Tim Burton’s live action remake of Dumbo marks an outstanding technical achievement on the part of Walt Disney Studios. The big-eared baby elephant is entirely computer generated, but it is almost impossible to tell while watching the film. The pachyderm’s skin is beautifully textured, it walks like it has weight, and every emotion shows in its remarkably lifelike eyes. Curiosity, fear, sorrow, despair, excitement, hope, and happiness all shine from Dumbo’s limpid gaze. Somehow, the tech geniuses at Disney managed to give this pixel and byte elephant a soul.
Sadly, Dumbo is the only character in this flawed remake for whom that can be said. The other characters are so flat it feels like they were written and acted by computer algorithms. Ironically Dumbo feels like a living elephant surrounded by CGI sets and characters. The child actors (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins) are particularly bad; whether they lack talent or were poorly directed is hard to tell. But Colin Farrell acts like he’s uninterested in his part, Danny DeVito seems to be reprising his role from Taxi, and Michael Keaton is the only one who is occasionally fun to watch. It is possible that these are simply the musings of a jaded film critic, but I am not optimistic that other viewers will be charmed by this production.