The Doctor Who Can Talk to Animals Comes to Life Again! Doctor Dolittle has been beloved by children since his creation in the early twentieth century. The subject of the forthcoming 2019 film The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, the famous doctor who can speak to animals first appeared in Hugh Lofting's letters to his children during World War I and then later commercially in The Story of Doctor Dolittle, the first book in Lofting's popular children's book series. Written and illustrated by Lofting ...