I talk about movies being forgettable, but this one truly was. I had completely forgotten I’d seen this and was ready to write up the next one. I’d even left it off of my 2019 spreadsheet. It was only because I was going thru my Stardust reactions to post on my Twitter that I was reminded of it. That’ll tell ya how memorable this movie is
We know the story of Dumbo, yeah? Tiny elephant. Giant ears. Separated from Mama. Flies in a circus. Even though I’m a Disney kid, he’s always been kinda low on my list (hey something’s gotta be on the bottom). A big part of why I’ve never cared for him is that his story is rather thin. I was hoping this remake would really flesh out the story, but it doesn’t so much flesh it out as extend it. It still felt as thin as before, now it was longer.
Now there are some great elements in this. The cast is great (Colin Farrell, Eva Green, Alan Arkin, etc). There are some wonderful moments. The elephant is adorable and he has some incredibly heart warming scenes. There’s some heart wrenching ones as well. But those were moments. There wasn’t much connecting those moments. I expect much more magic from Disney and from Tim Burton, and even moreso with their powers combined.
It’s like that line from 10 Things I Hate About You: You can be overwhelmed or you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed? Turns out you can. This movie whelmed.
Dumbo – \m/ \m/ \n