The idea of Tim Burton helming a remake of Dumbo might seem odd at first, but it’s actually ideal considering the nature and themes of his work. Burton has always been attracted to stories about outsiders, weirdos, and those deemed freaks by society. It’s a perfect fit for a story about the little elephant with big ears who ends up relentlessly mocked before discovering greatness from within. Unfortunately, while moments and individual pieces of his reimagining might show some wonder and genuine promise, the film as a whole piece feels far more dull and too broad in its emotional throughline to make much of an impact.
This new version, which was written by Ehren Kruger, actually completes all the major beats of the original 1941 film within the first 20 minutes or so, while also bringing in some new elements, most of which revolves around the human cast. Holt (Colin Farrell) returns to the circus after having lost his arm in the war, as well as his wife to the influenza epidemic. He’s left with his two kids, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins), who assist him in tending to the elephants, after his boss, Max Medici (Danny DeVito), sold the horses that were originally part of Holt’s act. Lucky for them, one elephant gives birth, and the kids discover he can fly.
From there, we end up in pretty much new territory to fill out the two-plus hour runtime, nearly doubling the original film. The film ends up being more about the crew of Medici’s circus having to deal with being bought out by an eccentric entrepreneur, V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who has his eyes set on Dumbo to be a star for his extravagant theme park, Dreamland.
One can’t help but notice some similar parallels between the events in this film and what is currently happening at Disney right now with the Fox merger. A rich tycoon sucks up a smaller institution, taking what they want, and tossing out what they don’t need. The thing is, it’s hard to give this reading of “Tim Burton secretly bashing Disney” being anything more than amusing timing. After all, evil businessman has almost always been a regular archetype in children’s entertainment, and the way the film explores this doesn’t result in anything particularly substantial.
That’s how I would describe a lot of the movie. Slivers of compelling ideas are brought up, but are not given the necessary room to breathe and inform the narrative in any meaningful way. When it seems like the movie wants to say something about animal cruelty, it doesn’t commit to really digging into that problem, and it only ever addresses it in context of Dumbo, and none of the other animals. Holt having his arm missing doesn’t seem to affect much of anything, and the film doesn’t even try to draw some comparison to him losing a limb to the way the circus often treats people with disfigurements.
In a way, I still somewhat appreciate what this movie does when compared to something like The Jungle Book or Beauty And The Beast. I would compare Dumbo to Maleficent, which is another film that has some neat ideas and themes that were weighed down by contrivances and questionable choices within its storytelling. The references to the original film are mostly minimal, but when they try to recapture certain iconic moments like Dumbo being consoled by his mother, or the “pink elephants on parade” sequence, it completely falls flat, and not just because they go by like they’re being checked off a list, but because there’s just a real lack of emotional investment.
The lack of investment will probably go down as the film’s biggest flaw. Dumbo hardly registers as a character, and that’s certainly a criticism you can make of the original as well, but that film commits to his perspective and headspace. This film often pushes him aside to focus on the bland human characters, making him more of a cute prop than a character worth getting invested in. You’d think we would at least focus on the kids, perhaps in a way similar to how E.T. used its kids to tell the story about the alien. However, they end up doing very little. Milly and Joe are there simply to state the obvious, tell us what Dumbo is feeling at any given point, and Milly in particular can’t seem go a second without talking about science because that’s one of the film’s embarrassing attempts to over compensate for the original film’s problematic aspects.
I adore the original Dumbo, but can also acknowledge that certain aspects haven’t aged particularly well. I was really rooting for this one, not just because I want a good movie, but I’m also a big fan of Tim Burton. While he certainly does some solid work here, especially with the sets and some occasionally striking images of Dumbo in the air, the film ultimately rings hollow. I was not engaged by the characters, and I wasn’t moved by the story. The performances are fine, Eva Green, who plays a trapeze artist, is always a joy to watch, but it was mostly Keaton’s delightfully hammy turn that kept me entertained. I wouldn’t consider the film terrible, or even the worst of these recent Disney reimaginings of animated classics, but it’s the one that I felt wasted the most potential.