Dumbo (2019)

“We’re all family here, no matter how small.”

Milly

Dumbo is a childhood favorite of mine, although I think I mainly loved it because it had elephants in it, because after I recently re-watched it I didn’t ever remember it being nearly that sad. Dumbo is one of the many recent live-action re-imagining of the Disney classics, my personal favorite so far being The Jungle Book. Tim Burton takes the original 60-minute long film and turns in into something feature length.

The first 45 minutes or so of this movie is a solid Dumbo re-creation, visiting iconic moments and shots from the original animated classic. The remaining hour of this movie is all totally new never before seen Dumbo story, so it was interesting seeing the line between the two segments of the film. I think it helps if you’ve never seen the original because then the line isn’t so obvious.

Danny Elfman’s score made me smile really big when Casey Jr.’s theme began playing at the beginning, and the rest of the soundtrack being memorable. I’ll probably pick it up whenever I see it at the store. Visual Effects were really good, I believed I was watching an elephant fly again for the first time since I was young. Dumbo himself was also very cute and a super lovable character.

As much as I liked this movie, I didn’t love it. I felt Milly Farrier (Nico Parker, who takes place of the character Timothy the Mouse) was my main issue with the movie, as her character was kind of annoying and overused sometimes. I don’t want to rant on her too much though, because it’s tough being a child actor as you’re still trying to figure out how to do it. The rest of the cast was very enjoyable to watch though.

Dumbo flew, but didn’t quite soar for me as the new parts of the story weren’t as great as I was hoping they’d be, and I expected a little more out of the Pink Elephants with Tim Burton at the helm. I’m gonna give Dumbo a 6/10, definitely enjoyable to watch (bring tissues), but not my favorite of the recent live-action adaptations.

What did you think of Dumbo?