Dumbo

Walt Disney’s re-imagining of its classic Dumbo is set in post World War One America under the quintessential white and red striped circus tent. In the wake of the destruction of war and disease, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrel) returns a broken man to the Medici Brothers circus, ready to step back into familiarity however he finds little. Times have not been kind to his home. Sacrifices had to be made to survive.
Max Medici (Danny DeVito) sets his sight on a revival of fortune with the purchase of a pregnant elephant. Not everything goes to plan. Jumbo Jr.’s debut literally brings down the house. The young pachyderm, with the help of the Farrier children, recovers and catches the eye of the charming and successful V.A Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who comes to Medici with an irresistible offer.

This latest iteration of Dumbo is a gorgeous movie in terms of visual aesthetics, which is not a surprise with Tim Burton at the helm. His style is a perfect fit for the glitzy, Roaring Twenties era of the film. He manages to blend the simplistic wonder of a traveling circus against the opulent, steampunk inspired mecca that is Dreamland wonderfully.

Colin Farrell steps onto the silver screen in a convincing portrayal of a floundering man desperately trying to cling to his idyllic past. Nico Parker, his on-screen daughter, steps up to match him with her hungry quest for the promise of tomorrow. Michael Keaton provides the external struggle and the drama of the picture as the suave showman. Eva Green, Danny DeVito and the ensemble of actors in the Medici troop support the principles in a stunning portrait of the ending of an era. All of these things combined would have made a nostalgia-filled, enjoyable romp into the bygone days of the early nineteen hundreds. But the film seemed to forget something.

Dumbo.

The animation of Dumbo and his mother did not allow for the same emotional range we received in the 1941 version. A lot of how Dumbo was feeling had to be explained by the Farrier children or other characters in the scene rather than through his own actions. Without that emotion, the audience is focused more on the live humans on screen rather than the animals in peril. There were times where the camera angle was used to switch the audience’s perspective over to that of Dumbo. A different lens was used, and the picture was at times blurry trying to convey the animal’s point of view. While this was an exciting way to use the camera’s focus, it was not used consistently, nor did it really help convey how the animal was feeling.

Did I want a frame for frame retelling of the animated version? Hell no.

I’d still be in the theatre balling my eyes out. The scene with Mrs. Jumbo rocking Dumbo in her trunk gets me every. single. time. That very scene was ported over into the 2019 version. It was the first time I have seen the two characters interact that way without a blurry filter in years. It just didn’t smack me in the face the way the original did. That’s not to say I didn’t get choked up. The waterworks turned on, just not in the Alice in Wonderland type volume the original produced. It was more like the sprinkler systems used in grocery stores to mist the produce.

This film felt like two different films were spliced together to freshen up a Disney classic. The Farrier/Medici Circus storyline could have easily stood on its own without the addition of a flying elephant. Dumbo, on the other hand, could not have. The end result was a visually beautiful spectacular but, ultimately, an unnecessary movie.