Dumbo

1.5/5

Disney are throwing everything at 2019: Three Marvel films; a new streaming service ‘Disney +’; Toy Story 4; Star Wars Episode 9 and; 3 live action reboots. Whilst the associated Marvel Studios got off to a steady start with ‘Captain Marvel’, the same cannot be said about the first live action outing. Tim Burton’s ‘Dumbo’ lacks any real punch and moves so much of the movie focus away from the titular character that it’s a film with a flying elephant, rather than a film about a flying elephant.

Colin Farrell stars as Captain Holt Farrier, returning home from World War I to his children and a struggling circus where he was once the star act. As Holt’s horses have been sold during his absence he takes on the role of looking after the elephants, including the heavily pregnant Mrs Jumbo. Unfortunately, her offspring is born with gigantic ears much to the dismay of the circus ringmaster Max Medici (Danny DeVito). During Dumbo’s first outing the goading crowd sends Mrs Jumbo into a rage. Branded a danger, Dumbo’s mother is sold off and the baby elephant is left to be looked after by Holt’s children. They discover that with the use of a feather Dumbo can use his large ears to fly and might just be the saviour the Medici circus desperately needs.  

Understandably given the original pictures 58-minute run time, a fair amount of story had to be added to pad this out into a modern feature length film. However, the additional focus on the humans and the subtraction of the animal creatures from the original detracts from the film’s charm. All the characters are so underdeveloped that whilst certain themes are touched upon, nothing really lands. Holt’s relationship with his kids is so badly handled and practically ignored that during the final act, the peril they face is almost meaningless.

Similarly, whilst Danny DeVito’s ringmaster is entertaining, the rest of the circus ensemble just appear to be present for a lot of the story with little to no impact. Eva Green stars in yet another Tim Burton film and honestly it feels like she is included for the sake of it. Her character Collette doesn’t add anything to the story and the weird romantic ending isn’t explored during the film and just feels tacked on at the end because it looks right.

The problem with the inclusion of all the human interaction that surround Dumbo in this film is that it doesn’t feel like a Dumbo film and consequently the tear-jerking moments from the original feel hollow.

What Burton does bring to the film is some scenes that are well staged and visually very pleasing. The imagination into some of the set design is classic Burton and whilst not as ground breaking or daring as some of his other pieces there is still joy in watching Dumbo come to life.

As with the last few Burton films, so much is focussed on the look of the film that it loses direction. Dumbo is undeniably cute however there is such little heart in this film that you end up feeling nothing towards the characters, even the dough eyed Dumbo. Not one to rush to the cinema to see, lets hope the rest of the year is stronger for the many Disney releases.

Written by Will