Waddington/Letraset Panorama: Doctor Dolittle (PR21)

The film "Doctor Dolittle" was released in the UK on the 12th of December 1967, & in the US on the 19th. It was a spectacular failure, although I remember being taken to see it at the Marble Arch Odeon at least four times for children's parties…

The Doctor Dolittle Panorama has the date MCMLXVII (1967), but this clearly refers to the film & not necessarily the Panorama; the most probable date of this Panorama is 1968. Waddingtons placed one order per year, and they had many other Doctor Dolittle products such as jigsaw puzzles; 1969 would have been very late to cash in on a flop; QED.

Character Panoramas no longer use the 3-foot wide size of the original twelve Panoramas, but are reduced to 555mm (N.B.: sorry for the mixed measurements, but there are no near equivalents).

The first three Character Panoramas seem to have been treated by Waddington's as one-offs, not being listed in later Waddington's trade catalogues, as all the full-size Panoramas & the Busy Bees were.

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For a single sheet of transfers, to repeat the figure of the Doctor on his horse no less than four times (with plenty of other repeated characters as well) seems extraordinarily mean. Perhaps the artwork had to be prepared in a great hurry. But at least you can have the fun of counting the repeated (& reflected) figures!

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The toy industry was highly invested in this film; even Aurora models brought out plastic kits of the Pushmi-Pullyu (in the exact pose shown twice on the transfer sheet) & the Doctor's ship, the Flounder. Waddington's themselves came out with jigsaws — & doubtless other products.

Picture Credit: The SPLAT Scan Archives