First off, I'd like to say that I wasn't at fan of the first Dr. Dolittle. No, I'm not talking about the fabulous original starring Rex Harrison. I'm talking about that crappy one a couple years back starring Eddie Murphy. I don't think I laughed once. While the inevitable sequel is by no means a good movie, it does surpass it's predecessor many times over.

In Dolittle 2, Murphy returns as the title character, a physician who has the ability to talk to the animals. Since acquiring his gift in the first picture, Dolittle has become quite a celebrity in the animal kingdom, and seems to have unlimited patients. Unfortunately, his job has been coming before his family and this creates much tension in the Dolittle household. Dolittle's troubles become worse when he decides to help a group of wild animals defend their forest against evil land developers. This, of course, puts even more strain on the turbulent relationship between the doctor and his daughter, a typical teenager with a surprising secret.

Dr. Dolittle 2 is very tame in terms of it's comedy. It's far less vulgar then the first making it much more family oriented. What few good jokes the film does provide come courtesy of the talking animals. In fact, this film has managed to assemble a pretty decent vocal cast including Michael Rappaport, Steve Zahn, and Lisa Kudrow. The live actors are pretty boring. Murphy seems on cruise control. He does nothing special here. This seems to be all about the paycheck. Following his brilliant multi-character turn in Nutty Professor 2 and his high energy, likable voice over work in Shrek, this is a major disappointment. Kevin Pollock and Michael McKean are the villains and completely uninteresting ones at that.

Dr. Dolittle 2 is harmless but it's also boring. It's messages about the importance of family and keeping the environment safe seem noble, but their trapped in a convoluted mess of a movie that rarely manages to bring a smile to the face. Murphy is an actor of considerable range, but here his talent is wasted yet again. Dolittle 2 did little for me.