Director Tim Burton’s live action take on Disney’s 1941 animated classic struggles to get off the ground. In fact, it struggles to find the elephant in the room.
The floppy-eared pachyderm goes under the radar in a CGI adaptation that lacks heart and falls flat. Unlike our misfit hero’s ears, the narrative sticks out for all the wrong reasons.
Much of the first half of this Ehren Kruger-penned story is aggressively bland, as it recounts the tale of a baby elephant who is separated from his mother at a circus, and wins her back through the power of flight.
The source material gets lost in the second half in an unnecessarily complicated, and almost hallucinogenic plot, that takes viewers on a trip down a dark road of corporate exploitation and the hardships of fame, while tiptoeing around animal rights issues.
Setting the film around the world of a travelling circus, gives Burton’s fantastical eye-popping set-pieces and perfectly rendered animals (there isn't a crow in sight) the chance to dazzle.
A wealth of human characters are introduced to flesh out the topsy-turvy world, but by and large, they are superficial and solely there to stir the plot until the curtain comes down.
Colin Farrell makes the most of the thin script as a father struggling to keep up with his kids.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Farrell commended Burton for drastically changing the plot from its first outing and adding darker elements to the adaptation.
"This version is 30% a remake - and even that is tonally different - and 70% a new film because there was no human element to the original film.
"Tim did bring the sweetness to it while also honouring and tipping his head to the more dark aspects of the human condition - greed, avarice, cruelty, self-service etc."
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Michael Keaton adds a jolt of energy as the world-renowned circus entrepreneur, while Danny DeVito, a Burton regular, lightens the load as carnival master, Max Medici.
Dumbo just about manages to offer the sweeping nostalgia of an enchanting family blockbuster, which is aided by Danny Elfman’s bewitching score, including a harp-led cover of one of the cherished songs from the original - Baby Mine.
Unlike elephants’ ability to retain information, this is one movie you’ll want to forget.
Laura Delaney
