Dumbo – 3 out of 5
I’m not the biggest fan of Tim Burton. I find his films to be too similar due to his never-changing aesthetic. However, I am a fan of Disney so when Burton reunited with the House of Mouse to make a live-action Dumbo film I was interested. To be honest, I enjoy these live-action re-imaginings of their animated films (The Jungle Book is incredible) and I was definitely curious to see how this feature would be handled when you consider the source material. For the most part it is enjoyable but, overall, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
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| Of course this adaptation will have the "Baby Mine" sequence because Disney not only wants your money but your tears as well. |
Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) is a circus performer who, after losing his arm in WWI, returns to the Medici Brothers’ Circus to find the circus and his old horse show is no longer what it used to be. Owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) is hoping that a newly purchased pregnant Asian elephant will reinvigorate life into the circus but after the baby is born with extremely large ears his hopes are dashed. He instructs Holt and his children; Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins), to turn this elephant, now named Dumbo, into a clown but they soon learn that this is no ordinary elephant as he can use his large ears to fly. Now, prominent amusement park owner V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) wants to use Dumbo at his park and see his trapeze artist Colette Marchant (Eve Green) ride the elephant as she flies above the audience. However, the circus soon learns that Vandevere cares only about the profit that Dumbo can bring and not so much for the elephant himself.
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| The eyes of a man who has seen an elephant fly. |
When Dumbo is on the right track it is hitting everything it needs to be in order to be sweet, fun and amusing; however, the film suffers from a few things that keep it from soaring to great heights and sorta makes it an okay, decent feature. One of the biggest drawbacks comes in the form of Burton’s tired visual style. It doesn’t help that others have done a similar exaggerated gothic appearance and have done it better but, by this point in the man’s career, it’s sorta played out and tiresome. To add to it, this look feels a bit half-done throughout the film as certain locations and costumes will feel like they got a lot of attention and other areas just feel like Burton and his team just farted it out. This lethargic and incomplete feeling sometimes give the production the impression that Burton is just riding his name (something he is no stranger to doing) and it gives the segments of the movie a half-hearted feel that robs the film of its tone and heart.
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| Honestly, do people still find Michael Buffer cameos fun? To me, they've grown very stale and kinda dumb. |
Additionally, the plot doesn’t flow the best at times and it left a jarring impression. I won’t go as far to say the story progression and tale was a mess but there are definitely times as the plot is progressing and it feels a bit stammer-y and like it is occasionally jumping just a touch too far. There was more than one occasion where the story felt like it needed a small or short scene in-between some moments to smooth things over. This isn’t a huge problem in the film but it did keep it from having a decent pace and made a lot of parts feel very rough around the edges.
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| Like any role that DeVito plays, I would love to see a cut of it with him playing his role as Frank Reynolds. |
Dumbo has these issues but they don’t completely put the brakes on the film. The performances are really good and I felt that Danny DeVito really knocked it out of the park in this one. Honestly, he was so captivating to watch that he made the other performances feel average in comparison. Now the likes of Farrell, Green, Keaton and the two child leads are great in their own right but DeVito was really fun to watch. Finally, let’s talk about the main character; Dumbo.
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| As I watched the film, I thought, "That little girl looks like Thandie Newton." Turns out, she's her daughter. So that explains the resemblance. |
While a lot of pop culture articles that look down on all things new complained about the elephant’s look and said he was poorly created CG, I found him to be quite adorable and the effects to bring him to life pretty impressive. Dumbo was very emotive and so cute that it was easy for him to steal my heart and become enamored with the flying elephant. One of the most impressive elements was his eyes and how they conveyed all sort of emotions and also sold the illusion that there was thinking and feeling creature behind them. Overall, I was really impressive with how they made a “live-action” Dumbo come to life.
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| Come on, you can't say he doesn't look at least a little bit adorable. |
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| Poor Timothy, you were a star in the cartoon and now you're a reference. |
Another element this film did was re-imagined the tale of Dumbo in a way that treated the character like an actual real-life animal and not in the way the carton carried him. There’s a lot references to the cartoon but I particularly enjoyed how they were able to make a modern version (still set in the past) of the story that focused on things the cartoon didn’t. For example, the story explores the inherent cruelty of animals being used for entertainment in the circus and, most importantly, we see Dumbo's relationship with his mother being an important part of his arc. The whole thing is very different from the familiar original but similar enough that it never feels like you weren’t watching Dumbo’s story.
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| It's pretty impressive that they were able to work in pink elephants into the film. Fun Fact: All the pink elephants were played by Johnny Depp...and they're performances were predictably terrible and filled with undeserved ego and overcompensating eccentricities. |
There were undoubtedly some issues with Dumbo. If the film was in more capable and versatile hands the feature might have been just an incredible piece of pure beauty, heart and that good old Disney magic. Now, the Disney magic is still there but just not as strong as it could have been. As it stands, the movie is still sweet, tender, amusing and pretty entertaining. I really enjoyed the cast and was very impressed with the computer effects that made Dumbo a believable element. It has its issues but at least we didn’t have any racist stereotypes as crows in this one.
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