Can we just be honest here for a minute? No one asked for this, and no one really wanted this when it was announced. Realizing this, I just wanted to give the movie a fair chance and see what Tim Burton came up with for Dumbo. The other thing we need to be honest about here is that the original Dumbo really isn’t that great of a movie, right? I mean, it’s fine, but you’re not going to find very many people that count it among their favorite Disney movies, so it’s the kind of movie that people aren’t watching on repeat.

I honestly find these kinds of movies to be the perfect ones to remake, though. Many people, myself included, feel like Disney are going a little overboard with these live-action remakes. I mean, hell, Dumbo is the first of THREE that are coming out this year alone. And I mean, so far these movies have been a bit of a mixed bag, right? Most of them, like 2015’s Cinderella or 2017’s Beauty and the Beast were pretty good movies, but they didn’t really do anything groundbreaking, and they were never going to be as good as their original animated counterparts. The one that I still think is the best one we’ve gotten is actually the live-action Jungle Book from 2016. That was a movie that I actually thought was even better than the original animated movie, but to be honest I was never the biggest fan of the original animated movie to begin with. And so, this is the point I’m kind of driving towards. Many of these Disney remakes have no business being made, such as the upcoming Aladdin and Lion King movies, since the original movies are already incredible. This is because remakes of classics can pretty much never be better. However, when you remake a movie that isn’t as beloved, you actually have the chance of making it better than the original. This is where I’m at with Dumbo. While I never asked for or wanted this live-action remake, I’ll gladly take this over an Aladdin remake, because there’s room for improvement with it. And, in the end, while I still don’t think it’s an amazing movie, I actually did enjoy this live-action Dumbo more than the original.

The thing that I liked most about this movie is that it isn’t so much a remake as it is a re-imagining. If you’ll remember, the original Dumbo movie is only about an hour long, and it ends with Dumbo learning to use his big ears to fly, with the help of his friend Timothy Q. Mouse. Not only is Timothy Q. Mouse not even in this movie, but it’s also close to 2 hours long, and Dumbo learns to fly by the end of the first act. Dumbo feels like a re-imagined remake early on, but honestly after that it almost feels like more of a sequel. I don’t want to spoil any of the story beats, but basically this is turned into more of an action/adventure movie. The original movie barely had any elements of this, and so one could argue that this is only executed this way to modernize the story, but regardless the focus is different here. This version of the story really focuses on Dumbo trying to reunite with his mother, all while he’s being exploited for his unusual talents.

The only real downside to this changing of the story is that the message of the original movie is kind of lost in translation. With Dumbo finally using his large ears to learn how to fly, the original movie really drove home the message that sometimes our greatest “flaws” (in the eyes of others) can actually become our greatest strengths, and while I’m not crazy about the original movie I still always did enjoy the theme it had going for it. However, with Dumbo learning to fly early on, this message isn’t really delivered nearly as much as it was before. Like I said, though, this remake is going for a different kind of story than the original, and so while there’s less of a message, there is more of an actual plot. You have to decide for yourself how you feel about this kind of trade-off, but I liked the direction they went with here.

I also want to talk about the cast here, because one of the biggest things this movie does is invent a lot of human characters and put a lot more focus on them. I’ll be honest, this was one of those movies where I didn’t really care to learn any of the names of the characters, so I’m just going to refer to them by the actors that play them. Our main human character is played by Colin Farrell, who is a father returning home from war. He’s lost both his wife and his arm in this time, and so he has to adjust back to life in the circus without these things. His kids are pretty cool, but I definitely preferred the daughter. This might just be a personal bias, but I’ve always hated Colin Farrell as an actor, so he was my least favorite character in the movie, which is unfortunate since he’s the lead. The only thing I’ve ever really liked him in was True Detective, because otherwise I just find him to be completely bland and one-note. I still feel that way about him here, so that’s unfortunate.

Rounding out the rest of the main cast, we have Danny Devito, Michael Keaton, and Eva Green, all of which I enjoyed in the movie. Danny Devito plays the ringmaster/owner of the circus, and he’s just such a fun character. We really don’t get to see much of Devito these days, but he’s always awesome, and so it was a lot of fun seeing him here. Michael Keaton plays the villain (some could argue that this is a spoiler, but it’s very obvious right from his first appearance), and I’ll be honest…his performance was a little weird. I’m not used to seeing Keaton play a cartoony type of bad guy, so it just felt off. However, I still enjoyed his character, so it’s not too bad. Finally, we have Eva Green, who plays Keaton’s assistant. She’s probably the most compelling of the characters, and Green gives as amazing of a performance as she always does. She’s definitely a highlight of the movie.

The last thing I’ll talk about in-depth is Tim Burton, since I know that he’s a prolific director, and perhaps a reason why some of you might want to see this movie. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been the biggest Tim Burton fan, but that also doesn’t mean that I haven’t really liked some of his movies. However, for every Batman and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, I’ve found there to also be complete bombs like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Planet of the Apes. Dumbo is more of a middle-ground movie for the director. It’s not one of his best, but it’s far from being his worst too. I actually preferred his Alice in Wonderland remake over this (although admittedly, I haven’t watched it since it came out and feel like it’s the kind of movie that I might not like as much if I rewatched it now), but this is still one of his better efforts in recent years. A lot of his signature weird eccentricities can be found here, so I do think that Tim Burton fans will enjoy his depiction of the story.

I’m surprised how much I have to say about Dumbo, especially since I don’t think it’s all that amazing. However, even if it’s just a small step above the original, I think it’s great that it is actually an improvement over the original for me. I just appreciate it for trying to chart new territory in an era where we’re being oversaturated with remakes that don’t ever try to do anything interesting. This didn’t “make me a Dumbo fan” or anything, but I’m glad that I saw it nonetheless. It’s not an amazing movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I still really appreciated the effort that went into it. Solid remake, in my eyes.

3.5/5