Dr Dolittle 1998

The film’s most sophisticated thematic move is equating animal language with the repressed self. As a child, John’s father, Archer Dolittle (Ossie Davis), forces him to suppress his gift, delivering the film’s key line: “You have to decide what kind of life you want.” The choice is presented as binary: speak to animals and be marginalized, or silence that part of yourself and succeed in human society.

: Dr. John Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) is a successful physician who suppressed his childhood ability to talk to animals after a traumatic "intervention" by his father. dr dolittle 1998

: Voiced by Albert Brooks, providing a soulful and weary performance as the film's "main patient". The film’s most sophisticated thematic move is equating