It looks great and has a fine cast, but the story’s curiously lackluster
After WW1, a struggling American circus discovers they have a star attraction on hand, a big-eared baby elephant that can fly! Colin Farrell plays the one-armed elephant trainer, Danny DeVito the circus owner, Michael Keaton a Walt Disney-like entrepreneur and Eva Green his French performer.
“Dumbo” (2019) is a live-action remake of the 1941 classic and almost twice as long. Being made by Tim Burton, it LOOKS great and you can’t beat the cast (except for the monotone kids). Unfortunately the story is generally dull. One can’t help but think of the excellent “Water for Elephants” (2011), but this is nowhere near the same league. The flat script by Ehren Kruger needed reworked for more human interest and pizazz. It plays it too safe.
It’s strange that a Disney film would feature a Walt Disney-like character (with ‘Dreamland’ standing in for Disneyland), but put a malevolent spin on him. Meanwhile the sharp Green is serviceable as the aerial performer who works with Dumbo, but she seemed to be a tad long-in-the-tooth for the role at 38 during shooting.
As a fan of the underrated “Dark Shadows” (2012) I thought I’d like this despite the bad reviews and mediocre box office performance. Wrong. It’s okay, but that’s not good enough for a live-action remake of such an iconic flick.
The film runs 1 hour, 57 minutes, and was shot in Cardington, Bedfordshire, England, and Pinewood Studios, which is about an hour south in the west London area.
GRADE: C