“Just when I thought I had seen everything.”
After finding financial success in the live action remakes of “Alice in Wonderland”, “Cinderella”, “The Jungle Book” and “Beauty and the Beast”, Disney greenlit a slew of live action remakes of their classic animated films. Disney is planning on releasing four live action remakes this year, the first of which is “Dumbo”.
A remake of the 1941 animated film of the same name, “Dumbo” follows the tale of a baby elephant with giant ears that allow him to fly. While the original mostly featured a cast of anthropomorphic animals, the remake instead tells the story of the human members of the Medici Brothers Circus.
When Holt Farrier returns to the Medici Brother’s Circus after World War One, he learns that the circus has fallen upon hard times. Max Medici, the owner of the circus, has had to sell off large portions of the circus in order to keep it open. He makes an investment in a pregnant elephant, however, who has a baby with enormous ears that allow it to fly.
In my opinion, “Dumbo” had more potential to be great than most of the other live action Disney remakes. Instead of a shot-for-shot remake of the original, 2019’s “Dumbo” boasted an original story with all-new characters. While it still felt unnecessary, I ended up enjoying this remake more than I thought I would.
The film is directed by Tim Burton, who brought us classic films such as “Beetlejuice”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and 1989’s “Batman”. While Burton has sort of lost his way in recent years, his fingerprints are all over “Dumbo”. Certain scenes have a very gothic, Burtonesque vibe. Combined with Ben Davis’s beautiful cinematography, this aesthetic creates a film which is never boring to watch.
One of the standout aspects of “Dumbo” is the score by Burton’s frequent collaborator, Danny Elfman. Elfman’s score brings life to many scenes which would otherwise be lifeless.
The performances in “Dumbo” are a mixed bag. Colin Farrell gives the best performance in the film as Holt Farrier, a recent widower trying to reconnect with his children after returning from war. His children, however, prove how hard it is to find good child actors in Hollywood. Nico Parker does an alright job as his daughter, Milly, but Finley Hobbins is laughably bad as his son, Joe.
Danny DeVito does fine as Max Medici, the owner of the circus. It occurred to me that DeVito seems to play the exact same character in every movie he is in, and I’m not sure if he does it well or not. If you like Danny DeVito, this film gives you two more hours of him doing his usual schtick.
Michael Keaton gives a very hit-or-miss performance as V. A. Vandevere, an entrepreneur that tries to take advantage of Dumbo. In some scenes it feels like we are finally getting crazy Keaton back as he seems to channel Beetlejuice, but in other scenes, he’s just bad.
The story is also generic and uninteresting. Without the amazing CGI that makes Dumbo so darn cute, the film would lose audience interest pretty darn fast.
While not as bad as it could have been, “Dumbo” still feels like a missed opportunity. Stellar cinematography and a great score can’t save a film from a boring story and mostly lackluster performances.
While children might get a kick out of seeing a CGI elephant fly around the circus, for most of us, I’d recommend sitting this one out.
3/5 Stars
