Dumbo Review

In recent years Disney has developed a lucrative strategy where they turn their animated classics into live-action films. 2019 sees the Mouse House adapting three animated films with Dumbo being the first to be released.

The Medici Brothers’ Circus and the Farrier family have fallen on hard times. Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) lost his arm during the First World War, loses his job as a circus cowboy and has to become the circus’ elephant keeper. One of the elephants is the newborn Jumbo Jr. who has enormous ears. Hal’s children discover the baby elephant is able to fly and believe his ability is able to reverse the fortunes of the circus.

It could be argued that Disney’s live-action adaptations are a cynical cash-grabs that eliminates the need for creativity. 2015’s Cinderella and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast were shot-for-shot remakes of their animated counterparts. But Dumbo had to be different because the original film was only 65 minutes long and some of the content is questionable for a modern audience. This was why this film interested me more than the other Disney remakes.

Dumbo was directed by Tim Burton and as expected from a Burton film it was a lavish production. People working on the production design and costume department must have had fun working on the film. Along with Burton these creative’ imaginations were allowed to run wild. This was especially true during the second half of the film.

The first half was set in a fairly grounded world. There were nods to the original film like Jumbo Jr. being dressed as a baby and the train looking like it had a smiling face yet it seemed like a hyper-real version of 1919. When the circus moves to Dreamland the film turns into a Burtonesque fantasy. The theme park was an amalgamation of periods like the World of Science being a reference to Disney’s ‘Tomorrowland’ and retro-futurism. Burton’s gothic sensibilities were in full force when entering the land of monsters.

Jumbo Jr., who was later renamed Dumbo is incredibly cute and a great realisation of the animated character. He has big blue eyes and the special effects artists were able to find the right balance between making him looking realistic and cartoony. Most of the animals were CG and the effects were of a high standard.

The basic plot of the original was Dumbo gets separated from his mother and he sets out to find her. The 2019 version repurposes this idea to the Farrier kids getting Dumbo to perform so they could buy Dumbo’s mum back.

The plot in Dumbo was light and the live action film was more about the character arcs. Hal has the biggest arcs. The first is he has to connect with his kids since he was away and during that time his wife died of influenza. The second is he wants to perform again and sets out to prove himself. Danny DeVito’s Max Medici also has an arc – at the start of the film he is shown to be a penny-pinching man who cares about money but during the course of the film reveals what is really important.

Even though Dumbo was steeped in Americana the film was actually shot in England resulting in most of the cast members being British. This includes the two child leads. Dumbo was Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins’ first film and they show a lot of promise for their young ages. Parker had the bigger role because she was given more characterisation – her character was older so had to take the lead and wants to be a scientist in a time women weren’t expected to do much. Both young actors do perform with solid American accents.

Michael Keaton and Eva Green also add a bit of star power to the film. Keaton had the ability to be charming and sleazy in equal measure and Green is as beautiful and elegant as always.

Burton’s regular composer Danny Elfman deserves a mention because his score does capture the Disney sound. There were a lot of uplifting choirs ‘ahhs’ during the film.

Dumbo has been maligned by some critics for its lack of originality. But it is still an entertaining and great looking film for the whole family.