Dumbo · 2:14am Mar 29th, 2019
Over Seventy Years ago, to follow up on the success of Snow White, Walt Disney Studios produced "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio" one after the other. While they would gather up a strong cult following, they didn't fare well when first released. So, after two complex features that earned rather little, the studio decided to make something more economical. Thus brought about the adaptation of an admittedly very rare childrens book, "Dumbo." The story is simple, even the character designs emphasize the importance of silhouette while removing as much detail as possible. To the surprise, the movie made more than even Snow White. As a kid, I would watch it often in the Disney Channel. And today, there are... Quite a few things wrong today that were okay then.
That being said, brings us to today. The film starts off a little while after World War 2 ends, and our child characters father returns home without an arm. The circus where the family is living has been in shambles while he was away. But the ringmaster is able to buy a pregnant elephant, and from her our titular hero is introduced, not by a stork voiced by Jim Cummings if that were the case.
But anyway, to my surprise, this was actually a very good remake like with The Jungle Book. There are things that had to be removed such as implications of racism (the Crows and the Roustabouts song), and underage drinking (Pink Elephants is still in). But they did emphasize Dumbo's skill, and above all address animal abuse in the show business.
Do I recommend it, considering the general flack of the remakes, and considering that we are getting Aladdin and The Lion King remakes this year also. Yes. It greatly expands on the original film (in fact, a majority of the original film is covered within the first half hour). Batman fans might whisper a few jokes, especially with Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito being in the film. One big plus I must say, as a Missouri resident, I am very happy we start off in my home state.
I wanna see this.