Dumbo, mini movie review

Rating: C-

Dumbo, the beloved 1941 Disney animated classic, is the latest Live Action Disney remake.  Though much has changed from the original, this is still a story about a flying elephant.  Baby Dumbo is born with big ears, so big that he's considered a laughing stock.  Instead of the savior of his small circus troop, Dumbo is regarded as a liability, but it turns out these ears are a gift.

There are many difference between the 1941 version and this latest rehashing.  The animals don't talk, and the only animal characters that carry over are Dumbo and his mother Jumbo.  There's no Timothy Q. Mouse, who iconically encourages Dumbo and teaches him to fly.  Instead we have a boy and a girl who takes the job on, hoping to save Dumbo and reunite him with his mother.  There's new side plots.  Many new characters.  A whole back end to the story that's original.

Change is good.  But with this change I feel much is missing.  Scenes are rushed together creating awkward transitions and no growth.  The kids have quite a few days to work with Dumbo after a major accident, but we get a cut to the circus performance instead.  Stuffing the plot creates no true development.  One scene cuts to the next while we imagine the in between.  It's one of the reasons this Dumbo left me disconnected.

Taking away the talking animals changes some of Dumbo's battles.  Here only humans are cruel, whereas in the animated film Dumbo was ostracized from his fellow elephants, his peers; Dumbo was completely alone, until Timothy helps.

I really don't like when villains are added simply for the sake of being a villain, and V. A. Vandevere, played by Michael Keaton, is a greedy man.  It's when he comes into the film that Dumbo truly changes from the original.  We get the promise of grandeur, but receive nothing but ruin.

Did we need this?  No.  Changing from the original is okay, making it fresh, but adding bits that take away from full growth arcs lessen a movie.  (Okay, and that cut scene where Vandevere is showing his vision to the ring master Max Medici, Danny DeVito, holding his hand up to the "future," aka an empty field, Max turns around and looks at his small circus tent before it morphs into a large one.  Before the morph you can see Vandevere still holding up his hand, frozen in place.  It's such an awkward cut.)

I could get into the fact that some characters are simply over the top, two dimensional, stick figures, but I won't.

Dumbo could have been an emotional powerhouse, but it wasn't.  A touching moment here and there, but not the full force it could have been.  I love nostalgia, but I love a good story more, and this stuffed plot leaves the story dry.

The visual splendor of this latest remake--though there are compositing issues with a couple scenes--does not capture the magic of Walt Disney's classic.

MPAA: Rated PG for peril/action, some thematic elements, and brief mild language.

(I do have to add that my Mom really liked it, so there's that.  We were in disagreement.)