Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts is the fifth film in the updated franchise. Directed by Alex Zamm (Inspector Gadget 2), this direct-to-video film can only be described as innocuous. With talki8ng animals and the slimmest of what might be considered a plot; Million Dollar Mutts might appeal to very young children but doesn’t really have anything to offer teenagers or adults. There’s a cadre of talking animals and various scenes of pets in ridiculous costumes (biker, tutu, jogging clothes). It’s harmless but cheesy film. However, Dr. Doolittle: Million Dollar Mutts might make a decent babysitter for the little kids.
Shocked to learn that it will take seven years to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a veterinarian, Maya Dolittle (Kyla Pratt) begins to search for more immediate ways she can help animals in need. Right around this time, media celebrity Tiffany Monaco (Tegan Moss), comes to Maya with an idea. Since Maya can talk to animals and understand their speech, Tiffany believes Maya might be able to help celebrities with pet related problems. Further, with Tiffany’s media savvy and Maya’s knowledge of animals, Tiffany believes the two will make great business partners–she envisions a network television show that would feature celebrity pets and other animal related topics. At first, Maya is excited, believing the show would allow her to help needy animals. However, she quickly realizes that her contract with slick agent Rick Beverley (Jason Bryden) doesn’t allow her to decide content of the show and she becomes quickly disillusioned.
Viewed purely as a piece of escapist entertainment young girls, Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts is no High School Musical but it does offer an attractive cast, hip fashions, mother-daughter conflicts and a bevy of smart-alecky animals that speak via CG-enhanced mouths. Kyla Pratt (who played Murphy’s daughter in the two theatrical features) is a capable lead, avoiding the broad and wide-eyed over-acting, stale line reads, and poor comic timing that tends to plague direct-to-video releases. Brandon Jay McLaren plays well opposite Pratt, though their chaste almost-romance lacks any real chemistry. McLaren’s hunk is a sensible and decent guy likely to appeal to the movie’s target audience of young girls. Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts may appeal to tween girls but everyone else is guaranteed to experience a huge case of boredom.
The film is framed at 1.78:1 and is delivered in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. It’s a bright, sharp picture for the most part with pleasingly saturated colors and very accurate flesh tones. The image does appear soft on a couple of occasions and I noticed a couple of edge halos but none was severe enough to interfere with the viewing experience.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix stays mostly confined to the front channels for much of the film’s running time. Occasionally music finds its way to the surrounds and a climactic chase through a production studio’s soundstages and backlot gives the film its only opportunities to exploit its surround channels. They’re used well for those few moments, but the LFE channel is pretty much forgotten in this mix.
Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts does have some special features, all of which are presented in 480p.
Tiffany’s Tricked-Out Cell Phone is a collection of three featurettes about various aspects of making the picture. The costume designer speaks about creating the costumes for the menagerie of animals in the cast in one featurette, and in the second, she talks about creating clothes and make-up for the two female stars of the picture. A third featurette is a brief storyboard to live action comparison montage using split screen. Played together, these three features run only a total of 4 ½ minutes.
No Business Like Show Business is the film’s EPK making-of documentary featuring brief interviews with the director, the production designer, several of the actors, and the special effects supervisor discussing quickly the process for making the animals talk. This lasts 8 minutes.
Star Tour: Dolittle Style is a brief tour of four of the studio sets using during production. It lasts 5 minutes.
A 1080p trailer for Marley & Me.
A second disc contains a DVD copy of the movie in anamorphic widescreen.
