Script

SIDE 1

The year is 1837. We are in Puddleby-On-The-Marsh.

A fishing village in the west of England.

My name is Madeline Mugg. Maddie for short. I m Irish and I m the local Cats Meat vendor, which means I sell fish and meat scraps for all the cats in Puddleby, and that s how I got to know Doctor Dolittle.

My name is Tommy Stubbins. I m just a kid. But John Dolittle is the most amazing human being I ever met in my entire life!

Doctor Dolittle is the only man in the history of the world who ever learned how to talk to the animals!

He knows everythin there is to know about science, an the sun an the moon an the stars!

He s altogether a marvelous man  and he understands the Irish. He can blarney with the best of us.

Everyone loves Doctor Dolittle. He is far and away the most popular man in Puddleby.

He has his medical practice in a small house just outside the village.

SIDE 2

Mind you, Jip seemed perfectly happy with the gout pills. You see, that s the difference between animals and people, Maddie. Animals don t complain!

The truth is, Doctor, you prefer animals to people!

Animals are so much nicer than people! I care about animals! That s probably why I m such a terrible people doctor!

(POLYNESIA speaks for the first time.)

Then you should be an animal doctor.

(thoughtfully)
An animal doctor?

Why not? I could bring you hundreds of patients. Mildred was saying just the other day that there isn t a decent animal doctor for miles around!

Who s Mildred?

Farmer Green s cow.

You mean you spoke to her? Animals can actually talk to one another?

Well, of course we can! Do you think we re all dumb?

I  uh  uh  no!! No. I knew that parrots could talk, of course&

Parrots are the finest linguists in the animal kingdom. I speak over two thousand languages, including Dodo and Unicorn.

Unicorn?

I had a classical education.