Dumbo
3 stars
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Michael Keaton, Deobia Oparei, Alan Arkin
Duration: 112 mins
Class: PG
KRS Releasing Ltd

Continuing its run of live-action remakes of its best-loved animated movies, Disney is back with this version of Dumbo a ‘reimagining’ (confession: I hate that term!) of the 1941 animated film – then the fourth animated feature from the fledgling studio. Having eccentric director Tim Burton taking the reins on such a mainstream story may have seemed an odd choice – although his reason for accepting the gig ties in seamlessly with his oeuvre to date.

“The idea of running away to join the circus is a feeling that has always stuck with me,” says Burton. “I never really liked the circus with the captive animals, the clowns, the uncomfortable death-defying acts and – did I mention? – the clowns! But I understood the idea of it, joining a weird family of outcasts who don’t fit in with normal society – people who are treated differently. That’s what Dumbo is about.”

In a story that departs from the original plot line, former circus star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) returns from World War I to find he has no job. The circus has fallen on hard times, and its owner Max Medici (Danny De Vito) assigns Holt the job of caring for a new-born elephant – who’s the subject of fun and cruelly nicknamed ‘Dumbo’ on account of his unusually oversized ears.

Holt and his two kids Millie and Joey (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins) are astonished to discover the little elephant can fly. Dumbo becomes an overnight sensation, earning money for the struggling circus but also attracting the attention of theme park entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton). Persuading Max and his circus to join him, Vandevere makes Dumbo the newest attraction for his newly-opened Dreamland Park… yet it’s not long before things turn sour and Vandevere’s exploitative motives are exposed.

Thankfully, Dumbo himself steals the show

In his three-and-a-half decades of film-making, Burton has regaled us with a troupe of colourful and quirky, indeed “a weird family of outcasts who don’t fit in with normal society”. Be they animated or real, the likes of Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Frankenweenie and many more have provided us with entertainment and, more importantly, myriad funny and touching moments; characters in a canon of magical and mysterious stories. And so, anticipation was high over the idea that Burton would bring his trademark idiosyncrasy to his version of Dumbo – yet surprisingly the opposite has happened. Burton has delivered a solid if unimaginative film, from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger’s that is sorely lacking in magic and mystery – resulting in one of Disney’s finest entries from its early catalogue losing a lot of what made it so special all those decades ago.

The story is slight and fairly obvious, the characters thinly-sketched. The cast are ill-served by a script that gives the human characters little depth. Farrell struggles as the war hero trying to reconnect with his children while Eva Green has barely anything to do as Colette Marchant, a trapeze artist who befriends Dumbo.

It is Keaton and De Vito, both reuniting with their Batman Returns director, who fare the best, making the most of the little they have to work with. Keaton is devilishly charming-with-a-touch evil as the theme park owner, hamming it up just the right amount, while DeVito nails the role of the grumpy circus owner, whose garrulousness does not mask the love he has for his troupe – an assortment of circus folk that barely register. 

Thankfully, Dumbo himself steals the show. With big blue, remarkably expressive eyes, those great big, floppy, graceless ears, and rendered with body language that speaks volumes he is truly the star of the show.  You can’t help but be moved at his palpable fear when he is separated from his mother, or enjoy his playful interaction with the kids, while holding your breath at his initial tentativeness as he is coaxed into flying – and the delight when he does finally take off is joyful.

When he soars, so does the film. That it is lamentably only for a few very brief scenes only serves to underline the ordinariness of everything else.

David Kross playing Bert Trautmann in The Keeper.

Also showing

The Keeper (Classification 15) – Growing up in Nazi Germany, Bert Trautmann (David Kross) grew up indoctrinated in the mindset of his country at the time, before his recruitment as a soldier and subsequent capture by the British in 1944. His detention in a prisoner-of-war camp in England and the kindness of the locals led him to reject his homeland and choose instead to remain in England, where he became a goalkeeper, first for St Helens Town and then for Manchester City.