John Dolittle is a very busy doctor with a wife and two daughters, and he likes his ordinary life very much. But that's all over when Dr. Dolittle gets a bad bump on the head. The next thing Dolittle learns is that not only can he understand what animals are saying when they bark, bleat, meow, but he can also talk back to them. A dog calls him a bonehead, he hears a guinea pig singing songs, and he has an argument with a couple of rats who hang out in a Dumpster! Soon all the animals in town are coming to him for medical advice. Is he imagining it? Is this a nightmare? Will it ever stop? Dolittle doesn't know. He only knows that something has to change or he's going to lose his mind.