The year is 1919 and the once popular Medici Bros. Circus has fallen on some
hard times since the great war. Some of their acts succumbed to the influenza
outbreak and others left to fight in the war and did not return. One of those that
was affected by both was Holt Farrier (Farrell) a once great circus star, along with
his wife. But he went away to fight in the war, lost his left arm as a result and
loses his wife to the influenza outbreak. Holt returns home to his two children
Milly and Joe who have been looked after by the others in the circus since their
mother died. But not that Holt is back, he is looking to get back into action. With
only one arm and the loss of his wife and partner it makes it hard to put on an act.
Circus owner Max Medici (DeVito) who has been going through hard financial
times as well, having to sell off many things to stay afloat, including Holts horses.
Max though is not willing to just leave Holt and his kids out in the cold as they are
family. No, Max has a special job for Holt, you see Max has just purchased an
Asian elephant from another circus and the other plus is that his new elephant is
pregnant and about to give birth any day now, which would generate tons of publicity for his troubled circus. What Max wants is for Holt to work taking care of
the elephants, especially this one! Shortly after Holt agrees to the job the
elephant called Jumbo gives birth to a baby boy, who is a little different from
other elephants. You see baby Jumbo has larger than normal ears for an elephant.
Max asks Holt to find a way to hide the baby elephants' ears from the public. But
during a performance with the large ears hidden under a baby bonnet, the secret
is revealed of baby Jumbo’s large ears when he tries to blow a feather, he sees on
a lady's hat causing him to sneeze and lose the bonnet. With the crowd laughing
and throwing popcorn at the little baby elephant, even giving him a new name
Dumbo! A less than kind elephant wrangler, with a dislike for Holt and the baby
elephant personally enrages Jumbo and she goes out into the ring to defend her
baby. Causing damage to the circus tent and the death of the elephant wrangler,
Jumbo is quarantined as a mad elephant and sold by Max. Young Dumbo is
depressed at the loss of his mother and while trying to console him, Holts kids
discover that Dumbo can fly. The children work with him figuring that if the circus
made enough money, they could buy back Dumbo’s mother if everyone knew
Dumbo can fly. After a short break, with the circus back in action, Dumbo shows
everyone his unique skill, drawing tons of press for the struggling circus and
drawing the attention of V. A. Vandevere (Keaton) a millionaire who owns a
theme park called Dreamland and wants to buy Dumbo as his latest attraction.
Vandevere recruits Dumbo to his theme park by making a partnership with Max
and plans to use the beloved pachyderm to work with charming aerial artist
Colette Marchant (Green) having Colette ride Dumbo as he flies around the ring.
After their first performance is less than spectacular, but does reveal Dumbo can
fly, Dumbo flies out of the arena hearing familiar voice. That of his mother, who
Vandevere has purchased a while ago. To avoid another embarrassment again,
Vandevere orders that Jumbo be removed from the park and destroyed. Upon
discovering this and that Dreamland is a dark horrible place. Holt, his children,
Colette and the other circus performers plan to reunite Dumbo with his mother
and save them both from Vandevere.
Now how does that sound? Different right? Yeah, I know this is so much more different from the cartoon I loved as child. But this is Tim Burton and he does tend to do things differently and has his own unique style. There were some Easter eggs in this movie reminding you of the classic cartoon. While the story was pretty good, and the characters were interesting. The characters did need some work and the dialogue was fair but still managed to draw emotion. This movie could have been a little stronger in my opinion, there were too many changes to the original story. They should have kept it the same as, they did with Beauty And The Beast. There were some strong performances in this movie, and while the story was different it still was enjoyable. It was a fair movie that did need a little more. But I still did enjoy it and thought it was worth the admission price, that is why I am giving it a 7.0 on The Justin Scale Of Movies and giving it a spot on my Pick-It list of movies to see in the theatre. There you go my friends! That is a wrap here on my end! Hope this answers all your questions about this latest movie release. Until next time, remember to keep that popcorn freshly popped and to save me a good seat because I will seeing you again at the movies!
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