Post by Rob W. Case on Jul 3, 2019 16:14:54 GMT -6
The Disney Company has, for the last few years, released a string of live action versions (suffice it to say, remakes) of some of their wildly acclaimed animated masterpieces, and adding a little more to the mix as well. In 2016, this string started with their live action version of the 1966 animated classic “The Jungle Book”. In 2017, it continued with a live action version of the 1991 classic “Beauty and the Beast”. Now, in 2019 it continues with a remake of the 1941 Walt Disney Classic “Dumbo”.
The Story:
The film begins in the year 1919, where the Medici Brothers' Circus, runned by Max Medici (Danny DeVito) hops aboard the Casey Jr. steam locomotive and tours from town to town in the United States. When the circus falls upon hard times, desperate measures are called for. A performer by the name of Holt Farrier (Colin Farell) returns to the circus from World War I as an amputee to meet his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins). Holt, who is a widower (whose wife worked for the circus also, but died in his absence from influenza), tries to appeal to Max to give him a job at the circus, but due to their financial difficulties, Max can no longer provide Holt with the same job that he previously held. Max does however have a new job in mind for Holt, one that involves caring for the circus’s pregnant elephant Mrs. Jumbo and her baby after its born. When Mrs. Jumbo gives birth, they find that the baby elephant has unusually large ears. Medici tells holt to hide his ears, but during a show where they introduce him to the public, he takes a liking to a large feather sticking out of a member of the audience’s hat, and in trying to suck the feather in through his trunk, he sneezes hard, and his ears are revealed. The crowd mockingly calls the elephant “Dumbo”, and starts laughing, making fun of, and throws snacks at him. Seeing what is happening to her baby, Mrs. Jumbo gets very defensive in protecting him, that chaos erupts, and as they try to restrain her, the tent collapses on itself, one trainer ends up dead, and Mrs. Jumbo is separated from her baby in a car marked “mad elephant.” Medici then pursues plans to sell Mrs. Jumbo.
As the two elephants are separated from each other, Milly and Joe get closer to the elephant and befriend him. In their caring for the elephant, they come to discover that in using his big ears, Dumbo can fly. Using a simple feather, they learn that they can get Dumbo to fly in a more controlled fashion, but there are some challenges along the way. As the attraction draws more and more crowds, the Medici Circus makes a successful comeback, one that attracts a shrewd amusement park owner by the name of V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who is very impressed with Dumbo, and as such, offers a business proposition to Medici involving a consolidation of his amusement park, called Dreamland, with Medici’s circus, and then forming a partnership which includes employment for Medici’s performers.
To intensify the effect, Vandevere wants to raise the stakes and have Dumbo fly with his French trapeze artist Colette Marchant (Eva Green), but the task winds up heading into dangerous territory that leads to failures and life-threatening situations. And in struggling to deliver on his own merit, Dumbo hears the call of his mother, who was placed by Dreamland in an attraction called “Nightmare Island,” and he flies out to be reunited with her. Vandevere then comes to the realization that having Mrs. Jumbo in his amusement park is a distraction to Dumbo’s job performance, and gives the order to have her taken away and killed. It is at this point the story goes into multiple “problem in search of a solution” scenarios that takes the film to its conclusion.
My Take:
When Walt Disney created the 1941 animated feature film, his inspiration was from a scroll like children’s book entitled “Dumbo the Flying Elephant”, written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl. Walt changed some things around and added more to the mix what with the crows, the mouse, and some other elements that kept the flow of the story moving. With all of what was added, Walt was advised to add even more to the movie, but he resisted saying, "You can stretch a story just so far and after that it won't hold together." With all of what was done in that time, the final cut of that original movie came out to only one hour and four minutes in length. What I thought was impressive was how they were able to stretch a one hour and four-minute storyline into a one hour and fifty-two-minute storyline by adding more characters and more storyline. So in other words, take the 1941 movie that you already know and love, add a father and his two kids, add a powerful, shrewd, and villainous personality to the mix, add danger and a series of feats that carry the element of surprise, and you get the new and extended version of Dumbo that is, in my opinion, fun to watch and engaging from start to finish. And there is something to be said about Tim Burton’s vision in this adaptation of Dumbo. He makes it lighthearted and he takes the extremes that were portrayed in his movie Batman Returns (1992), and he reverses the roles. In other words, he makes Michael Keaton the villain and Danny DeVito the good guy. As a fan of Batman Returns and the original Dumbo film, I thought that that was kind of cool to see. But all in all, I thought the movie was very lighthearted, funny, fun, and its dramatic and climactic scenes engaging. It is very difficult to take a beloved and original concept and try to stretch it far and wide in a remade version later on. A quick example is Ron Howard’s version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000) starring Jim Carrey where he takes a 25-minute storyline and stretches it into an hour and fifty-minute movie. And you feel it!! I remember looking at my watch repeatedly and getting tired when I saw it in the movie theater. Needless to say, I never watched it since. This movie didn’t do that. Tim Burton may have added some elements to the original story, but it was done in a fashion where you care about the characters, are entertained by the humor, and situations that befall our characters, and you just go along for the ride realizing that it’s a lot better than you thought it would be. That is my take on this movie.
Out of 4 stars, I give this version of Dumbo 3 and a half.
The film is rated PG and runs one hour and fifty-two minutes.
