Disney making Dumbo Remake

CJR

Well-Known Member
We enjoyed it as well and I'm glad that it wasn't just a copy and paste remake of the original and told its own story. The CGI elephants were amazing and you have to admire the talent involved in creating them. That is worth seeing the film for alone.
 

seascape

Well-Known Member
We found the movie very enjoyable. In the end Dumbo wins his freedom. The movie starts with the circus leaving it's winter home in Sarasota Florida, a dig into Ringling Brothers and ends with the destruction of a themepark that abuses animals. Could that be a reference to Seaworld? Anyway the movie was very good and provided a nice ending for Dumbo which was missing from the original. Is it a must see? No, but it was well worth the ticket price and better than the vast majority of movies.
 

Fox&Hound

Well-Known Member
We saw it yesterday and I'd give it a B-. (no big spoilers here)

The good:
-Loved the visuals/color palette
-Dumbo was quite adorable as the movie progressed
-Lots of homage to the original while introducing new ideas (especially the second half)
-The pink elephant scene =)

The Bad:
- The pacing- the beginning is painfully slow and the end gets a bit frantic
-Editing- it really needs a solid 20 mins cut out somewhere- prob in the beginning
-The two kids in the movie were pretty cringeworthy actors- especially the girl who has the same facial expression no matter what she is experiencing.
-Character development- At the end of the movie I couldn't tell you any of the character's names and there are a lot of wasted performances where characters are under-developed.

I'd say go see it- but it might be better to wait until video....
 

NateD1226

Well-Known Member
I just got out of the movies about 30 minutes ago. I liked it a lot! I do agree with other people when they say the story was slow in the beginning. It wasn’t extremely slow but it didn’t go at a normal pace. The only thing that annoyed me was the little girl! They could’ve got a way better actress for her role. Her emotions were very monotone. I shouldn’t be too hard on her since she is still a kid, but if you are going to be in a Disney Movie, try to have more emotion. Other than that, I liked a lot. I would recommend seeing it in the theaters.
 

mf1972

Well-Known Member
for what it is, it’s not a bad movie. definitely something for everyone. jokingly, my only gripe is having watched keaton & devito over the years made me feel old myself
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
I just got out of the movies about 30 minutes ago. I liked it a lot! I do agree with other people when they say the story was slow in the beginning. It wasn’t extremely slow but it didn’t go at a normal pace. The only thing that annoyed me was the little girl! They could’ve got a way better actress for her role. Her emotions were very monotone. I shouldn’t be too hard on her since she is still a kid, but if you are going to be in a Disney Movie, try to have more emotion. Other than that, I liked a lot. I would recommend seeing it in the theaters.
Warning spoiler...

I kind of attribute the little girl's emotion to the fact that she's had to play mom to her little brother since her mom died. So she's had to grow up long before she needed to, a common movie trope
 

Tony Perkis

Well-Known Member
Ummm, I haven't seen the original in a very long time but this is.......interesting.

If you don’t follow the CinamaSins channel on YouTube, note that an overwhelming majority of critcisms are completely inconsequential, and the creators acknowledge that. This is a comedy channel first, a true critique second.

That said, if you can stomach it, watch the BvS video. They pretty much nail down why the central plot in that film is BS, and why their criticisms are effective.

Every few videos, they actually eviscerate movies in highly effective manner, and I assume it’s because those films have truly awful story structure.

They care about jokes first, since their movie selection is based more on timeliness of the franchise. Same with RedLetterMedia.
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
First off, I have not seen 'Dumbo' and have no intentions of doing so. It looked terrible and I am not a fan of Disney's current trend of
"live-action remakes". BatB was ok, at best, and I'll leave it at that.

Disney PR is in full-spin mode about Dumbo's lower-than-expected opening weekend take of $45 million:

“We’re very encouraged by the start,” said Cathleen Taff, Disney’s head of global distribution. “Our Cinemascore is strong, and we’re well positioned as a top option for family audiences.”

I guess coming in at least 10% lower than execs expected is "very encouraging"? There have been comparisons in RT scores to 2010's 'Alice in Wonderland', which likely had a strong Johnny Depp boost that 'Dumbo' doesn't have. I think there's zero chance 'Dumbo' ends up even close to Alice's global box office total.

