Robert Downey Jr. says ‘Dolittle’ and ‘Shaggy Dog’ ‘Most Important Films’ in 25 years

Robert Downey Jr. has spoken.

The Oscar contender listed "The Shaggy Dog" from 2006 and the infamous "Dolittle" disaster from 2020 as his most significant works in a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine.

"I finished the Marvel contract and then hastily went into what had all the promise of being another big, fun, well-executed potential franchise in ‘Dolittle,'" Downey Jr. said.

"I had some reservations. Me and my team seemed a little too excited about the deal and not quite excited enough about the merits of the execution. But at that point I was bulletproof. I was the guru of all genre movies. Honestly, the two most important films I’ve done in the last 25 years are ‘The Shaggy Dog,’ because that was the film that got Disney saying they would insure me. Then the second most important film was ‘Dolittle,’ because ‘Dolittle’ was a two-and-a-half-year wound of squandered opportunity."

Tim Allen plays a district attorney in "The Shaggy Dog" who, after getting bit by a sacred dog, becomes a Bearded Collie. Downey Jr. portrays the evil doctor who is responsible for the metamorphosis.

The movie is not particularly remarkable, but for Downey Jr it was the turning point in his career after his arrest in April 1996 for having heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded revolver. Up until that point, he had never been hired by a large studio like Disney. The film "The Shaggy Dog," not "Iron Man," was the one that first reintegrated Downey Jr. into the Hollywood studio system.

The $175 million family tentpole "Dolittle" had some of Downey Jr.'s worst critical receptions of his career and failed at the box office in January 2020. Together with Susan Downey, he co-produced the movie under the Team Downey Productions label. Even though it was a critical and financial failure, the actor still values it as a picture that helped him reevaluate his objectives.

"The stress it put on my missus as she rolled her sleeves up to her armpits to make it even serviceable enough to bring to market was shocking," Downey Jr. recalled of the flop.

"After that point — what’s that phrase? Never let a good crisis go to waste? — we had this reset of priorities and made some changes in who our closest business advisers were."