To view a trailer for the film, please click on the “Play” button below.
Teaser Trailer:
Official Trailer:
“Dumbo” is available to own and rent on 4K-HD, blu-ray, DVD, multiple streaming services, and is currently available to rent on Redbox kiosk machines everywhere.
The Story:
The film begins in the year 1919, where the Medici Brothers' Circus, runned by Max Medici (Danny DeVito) hops aboard the Casey Jr. steam locomotive and tours from town to town in the United States. When the circus falls upon hard times, desperate measures are called for. A performer by the name of Holt Farrier (Colin Farell) returns to the circus from World War I as an amputee to meet his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins). Holt, who is a widower (whose wife worked for the circus also, but died in his absence from influenza), tries to appeal to Max to give him a job at the circus, but due to their financial difficulties, Max can no longer provide Holt with the same job that he previously held. Max does however have a new job in mind for Holt, one that involves caring for the circus’s pregnant elephant Mrs. Jumbo and her baby after its born. When Mrs. Jumbo gives birth, they find that the baby elephant has unusually large ears. Medici tells holt to hide his ears, but during a show where they introduce him to the public, he takes a liking to a large feather sticking out of a member of the audience’s hat, and in trying to suck the feather in through his trunk, he sneezes hard, and his ears are revealed. The crowd mockingly calls the elephant “Dumbo”, and starts laughing, making fun of, and throws snacks at him. Seeing what is happening to her baby, Mrs. Jumbo gets very defensive in protecting him, that chaos erupts, and as they try to restrain her, the tent collapses on itself, one trainer ends up dead, and Mrs. Jumbo is separated from her baby in a car marked “mad elephant.” Medici then pursues plans to sell Mrs. Jumbo.
As the two elephants are separated from each other, Milly and Joe get closer to the elephant and befriend him. In their caring for the elephant, they come to discover that in using his big ears, Dumbo can fly. Using a simple feather, they learn that they can get Dumbo to fly in a more controlled fashion, but there are some challenges along the way. As the attraction draws more and more crowds, the Medici Circus makes a successful comeback, one that attracts a shrewd amusement park owner by the name of V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who is very impressed with Dumbo, and as such, offers a business proposition to Medici involving a consolidation of his amusement park, called Dreamland, with Medici’s circus, and then forming a partnership which includes employment for Medici’s performers.
To intensify the effect, Vandevere wants to raise the stakes and have Dumbo fly with his French trapeze artist Colette Marchant (Eva Green), but the task winds up heading into dangerous territory that leads to failures and life-threatening situations. And in struggling to deliver on his own merit, Dumbo hears the call of his mother, who was placed by Dreamland in an attraction called “Nightmare Island,” and he flies out to be reunited with her. Vandevere then comes to the realization that having Mrs. Jumbo in his amusement park is a distraction to Dumbo’s job performance, and gives the order to have her taken away and killed. It is at this point the story goes into multiple “problem in search of a solution” scenarios that takes the film to its conclusion.
My Take:
When Walt Disney created the 1941 animated feature film, his inspiration was from a scroll like children’s book entitled “Dumbo the Flying Elephant”, written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl. Walt changed some things around and added more to the mix what with the crows, the mouse, and some other elements that kept the flow of the story moving. With all of what was added, Walt was advised to add even more to the movie, but he resisted saying, "You can stretch a story just so far and after that it won't hold together." With all of what was done in that time, the final cut of that original movie came out to only one hour and four minutes in length. What I thought was impressive was how they were able to stretch a one hour and four-minute storyline into a one hour and fifty-two-minute storyline by adding more characters and more storyline. So in other words, take the 1941 movie that you already know and love, add a father and his two kids, add a powerful, shrewd, and villainous personality to the mix, add danger and a series of feats that carry the element of surprise, and you get the new and extended version of Dumbo that is, in my opinion, fun to watch and engaging from start to finish. And there is something to be said about Tim Burton’s vision in this adaptation of Dumbo. He makes it lighthearted and he takes the extremes that were portrayed in his movie Batman Returns (1992), and he reverses the roles. In other words, he makes Michael Keaton the villain and Danny DeVito the good guy. As a fan of Batman Returns and the original Dumbo film, I thought that that was kind of cool to see. But all in all, I thought the movie was very lighthearted, funny, fun, and its dramatic and climactic scenes engaging. It is very difficult to take a beloved and original concept and try to stretch it far and wide in a remade version later on. A quick example is Ron Howard’s version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000) starring Jim Carrey where he takes a 25-minute storyline and stretches it into an hour and fifty-minute movie. And you feel it!! I remember looking at my watch repeatedly and getting tired when I saw it in the movie theater. Needless to say, I never watched it since. This movie didn’t do that. Tim Burton may have added some elements to the original story, but it was done in a fashion where you care about the characters, are entertained by the humor, and situations that befall our characters, and you just go along for the ride realizing that it’s a lot better than you thought it would be. That is my take on this movie.
Out of 4 stars, I give this version of Dumbo 3 and a half.
The film is rated PG and runs one hour and fifty-two minutes.
To view a trailer for the film, please click on the “Play” button below.
Teaser Trailer:
Official Trailer:
“Dumbo” is available to own and rent on 4K-HD, blu-ray, DVD, multiple streaming services, and is currently available to rent on Redbox kiosk machines everywhere.