Hugh Lofting
Dr. Dolittle (also written as Doctor Dolittle) is a 1998 American fantasy comedy film directed by Betty Thomas, written by Larry Levin and Nat Mauldin, and starring Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis, and Oliver Platt. The film was based on the series of children's stories of the same name by Hugh Lofting, but used no material from any of the novels; the main connection is the name and a doctor who can speak to animals, although the Pushmi-Pullyu, a much-loved feature of the books, notably makes a very brief appearance in a couple of scenes. The first novel, "The Story of Doctor Dolittle" (1920) had originally and previously been filmed in 1967 as a musical of the same name, which was a closer (albeit still very loose) adaptation of the book. The 1967 film was a box office bomb, but became a cult classic.