My Review of 2019 CGI "Dumbo"

Source of image: IMDB.com

Walt Disney Not a Coney Island Con-Artist with No Soul But Was An American Idealist with a Heart for His Mother

Review of “Dumbo” to counter some other reviews

**** (Four Stars out of Five)

By: Ron Baxley, Jr., author and travel specialist

The “Saving Mr. Banks” film a few years back dealt with Walt Disney’s father issues as well as author P.L. Travers’, and to me, the modern CGI Tim Burton “Dumbo” deals more with Walt’s mother issues.

Past critics have tried to paint the CGI modern “Dumbo” as an indictment against Walt Disney forming the big theme-park of Disneyland, but Walt Disney was not a Coney Island con-artist with no soul like V.A. Vandavere (Michael Keaton) with his overly-elaborate, garish Dreamland theme-park. Keaton plays Vandavere, affecting a somewhat British dialect at times with the social climbing dialect of the poorer New York boroughs in the early part of the last century. The screen-writer and director could have explored it a bit more, but V.A. Vandavere has tinges of Gatsby, climbing to the ranks of grand showmanship a la P.T. Barnum whose highly fictionalized musical biopic made its appearance not long ago, “The Greatest Showman.” Burton’s “Gatsby” is accompanied by a more intelligent Daisy, Eva Green, as the French street performer, Colette Marchant. Vandavere keeps Colette at his side more like a jewel that reflects back on him as Colette describes it. Like Devito, Green gives a good performance and a complicated one as she is one of the more developed characters within the film. She is no Lillian Disney, the doting, supportive wife of Walt, so this relationship is yet another indication the screenwriter and director probably did not intend Vandavere to be a satirical mirror of Walt. 

Granted, Walt Disney was a bit of a social climbing Gatsby himself in some ways. But he was not the heartless entertainer who peddled a soulless Midway, which as shown in this film is more the equivalent of a dark Pleasure Island versus the bright Disneyland Uncle Walt wanted to be a shared experience for the young, old, and the young at heart. In addition, one cannot imagine the purveyor of nature films that was Walt to go after an animal, no matter how special Dumbo the flying elephant was, just for some bucks. Also, Walt Disney may have stated, “It’s kind of nice to do the impossible” which is close to Vandavere’s statement of “making the impossible possible.” But Vandavere’s sounds more forced where Walt’s sounded more humble, like an “aw, shucks” statement from a boy from Missouri who knows he’s “done good.” This is yet another reason I do not see them as the same.  

No, it’s not Burton trying to make Walt Disney out to be a villain as some critics have stated. In “Dumbo”, it’s Burton, as he has done in other films, exploring the psychology of characters and of Disney himself. Many Disney fans know the story of how Walt and Roy, his brother, together bought their parents, Elias and Flora after the success of “Snow White”, a house in North Hollywood. Flora kept complaining about the smell of gas leaking in the home, and Walt sent his repairmen from the study to look at it. They thought they had the problem fixed, but Florida succumbed to the gas eventually and passed away. Elias survived. Some have speculated that the deaths of mothers in Disney films from “Bambi” on forward relate to this historic occurrence. (spoiler alert) Granted, Dumbo’s mother is not killed in the film, but her life is threatened quite a few times, and the intense sadness of Dumbo being separated from her is emphasized. The moments of Dumbo’s separation from her and his reactions were as almost as poignant to me as the original. I think Burton and the screenwriter are thematically exploring the psyche of Disney himself, not painting him to be some kind of sideshow charlatan as other critics have attested.

There are some classic Disney ideas in the film. I thought Danny Devito’s plucky take on the ringmaster and owner of the circus who sees his performers as more of a family matched classic Disney. The child actors did not per se as they lacked the enthusiasm of some of the ones from past Disney films. Of course, unlike Dumbo, they had lost their mother through her passing away, and this figures into the themes discussed earlier. Therefore, perhaps it was better than their performances were a bit subdued for this reason. Themes of loss and grief are particularly explored through the young actress Nico Parker, who emotes sadness very well. Nevertheless, she could have leaned more toward ecstatic joy when they began to help Dumbo. 

Colin Farell, who plays her father Holt Farrier, is back from the war to return to performing with horses he discovers has been sold and has been placed to work with the elephants (how he and his family meet Dumbo, etc.). Farell plays Farrier with a stoicism and bravery of a man who lost his arm to war but keeps fighting, keeps trying. At times, he does not get very excited or as happy when they are trying to help Dumbo as I would have liked, but I think that fits in with what his character has gone through. He has lost a wife and his arm in battle, after all. 

Next, not giving up against all odds is another classic Disney theme in the film. Another classic idea within the film is that a group of good friends or family can band together to do their best to defeat evil. There are definite lines between the two as in most Disney films.

At one point, the modern CGI “Dumbo” ’s score, which seems to have been done by a whole teams of musicians, lulled me almost to sleep along with the dark cinematography – something long-time Burton collaborator Danny Elfman never did to me. Nevertheless, the song “Baby Mine” (based on the original one from the animated film) was suitably poignant in all its incarnations in the film (the ukulele one reminding of the late Hawaiian Iz’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” cover/ version). The song, multiple times and ways, is related to all interactions between Dumbo and his mother from whom he was separated. 

The usage of that song and the wide-eyed, realistic CGI qualities of Dumbo with the life-like noises brought tears to my eyes. Dumbo’s cuteness as he explored his world as a young animal made the audience and me smile and laugh as well. I think the artists did a good job of making Dumbo (as well as the other circus animals) appear fairly realistic. He certainly beats the slightly wooden CGI characters of yesteryear though not necessarily rivaling the hand-drawn classic Dumbo.   

Many of the CGI visuals were very colorful and extremely intricate. They did bring me into the circus and theme-park worlds very well. It’s just at time that the lighting within those worlds was a little darker than I would have liked. However, I get that this was being used to create a somber mood.

Being only occasionally, if not rarely bored by the score and some of the acting at times and darker lit scenes made me decrease my rank of the film a bit. However, I give the modern CGI “Dumbo” a good rank because I think it does deal with classic Disney themes and does not try to tear down Walt Disney the way other reviewers have postulated that it does.