Doctor Dolittle
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- "In 1986, to mark the centenary of Hugh Lofting's birth, new editions of his Doctor Dolittle stories were published, in which derogatory terms and images for certain ethnic groups were removed." --Sholem Stein
Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting. He is a doctor who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in their own languages. He later becomes a naturalist, using his abilities to speak with animals to better understand nature and the history of the world.
Doctor Dolittle first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England, where Doctor John Dolittle lives in the fictional village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh in the West Country.
Doctor Dolittle has a few close human friends, including Tommy Stubbins and Matthew Mugg, the Cat's-Meat Man. The animal team includes Polynesia (a parrot), Gub-Gub (a pig), Jip (a dog), Dab-Dab (a duck), Chee-Chee (a monkey), Too-Too (an owl), the Pushmi-pullyu, and a White Mouse later named simply "Whitey".
Adaptations
There have been a number of adaptations of the Doctor Dolittle stories in other media:
- A 1928 silent animated short by Lotte Reiniger, Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere (Doctor Dolittle and his Animals)
- A 1933 – 1934 NBC radio series.
- A 1967 film musical starring Rex Harrison. See Doctor Dolittle (film).
- A 1970 – 1972 cartoon series Doctor Dolittle, produced at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
- A 1970s stage play by Olga Fricker, Hugh Lofting's sister-in-law.
- A 1973 stage adaptation by the Philadelphia Boys Choir which was used during their concert tour to Belgium and Kenya.
- A 1984 cartoon series The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
- A series (1995 – 2001) of BBC audio books read by Alan Bennett.
- A 1998 – 1999 stage musical by Leslie Bricusse, based on the earlier film musical.
- A touring stage musical, Doctor Dolittle The Musical, which was built in Owensboro, Kentucky and opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in summer 2005.
- A 1998 film, Dr. Dolittle, its 2001 sequel, its 2006 sequel, and its 2008 sequel, two of the four starring Eddie Murphy, based on the stories of Doctor Dolittle. The other two star Kyla Pratt as Dolittle's daughter Maya, who shares her father's gift.
- Chief Wiggum disguises himself as Dolittle to rejoin the BeSharps in Homer's Barbershop Quartet in an episode of The Simpsons.
- Theatreworks USA produced a 60 minute stage musical adaptation in 2007. Written by Randy Courts and Mark St. Germain
