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Movie Review of ‘Dumbo’:
Selling Thrills, Tears, and Laughs
by Sandra Olmsted
Like any good circus, director Tim Burton’s homage has all the dead-defying excitement, suspense, and thrills of the iconic American circuses. Using computer-generated effects, the magic and excitement of a flying elephant and many other circus feats come to life. However, this new, live-action version of Disney’s famous animated ‘Dumbo’ feels a lot like a plug for a new Disney theme park, where people come rather than the old circuses which traveled on trains.
After a stunning opening sequence, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) run to meet every train in hopes their father, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), will return from WWI. It has been a tough year for Holts and the Medici Bros. Circus because of Holt’s war injury and because of the troupe’s death toll due to the 1918 flu pandemic. Max Medici (Danny DeVito) had to sell the horses which Holt, a trick rider, used for his act, reducing Holt to tending the elephants.
Soon, Jumbo gives birth to a baby elephant with very large ears. Milly and Joe soon learn that Jumbo’s baby can fly and, although Max wants the baby’s ear hidden, those ears soon go public. After a disastrous performance, the baby gets the name Dumbo, and Jumbo is blamed for killing a bad guy and sold back to her original owner. Once the secret of the flying elephant is out, the real protagonist, V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), the owner of a Coney Island circus attraction, shows up. With lies and false promises, Vandevere tricks Max into a deal just to get his hands on Dumbo.
Vandevere pairs Dumbo up with Colette Marchant (Eva Green), a French trapeze artist who is also Vandevere’s “queen.” Vandevere plans to capitalize on Dumbo’s fame to get more investment funds from Wall Street tycoon J. Griffin Remington (Alan Arkin). Dumbo’s grief over his mother’s departure reflects Milly’s and Joe’s own loss, and whether Jumbo and Dumbo will ever be reunited drives part of the story.
Dumbo promises to make the audience cry, laugh, and sit on the edge of their seats, just like an old time circus thrilled small-town audiences across America. In some ways, Vandevere’s theme park circus looks like a fun Disney attraction, although Vandevere has little concern for his audiences or employees. Still, his circus theme park looks like it could be fun if run as smoothly as Disney does theirs.
It seems no coincidence that Feld Entertainment owns the last vestiges of Ringling Bros, the last American circus to travel by train, and also owns a studio in central Florida – not far from Disney World – for staging a variety of traveling shows, including ‘Disney On Ice.’ Dumbo makes the circus look fun and exciting, and world behind the circus gets a less shady treatment than it traditionally does in films. Well-worth seeing and very entertaining, the new ‘Dumbo’ has high-flying performances, pathos, humor, and special effects. ‘Dumbo,’ a Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release, is rated PG for peril/action, some thematic elements, and brief mild language, and probably small and sensitive children may not enjoy it as much. ‘Dumbo’ runs a suspense-filled and fast-paced 112 minute and opens in theaters on March 29.
