Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) has just returned from the war to rejoin the circus that he was a part of with his wife, who has recently passed away. They were acrobats on horseback, but since losing an arm in the war, it seems his career is all but over.
His two children, daughter Milly (Nico Parker) and son Joe (Finley Hobbins) are glad to have him home, but things just aren’t the same now.
Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) gives Holt the task of looking after and training the elephants. He has just recently purchased a large, pregnant female from a dealer, and when she gives birth, everyone is initially very excited.
But when they see that the baby’s ears are exceptionally large, there seems to be little hope for it to ever be a part of the performance. Every time the audience see the young elephant, all they can do is laugh.
The two children don’t give up on the baby elephant so easily, whom they name Dumbo. While spending time with it, trying to bond with it, they realise its enormous ears allow it to fly into the air.
Suddenly, the circus is overwhelmed by sellout crowds, all desperate to catch a glimpse of the flying elephant. But it isn’t just the crowds that are interested.
Entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) has also caught wind of this latest addition to the circus, and he convinces Medici and his troupe to join his circus, a much more professional show at a huge themed attraction called Dreamland. Vandevere and his partner/star performer Colette Marchant (Eva Green) want to make Dumbo a part of their nightly show and, as it turns out, do away with the rest of the troupe.
This script by Ehren Kruger bears very little resemblance to the Disney animated film, other than the fact that it centres around a flying elephant named Dumbo. Fans of the original will not find much in this film that they recognise, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sadly, a lot of the dialogue in this version comes across incredibly stilted and unnatural. Also, the plot is incredibly predictable, and I don’t just mean because it’s a Disney film and you know that the bad guys will get their comeuppance in the end, and everyone else lives happily ever after. Even though the story is different enough from the original, there are not a lot of surprises or unexpected moments.
Colleen Atwood’s costumes are quite something, I must say. Of course, if you’ve seen other films she’s worked on, that shouldn’t come as a surprise; she has won a few Academy Awards for her efforts. But her hard work and dedication is much more visible in a film like this, where colourful, vibrant, unique outfits are all over the screen all the time.
The production design, by Rich Heinrichs, is similarly fantastic, with some amazing locations and gorgeously dressed sets. Again, given that the majority of the film is set in a circus, this shouldn’t come as a shock, but there is still a lot of creativity and originality on display even in these environments that audiences tend to have a rather stereotyped view of what they may look like.
Director Tim Burton brings his trademark look and feel to parts of the film, but not the whole thing. In fact, it is only in the final huge-scale sequence towards the end of the film that it is even noticeable at all, that Burton thumbprint.
Have a guess who composed the score. If you guessed anyone other than Danny Elfman, you obviously haven’t seen many Tim Burton movies, haha. The score is actually quite traditional, and not particularly Elfman-like. Perhaps some executive at Disney wasn’t willing to let Burton and Elfman be their usual slightly-twisted selves, I don’t know.
But the most unfortunate part of this movie has got to be the performances of the cast. With the exception of Eva Green, none of the cast seem to be giving their best here. We know from other films that DeVito, Keaton and Farrell can act, and can act extremely well as it happens. But here, they just seem to be going through the motions, saying the necessary lines at the right time (but not even giving them nuanced intonations, or anything like that). The two children also fail to give particularly memorable performances, and don’t seem to exhibit any talent for screen acting.
I don’t think I can in good conscience recommend this film, even to die-hard fans of the original.
5 out of 10.
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