Live Action Dumbo

I know I've touched on my dislike for the remake of classic animated Disney films into "live action" remakes before but this post is here to specifically touch on Dumbo.

 Dumbo was one of my favorite animated Disney films growing up, the others being Cinderella (who already got the live action treatment and ew) and Dinosaur (which might be safe because nobody cares about/remembers this movie and it's already in 'realistic' 3D CGI), and when I saw that it was actually getting the attention of a remake I was happy. That did not last long.

Tim Burton is directing this remake. I like a lot of his work, but he already ruined a remake of another one of my favorite movies with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so I really don't trust him to handle Dumbo.

Anyway, I saw another trailer for the remake when I went to see Ralph Breaks the Internet and, from the looks of it, they've added in way more people than are probably needed to tell the story. There is now a family that owns looks after Dumbo and he gets taken away from them and exploited when it is discovered that he can fly. This leads me to the conclusion that the people are the ones who named the baby elephant with the big ears Dumbo, not the rude elephant ladies like it is implied in the animated film, which is horrible.

Another gripe I have with the trailer is the song they use. Someone decided they should used a smokey voiced pop singer's cover of the saddest song in Disney's songbook. "Baby Mine" is sung at the point in the original film when Dumbo is finally allowed to see his mother again, after she was ripped away from him and put in isolation for trying to protect her son. Dumbo cries, Timothy Mouse cries, Dumbo's mother cries, I cry. It's such an emotional and sad moment in the film and using it to advertise the film, which from their trailers seems like a family circus romp is just cruel for me, personally to hear. They could have just as easily used "Pink Elephants On Parade", the only other song people know from that movie but nope, they cheaply try to tug at my heart strings.

My last big problem with the remake is the way Dumbo himself looks.

Related imageRelated image

This is not the cute little flying elephant who can fly we all knew and loved in the 40s, this is a horrible, dead-eyed creature that makes me feel sad.

Comments

  1. pajama partyDecember 5, 2018 at 10:19 AM

    I totally understand your opinions but I disagree. I think this movie looks magical and personally I am not a fan of the original film but I am looking forward to this version. Mainly because of the stylistic choices that are being made with the visuals and music, I think this movie could be something special, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it's actually good.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bratz: Rock Angelz is the movie I didn't know I needed

Image
This weekend, I watched the hit 2005 animated movie Bratz: Rock Angelz. This movie was one of the first Bratz films in CGI, and let me tell you- the plot is ALL OVER THE PLACE. The girls start a fashion magazine and use stolen passes to get into hot London punk clubs, but when they lose their passes they decide that the only way to get into the gig is to become a rock band? This movie can be considered capitalist propaganda- the Bratz shop in order to destress about their problems, and it's an implemental part of their lives. They don't have jobs either- Jade has an internship, but only for three hours until she is fired. Chloe meets a TRASH British prince and ignores her best friend Yasmin who finds celebrity judge Byron Powell's (I don't make this stuff up) dog, Ozzy. Jade and Sasha try to do a photo shoot for the magazine, but Sasha micromanages the whole thing and makes her friend feel bad! And this whole time, there's these two evil blond twins (Kaley Cuoco PLA
Read more

Does Animation Have to Make You Laugh?

Something that I have taken note of lately is how you barely ever find any mainstream animation that doesn't have some semblance of comedy integrated into it. For example, when was the last time you saw a Disney movie that didn't make you laugh (or at least try to)? And when was the last time you saw an adult cartoon that wasn't making a joke every 10 seconds. My point is, mainstream animation has seemed to simplify itself into a single tone: Comedic. Even in the films that are primarily covering serious topics there is typically a comic relief character to add some lighthearted fun to the film. But do all films need this? Is it necessary for all animation to try and entertain us in the exact same way? My answer is no and I wish that more animation studios and their production companies would realize this. One thing I don't think many people realize is that animation can be lighthearted without being funny. When I say you don't have to be funny all the time, that
Read more

She-ra is my new favorite gay icon

She-ra is a Netflix original spinoff of the he-man franchise. I was never a fan of the original show, but I thought I'd check she-ra out and I'm glad I did. It's a fun show, and I wish we had more like it when we were kids. It's one of the few kids shows where women outnumber men in the lead cast, and there's so much gay but it's not like "woah look at all this gay!" It's a lot more subtle, and I think that's great. Of course, there are more seasons to come, but I'm glad that the first one showed as much restraint as it did. I feel like if we treat LGBT people as special, it'll only perpetuate the idea that they're something "other" than straight people. It's important that our pop culture reflects the idea that gay people are just, you know, people. Take all that with a grain of salt though, I'm a straight cis white guy. I just wanted to start a conversation.
Read more