Emily
Tim Burton and Disney have joined forces to bring audiences a live action reimagining of the classic animation film “Dumbo”. Said to be a representation of the quirky Burton losing his creativity to the corporate abyss of Disney, the director’s fans will enjoy the return of his haunting and often rebellious style in this flick that’s half family-oriented sweetness and half anti-establishment cynicism.
“Dumbo” appeared to be one of the toughest choices for Disney to add to their live action remake slate, a trend started by Burton’s own “Alice in Wonderland”. The animated film was filled with racially insensitive scenes and showed animals being treated inhumanely by modern standards. It would seem that “Dumbo” was doomed from the beginning. Fortunately, Burton makes enough adjustments and additions to this new look at Dumbo’s world under the big top that even PETA is singing his praises.
The film opens on the rundown Medici Brothers circus as they set up in a small town. The troop has barely been scraping by, plagued by the deaths of some of their top performers and forced to sell many of their animal acts to survive. Captain Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) returns to the circus after serving in World War I to find that after his wife fell victim to the flu pandemic, their family’s trick horses had to be sold. His children, Milly and Joe, aren’t too keen on the idea of circus performing and Holt is forced to take on a new role of elephant caretaker in order to keep a roof over his family’s heads. This opening sequence is one of the worst aspects of the film, with most of the exposition being told to the audience instead of shown. Viewers struggle to care about the hardships because there’s a general lack of true depth given to the characters’ introductions. Even moments of real suffering, such as when it’s revealed that Holt lost his arm in the war, fall totally flat and don’t reveal their worth until much later in the film.
The first half of the film centers around Max Medici (Danny DeVito) showing Holt the ropes of his new job and revealing that he recently made a purchase that he hopes will save the show: a mother elephant who is due to give birth at any moment. Unfortunately for Max, when the baby is born he is anything but cute. His abnormally large ears make him a freak to the audience. Max demands a full refund from the seller who takes back the mother elephant and only returns half of what Max paid. This is the moment when the film starts to pick up. Dumbo and his mother’s storyline runs parallel to that of Holt and his children, both longing for a sense of real connection and love from their families, one separated physically and the other emotionally.
With Dumbo separated from his mother, the children decide to become his new family and through a series of scientific experiments, Milly discovers that Dumbo isn’t a freak at all. He is in fact magical and can use those giant ears to fly. The children, realizing Dumbo’s worth, make him a promise: if he flies for the audience Max will buy his mother back after profits come rolling in. Their plan starts to work perfectly as audiences catch wind of the flying elephant and Max’s dreams of fortune start to come true as shows begin to sell out in every city they travel to. The movie seems to take flight with the elephant as viewers find themselves headed into the second half of the film and crossing over into an entirely new and innovative storyline that hadn’t been a part of Dumbo’s original universe.
In the second half of the film we are introduced to Vandemere (Michael Keaton), a rich business man who runs a theme park called Dreamland, where the impossible is possible. He thinks Dumbo would be a perfect addition to his park and makes Medici an offer that he can’t refuse. As the entire troupe relocates over to Dreamland they quickly learn that behind the glitz and glamour of the Disney-like corporation is a nightmare of money hungry executives. It’s almost unbelievable that the film got away with such a brazen attack on corporate America, but it’s these moral messages that elevate “Dumbo” from just another Disney kids movie to something that the adults can learn a real lesson from too.
It’s not hard to imagine that “Dumbo” was a tricky film for Burton to construct. The film is one of the oldest and least viewed in the Disney catalog and he had to fight and uphill battle with PETA, who were concerned with how animals would be used and portrayed in the film (although they’re now giving Burton an award for his conscientious use of animals). It’s been said that sometimes when an artist faces adversity in the creative process, it brings out a better product in the end. “Dumbo” is definitely one of those cases. It’s not Burton’s best work by a long shot, but it finally feels like a return to some of the work that established him as one of the most unique and creatively risky filmmakers of our day. So welcome back Tim Burton. We missed you and can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
