Dumbo (2019)

Director Tim Burton has had a iffy track record as of late, with some highs such as the biopic 'Big Eyes' to the mediocre like 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children' so going into his latest film, a live-action adaptation of the 1940's Disney classic 'Dumbo' one can be forgiven for having a little skepticism. The story here retains the essentials of the original, about a circus elephant whose big ears can help him to fly but also makes many changes for the modern age. Some for the better and others for the worst, giving us a film that is somewhat inconsistent in presentation keeps some of its original charm in the end.

While the original had talking animals as our protagonists, here we have a young boy and girl whose father has returned from the war who guide the story along. What we get here is the same beats of the 'Dumbo' story: a young elephant learns to fly, has his mother taken away, and learns to believe in himself and those more simple story elements still work here. It's when we dive into the human characters this time around that we get pretty sloppy. The performers all do their best and no one in the cast stands out as a bad actor, but for such a strong cast of both Burton regulars such as Michael Keaton & Danny DeVito none of them really stand out to me. Keaton's villainous circus owner is so by the numbers (essentially a greedy businessman and nothing more) and DeVito gets to makes some funny quips now and again but this good of a cast deserved a better script.

These more simplistic aspects stand out even further when screenwriter Ehren Krueger is trying to retain the nostalgic and old fashioned side of the film while placing modern politics and values in at the same time and these two elements go together like water and oil. I'm not saying pulling back and going for a basic film is necessarily bad as it's what made so many early Disney films so wonderful. To take a simple story with a good message and make it charming and entertaining is the heart of those classic films. But you cannot have this old feeling mixed with modern ideas such as discussions of animal cruelty without conflict. It's better to go one way or the other, and in the case of 'Dumbo' 2019, I think the former could have benefited the film more.

This being a Tim Burton film, one should expect some beautiful cinematography and creative art styles on display and 'Dumbo' is no different. Though scaled way back from his usual affairs, the color schemes and environments change appropriately. From the colorful and dazzling visuals of the steampunk like Dreamland theme park, to the darker and more dramatic moments which use muted orange and blues. The score was composed by Burton regular Danny Elfman whose sound is good but a bit too familiar to truly stand out. I heard a lot of 'Edward Scissorhands' throughout and overall it feels like another by the book Elfman score which isn't bad but I'm not running to pick it up on CD or iTunes anytime soon.

'Dumbo' attempts to be two films at once but only really works one way most of the time. The original story aspects about believing in oneself and the love of your family is still here, but extremely deluded by the more contemporary aspects and with a lot of Burton's work, there are times where the film is very much style over substance. I think many will enjoy this new version, though I don't recommend it to younger children as it is a much darker interpretation but I sadly think it will also fade from time far sooner than its original counterpart.

6/10