 The film exceeded its original budget of $6 million by three times, and recouped $9 million upon release in 1967, earning only $6.2 million in theatrical rentals and becoming a box office bomb.The film received mixed to negative critical reviews, but through the studio's intense lobbying, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won awards for Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects.In early Victorian England, Matthew Mugg (Anthony Newley) takes his young friend Tommy Stubbins (William Dix) to visit eccentric Doctor John Dolittle (Rex Harrison) for an injured duck that Matthew had acquired from a local fisherman.