Dumbo is a character beloved for how unloved he was. Burton is a director who has built a career on giving the spotlight to exactly those kinds of characters. So, why shouldn’t the two of them meet in the middle for the latest of Disney’s live action remakes?
Burton smartly brings some of his past colleagues onto Disney’s payroll for this film; Eva Green (“Penny Dreadful,” “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”), Michael Keaton (“Birdman,” “Batman”), Danny DeVito (“Batman Returns,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) are all here, as well as frequent musical collaborator Danny Elfman (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Beetlejuice”).
Green does a serviceable job here, as does DeVito. Both are clearly doing the best with a shaky screenplay, as their characters don’t really have an effect on the overall plot. DeVito’s especially feels like he’s merely forgotten about in the latter half of the film. Keaton meanwhile hams it up, walking the line between acting and just chewing the scenery to pieces. Oddly enough, it makes him the film’s most interesting character.
At least he’s more interesting than the center family. Colin Farrell (“In Bruges,” “Horrible Bosses”) is, like the others, doing the best he can. It’s commendable, and he does a decent job, turning his father figure of Holt Farrier into the most emotionally resonating character in the film. However, his children are an entirely different matter.
Finley Hobbins is perfectly mediocre as Holt’s young son, Joe. He wants to have an act, does handstands, and is generally un-annoying. However, Holt’s daughter Milly, played by Nico Parker, is an absolute disaster.
Not only does the movie seem determined to dumb her down into a one-dimensional STEM stand-in, but Parker turns out one of the worst performances of the year. She consistently sounds flat, moving from having no emotion whatsoever to have a slightly higher inflection. It’s maddening as she is clearly meant to be the film’s emotional center, and it's hard to take anything seriously as she delivers the most important lines in the flattest way possible.
Dumbo, meanwhile, is just fine. While he’s animated well, that’s about all that can be said about him. He’s unassuming and cute but fails to make a real impact. His ridiculing doesn’t really register, since the people immediately around him, the circus folk, immediately care for him. So, his outcast nature doesn’t land because he never feels like an outcast. Sure, the audience might laugh at him, but the people who actually take care of him and spend time around him shoe the naysayers away.
That means that the central emotional crux of this story is gone. Poof. A dream on the wind. What else does Dumbo have if it isn’t an outcast story? The answer is nothing. What we’re left with is a movie with decent actors and some stellar visuals.
Because if there is one reason to see Dumbo, it's for the visuals. While most are CGI, it makes the actual sets, like the latter half’s main location DreamLand, really pop. When Dumbo does fly, it feels spectacular, even for a brief moment, like something out of a storybook. It’s Burton’s distinct visual style at its best, with deep colors conflicting with dark imagery to evoke some real menace. The CGI that does exist though, is painfully obvious. While Dumbo and his mother are well done, every other animal and item looks like cheap plastic. It’s as if 99% of the budget was given to Dumbo and the remaining 1% was spread out to everything else.
This visual distinctness also extends to the music, which, alongside the visuals, is the film’s best aspect. Elfman has created a confident and bizarre score that feels ripped from his heyday of 90’s horror-comedies. The cheeky menace that reverberates from every musical note helps to elicit reactions when the film’s script falls flat. It also makes, however short it may be, the Pink Elephants scene the best part of the entire film.
There’s also a weird tonal disconnect at the heart of this film. Not within the tone of the film itself, but with the studio behind it. Here is a film about an animal who wants to be set free from its captivity in an amusement park, trapped by a charismatic man with a glowing smile who constantly talks about making “dreams come true.”
You’d be forgiven if you only saw the last hour of the film and thought it was a parody of all of Disney’s ideals. But, because it’s a legitimate Disney film, it makes it hard to take seriously. When the film’s ending rolls, with messages about how no animal should be caged for human amusement, it’s hard not to think of Animal Kingdom in Florida.
Granted, Disney is not the worst company to have animals in theme parks (Hello Seaworld), that background knowledge makes everything feel disingenuous. It doesn’t go far enough in its Disney parallels or fun-poking to be considered self-parody either. It feels like being lectured by a teacher about not smoking cigarettes, to then be sold a vape by them later that day. Sure, it isn’t as bad, but it isn’t great, either.
All of this, in addition to an amazingly rushed and incoherent third act, take the air out of the film’s wings. Sure, it has some decent actors and a distinct visual and musical flair. But none of that can save a movie when it lacks heart and soul. When “Dumbo” flies and the film talks about imagination, it only cements how creative and emotionally bankrupt it is. Sure, the elephant can fly, but it would be even better if he had a soul whilst doing it. 1.5/5
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