'Dumbo' never manages to soar
I鈥檝e never been a huge fan of Disney鈥檚 commercially inspired penchant for remaking their animated classics as live-action movies. Not one has bested or even come close to equalling the animated original, and that includes 鈥淭he Jungle Book,鈥� 鈥淐inderella,鈥� 鈥淎lice in Wonderland,鈥� and 鈥淏eauty and the Beast.鈥�
The latest entry in this dubious enterprise is 鈥淒umbo,鈥� a perfectly lovely 1941 animated movie that has been transformed by director Tim Burton into a cloddish fantasia that never soars. Neither, alas, does Dumbo, the baby pachyderm with the large floppy ears that propel him aloft.
The central misconception in turning animation into live-action with, of course, some CGI effects is that any good story will survive the transformation unscathed. But story by itself is rarely the reason we appreciate animation. What holds us are the artistic flights of fancy, the imaginative reach that only animation can provide.
In Burton鈥檚 鈥淒umbo,鈥� written by Ehren Kruger, we don鈥檛 even get much of Burton鈥檚 trademark scurviness 鈥� which is probably a good thing, but still.聽Colin Farrell plays Holt Farrier, a World War I veteran who returns home to the struggling circus where he was a trick rider only to discover that the horses have been sold by the yowly but sympathetic circus owner, Max Medici (Danny DeVito). Holt lost an arm in the war and a wife to influenza, leaving him with two young children (played by Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins) and a job tending the elephants, one of which is pregnant. When Baby Dumbo arrives on the scene, I was expecting a surplus of cute close-ups, but Burton does surprisingly little to win us over. He鈥檚 never been big on treacle, but a bit more warmth in this chilly movie, which barely follows the outline of the 1941 original, would have gone a long way.
Despite a cast that also includes Michael Keaton as the tycoon who buys the Medici circus in order to exploit Dumbo, Eva Green as his aerialist girlfriend, and Alan Arkin as a fat-cat banker, Burton seems to have lost interest in directing actors. Or non-actors, for that matter. The two child performers seem especially adrift.
Upcoming in Disney鈥檚 animation-to-live-action hit parade are 鈥淎laddin鈥� and 鈥淭he Lion King,鈥� both due out this year. Yes, I know, never say never, and hope springs eternal, but I will be very surprised if they equal the originals. Here鈥檚 a better idea: How about turning some live-action movies into animation? Anybody for an animated 鈥淥ld Yeller鈥�? Grade:聽C (Rated PG for peril/action, some thematic elements, and brief mild language.)
