DUMBO: A Soulless Remake That Never Takes Flight

The protagonist in Disney’s latest blockbuster is another superhero of sorts. A jilted elephant with an over-sized forehead, puppy eyes, and floppy ears that will fly away with your heart. So when two caring kids put a loving spin on an urgent command, you dearly hope this baby elephant can pull through. “Fly Dumbo, fly!” they emphatically chant. His response is all a kid could ask for. Flapping his wing-like ears, he freely soars through a hostel crowd turning booh’s to awes. It’s true what they say: “I have seen just about everything when I see an elephant fly.”

This might not be the first time you have seen this flight of fancy. Fans of the 1941 animated classic can truly say they have seen it all. Thanks to a wonderfully simplistic tale on maternal love that sees Uncle Walt more concerned with his audiences’ emotional reaction than cashing an easy check. The same cannot be said for this live action remake, which sees the Disney Corporation abuse Dumbo by putting the character through his own demeaning act (don’t elephants suffer enough? Don’t modern audiences suffer enough?).

As usual, his exotic motifs fill the screen – eerie clowns, a parade of sinister colors, and nightmarish set pieces that revel in their smoky mysticism. It’s a stark contrast to the beaming animation of the original, and it partly explains our distancing from the characters. But it’s the characters themselves that seem to be the singular issue. In the original the humans – usually – didn’t have faces, in fact, they seemed about as pointless as grown ups do in The Peanuts. Still, Burton has made the humans the face of his film.

Things open up in 1919 to a muted backdrop and shouting voices. Max Medici (Danny Devito playing Danny Devito) is among them, bellowing orders throughout his run-down circus. His hopes are high, what with a new elephant on the way. Though those hopes don’t stay high for long. Elephant in the room, this newborn has jumbo ears to match his capacious tears. We find him adorable, but Medici sees otherwise. Making him a clown and the laughing stock of the show.

That is, until Colin Farrell’s Holt Farrier – a former stuntman with a Sam Rockwell accent –  along with his two plucky children, played by Nico Parker and Finely Hobbins, discover that not all heroes wear capes. This one wears ears, and puts on the most dazzling high-wire-act since Chaplin in The Circus. The camera pans along as Dumbo soars around awkwardly – elephants aren’t known for their agility – as the wind swooshes across the wide-eyed audience below. This is when the film is at its best. Even if Burton has forgotten that the act of flying is supposed to be an act of release; not a superpower! 

It doesn’t take long for this power to attract V.A. Vandevere, owner of Dreamland, a decadent theme park that would take the compound of Bill Gates’ and Jeff Bezos’ net worth’s to construct. He is played, or overplayed, by Michael Keaton, sporting pin-stripe suites and more wrinkles than an elephant. He buys the circus with hopes to capitalize on Dumbo’s “wonder, mystique, and magic.”

It’s a shame the movie should posses none of these qualities. Dumbo could make the hardest of hearts melt, yet he is surrounded by a lifeless setting and equally obsolete homo-sapiens. Just try to get your head around the fact that this retelling spends more time with the humans than the title character. The point of the original is to evoke the deafening loneliness of a child without their parent. Seventy eight years later, and we get a film just as lost as its lead.

Here, scenes are jumbled together with all the continuity of a circus act. With overcomplicated sub plots drowning out the genuine pathos found in moments of simplicity. When mom and son embrace trunks to Danny Elfman’s swooning score it will be impossible not to smile. But alas, like all Hollywood remakes these days, the script turns on dazzling spectacle and a heroes heroics. In the explosive finale, Dumbo comes to the rescue like a member of The Avengers, saving the fellow Barnum-esque “freaks” who are victims of Vandevere’s tyrannical reign.

I’ve seen just about everything, which means I have seen this contrived plot more times than I can count.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NiYVoqBt-8