This is my movie review for "Dumbo", released March 29, 2019. I watched this January 24, 2020 via Disney+.
Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Run Time: 1 Hour and 52 Minutes
Trailer
Official MPAA Rating (According to IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Notable Cast
Colin Farrell ... Holt Farrier
Michael Keaton ... V. A. Vandevere
Danny DeVito ... Max Medici
Eva Green ... Colette Marchant
Alan Arkin ... J. Griffin Remington
Nico Parker ... Milly Farrier
Finley Hobbins ... Joe Farrier
Plot
Holt Farrier, having lost one of his arms in the war, returns home to the circus run by Max Medici. He finds out that his wife (also his partner for the circus act) passed away while he was at war but his children are still alive. He reunites with them and tries to be the father that they need, though he is also trying to figure out how to deal with the loss of his arm (since his act was a cowboy with a lasso) and his wife.
Since Holt is disabled, Max gives him clean up duty after the animals. As he is taking care of the elephants, one of the females gives birth to a baby elephant. The mother elephant attacks someone when they get close to the baby and she is sent away for the safety of the circus workers. Holt's children Milly and Joe start getting close to the baby elephant and tell him that they have lost their mother too, so they know how it feels.
It turns out that the baby (Dumbo) can fly when he has a feather in his possession. (Why? No idea; let's call it magic.) As Max is getting really tight on funds, an offer by a bigger circus company gets more tempting. Max sells out to Vandevere, Dumbo being the main selling point.
How can Dumbo, Holt, Milly, Joe and the rest of the Medici circus family survive? Will commercialism be the victor over family? Can they ever find Dumbo's mom?
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3.5/5 - *SPOILERS*
There were some of the original songs from Disney's "Dumbo" (1941) but they weren't too prominent. This version tried to incorporate scenes from the original but changed them: for example, the dancing pink bubble elephants were still in this movie but it wasn't because Dumbo was drunk (but it still seemed really trippy).
Pink Elephants (2019):
Pink Elephants on Parade (1941):
I get that they were trying to make a nod to the old movie but the 2019 version of the pink elephants were really outrageous and didn't make sense to me. I understand that the whole pink elephants thing was something Dumbo saw when he was drunk but try to take that to the circus in a sober setting? Wtf....
As far as the animals not talking nor singing, it works and doesn't work for this version of the movie. I kinda missed the mouse helping Dumbo out but that was what the kids Milly and Joe were there for. I did like the fact that the other elephants were not able to pick on Dumbo in this movie because that was a bit too much for a little guy like him, in my honest opinion. The friendship between the mouse and Dumbo was lost, though, and the friendship between Milly, Joe, and Dumbo was just not the same; sure, they were there for him but the fuzzy feelings weren't as strong as the friendship between the mouse and Dumbo in the 1941 version.
The fact that Mrs. Jumbo couldn't sing pushed the song "Baby Mine" to a circus worker, which kinda works but also makes it seem like it was placed there when Dumbo sees his mother, which distances the relationship between Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo. (The circus worker isn't even singing to a child!) In the 1941 version, however, the song doesn't start until after Dumbo has arrived at his mother's cage and they have connected.
"Baby Mine" 1941:
"Baby Mine" 2019:
It was sad that Holt came home from the war to find that his wife had died from influenza while he had been gone and that the circus wasn't doing very well. However, the circus troupe came together almost like a real "family" and helped reunite, and free, Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo.
I do have an issue with the fact that they release the two into the wild because wtf. Mrs. Jumbo probably wasn't a wild elephant in the first place, so that could be a death sentence to the both of them. Good intention but why in the world would you just be like "BE FREE IN THE WILDERNESS" considering how many people hunt elephants, and natural predators, and is that even the setting they need to be in if they are wilderness-compatible? And how does that help protect them? Why couldn't they have just kept them in the Medici troupe and move onward down the road/railway? (Ending was lacking, obviously.)
In general, it was a good movie. It was darker than the 1941 version because of the reality they put into the human aspect of the movie (as the 1941 version only dealt with the viewpoints of the animals) but it was decent. I liked the fact that Milly and Joe stood up for Dumbo because people should stand up for the well being of animals. I liked how they all got together to get Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo reunited, though releasing them might not have been the best idea. It was sad to see the corporate corruption in the movie, but that's what human life is, right?
Anyways, that's my movie review. I'd personally say that you should have parental guidance/observation when having children watch this movie for the first time, even if it isn't as gruesome as "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle" (2018), because of adult/human themes. {I'm referring to the greed and animal punishment, thank you.}
Thanks for reading! More reviews to come eventually, so keep an eye out!
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
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Twitter @gracie_delunac
Email graciemaedelunac@yahoo.com
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"Everything Wrong with "Dumbo" 2019 in 12 Minutes or Less"
Credit: @CinemaSins
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