“Disney’s Dumbo soars but it does not quite fly as high as the original”
Let’s start with the Good. The main thing I was glad to see in this retelling was how adorable and loveable Dumbo is. Burton really captures what it is like to be an outcast and how you are mistreated, until people find out you have a type of purpose and Dumbo’s purpose is to fly. He captures the emotion really well from the elephants side showing how he get’s when everyone makes front up him, to when he gets split from his mother. Another good thing about this movie are the visuals. Now, that’s not to say it is amazing CGI, you could definitely tell that in the start of the film they used a green screen to capture the landscape and all the animals look, but none the less it was gorgeous.
One stand out performance was Danny DeVito. The man is a genius actor. When ever he was on screen I enjoyed it because of his charisma, Sadly this is what helped drive the movie for me though. Now, to the bad, I wish I could say more good things about this movie, but I can not. Where do I start? The two children to Colin Farrell’s character were not there for the acting part. The daughter had a very straight and emotionless face during most the movie, every time the scene called for her to smile, she would give a tiny grin and that is about it to her acting range, along with the brother who was not as bad but was not that much better. And, this movie relies on the children’s pathos through the entire film. The most they could do was have a semi-descent attachment to Dumbo and that is it. I did not feel the emotion between Colin and the children, and it should carry the film with the mother just dying and the father coming back wounded from war.
Speaking of actors, this film had a star studded cast but all of them had really weird accents from Colin Farrell and Michael Keaton doing this really weird and awkward southern accent. Eva Green doing a French accent that was just okay. It felt like they were trying to have this environmental feeling that did not need to be there. The movie had some pacing issues along with it that were not to bad, but I could feel the almost 2 hour runtime. One last issue with this movie is the “Villain” and I put that in quotes because the villain is a very generic, money hungry type of person and he really does not go any where because there seems to be little to no character development in this movie. With that being said this movie was semi-enjoyable and you should totally bring your family and kids to see this, they will have a good time.
Final Thoughts: At the end of the day I would say this movie is a solid C+ for me! This movie is a rainy type of day situation or for sure if you have children.
Synopsis: Struggling circus owner Max Medici enlists a former star and his two children to care for Dumbo, a baby elephant born with oversized ears. When the family discovers that the animal can fly, it soon becomes the main attraction — bringing in huge audiences and revitalizing the run-down circus. The elephant’s magical ability also draws the attention of V.A. Vandevere, an entrepreneur who wants to showcase Dumbo in his latest, larger-than-life entertainment venture.
Dumbo stars Colin Farrell, Eva Green, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and is directed by Tim Burton
