As soon as I heard the sombre “Baby Mine” song that traumatised generations of children in the original Dumbo, I was all set for Disney’s latest live-action remake to reduce me to tears. Either I’m dead inside, or this first teaser for Tim Burton’s Dumbo lacks the emotional punch I was anticipating.
Much like most of the early Disney films, Dumbo might have been fun for all the family, but there was a darkness that ran through their stories. The first teaser suggests that Disney is applying its famous Disneyfication to its own earlier work. Some moments scream “Tim Burton”, and Danny DeVito looks like he’s back in his Big Fish costume.
While we don’t get to see Dumbo fly (we’ll get that in the second trailer), we do get to see glimpses of the leading human characters such as Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Eva Green and Alan Arkin. Disney is moving full steam ahead with producing live-action remakes of their animated classics. The world might have fallen in love with the charms of last year’s Beauty and the Beast, but for all its glossy CGI, it left me feeling cold.
Dumbo swoops into cinemas in March.
From Disney and visionary director Tim Burton, the all-new grand live-action adventure “Dumbo” expands on the beloved classic story where differences are celebrated, family is cherished and dreams take flight. Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists former star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. But when they discover that Dumbo can fly, the circus makes an incredible comeback, attracting persuasive entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who recruits the peculiar pachyderm for his newest, larger-than-life entertainment venture, Dreamland. Dumbo soars to new heights alongside a charming and spectacular aerial artist, Colette Marchant (Eva Green), until Holt learns that beneath its shiny veneer, Dreamland is full of dark secrets.
