Dumbo (Review)
Dumbo Never Manages to Soar.
2019 looks to be chalked full of Disney live-action remakes. The first of which is Dumbo from a director who has tried his hand at the “genre” before, Tim Burton (he also did Alice in Wonderland). As a child, I remember bawling my eyes out at the animated tale of a baby elephant with enormous ears every time I watched it. Even more recently I found myself choking back tears, especially at the scene where he’s separated from his mother. So, I was fully prepared to spend most of this movie doing my best to hide tears behind my 3D glasses. Instead, I found the new Dumbo movie to be painfully mediocre.
The first film focused solely on Dumbo, which is why it was such an incredibly emotional tale. Though I’ll admit that it certainly needed a fresh coat of paint given the blatant racism featured in it (see the character Jim Crow). This time around the film injects a number of human characters all with their own hopes, dreams, and struggles. This makes perfect sense given the live-action nature of the movie. However, it takes a lot away from the actual tale of the baby elephant who is lost and alone in a terrifying world where he is used and abused. Instead, Burton focuses on a small family within the circus. The father (played by Colin Farrell) returns home from the war minus an arm and discovers he is also minus a wife. Left to raise his two children, a son (Finley Hobbins) who is little more than a prop, and a daughter (Nico Parker) who is painfully offputting. Together they raise baby Dumbo and turn him into the star attraction of the circus in hopes that his fame and fortune will help them reunite the elephant with his mother.
Dumbo himself is incredibly cute. The effects that bring him to life are jaw-dropping and when his feet are firmly planted on the ground he is probably one of the most realistic CGI animals I’ve ever seen in a film. While a cute animal can often help make a movie better it should never serve as the cornerstone. Most of the movie pairs Dumbo in scenes with Hobbins and Parker to varying effects. On the one hand, their stiff and emotionless acting makes the elephant all the more life-like. On the other, who wants to see poorly constructed, one-dimensional, cliched characters when you can watch a baby elephant being adorable? As I said, Hobbins is little more than a prop for most scenes. His character never contributes much to the story rather than restating the obvious. Parker’s character though starts off as a little girl with a love of science. Over the course of the film though she never lets us forget that and proceeds to beat the idea that “>gasp< a little girl can like science!” to death. Don’t get me wrong, girls in STEM is great, but she never shuts up about it throughout the film and tackles it with all passion of a Hall of President automaton.
Burton is normally known for creating whimsical films filled with dreamlike visuals. However, Dumbo just doesn’t feel like a Tim Burton movie, save for the musical elements. It feels stifled and like its pandering to be as mainstream as possible, which is odd given how ravenous Burton fans have been in the past. There are hints of the Burton we all know and love drizzled in there, mostly in a few of the more emotional shots. However, it lacks the heart that we’ve seen from him in films like Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, or Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Even the moments that had me crying my eyes out in the animated version of the movie were “meh” at best.
As cute as baby Dumbo is, I found Danny DeVito to be the real star of the film. He brings his special brand of chaotic energy and humor to the role. Compared to him the rest of the cast feels like they’re lagging. Farrell seems uncomfortable in his role and never has much charisma with the other characters. Of course, I’ve mentioned the child actors in the film. However, even the villainous Michael Keaton and Eva Green don’t bring much to the film (especially when it comes to Green’s odd French accent that slips repeatedly). No one does a particularly bad job in the film, but given the talent gathered it doesn’t make sense that there wasn’t more emotional punch to this film.
Dumbo isn’t an especially bad movie, but it’s one that never manages to live up to the legacy of the first film. Small children will love seeing the adorable baby elephant flying around the old-timey circus tents, which is where the movie tends to excel. The rest of the film feels like unnecessary fluff or better yet like popcorn and peanuts. It’s tacked on there to fill out the run time on the movie, but never really adds much to it overall. Still, it’s a rather nice family film and one that the kids will love. If you don’t have a child to take with you though, it might be better to wait for this film to come to a Disney streaming service.
