Dr. John Dolittle has everything a man could want: a thriving career, a beautiful wife and two unique yet adorable daughters. He also is about to sign the biggest financial deal of his life. In short, Dr. Dolittle has the world by the tail.

But then something very strange begins to happen: much to his shock and dismay, the good Dr.'s long-dormant ability to talk to the animals is... unleashed. Now, when Dolittle hears the call of the wild, he can answer. And in no time at all, he finds his perfect life heading straight for the doghouse. But Dr. Dolittle's new four-legged patients are overjoyed with their new healer and flock to his home and office. For the word is out ... The Doctor is in!

A contemporary take on a classic and beloved idea, DR. DOLITTLE stars Eddie Murphy, and also toplines Ossie Davis and Oliver Platt. Betty Thomas directs.

Comparing Murphy with his predecessor in the role also made, Betty Thomas laugh. "Think about Rex Harrison as Dr.Dolittle; then think about Eddie. You'll go,'What!?' And that's exactly what I love about it."

Thomas searched for a way to personalize the story - to make her mark on the film. Part of this was accomplished during the most unexpected times. "I would go home at night, go to sleep and dream the movie. I would start dreaming about it and see it in my head, I started to see this modern comedy with Eddie Murphy driven crazy by talking "comedian" animals.

Although all agreed that Murphy was the perfect 'Dolittle', the actor surprised Thomas with his unease with animals.

However, even that worked in their favor. "Eddie's not real comfortable with animals," says Thomas. "And that's perfect for the character at the beginning of our story, Dolittle is uncomfortable and dismissive of pets, having long suppressed his special ability to talk with them. Then he goes through this amazing transformation that turns his life around I80 degrees."

Murphy's real-life family was also amused by his fear of our four-legged friends, "My brothers in particular," he recalls, "gave me a lot of grief about even being Dr. Dolittle. Many times they would hear me say things such as, 'Hey man, does that dog bite?' I'm leery of animals, so being in this movie sometime, felt a little spooky."

Starring opposite Murphy are veteran actors Ossie Davis, acclaimed for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee, who plays Dolittle's father Archer, and Oliver Platt, recently hailed for his performance in "Bulworth," plays Dolittle's colleague, Dr. Mark Weller.

While acknowledging the material's obvious, comedic potential, Ossie Davis also sees some important themes in DR. DOLITTLE. "Animals just might have something to say," he points out, "if only we could listen to them. It's a good family message, and we're providing it in a way that people can laugh at but also think about."

While Davis' character comes to realize the importance of his son's special gift, Oliver Platt, who plays the greedy and single-minded Dr. Mark Weller, definitely does not get it. "That's Mark's big problem," says Platt "and that's why he was such a fun role to play. He's very greedy and doesn't hide it."

Co-starring are Kristen Wilson as Dolittle's confused yet loving wife Lisa; Kyla Pratt as Dolittle's younger daughter Maya; Raven-Symone as his precocious daughter Charisse; Richard Schiff as Dolittle's more sensible partner; and comic actor Jeffrey Tambor as a testy veterinarian. Taking on critical voice roles for the animals is a "Dream Team" of some of today's most talented and popular comic actors, including Norm Macdonald, Chris Rock, Albert Brooks, Garry Shandling, Julie Kavner, John Leguizamo, Reni Santoni. Ellen DeGeneres, Jenna Elfman and Paul Reubens. So, with the cast in place, it was finally time to talk to the animals.

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EDDIE MURPHY (Dr. John Dolittle) is the recipient, of the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, two People's Choice Awards for Favorite Actor and All-Around Entertainer. a Grammy Award, two additional Grammy nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, three Emmy Award nominations, and two honors from the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), 1985 Star of the Year and their first-ever NATO/ShoWest Star of the Decade. His career encompasses work as a television, film and recording artist, comedy writer, screenwriter, song composer and producer, and film and television director and producer. Murphy made his feature film debut in 1982 opposite Nick Nolte in the hit action-comedy "48 HRS." The commercial success of that film established him as a Hollywood star. He went on to star in "Trading Places," which earned him a Golden Globe Award.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION...

DR. DOLITTLE employs complex, state-of-the-art computer generated effects to bring the animals, and their astounding verbal skills, to life. 'We wanted audiences to believe that these animals are actually responding and talking to Eddie," explains John Davis.

While all the film makers embraced the opportunities that these effects would afford, it would be an understatement to say that Betty Thomas found her first foray into the world of visual effects a little daunting, "Every effects shot is different, presenting its own problem," explains Thomas. "I remember asking visual effects supervisor Jon Farhat, 'How can I learn when you change the rules with every shot?'"

For example, Thomas quickly learned that different animals required different arrangements, necessitating an ever-changing environment around which the effects would be placed. "Sometimes we would film the live animal first, like the tiger, because he is less controllable and we didn't exactly know what he was going to do. But we usually filmed the dog first then Eddie, then both of them together. It was not a predictable process."

Murphy agrees: "The visual effects were the hardest part of the movie to pull off. It was like putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together, and sometimes I was just one piece of the puzzle. But it all came together when the effects people took these little pieces and turned it into a scene."

The puzzle-like process also resulted in Murphy several times finding himself performing opposite a decidedly non-animal (human or otherwise) "co-star." This, too, presented its own challenges. "It's extremely difficult," he claims, "to have your performance be consistent because half the time you're talking to a tennis ball or a moving piece of string."

The visual effects process enabled the animals' mouths to move to dialogue, leaving the impression that they're talking to their new "doc." Equally important, the effects also gave each animal a real expression, helping to make their voices come alive. Explains Farhat, "The expressions make the difference between an animal just moving its mouth and the animal becoming a good actor."

DR. DOLITTLE marks Farhat's second collaboration with Murphy, having supervised the memorable effects on "The Nutty Professor." 'The earlier film provided at least one valuable lesson for DR. DOLITTLE. "One of the keys to the success of 'The Nutty Professor'," insists Farhat, "is that the eye lines were perfect, enabling Eddie's many characters to interact and speak with one another. We used the same principle in this film: Eddie has to be talking to the animals but the animals also have to be talking to him. If their gaze did not lock on to Eddie, the audience won't believe it."

Thomas adds, "The big challenge for Jon was that he had to make it real. His work has to be less noticed than noticed. His work should be invisible." Indeed, the effects, as impressive as they are, serve a much greater purpose than to simply dazzle the viewer. Says David T. Friendly: "Betty and Jon have used the visual effects to humanize the film. It's not technology for technology's sake, it's technology that also helps to fuel a very human, heartfelt story."

Before employing their effects magic, Farhat and his team required some critical help from another team on the production. "First," he explains, "we needed to get the animals to 'talk' and then we could alter it and fine tune it later." Getting the almost 100 animals to open and close their mouths on cue fell to head animal trainer Mark Forbes. Forbes put together a team of trainers handling different types of animals, from tigers to llamas, dogs to monkeys and raccoons to elephants.

To facilitate their difficult task, the trainers were given the script two months prior to principal photography. They broke the script down for each animal and then began the training process. First, each trainer got his/her respective animals used to distractions. In addition, a few of the animals, including 'Lucky,' the dog, were introduced to Murphy weeks prior to the start of principal photography. Given Murphy's unease with the animals, this proved particularly helpful. Editor Peter Teschner also made significant contributions to the animals' performances. "Peter found the perfect takes of the animal mouthing and 'talking,' says Thomas, who also credits director of photography Russell Boyd, production designer William Elliot and costume designer Sharen Davis with helping to make the animal and human interactions look real.