Although I don't particularly like most comedies, Dr Dolittle 2 was pretty funny at times. Not having seen the first movie, I'm not sure how the sequel differs, if at all. We have Dr John Dolittle (Eddie Murphy), world renown medical doctor and veterinary doctor who can talk to animals. This man is busy 24x7, which can be a strain for his family: wife Lisa (Kristen Wilson) and daughters Maya (Kyla Pratt) and Charisse (Raven-SymonŽ). Busy enough so that when he comes home to celebrate Charisse's birthday, it's quite a shock to meet her boyfriend Eric (Lil' Zane).

As if that's not enough problems, Dr Dolittle is summoned to meet with Don Beaver, who lives in a forest near Marin (Dr Dolittle lives in San Francisco, right there the mark of a good movie :-). It seems the forest animals have a problem -- a logging company is chopping down the whole forest, leaving the denizens without hearth or home for themselves and their little ones. Don Beaver (head of the International Brotherhood of Animals Local 534) requests the help of the good doctor, or else.

But what can Dr Dolittle do? He asks his wife who is a lawyer. Apparently nothing much can be done she says, unless there's some sort of endangered animal living in the forest. But is there? He asks an animal expert at the local zoo. Why yes, there is an endangered species. There is only one female Pacific Northwest Bear living in the forest, although that's not enough since one animal is not enough for species survival (and government protection).

Well then, we need to find her a mate. Enter Archie the bear, a city bear by upbringing and a circus performer by training. Archie has no wilderness skills but he does know show tunes. Dr Dolittle convinces Archie to travel up north to meet the other bear, who's name is Ava as we find out (and voiced by Lisa Kudrow). But she doesn't want anything to do with a city bear who can't provide for her and her offspring. And besides, she has a boyfriend, a simple-minded Grizzly Bear who keeps asking Ava if she's in heat yet.

Ok, so now Dr Dolittle has to teach Archie how to be a wild bear. How to catch fish (Archie almost drowns), eat grubs ("I'm not eating that!"), sleep in a cave and hibernate ("I'm not sleeping for 6 months with a butt plug!"). And of course how to win the lady bear friends. And all this has to be done in one month, for at the end of that month the logging company can start on the forest. Company president Joseph Potter (Jeffrey Jones) and chief lackey and lawyer Jack Riley (Kevin Pollack) are going to make sure that Archie fails, but they didn't think about contending with all of the forest animals either.

In general, Dr Dolittle 2 is a simple kid's movie. The animals are extremely funny. Lucky the Dog want to hook up with a foxy wolf, there's an alcolohic French monkey, Don Beaver and his boys, a Mexican chameleon who can't blend in to the background (though he thinks he can) and others. Lots of one-liners and anthropomorphizing and body function jokes.

But, it is a bit too oriented at the younger audience. Nothing wrong with that, it just means that some of the jokes are very simplistic. One of the great aspects of Aladdin is that although it is a children's movie, a lot of the jokes you have to be an adult to understand, either because of the subject matter or because the references are too old. There's less here for adults, except for the adults who are kids at heart.

Acting-wise there's not that much in the movie. Other than Eddy Murphy the animals have more screen time than people, it seems, which doesn't give the real actors much time to work with. Sure, there are plenty of celebrity voices (Kudrow, Norm Macdonald as Lucky, Molly Shannon and others in animal parts), but that's not really acting.

In the end, Dr Dolittle 2 is a nice and funny kids movie that may leave some adults a bit bored. There's a mixture of real animals and animatronics so one thing you could try to do is identify the real animals. Other than that it's not a long movie so just endure it and let your kids enjoy themselves.