Movie Breakdown: Dumbo
Pre-Screening Stance:
Disney’s live action remake train pushes on with Dumbo. I’ve never been particularly attached to the 1941 animated film, so I’m actually heading into Tim Burton’s version without any worry that it’ll “ruin” this or that.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Even though I wasn’t expecting a lot from Tim Burton’s Dumbo, nor was I packing a ton of love for the original animated movie, I still found it to be very disappointing. I don’t know what Burton was trying to accomplish here. The new story is fine, I guess. A one-armed veteran named Holt (Colin Farrell) has returned to the circus he used to star in, but things aren’t the same as when he left. His wife his dead, his kids (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins) have grown up a bit, and the circus is struggling. Desperate for work, he agrees to help the owner/ringmaster, Max Medici (Danny DeVito), take care of a newly acquired pregnant elephant. After a bit, Dumbo and his huge ears flop into the world, he makes a splash, and then VA Vandevere (Michael Keaton) swoops in with a wondrous, too good to be true offer to make everyone’s lives better. Obviously, this is far from what transpired back in 1941, but when none of the animals talk and Dumbo’s personality is limited to Dumbo-Vision (blurry, fisheyed lens shots of the crowd) and him either happily or sadly nodding, it makes sense that the human characters carry more of the story. The problem here though is that they’re all dull people, and it’s hard to care about any of them. Truth be told, this really just applies to the entire film – it’s a lifeless, boring effort that isn’t at all engaging. I didn’t laugh or cry, I just yawned a lot.
Dumbo isn’t quite a disaster, but it’s far from good. Definitely skip it if you’re an adult. If you’ve got kids and you’re going no matter what, pack extra snacks because the film’s 112-minute run time will feel like an eternity.
One Last Thought:
There’s some effort in Dumbo to differentiate between the circuses and amusement parks that take good care of their animals and those that don’t, but in the end the film still left me feeling fairly gross about animals in captivity. Kind of wish Disney had taken a stand here and really railed against it instead of going with a “it’s not so bad sometimes” approach.
