3/31/2023 0 Comments Dumbo 2019![]() There are times, though, when no one in particular seems to be behind the camera. Those who miss the traveling circus heyday may feel warmly toward “Dumbo.” I felt warmly toward Dumbo, but not “Dumbo.” Burton has learned all too well to tamp down his weirder impulses, along with our expectations, when dealing with a franchise line item along these lines. Keaton, scheduled to re-team with Burton for a “Beetlejuice” sequel, turns in a game but indistinct comic characterization, his energy beaming on and off along with his diction. That’s for the best, even if there’s no wordplay, sung or spoken, in the new “Dumbo” half as sharp as Ned Washington’s lyrics to that tune.įarrell and Green fare best by playing it straightest. Times change no longer does lil’ Dumbo get drunk on Champagne and see pink elephants (they’re soap bubbles this time), and the remake stays far, far away from the racially patronizing likes of the crows who sang “When I See an Elephant Fly” back in ’41. Add in all the leaden new story complications, mostly on the theme of abandonment, plus a misguided attempt at a scary “gotcha!” moment or two, and “Dumbo” becomes a grim equation indeed. ![]() The eye reads the details, the flames, the animals’ terror as “real,” more or less, without the benefit of pictorial distance or a distinguishing style. One problem with Disney live-action remakes of animated titles relates to photorealistic digital trickery. By the end of the movie we’ve landed in an alternate early 20th century dreamland, where a progressive traveling circus staffed by lovable outsiders and zero animal acts can thrill a small town without getting run out of it first. Screenwriter Kruger turns Joe into Dumbo’s protector (no more Timothy Mouse for comfort and support none of the animals talk in this version). Refashioning “Dumbo” in 2019 (two years after Barnum & Bailey went belly up) means a movie has some contextualizing to do regarding animal cruelty and human fallibility. It’s a land of crass commercialism and baby elephant merchandise, with Jurassic Park overtones. Plus there’s a menacing spook-house housing some humiliated beasts in chains, because it’s Tim Burton.ĭreamland represents a poke, I suppose, at Disney’s own Disneyland. Dreamland isn’t very Jazz Age rather, it’s more like Tomorrowland with a mini-Tomorrowland inside it, or something out of the 1939 World’s Fair. The showbiz maven buys out the scrappy independent operation, absorbing the merry multiethnic family into his Coney Island attraction. Instantly, a suspicious city slicker reeking of money and greed (Keaton) arrives with one of his kept women in tow, a former Paris street performer (Eva Green). Dumbo has no time to savor his long-delayed happiness. Jumbo’s little boy, also known as “Big D,” risks it all and takes his circus-saving, revenue-generating flight around the big top. Though these characters are new, much of the first hour of “Dumbo” follows the animated version’s template. With his trick-riding days temporarily behind him - hard times have led Medici to sell the horses - he picks up a shovel and reports for elephant-keeping duty. In the opening, Holt returns, minus an arm. Young Millie (Nico Parker) and her brother, Joe (Finley Hobbins), have been traveling with their adoptive circus clan while their father, Holt (top-billed and most welcome Colin Farrell) fights overseas in World War I. The recent influenza epidemic has killed off various employees of the traveling circus run by Max Medici (Danny DeVito, straining to engage without benefit of fresh material). “Dumbo” has its moments, and some of the designs lighten the load. In code, he’s reviewing the movie itself.
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