YMMV / Dumbo (2019)

• Anvilicious: Animals being trained to perform in circuses is technically animal cruelty and circuses should get rid of all their animal-based acts.
• Awesome Moments: The circus troop banding together to save Dumbo and his mother. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• Awesome Music:
  • Arcade Fire's surprisingly touching end credits cover of "Baby Mine".
  • Danny Elfman's rendition of the classic Dumbo songs "Pink Elephants on Parade" and "Casey Jr" are great to hear, being a mix of their classic versions but with the Elfman touch.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Not that the original was incredibly relevant to the plot either, but the pink elephants here are simply a regular act in the circus, and clearly appears for the sole reason that it's a Signature Scene of the original.
• Cliché Storm: One of the chief criticisms of the remake is its totally by-the-numbers script and story structure. When it isn't rehashing elements of the original film, the new human-focused story elements basically fill them in with lots of clichés from other family and fantasy films. The one dimensional personalities of the lead characters and the sluggish pacing only helped call further attention to the film's all around uninspired nature.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The film ends with Dumbo and his mother being released into the wilds of Asia, despite the fact that they were raised in captivity, and captive-raised animals tend to have difficulty surviving in the wild in reality.
• Fan Nickname: Water For Flying Elephants
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This film features Danny DeVito, whose best known role is playing The Penguin for Batman Returns, starring alongside Colin Farrell. Farrell would later play the Penguin himself for The Batman (2022).
• Questionable Casting: Or, in this case, Questionable Directing. While some are under the assumption that this choice was made because of the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence from the original, plenty of people are baffled as to why Tim Burton of all people was chosen to direct the film.
• Replacement Scrappy: Millie is disliked for replacing Timothy Q. Mouse as Dumbo's best friend, on top of being a bland Adorably Precocious Child that suffers from Dull Surprise, a far cry from the mischievous, but still good-hearted mouse. It doesn't help that there was no good reason to remove him from the story in the first place.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Due to an hour's worth of Adaptation Expansion, the film has a rather sluggishly paced first act that the lion's share of the original films elements are crammed into before the film veers off into newer territory when the protagonists wind up working at Dreamland. If you’ve ever wondered why the original film is only an hour long, this gives a pretty compelling reason.
• So Okay, It's Average: Critical reception of the film has been mixed, with many saying that while its not a bad or badly made film, it's far from Tim Burton's best work, has an all around paint-by-numbers feeling to its story and direction with only hints of Burton's signature style, and ultimately falls far short of the original animated movie. Many critics, such as Leonard Maltin, have called it a servicable but totally unnecessary retelling since it adds so little of anything new or fresh to the tale. In short, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who truly loves or hates this film.
  Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus: Dumbo is held partly aloft by Tim Burton's visual flair, but a crowded canvas and overstretched story leave this live-action remake more workmanlike than wondrous.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The trailers are clearly making an effort to hide the fact that Holt is missing an arm, which has a lot of people simply wondering why.
  • There's also the Unintentional Uncanny Valley look of the title character to contend with and the fact that this is definitely a Human-Focused Adaptation — one that's 112 minutes long versus the original's 64 and appears to be condensing most of the original's events into its first act.
  • Watching the trailer while keeping in mind that "Dumbo" is actually an insult and his real name is Jumbo Jr. really makes the kids look like jerks. In the film proper, Milly decides to call him Dumbo because she thinks calling him “Jumbo Jr.” would make him miss his mother too much.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The film being a Human-Focused Adaptation in the vein of 101 Dalmatians (1996) (and even that at least had an iconic human villain to work with instead), putting less focus on Dumbo and leaving Timothy Q. Mouse out of the picture.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A common criticism with the film's human-centric approach is that Dumbo is relegated to a supporting role in his own movie. The most poignant moments in Dumbo's life are undercut by the inclusion of needless subplots and uninteresting human characters, several of whom don't even add to Dumbo's story.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Dumbo's face with his huge blue eyes looks unsettling, more human-like than a baby elephant's.
  • The curved grill on Casey Junior's "face" gives him the appearance of a creepy grin, almost a Slasher Smile. Worse, he was originally going to just have a curved bar as a nod to his animated counterpart, which makes one wonder why they thought this was better.

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