Dumbo is the best Disney live-action remake yet

Disney has already released eight live-action remakes ahead of three more this year. This one is the most charming yet.

It’s fitting the man who kicked off this slate of Disney live-action remakes would deliver the best one yet.

Tim Burton’s 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland clued Disney executives to the box-office possibilities of taking their beloved cartoons and rebooting them in live action.

While they’ve been mixed on a creative level, they’ve been bringing in the very, very big bucks.

Even those cynical about Disney’s strategy will now have to admit there is creative value in the remakes because Dumbo is damn charming.

(Maybe if we don’t think about it, that dubious-looking Aladdin remake will disappear into the ether.)

Burton’s Dumbo takes the relatively short 1941 movie about a baby elephant with big ears and crafts it into a delightful tale with that added Burton visual flair.

It will warm the cockles, make you tear up and believe in the goodness of people again — that’s quite the accomplishment in 2019.

And it also has the Batman Returns reunion we didn’t know we wanted by reteaming Danny DeVito and Michael Keaton on screen.

Suspend your disbelief, or anything you know about physics. Picture: Disney via AP

In Dumbo’s favour is how much time has lapsed since 1941. Few would have strong, vivid memories of the 1941 version, whereas the likes of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast are much more recent.

The original Dumbo was a simple story about a baby elephant scorned by the rest of the herd in a travelling circus because of his big ears.

Separated from his mother, he befriends a mouse who realises Dumbo can fly. Dumbo then becomes the main attraction at the circus. He’s reunited with his mother, and they’re rewarded with the best car on the train.

Now that’s a story, especially the ending, that will not fly today — the idea the best outcome for a special elephant is to be treated slightly better than all the other indentured animals in a travelling circus.

You can already see the PETA protests.

Instead, the new Dumbo takes the bare bones of that story (circus, big-eared baby elephant, feather) and builds a whole world around it by adding human characters, an extended plot and a new ending that doesn’t condone animal cruelty.

This guy. Ohmigod, so damn cute. Picture: Disney via AP

The year is 1919, and former showrider Holt Harrier (Colin Farrell) returns from The Great War, missing an arm.

In the time he’s been away, his wife has died in a flu outbreak and his kids Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) have been in the care of other performers.

Unable to ride anymore, Holt is reassigned to look after Jumbo, a recently purchased elephant about to give birth, by circus owner and ringmaster Max Medici (DeVito).

The circus is under pressure, and Max hopes a baby elephant will bring back the crowds. When Dumbo is born, Max is horrified by his gargantuan ears.

Michael Keaton is rocking the finger wave. Picture: Jay Maidment/Disney via AP

By accident, his gift for flight is revealed, and he’s an immediate hit — to the point that flashy entertainment businessman V.A. Vandervere (Keaton) comes calling to buy the circus (and Dumbo) for his Coney Island theme park.

It’s not hard to guess where the story goes. Most of the conflict comes from Dumbo missing his mother and the kids helping him in a way they think will convince the adults to buy her back.

Vandervere’s profit-driven agenda butts up against the good folk of the original Medici circus, and it’s all headed towards a spectacular showdown in true caper style.

Tim Burton’s visual flair is on show in Dumbo. Picture: Disney via AP

Keaton as Vandervere is a classic Burton villain, all cartoonish with his finger-wave hair and manic physical presence, though the character lacks the pathos of, say, Penguin. But it’s still a treat to see Keaton and DeVito square off in an unlikely role reversal.

Farrell’s Holt is a man fallen from his prime but without the clichéd bitterness as he tries to do the best for his kids.

And the kids are, well, Disney kids — so they’re cute, plucky and precocious. Though Burton’s choice to have young Parker play Milly as more distant and imperious in many scenes can be jarring at times.

There’s also a great acoustic, fireside cover of Baby of Mine.

Eva Green plays a French trapeze artist. Picture: Disney via AP

Burton’s movies always have a great aesthetic palette, and the possibilities of a grand theme park set during the art deco period lets him unleash all that imaginative power onto a huge canvas — and with a Disney budget to boot.

This Dumbo is certainly a visual spectacle, and it could’ve gone awry if not for the one key thing required to make this movie work: Dumbo is really, really cute.

The semi-anthropomorphised elephant with its wrinkly grey hide, giant blue eyes and yearning for his mother won’t fail to melt that cold, cold heart.

Whenever Dumbo is in peril, those emotional strings are well plucked. Whenever Dumbo is triumphant, the corners of your lips will involuntarily lift.

The broad appeal of Dumbo, and the Disneyness of it all, means Burton has had to suppress his darker, more melancholic instincts, but what you’re left with is that rare family-friendly movie that is truly earnest and likeable.

Rating: ★★★½

Dumbo is in cinemas from Thursday, March 28.

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Danny DeVito as the ringmaster and circus owner Max Medina alongside Nico Parker and Colin Farrell. Picture: Jay Maidment/Disney via AP