The Heartless “Dumbo” (2019) Epitomizes the Worst of Disney (Part II of II)
The original animation spent the entire film developing the friendship between the lonely Dumbo and a little mouse named Timothy Q, who helps Dumbo keep up his spirits and eventually helps him learn to fly. Dumbo’s flight is the culmination of their journey together.
But in “Dumbo”, there’s no similar magic to Dumbo’s flight. All it takes for Dumbo to fly is to accidentally swallow a feather, sneeze and flap his big ears in the presence of Milly and Joe, who take credit for the flight.
This anticlimactic scene occurs in Dumbo’s third appearance on screen. The rest of the movie is dedicated to a story arc around V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), the owner of a successful amusement park called Dreamland. He hears about the flying elephant and purchases the entire Medici Circus from Medici in exchange for a stock in his park. Vandevere’s plan is to pair Dumbo with his star performer, Collette Marchant (Eva Green), so he can obtain financing from a banker (Alan Arkin) for further expansion.
All this talk of stocks, financing and money is extremely unseemly. This is the Michael Eisner’s, not-so-magical world of Disney. It is the Disney that shamelessly brought you Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure. It is The Walt Disney Company that is a heartless, capitalist conglomerate.
I suppose, in a vacuum, you can find a decent film somewhere in “Dumbo.” Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and Eva Green are all capable actors who, for better or for worse, put up average performances that’s entirely unmemorable. Tim Burton is an accomplished director who put together a competently shot, edited and directed film, even if it lacks his usual gothic feel. And Dumbo looks quite natural on screen, a testament to how far CGI technology has advanced.
But the problem is no one is watching “Dumbo” in a vacuum. Everyone knows this film is based on the 1941 Disney animated film, and anyone who is going to see it would have seen the original. With that backdrop, it’s hard to take this film for anything other than an ill-conceived project that badly mistook the inspiration it should have taken from the original animated film.
