Tim Burton's ‘Dumbo' is Too Cutesy and Forgettable [Review]

Tim Burton and Screenwriter Ehren Kruger, who penned the catastrophic “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” have decided to turn “Dumbo,” an animated classic which ran for just 64-minutes, into a two-hour movie. The 1941 movie was such a simple but resonant story that you do wonder why Disney would bother remaking it into a 2 hour spectacle ($$$), alas, that’s what they’ve done here. At least they hired a master visualist like Burton to direct the adaptation. Setting the film mostly around the world of a traveling circus is an absolute treat for us Burton afficionados, the visuals are indeed to die for with the director infusing his own gothic brand of filmmaking into this world of freaks, outcasts and, this is where it goes wrong, children. The film is full of spectacle and story, but sadly, lacking in substance. The inclusion of cutesy characters Millie (Nico Parker) and her little brother, Joe (Finley Hobbins) comes at a cost, there isn’t any depth to these characters nor do we particularly care that their dad Holt (Colin Farrell) has come back from the war with a lost limb. Holding this circus show together is owner Max Medici (the always welcome Danny DeVito) who soon catches the attention of conglomerate V. A. Vandevere (a miscast Michael Keaton), he wants the flying elephant to perform at his NYC amusement park with acrobat Colette Marchant (Eva Green). These last fifteen years or so, Burton’s career has been mostly relegated to being a paycheck-driven hired hand for Disney, all this despite having had a fabulous streak of films between 1988 and 1999, which included masterful statements (“Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood”), auteur-driven blockbusters ("Batman,” “Batman Returns”) and delicious cult staples (“Beetlejuice,“ “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” “Mars Attacks”) But what Burton has done with “Dumbo” is try to work around Kruger’s overstuffed plot, and barely sketched-out characters, to drive his film home visually. His attempts don’t succeed, there’s only so much you can do with a bland story. As it stands, “Big Eyes” was the last good Burton movie, 2007’s “Sweeney Todd” was the last great one. [C]