Disney has been a bender lately, turning their classic animated films into live action spectacles. Their latest, Dumbo, is one of the Mouse House’s legendary movies that would seem to be the most conducive to a live action look. Toss in the fact that they hired Tim Burton to direct the film, and this is a match made in heaven waiting to happen.
Burton has long lived on the corners of the societal sphere where the ordinary become extraordinary in every sense possible. The fabled director tackling a movie about a flying baby elephant in a traveling circus? Yes please … merely the idea of Burton crafting a circus world with his offbeat visual sensibilities had many beyond excited. So, did it warrant all that excitement?
For a large part, yes!
Colin Farrell (making his Burton debut) is Holt Farrier, a Tom Mix type of horse wrangler who is considered one of the best in the world at what he does—successfully doing equine tricks that leaves audiences’ jaws dropped. He has returned from World War I as our film commences and the look on his two kids’ faces when they see he is missing his left arm tells us that things are about to be quite different. Making matters worse is the fact that influenza claimed his wife and his children’s mother while he was overseas. Holt believes that upon his return, circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito), he’ll be back aboard horses doing tricks that dazzle the crowd. Thing is, times have been tough. Medici had to sell Holt’s horses and now he has the joyous responsibility—if he wants a job, which he desperately needs—of tending to the circus’ elephants. Not thrilled, he takes it anyway. After all, he must find a way to take care of his kids.
Max has purchased an enormous elephant from a fellow circus owner, and she gives birth to an adorable babe soon after. Holt’s kids Millie and Joe (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins, respectively) take quite a liking to this baby elephant. Not everyone is thrilled, especially Max because he believes he now has “defective goods.” Why, you ask? In case you’ve been living in a hole for decades upon decades, you know why … Dumbo has enormous ears. One day Millie and Joe are tending to the adorable little guy when he uses his truck to grasp at a feather. The ensuing sneeze sends his ears a flapping and he starts flying.
The story is familiar to everyone across the world, but Burton brings a touch that is uniquely his to this tale. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger has added elements to the story to make it feel fresh (for example how the classic song from the original Baby Mine is performed and utilized). There is also a presence that is so much stronger than anything that was antagonistic in the original. Frequent Burton collaborator Michael Keaton is V. A. Vandevere, a beyond-wealthy man who purchases Max’s circus and brings them to New York to be the toast of the town with their elephant highlight reel Dumbo leading the charge doing what he does best—soaring. As is the case with wealthy antagonists in a flick like this, we all know that conflict is coming soon, and it will be up to our protagonists (there are many here) to make wrongs right.
Dumbo, circa 1941, has brought misty eyes and downright tears to legions of audiences who have experienced the Walt Disney produced, pitch-perfect flick. Burton delivers on the emotional level in such a way that those same scenes that elicited tears will also do so in the fabled filmmaker’s latest. Through that rich screenplay, Burton and his ensemble have a rich tapestry to extol its deeply powerful virtues to the world. In many ways, Burton’s Dumbo is Disney’s most subversive film to date. Yeah, I know, right?! His film has moments of animal rights issues being raised without a word being spoken about it specifically. It also shines a spotlight on the relationship between parents and children and that will get you every time. Whether it’s Dumbo’s mother, Jumbo, and her relationship with her calf or Farrell’s Holt trying to connect to his kids who have been living without a mother and father (at least while he was at war) for some time. That is delivered with a firmer tone than the original.
Eva Green is Colette Marchant, a Parisian high-wire expert who has dazzled every audience that shares her presence. When Vandevere pairs her with Dumbo, it sparks something in her that is palpable and powerful. This cold, overtly confident, character’s existence is enriched, and it affects her in the most intense of ways. Green has always been one of the most underrated actresses of her generation and here’s hoping that having her in something like a Disney movie—with its massive global reach—will endear her to the millions who should be basking her in titanic talent.
Nobody but DeVito could tackle Max as well as the veteran actor does. His circus leader, when in front of all those circus fans, possesses some serious flair. Yet away from the spotlight, there is a deeper soul there, as played by DeVito. He’s still all about the money, fame and fortune. But he evolves a tad when it becomes clear that all that glitters is not gold. I would not be surprised if screenwriter Kruger wrote the part with the actor in mind. Keaton, on the other hand, appears to be having a blast portraying this character whose external and internal traits are a bit more congruent. It’s not hard to dislike the guy, let’s just say that!
Farrell has been making the most stellar career choices in the last decade. Since he decided to abandon that pushed on him Hollywood idea that he was solely a dashing leading man, he has the most fascinating of film roles that he has knocked right out of the park. Dumbo is no different. This is firmly an ensemble, and Farrell keenly knows when to play it for the spotlight and when to emit a more subtle approach. Don’t be surprised if Farrell and Disney are two names that are often repeated heading into the next chapters of the actor’s life. He was sensational in Saving Mr. Banks and equally as awesome in this soaring cinematic achievement.
Burton is, obviously, firmly in his element. His touch with this Disney classic is exquisite. On paper, Dumbo + Burton = love at first sight. What elevates this experience is a tandem that has been forever fruitful since they first joined forces on Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Danny Elfman’s score for Dumbo is what gives the Burton feel of a film its richness and more importantly, emotive power. I don’t believe that you can talk about the pure blissful joy of Dumbo without tracing it back to the creative collaboration of Elfman and Burton. Those emotional pulls that bring tears to eyes are honestly triggered by those musical notes as much as they are the subject matter or the actors’ collective talents. A classic moment from the 1941 film was when a locked-up Jumbo and her babe tenderly touch trunks through the bars of her cage. It made audiences cry in the original, but in Dumbo 2019, the tears are almost of the hyperventilating type and that firmly is because of the sweeping sonic succulence that Elfman delivers for that scene. I tell ya, this guy better win an Oscar for his work and not solely one of those honorary ones. My two cents!
Overall, Dumbo works on all the levels it should … but there is something (a little) missing. It’s not even that the film meanders in the second act. The truth is that there are a couple of cinematic moments that don’t grab us and thus, minds tend to wander. One wants a film experience where the issues of the outside world never enter one’s mind. Sadly, it happens on a few occasions in Dumbo that might have been fixed with a little screenplay tightening. But that is a small criticism because as a whole the film entertains, enlightens and above all else, gives off that priceless Disney sense of affirmation that good things happen to good souls. May we never lose sight of that.
Grade: B+