DR. DOLITTLE 2

“He’s a doctor, and he talks to animals,” says a dog named Lucky (he sounds a lot like Norm MacDonald) who’s trying to explain the plot of Dr. Dolittle 1. The point is that those who missed the original won’t be in the dark this time around. That pretty much says it. Director Steve Carr’s sequel isn’t bad, and it isn’t great. It’s just, well, a movie about a guy who talks to animals.

This time around, Doc is summoned by a ma oso beaver to save a plot of forest about to be razed by a rapacious developer (Jeffrey Jones) and his toady (Kevin Pollak). Doc’s mission: to reintroduce an endangered species of bear, represented by Andy (Steve Zahn), to the woods. Problem is, Andy is a circus performer who balks at the idea of roughing it. So Dolittle moves his bemused family to the woods and tries to get Andy acclimated. Betcha can’t guess how it all pans out.

Highlights include a drunken monkey and some randy ursine lovin’, with Lisa Kudrow as Andy’s roly-poly paramour. And though their performances are enhanced by computers and animatronics, the arkload of animals here play their parts with aplomb. A lot of the jokes are pretty lame, but the kids in the audience were laughing their heads off. And in a movie like this, isn’t that all that matters? At Clarks Pond, Auburn, Biddeford, Brunswick, Falmouth, Lewiston, Oxford, Wells, Windham, the Lilac Mall, Newington, Salisbury, and the Strand.

— Mike Miliard