed at that!).

But the highlight for me was the dialogue between the animals, it was quick and witty and there were some laugh out loud moments from both of us. A particular favourite was the dragonfly finding out his girlfriend was getting married to somebody else:

You come to me for this on the day of my daughter’s wedding?
Wait a minute, which daughter?
It’s not… Sheila? My Sheila? She’s getting married?
To a scorpion named Dylan.
Sorry, boy scout, I guess Sheila’s into bad boys now.
We were gonna spend the rest of our lifespans together.

This was an enjoyable film (excluding the dodgy accent), which in these days of doom and gloom, is a nice escapism for a couple of hours. So I would give it:

7.5/10

Days Out

Marwell Zoo

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With the current Government procedures in place, tickets are released four days ahead of your visit and these must be booked online via their website.

Prices:

Adult Entry – £19.78
Child Entry – £16.19
Family Entry – £68.35
Under 3 Entry – £0.00
Carer Entry – £0.00

Length of time spent here:

Approximately six hours.

My Review

I went with my husband Phil, daughter Amy and grandson Harry. After a long time of not having gone out except for walks, we felt it was time to go and visit an attraction nearby to us and so we decided on Marwell Zoo.

Phil and I had taken Harry here before, when he was a lot smaller, so now he was walking and talking and taking an interest in everything around him, I was looking forward to seeing how he reacted to the animals.

I was surprised by how much the car park was already filling up, so we joined the queue to get in, abiding by the two metre distance and as everyone had already obtained their tickets online, the queue was quite quick.

We obtained a map of the park and after a quick toilet stop, not the cafe as it was only open for takeaways, we made our way to the penguines.

 

marwell-map

Even though we told Harry they were penguins, he insisted they were ducks, so as he wasn’t too wrong, we let it go.

There was a one-way system round the park, which people seemed to follow on the whole and when there was an inside exhibit, there were always keepers to make sure that there was a certain number of people inside at any one time.

giraffe
Amy and Harry

We headed to the giraffes, where Harry got very excited at seeing them and even said, “Giraffe,” the first time he has said that.  We went inside the giraffe shed, where we could get up close and personal and Harry was transfixed by them. So much so, that we bought him a toy giraffe at the gift shop and he kept hold of it all the time.

We followed the one way system around the zoo and saw some rhinos, zebras, a cheetah, leopard and a tiger. When Harry saw the tiger he shouted out, “Roar,” which was so cute.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and then decided to go to the Tropical House to see the frogs, birds, tortoises, mice and goliath beetles and the sloth, which all were excited to see.  There was a long queue for the Tropical House, which when you have a 19 month old boy it is difficult to keep him amused, but after bribes of chocolate buttons and juice, he was very well behaved and we were soon in there.

sloth

We did see the sloth, but he was hidden in the branches of a tree, so I have used the image from the Marwell Zoo website, as you can’t see him in our photographs!

Harry loved the fish swimming in the pools and he pointed at the birds, shouting “Birds,” as he did so.

We walked around the edge of the zoo, passing a snow leopard, emus and some hippos and we ended up at the gift shop where we just had to buy Harry a giraffe.

It was a lovely day, people kept their social distance, there were members of staff manning the toilets, the cafes were open for takeaways, all in all, it was very well organised.

tired

As we left Marwell, Harry was asleep, tired out after doing a lot of walking and no doubt dreaming all about the animals and especially the giraffes!