Dumbo is the first of three Disney live-action remakes to debut in 2019, but how does it stack up to its original?
2019 is the year of Disney live-action remakes, with Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King getting the full reimagined treatment. With the huge box office success from Disney’s previous live-action retellings, will dumbo soar to the same ranks?
“Hi, baby Dumbo. Welcome to the circus. We’re all family here, no matter how small.”
Directed by Tim Burton, Dumbo follows the story of a traveling circus run by Max Medici (Danny DeVito), and his cast of circus performers lead by Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), who’s just returned from war. In order to bring more business to the circus, Max purchases a pregnant elephant known as Jumbo, hoping a baby elephant would draw more ticket sales. However, once Baby Jumbo is born, he’s immediately shunned for his abnormally large ears. Max places Holt and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finely Hobbins) in charge of the elephants, and hiding Baby Jumbo’s ears. But it doesn’t take long for Milly and Joe to discover that their Baby Jumbo is no ordinary elephant, and with the help of a feather, Baby Jumbo can use his ears to take flight. With this new found talent, Max places Baby Jumbo in the spotlight, but this only leads a troubling start, and the nickname Dumbo. However, after a second chance act, Dumbo is finally able to defy the odds and soar. V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) an entrepreneur in the entertainment industry catches word of Medici’s flying elephant and offers him a business partnership at his newest venture “Dreamland.”Of course things quickly go south, and with the help of Colette Marchant (Eva Green) Vandervere’s prized talent, Medici’s troupe must free Dumbo and his mom before it’s too late.
Right off the bat, the very first thing you should except from this reimagining of Dumbo, is that is it very different from its original. While the original came it at just over an hour long, this new retelling comes in at just under two hours, so expect some added details. Even though I applaud Disney and Burton for taking risks with this property, I don’t think it necessarily paid off in the end. Unfortunately, a good amount of this movie is CGI, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; when it’s done correctly. However, the entire look of this film somehow screamed weirdly oversaturated, yet dull at the same time. I could tell Burton was trying to go for that storybook type look, but instead read similar to his past Disney entry of Alice in Wonderland. Even so, there are still quite a few redeeming factors to the film, including the opening. Hearing that instrumental version of Casey Jr. and seeing him chugging along the tracks, got me very hopeful for what was to come. And as for Dumbo himself, well he was as adorable as ever, even though some of the performances with the cast fell flat. Obviously it can be hard to act with any object or character that isn’t really there, but as an audience member I shouldn’t be able to catch that. Ultimately, the entire film kept me waiting for that Disney spark to hit, but it never quite soared those heights.
“You have something very rare. You have wonder. You have mystique. You have magic. Come with me. Together, we can soar on that elephant’s wings.”
Now, while Dumbo might not be my favorite of Disney’s live-action retellings, I do have to give props to the world building in the film. Dreamland reminded me so much of the Disney parks, that I actually wanted to visit it. I’m interested to see if anyone else made the connection to The Carousel of Progress or Tomorrowland within the Museum of Sciences in Dreamland? However, I’m not quite sure if this was Burton’s intention, as Dreamland isn’t necessarily the best parallel for the Disney parks. Another connection I noticed this film made to the Disney Parks was the Dumbo ride itself. It was definitely an interesting choice to make the human characters ride Dumbo in this film, as that never happened in the original. Was a flying elephant not enough for audiences, did they need someone to ride him? Then it hit me, the Dumbo ride in the parks – you ride Dumbo! Very clever Disney, you’ve seen the characters ride Dumbo in the movie, now ride him in the parks.
Overall, Dumbo was a valiant effort of risk taking on Disney’s part, however I don’t think it quite checks all the boxes. With a mix of some moderate performances, and over the top visuals, Dumbo definitely has a few hidden gems, you just have to be willing to look for them.
