Doctor Dolittle and his animals

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Doctor Dolittle and his animals is a children's book by the English writer Hugh Lofting , which was first published in 1920 under the title The Story of Doctor Dolittle and formed the start of a whole series of books. It has also been filmed several times.

action

John Dolittle lives with his sister in the small town of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh and was originally a doctor for people. However, his love for animals and his willingness to take them into his home put off both his sister and his patients. Finally, the doctor decides to only treat animals, whereby he benefits from understanding the language of animals, which he learned with the help of the parrot Polynesia .

As in the apes in Africa is an outbreak of disease, the doctor with the parrot makes Polynesia , the crocodile, the monkey Chee-Chee , the dog Jip , duck Dab-Dab , the pig Gub-Gub and the owl Too-Too with a rented ship on the way there. There he meets the king of the Jolliginki, who forbids Dolittle to pass due to bad experiences with other whites and locks him in prison. The group manages to escape by a trick so that the doctor can finally cure the sick animals of Africa. When it is time to return to England, the animals coming from Africa stay at home while the push-me-pull , which has a head on the front and back of the body, joins the group. You outsmart pirates, free a boy and save his uncle. By exhibiting the unknown shock-me-drawing, Dr. Dolittle enough money to return to Puddleby rich and pay off his debts.

Film adaptations

In the 1930s, Lotte Reiniger , who still knew Lofting personally, created several silhouette films about the book based on the drawings made by the author . Plans to make a whole series of it and film the entire book failed due to lack of money. The result was the three eight-minute long films The Journey to Africa , Dr. Dolittle in danger as well as In the lion's den .

In 1967, an elaborate Hollywood film musical version Doctor Dolittle was created , which combined motifs from various narratives. Directed by Richard Fleischer . Dr. Dolittle was played by Rex Harrison and Samantha Eggar , Anthony Newley , Richard Attenborough and William Dix ​​also played . In fact, not only was the film not a huge success, it nearly ruined the 20th Century Fox film studio , which only recovered from the financial damage in 1973 with a re-release of The Sound of Music . Still, he received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, at the 1968 Academy Awards . The visual effects received an award , while the song (If I Could) Talk to the Animals , sung by Rex Harrison, won the Oscar for best song .

The American cartoon series The further Adventures of Doctor Dolittle was created from 1970 to 1972 . Pidax Film released the complete series on DVD in November 2018, including the last, 17th episode, which was not dubbed in German.

In 1998 and 2001, Eddie Murphy presented the veterinarian in modern versions of the theme that have little in common with the original, such as speaking to animals.

In 2020, The Fantastic Journey of Dr. Dolittle ( Dolittle ) released another film adaptation.

Sequels

Hugh Lofting also wrote other novels about the odd vet: Doctor Dolittle's Floating Island , Doctor Dolittle's Post Office , Doctor Dolittle's Circus , Doctor Dolittle's Zoo , Doctor Dolittle's Greatest Voyage , Doctor Dolittle on the Moon, and Doctor Dolittle's Animal Opera . Posthumously were still Doctor Dolittle mysterious lake , Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary and Doctor Dolittle new adventures published.

Adaptation

German book editions

The book was first translated into German by Edith Jacobsohn in 1926 and was published by Jacobsohns Verlag Williams & Co. After 1945 it was published by Cecilie Dressler Verlag . A current translation by Gisbert Haefs is from 2005.

  • Doctor Dolittle and his animals , Süddeutsche Zeitung / Library, 2005, ISBN 3-86615115-2

As an audio book:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Trivia on Doctor Dolittle. Internet Movie Database , accessed January 16, 2018 .
  2. ^ David Mansour: From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century . Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7407-9307-3 , pp. 124 ( google.de [accessed on January 16, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Doctor Dolittle on pidax-film.de
  4. ^ Theodor Brüggemann, Friedrich Stephan: Contemporary history in children's books: Der Williams-Verlag (1926–1954). Lecture, Cologne 2001. PDF Online, 2010

Web links