Dumbo: Film Review

Dumbo: Film Review

Cast: Colin Farrell, Eva Green, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins
Director: Tim Burton

There are two trains of thought with Disney's continued live action remakes of their cartoon catalogue.

One, that it undermines the beauty and timeless simplicity of the originals and two, that it's just a chance to remake these films for a new generation.

Case in point, Tim Burton's Dumbo meshes together some of the original 1941's simplicity and then unwisely expands it out to encompass more characters, and ultimately robbing the film of its original heart and story - that of the separation of a mother and child.

And yet, the 2019 remake of Dumbo simply soars in parts, when stripped back of the elements that would hold it down.

Farrell plays one-armed war survivor Holt Farrier, who returns to the 1919 US world of the Medici Bros circus to his children (Parker and Hobbins) unsure of what's next.

Given the role of looking after a new elephant bought by circus owner Max Medici (DeVito), Holt finds himself father to an elephant with over-sized ears. But when Dumbo's torn from his mother, and the circus is swallowed up by a rival entrepeneur (Keaton), everything changes for the Farrier family, as they seek to do what's right.

Mixing melancholy with the magical, and centring his Dumbo more as an Edward Scissorhands type, Tim Burton's reimagining of the elephant tale has as many highs as it does lows.

It doesn't help some of the characters feel flatly written and almost dully executed; everyone feels like a once over lightly rather than a fully fleshed out individual. It robs the film of the requisite emotion, and certainly the parts which should have the pull, such as Dumbo ripped from his mother, lack the edge to pull an audience in.

Equally, some of the CGI of the pachyderm being ridden in the air looks ropey at best, a big top marquee moment that's rendered in ridicule rather than digital reality. There are fumbles throughout Dumbo that stop the wonder soaring as high as it should.

And yet, there are moments of Burton's visual wizardry and execution which lift Dumbo up high and pull the movie into the magical Disney stratosphere.

Complete with long-time collaborator Danny Elfman, Burton's shorthand and eye for the melancholy macabre visuals are omnipresent throughout. The retro-future world of Keaton's enterpreneur sparkle with promise and flicker with menace when it all goes wrong - he's lost nothing of his eye for what can be tipped into the nightmarish as the haywire denouement plays out. (There's an irony that
Burton's take on the Dreamland world could be seen as an insidious takedown of how Walt Disney envisioned his original theme parks).

When Dumbo flies solo, and soars through the sky, it's genuinely magical (as opposed to scenes of him being ridden). There's an innocence at play here which is hard to deny, an entrancing touch which will enchant audiences much like the original did.

Dumbo's eyes are his keys to his soul, and the CGI blue eye execution, complete with fish-eye lens for his POV, bring life to the little creature in ways that will affect an audience.

Granted, there are the human moments of this big top escapade that ground the film in a duller edge and tether it when it should rise high above.

But much like a trip to the circus, which is wrapped in wonder and childish anticipation, parts of Dumbo are simply superb spectacle to savour.