'Dolittle' is a hot mess, but Robert Downey Jr.'s charms captures the audience's attention

As one might expect for a movie with a lot of animals in it, “Dolittle” is a mess — though not quite the giant pile of poo that industry wags have been expecting since its April 2019 release date was pushed back for reported reshoots and tinkering.

That rebuilding has left a rickety story structure, with comic voice work thrown on like a slapdash coat of paint. One can see the seams at every turn, along with the grinding labor it took to get this movie over the finish line. But even in its disheveled state, there are moments of charm and wit.

An animated — in the literal sense, not the figurative — prologue shows us a young Dr. John Dolittle, a veterinarian with a caring tone and an uncanny ability to understand what animals are saying. The good doctor falls in love with Lily (Kasia Smutnaik), an explorer, and together they have adventures around the world. But when Lily attempts an ocean crossing and dies in a storm, Dolittle retreats from the world in his animal sanctuary, unseen by other humans for years.

That solitude is broken by two young people. Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett) brings a wounded squirrel, shot by Tommy in a hunting accident. And Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado), a lady in waiting for Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley), summons Dolittle to Buckingham Palace, where the queen is gravely ill.

Dolittle arrives at the palace and instantly deduces that the queen has been poisoned, and the only cure is a rare tree on a far off island — the very island Lily was trying to reach when her ship sank. Dolittle sets sail on his own ship, with Stubbins as a new apprentice learning how to care for the many animals, a group that includes a friendly polar bear (voiced by John Cena), a cowardly gorilla (voiced by Rami Malek), a helpful goose (voiced by Octavia Spencer), a panicky ostrich (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani), and a parrot, Poly, who provides (in the voice of Emma Thompson) both sage wisdom and the story’s narration.

There’s also a plot afoot, a conspiracy between the devious Lord Badgley (Jim Broadbent) and the queen’s personal physician, Dr. Blair Müdfly (Michael Sheen), who knew Dolittle back in school. Mustache-twirling villainy ensues, in scenes that greatly resemble Inspector Fix’s pursuit of Phileas Fogg in “Around the World in 80 Days.”

How Antonio Banderas, as the king of a far-away land where a clue to the tree’s location, factors into this is anyone’s guess. The Oscar nominee is game to be silly as a rejected “Indiana Jones” villain, in a sequence so choppy that one suspects it used to be a lot longer and noisier.

“Dolittle” remains quite noisy in other ways, namely with all those celebrities giving voice to the various animals. Besides those already mentioned, there are unremarkable voice turns by Tom Holland, Craig Robinson, Selena Gomez, Marion Cotillard and Ralph Fiennes.

One wishes director Stephen Gaghan (“Syriana”) had gone the opposite direction, showing Dolittle making animal sounds that he could understand but the audience couldn’t. Downey, who struggles mightily with a Welsh accent and a script overloaded with fart humor, could have performed the entire movie chirps and roars, and it would have been glorious. As it is, Downey tries mightily to keep this leaky vessel moving, and he can’t be blamed when it sinks.

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‘Dolittle’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, January 17, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG for some action, rude humor and brief language. Running time: 102 minutes.