Dumbo - Review
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Alan Arkin
When Tim Burton was announced as the director of 2019's reimagining of Dumbo, the fit could not have appeared more perfect. After all, Burton has a long cinematic history of exploring the lives of people who have been made outsiders by society, such as Edward Scissorhands or Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Will Burton's unique cinematic voice take Dumbo (2019) to soaring new heights?
Max Medici (DeVito), owner of the struggling Medici Brothers' Circus, recruited the Ferrier family to take care of baby Dumbo, an elephant born with oversized ears. After discovering that he can fly, Dumbo is prized to be the circus's star attraction to help boost the flailing business. However, Dumbo's ability draws the attention of entrepreneur V.A Vandervere (Keaton) who seeks to exploit Dumbo at his own amusement park, Dreamland.
Burton enlists the help of previous collaborators (Keaton, DeVito and Green) to form his cast of original human characters. The introduction of the collection of characters inevitably relegates the titular character to another supporting feature player. The Ferrier family, led by Farrell's war veteran Holt, often steal focus as they experience strife in the wake of their matriarch's passing. Holt struggles to connect with his children, especially budding scientist Milly (although this character trait feels incredibly forced in a desperate plight to give the character a semblance of dynamism), after many years of separation due to the war. There's a version of Dumbo where the flying elephant and the humans' troubles can coexist, but the film's script fails to meaningfully achieve this.
The script also strives to tell a fresh story inspired by the 1941 original whilst also paying homage to the animated classic. The 2019 retelling's plot deviates hugely from its predecessor's and the attempts at recreating its most iconic and beloved moments pale in comparison having been robbed of their emotional intensity. The unforgettable scene of Mrs. Jumbo tearfully rocking a heartbroken Dumbo through the bars of her caged prison is one of the most tear-jerking sequences in Disney history but Burton opts not to give this scene of great gravity room to breathe before he hastily moves onto the next scene in the overstuffed narrative.
Taking a number of liberties with the original story also adds nearly an hour to the run-time. Arguably, the beauty of Dumbo (1941) lies in its simplicity; Yes, there are pink dancing elephants invoked by drunk hallucinations and supportively scheming crows, but the core story boasts the power of celebrating our differences and embracing the belief in ourselves that our individuality does not limit us. Those same messages are heavy-handedly explored in Burton's signature style, exacerbated by the new characters and their poorly written arcs. Burton also wrestles with themes about large corporations swallowing smaller ones and the ugly mentality of consumerism that inevitably follows - it's a bold assertion considering the mammoth acquisition that Disney made of 20th Century Fox back in 2018, thereby increasing the studio's dominance.
Although the visual tone is impressive and the CGI work on baby Dumbo achingly adorable, Dumbo proves to be a lacklustre effort to retell its animated classic due to the clumsy scripting and uninteresting characters.
EB
Cast: Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Alan Arkin
Max Medici (DeVito), owner of the struggling Medici Brothers' Circus, recruited the Ferrier family to take care of baby Dumbo, an elephant born with oversized ears. After discovering that he can fly, Dumbo is prized to be the circus's star attraction to help boost the flailing business. However, Dumbo's ability draws the attention of entrepreneur V.A Vandervere (Keaton) who seeks to exploit Dumbo at his own amusement park, Dreamland.
Burton enlists the help of previous collaborators (Keaton, DeVito and Green) to form his cast of original human characters. The introduction of the collection of characters inevitably relegates the titular character to another supporting feature player. The Ferrier family, led by Farrell's war veteran Holt, often steal focus as they experience strife in the wake of their matriarch's passing. Holt struggles to connect with his children, especially budding scientist Milly (although this character trait feels incredibly forced in a desperate plight to give the character a semblance of dynamism), after many years of separation due to the war. There's a version of Dumbo where the flying elephant and the humans' troubles can coexist, but the film's script fails to meaningfully achieve this.
The script also strives to tell a fresh story inspired by the 1941 original whilst also paying homage to the animated classic. The 2019 retelling's plot deviates hugely from its predecessor's and the attempts at recreating its most iconic and beloved moments pale in comparison having been robbed of their emotional intensity. The unforgettable scene of Mrs. Jumbo tearfully rocking a heartbroken Dumbo through the bars of her caged prison is one of the most tear-jerking sequences in Disney history but Burton opts not to give this scene of great gravity room to breathe before he hastily moves onto the next scene in the overstuffed narrative.
Taking a number of liberties with the original story also adds nearly an hour to the run-time. Arguably, the beauty of Dumbo (1941) lies in its simplicity; Yes, there are pink dancing elephants invoked by drunk hallucinations and supportively scheming crows, but the core story boasts the power of celebrating our differences and embracing the belief in ourselves that our individuality does not limit us. Those same messages are heavy-handedly explored in Burton's signature style, exacerbated by the new characters and their poorly written arcs. Burton also wrestles with themes about large corporations swallowing smaller ones and the ugly mentality of consumerism that inevitably follows - it's a bold assertion considering the mammoth acquisition that Disney made of 20th Century Fox back in 2018, thereby increasing the studio's dominance.
Although the visual tone is impressive and the CGI work on baby Dumbo achingly adorable, Dumbo proves to be a lacklustre effort to retell its animated classic due to the clumsy scripting and uninteresting characters.
EB
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