Dumbo (2019)

Tim Burton brings his trademark sense of quirkiness to this live-action remake of the animated classic.  It might not blow audiences away, but the fantastic cast, coupled with Burton’s fairy tale aesthetics, bring a touch of magic to the film, which should certainly delight younger viewers.

Premise:  In 1919, having lost his arm in World War 1, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) returns to Medici’s (Danny DeVito) travelling circus to care for his two children following the death of their mother from Spanish flu. Unable to perform his earlier horse-riding act due to his disability, he takes a job looking after the circus’ pregnant elephant – but when she gives birth to a baby elephant with giant ears, it changes everything for the circus troupe.

Review:

If I’m honest with you, I’ve not really been a fan of any of the previous Disney live-action remakes of their earlier animated classics.  In simple terms, I just don’t see the point of remaking great films – it's much better to remake mediocre films that never lived up to their original potential.  Or, if you are going to remake a classic, make sure you bring something new to the table – but I really don’t see the point of making a faithful live-action remake of a film that is already considered a classic.

That’s my roundabout way of saying I didn’t really see the point of the recent Disney remakes of Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016) or Beauty & The Beast (2017), and I can’t say I’m all that excited about the upcoming remakes of Aladdin or The Lion King.  But Dumbo is a different proposition: with a runtime of just 64 minutes, the 1941 animated version of Dumbo is really little more than a TV-special by today’s standards, and so there is plenty of scope for taking the basic concept from the 1941 film and building it into something more.

“…the cast is like a who’s who of some of Tim Burton’s greatest collaborators…”

And that’s exactly what director Tim Burton and scriptwriter Ehren Kruger have done.  Taking the basic premise of a baby elephant with gigantic ears, growing up in a circus and then discovering that he can fly, they have built a believable and interesting wider world around Dumbo, populated by an eclectic group of characters, played by a fantastic cast.

In fact, the cast is like a who’s who of some of Tim Burton’s greatest collaborators, reuniting Danny DeVito and Michael Keaton from 1991’s Batman Returns for a start.  Danny DeVito plays the gruff but kindly circus owner Max Medici, while Michael Keaton chews the scenery in the second half of the film, as the moustache-twirling businessman V.A. Vandervere, who won’t let anything stand in the way of his profits.  Colin Farrell has the lead role as the war veteran who takes Dumbo under his wing, and he has to do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting in the film, balancing his strained relationship with his children (who he struggles to communicate with, following the death of his wife and their mother), with his own difficulties coming to terms with the loss of his arm, and his sense of kindred spirit with Dumbo himself (who Holt can clearly relate to, in terms of them both having a physical disability to come to terms with).  The film doesn’t lay it on too thickly, but Farrell does a good job of adding a little more depth to his role.

“…feels like it takes part in a heightened, stylised reality…”

Rounding out the main cast is Eva Green, who plays a trapeze artist and Vandervere’s girlfriend, and who seems to be relishing playing a more family friendly role than she sometimes does.  The Farrier children themselves are perfectly watchable, although they do come dangerously close to “precociousness” in places (but the period setting of the film does take the edge off that a little).  Also, as with so many of Tim Burton’s films, it feels like it takes part in a heightened, slightly stylised reality, so all of the characters are slightly exaggerated versions of what they would be like in real life, and I guess the children are no different.

Another trademark of Burton’s films is the eccentric supporting characters, and as you might expect, the rest of the circus troupe are all fairly amusing, especially the strongman (played by DeObia Oparei) who, due to cutbacks, also has to double up as the circus’ accountant and publicist.

“…adds a lot more plot & character depth to the story…”

The CGI for Dumbo himself is pretty impressive, and even the flying scenes work really well (although, ironically, the aerodynamics of a flying elephant look even more unbelievable in “real life” than they did in animation, but that can’t really be helped!).  And in a way, that’s Dumbo’s biggest problem – what seemed magical and original in 1941 seems a little old hat in 2019.  That said, this is perhaps not a film made for cynical adults who grew up on the 1941 version of Dumbo, and is instead aimed at children who have never seen (or perhaps even heard of) the 78-year-old animated film.  And it’s fair to say that when I took my children to see it, they were certainly enthralled by the magic of seeing an elephant fly.

So it may not be perfect, and it may not appeal to adults who were raised watching the animated version, but to its credit, the 2019 version of Dumbo adds a lot more plot and character depth to the story.  It also introduces a new third act which not only adds an extra level of dramatic tension to the story, but which also seems more in tune with current societal attitudes.  So while it might not make a huge impression on jaded adult viewers, if you’ve got children who haven’t seen the original version already, then this modern fairy tale should certainly capture their imagination.