The updated ‘Dumbo’ addresses the original’s problematic elements, but is curiously wooden.
Kernel Rating: 2.5 (2.5 out of 5)
MPAA Rating: PG Length: 112 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 7+. This live-action version of the animated Disney original again focuses on a young elephant who is mocked for his overly large ears; there is some bullying throughout, and one particularly cruel elephant handler threatens to use violence against the animals. A protective female elephant causes an accident that kills a person; there is one instance of implied cursing; some violence in the form of a person getting punched in the face; there are two separate scary sequences with out-of-control fires; the film depicts World War I veterans returning from the battlefield, including characters missing limbs; various characters are discussed as having died from influenza. The film being set in a circus/carnival atmosphere also means caged animals are shown and characters do some dangerous stunts.
By Roxana Hadadi
The live-action Disney remake machine keeps on churning, reaching a disappointing plateau with filmmaker Tim Burton’s spin on “Dumbo.” The 1941 classic about a young elephant with overly large ears who can fly is given the CGI treatment in Burton’s film, which expands the world of the circus, adds in a new villain, and populates the story with human characters. Although this version redeems some of the now-problematic elements of the first film—including a realization that animals shouldn’t be abused or kept in cages—it is also curiously wooden, lacking any kind of energy or, well, fun.
This version of “Dumbo” begins in 1919, after World War I has ended and the U.S. is righting itself. The war was hard on the traveling Medici Brothers Circus, and an outbreak of influenza was harder, and so the once-bustling troupe is noticeably shrunken in size when one-time rodeo star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell, of “Saving Mr. Banks”) returns to their ranks and reunites with his children, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins).
Holt is struggling with being a single father after his wife’s death, and with adapting to having lost his left arm in the war, and he fails to connect with Milly, who dreams of being the next Marie Curie, and Joe, who just wants to impress him. So instead, the two children bond with the newest member of the circus: the newborn elephant Jumbo, with gigantic ears and watery blue eyes, who sticks by his mother and who is mocked by both a cruel elephant handler and bullying circus customers for his “freakish” ears.
Milly and Joe don’t see that, though—they love Jumbo, who is renamed Dumbo after an accident in the ring, and they’re ecstatic when they learn that the little elephant, thanks to his gigantic ears, can fly. But that realization sets off a series of events that quickly spiral out of control: Circus creator Max Medici (Danny DeVito) wants to use Dumbo to make money. Holt, now tasked with caring for Dumbo, is concerned that he’ll be recognized and shamed for being unable to pull off the rodeo tricks he once could. And when carnival owner V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) learns of Dumbo, he has his own plans for the young elephant and his prize trapeze artist Colette Marchant (Eva Green, of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”)—so he makes Medici an offer he can’t refuse.
How can Milly and Joe save Dumbo from a lifetime in the ring? That plot development, in and of itself, takes this version of the film away from the 1941 original, in which a happy ending wasn’t escape or release from the circus but nicer accommodations within captivity. Certain narrative changes like that one, and Milly’s cleverness and fascination with science, and Joe’s bravery and adoration of his father, are nice touches. Farrell has a rough time with a Southern accent and Green doesn’t have much to do, but you’ll accept them both as adults who care for Dumbo, and DeVito is charmingly wacky as a circus owner just looking for a way to keep his family together.
But the movie isn’t as successful in its providing much development to the circus performers—the Hugh Jackman musical “The Greatest Showman” did a better job with that, and that movie had songs!—and for a movie named “Dumbo,” the movie lacks, well, Dumbo. The film focuses far more on the human characters than on the titular elephant, and so Dumbo himself never feels truly real, never surpasses being a CGI creation. Unlike Disney’s other live-action adaptation “The Jungle Book,” which paid so much attention to its animal characters that they felt truly lifelike, Dumbo never ascends to that status here. And so many scenes feel particularly wooden or lacking in impact because the human characters just seem like they’re standing around talking to or about a technical creation rather than really interacting with Dumbo the elephant.
The lack of songs hurts “Dumbo,” too, as does the film’s final act in a high-tech carnival, which visually brings to mind the other Disney project “Tomorrowland.” Not much in “Dumbo” feels particularly unique, inspired, or affectionate toward its title character, and while the movie might spark worthwhile conversations with young viewers about animal captivity and the allure of traveling circuses of old, the film makes little impact otherwise.
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