We didn't notice the elephant. Review of the film ”Dumbo”
Often, when a large studio hires an eminent director associated with a particular visual style by the viewer, and builds the entire advertising campaign on the bait like "from a visionary director", the result does not bode well. It is according to this scenario that a new project of the all-consuming Disney corporation is developing, which continues to cannibalize its own intellectual property. In their "Dumbo", a game remake of the 1941 cartoon, Tim Burton was left with only a dark shadow of those motives and artistic techniques with which the director fell in love with literally everyone at the turn of the two millennia. He was always distinguished by the strangeness of themes and characters, and the grotesque style did not allow confusing the director's name with someone else. Now we have before us the simplest story, drawn for huge elephant ears,
Events are developing a hundred years ago. The once-sold-out circus on wheels led by the expressive Marc Medici (Danny DeVito) ends its American tour in a state close to bankruptcy. There are no new numbers, the artists have nothing to pay. The former legend of the circus Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), who has lost his hand in the war and his wife during an epidemic, also understands this. Mark assigns a longtime friend to look after the elephants, especially since he just spent almost his last savings on the purchase of the elephant Jumbo, which is about to give birth to a new big top star. However, the baby elephant, who later received the slightly offensive nickname Dumbo, is born with a peculiar defect - huge ears. They make circus performers laugh, the Medici anger, the public disdain, and only Holt's children, Millie (Niko Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) - genuine affection. For the first time, they discover the main feature of the baby elephant.  Inspired by Dumbo's ability to fly, Millie and Joe secretly from everyone, including their father, begin to rehearse their circus act. They have only one chance to prove the uniqueness of the baby elephant to a large audience. A little awkwardly and rather spontaneously, Dumbo ends up soaring beneath a striped circus tent, forcing bored viewers to choke on their purchased popcorn. Here begins a new chapter in the history of the Marc Medici circus, and word of the flying elephant instantly spreads to all four cardinal directions, reaching the wealthy, energetic and persistent entrepreneur V.A.Vandever (Michael Keaton). He immediately flies up with the desire to get the baby elephant promising profit and make him the star of his “Fairy Land” amusement park ... This whole plot is extremely ironic. The story of how big business absorbs small productions and authors' thoughts comes out under the wing of the studio, which is a powerful conglomerate that monopolizes the market. Simply put, it all looks like this: there was such a director Tim Burton (this is DeVito's character), who lived in his own world (circus), was faithful to him, enjoyed what he did, but did not have a stable income. His eccentricity and quirkiness were widely known and gave rise to the so-called director's handwriting (conditional flying elephant). And then, with a dazzling smile and in a white suit, Walt Disney (Keaton's character) came, promised to return the former greatness to his life's work and guaranteed the author the safety of his essence (that is, the elephant). True, in this case, the director needs to become part of one entertainment enterprise, called Disneyland (consonant with Dreamland). But is this irony realized?  At the same time, it would be wrong to say that only a name in the credits remained of Tim Burton in Dumbo. One feels that the director has done everything in his power. For example, visually, the picture is insanely beautiful, even despite the fact that there is literally one scene from Burton's trademark gloom - otherwise it seems out of place here. Most of the landscapes, morning-sunrise, sunny-daytime and evening-sunset, are saturated with delicate colors and only enhance the sentimental mood of the film. However, Dumbo is a typical Burtonian hero, the same outsider and outcast, whom he praised in his best works: Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. And the music of the director's constant colleague, composer Danny Elfman, is weak, but brings back memories of the glorious past of two masters of their craft.  Of course, the cast of the film is another indisputable plus. Farrell has always succeeded in sad images (with such eyebrows it seems at all that he is about to take off with Dumbo, if he just sneezes), and a war veteran who has lost his wife and lost touch with children is one of those. But the ball is run by Danny DeVito, who is so funny, bright and lively here that we can safely say: this is his best film work in many years. The on-screen reunion with Michael Keaton also did not go unnoticed, although, unlike their roles in Batman Returns, the actors switched sides. The villain from Keaton turned out to be very charming, his mannerism and pretentiousness only emphasize the image of an extravagant, but soulless businessman. As the director's new muse (he divorced his wife, and Johnny Depp's career is still bursting at the seams) Eva Green also appeared in the film, who played the main role in Burton's "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children." Here her role is reduced to an episodic appearance as the passion of VA Vandever and the circus "queen of the air."  Sadly, neither a compelling cast who beautifully portrays classic relationships, nor the wonderfully animated Dumbo, touchingly trying to reunite with his mother, keeps the film from skyrocketing to the level of a soulful instructive movie. The story itself is very kind and accessible to children, but the effort with which the creators impose a sentimental mood on what is happening evokes pity rather than empathy. Pity is not for the helpless elephant calf, but for the empty script of the film, which in essence does not offer anything new, but only stretches the hour-long cartoon, filling the space that has appeared with unnecessary scenes, cliches and cheap emotional traps. Hopefully The Topic of Article: We didn't notice the elephant. Review of the film ”Dumbo”. |