Unfortunately, I doubt this will curb Disney's appetite for "live-action remakes", although if 'Aladdin' under-performs, they may have to rethink things (even though 'The Lion King' will likely do gangbusters business at the box office). Maybe if they came up with some original ideas more than once every 3-4 years... 'Moana' and 'Frozen' were huge but yet they continue down Iger's "de-risk" path full-speed.
 

Tick Tock

Well-Known Member
Saw it tonight, and enjoyed it. Tim Burton can be a mixed bag. You never know what to expect outta him. After his Alice contributions to the Disney film library, my expectations going into Dumbo weren't very high.

Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised, and had a good time with this one. It was a risk adding so many new characters and plot points not seen in the animated original, but they worked (imo).

And a tip of the hat to Danny Elfman for another enchanting musical score.

This brings my Disney live-action remake scorecard to:

Great
The Jungle Book

Good
Dumbo
Cinderella

Eh...
Beauty And The Beast
101 Dalmatians (Though Glenn Close's performance was gold.)

Poor
Maleficent
Alice In Wonderland
Pete's Dragon
 
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Princess Leia

Well-Known Member
Saw it tonight, and enjoyed it. Tim Burton can be a mixed bag. You never know what to expect outta him. After his Alice contributions to the Disney film library, my expectations going into Dumbo weren't very high.

Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised, and had a good time with this one. It was a risk adding so many new characters and plot points not seen in the animated original, but they worked (imo).

And a tip of the hat to Danny Elfman for another enchanting musical score.

This brings my Disney live-action remake scorecard to:

Great
The Jungle Book

Good
Dumbo
Cinderella

Eh...
Beauty And The Beast
101 Dalmatians (Though Glenn Close's performance was gold.)

Poor
Maleficent
Alice In Wonderland
Pete's Dragon
I haven’t seen Dumbo or Maleficent, but I would bump both Pete’s Dragon and 101 Dalmatians to the next categories up (my own personal opinion) 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m interested in seeing Dumbo, but not so interested to see it in theaters. It’s a ‘Wait until streaming’ movie for me.
 

winstongator

Well-Known Member
Saw it tonight, and enjoyed it. Tim Burton can be a mixed bag. You never know what to expect outta him. After his Alice contributions to the Disney film library, my expectations going into Dumbo weren't very high.

Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised, and had a good time with this one. It was a risk adding so many new characters and plot points not seen in the animated original, but they worked (imo).

And a tip of the hat to Danny Elfman for another enchanting musical score.

This brings my Disney live-action remake scorecard to:

Great
The Jungle Book

Good
Dumbo
Cinderella

Eh...
Beauty And The Beast
101 Dalmatians (Though Glenn Close's performance was gold.)

Poor
Maleficent
Alice In Wonderland
Pete's Dragon
My family loved the Beauty and the Beast remake. We also saw it the day before we had dinner at Be Our Guest, so they were in the spirit. Over a short period, my kids saw the original cartoon, the DHS show, the live re-make, and the cruise line live show. BATB immersion.
 

Tick Tock

Well-Known Member
but I would bump both Pete’s Dragon and 101 Dalmatians to the next categories up (my own personal opinion) 🤷🏼‍♀️
The more I think about it, I probably could bump 101 Dalmatians up a category. Or at least up to a very positive on the "Eh" scale.

Ok, who am I kidding. It needs to be in the "Good" category for Glenn Close's performance alone. All other quirkiness of the film aside, she made it a winner.
 

NateD1226

Well-Known Member
I don't understand the hate for Maleficent. I actually really liked it! Maybe I have to watch it again. But let's not get too off topic.
 

Tick Tock

Well-Known Member
But I just contributed to going off topic...
That was my fault for getting things a bit off-track.

So back to Dumbo. As mentioned earlier, one of the things I really enjoyed was the score by Danny Elfman. Had a Edward Scissorhands feel with the music. Hauntingly beautiful to say the least.

This was my favorite reoccurring theme throughout the movie.
 

WDWFREAK53

Well-Known Member
This would be how I rank them.

Great
The Jungle Book
Christopher Robin

Good
Dumbo
Cinderella
Beauty and the Beast

Eh...
Pete's Dragon
Mary Poppins Returns
101 Dalmatians

Poor
Maleficent
Alice In Wonderland
 

Brer Panther

Well-Known Member
Hopefully this means that Disney will finally realize that maybe making a million live action remakes of their animated films isn't the best idea.

Then again, Aladdin and The Lion King are bound to be hits, so...
 

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