Line #59 Film/Dumbo2019


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dumbo_2019.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''♫ Baby mine, don't you cry''\
3	''Baby mine, dry your eyes''\
4	''Rest your head close to my heart''\
5	''Never to part''\
6	''Baby of mine♫'']]
7	->''"We’re all family here, no matter how small."''
8	-->-- '''Milly Farrier'''
9
10	''Dumbo'' is a 2019 film, a live-action remake of the [[WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}} Disney animated classic]] of the same name directed by Creator/TimBurton.
11
12	The cast includes Creator/ColinFarrell, Creator/MichaelKeaton, Creator/AlanArkin, Creator/DannyDeVito and Creator/EvaGreen. It was released on March 29, 2019.
13
14	In this retelling of the story, a former circus star named Holt Farrier has returned from his service in the war and has been hired by circus owner Max Medici to take care of the baby elephant Dumbo, whose oversized ears have made him the laughingstock of the circus. Holt and his two children, Milly and Joe Farrier, befriend the little elephant, and when they discover that he can fly, they decide to make him use his talent so that Medici's circus can make a big comeback. This also draws the attention of one V.A. Vandemere, an entrepreneur who acquires Max's circus to make it part of his new theme park, Dreamland.
15
16	But behind all the bright lights and fancy attractions, Dreamland is hiding many dark secrets, and Holt's discovery of these secrets will prompt him and his children to fight to protect Dumbo from danger.
17
18	!!''Dumbo'' contains examples of:
19	* ActionDad: Holt Farrier, who is a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran.
20	* ActionGirl: Miss Atlantis, the "mermaid", easily takes down some guards. Also counts as {{Acrofatic}}.
21	* ActorAllusion: As with Creator/TimBurton's previous film ''Film/BigFish'', Creator/DannyDeVito plays a circus ringmaster.
22	* AdaptationExpansion: An extreme example. Due to the elimination of TalkingAnimal characters and the relative shortness of the original film, most of the key events of the animated feature provide only the ''first act'' of this remake. Almost all of the human characters are wholecloth inventions as well.
23	* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: [[spoiler: The original Dumbo's happy ending was his becoming the star of the circus. Here, Dumbo and his mother leave the circus in the end, sail to their native Asia and join a herd of elephants in the jungle.]]
24	* AdaptationalNiceGuy: While the original Ringmaster wasn't a bad person by any means (not counting ''Disney Villains Revenge''), he certainly did have a bit more of a temper going for him, and mistreated Dumbo (albeit with [[JerkassHasAPoint some justification]]). Max Medici, being a DecompositeCharacter of him, lacks most of the negative traits of the original, instead being a pretty personable guy and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure. It helps that most of his negative traits went to V.A. Vandermere.
25	* AdaptationalNonsapience: None of the circus animals, the stork who visits Mrs. Jumbo, or Casey Junior possess communicative abilities beyond simple animal noises/whistling. Casey Junior doesn’t even seem to be animate.
26	* AdaptedOut: Just about all of the TalkingAnimal characters from the original are absent, and the one who remains (Mrs. Jumbo) no longer speaks. The human children ''do'' have a pet mouse wearing a circus uniform as a MythologyGag to Timothy Q. Mouse, whose role as Dumbo's faithful friend is taken up by the kids. There is some justification for this, as the only other talking animals who were kind to Dumbo -- Jim Crow and his flock -- are considered caricatures of African-Americans and could not be included in a remake as is. A stork briefly appears at the beginning to represent the stork character, two elephants part of Medici’s troupe act hostile to Dumbo during his debut appearance in lieu of the antagonistic elephants in the original, and Casey Junior is featured as a non-sentient steam locomotive still in charge of pulling the circus train.
27	* AdaptationSpeciesChange:
28	** The birds meant to be storks are herons, most resembling Cattle egrets. White storks used in popular culture as bringers of babies don't live in North America, and local Wood storks are quite unsightly looking.
29	** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], as Casey Junior is still very much a steam locomotive, but he's a 4-4-0 "American" type this time around, instead of a 2-4-0 "Porter" as he was in the original movie.
30	* AdamWesting: [[Characters/WCWCommentators Michael Buffer]] appears as a ringmaster at Dreamland for the sole purpose of getting to shout "LET'S GET READY FOR DUMBOOOOO!!!" twice.
31	* AlliterativeName: '''M'''ax '''M'''edici and '''V'''.A. '''V'''andemere. Perhaps not coincidentally, they are a DecompositeCharacter of the Ringmaster from the original.
32	* AllYourPowersCombined: In the climax, the circus performers all make use of their unique talents.
33	* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Colette Marchant is beautiful, refined and initially has a haughty demeanor.
34	* AnArmAndALeg: Holt Farrier lost his left arm during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. A dialogue later in the film implies it was during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Amiens_(1918) the Battle of Amiens]].
35	-->'''Holt:''' (to Colette Marchant) I've been to France before, you know. Not a great experience.
36	* ArtificialLimbs: Holt received a makeshift left arm made of cotton from his circus colleagues. He gets a proper prosthetic arm in the end.
37	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Rufus Sorghum, the vicious animal wrangler who hyucks it up if Dumbo so much as feels sad, and mocks Holt for his lost arm, is ultimately killed during the collapse of the Casey, Jr. tent. While some of his coworkers pay respects when his body is taken by the coroner, nobody really misses him.]]
38	* BearsAreBadNews: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse at Dreamland's Nightmare Island. Amongst the animals in this area of the theme park is a grizzly bear heavily decorated to look as fearsome as possible for the sake of RuleOfScary in a cage themed to resemble a clifftop overlooking a forest at night.
39	* BigApplesauce: Dreamland is located on Coney Island during its heyday in the early 20th century.
40	* BigBad: Vandemere serves as the main antagonist of the film, as he seeks to exploit Dumbo for fame and fortune and doesn’t care who gets hurt or screwed over along the way.
41	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Medici circus performers succeed in breaking Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo out of Dreamland and sneaking them on a ship destined for the Asian jungle, but it also means that Dumbo and his human friends will never see each other again. Still, Dumbo and his mother successfully join a herd of elephants once they reach their destination and the Medici circus becomes successful again with each of the Farriers having a performance job they enjoy.]]
42	* BlatantLies: When Holt confronts Vandervere for not putting up a safety net for Collette, Vandevere claims that the net is invisible.
43	* BlessedWithSuck: Dumbo to an extent. While his overly large ears enable him to fly and make him a star, he still is viewed as a freak by most and is basically being exploited for his abilities and looks.
44	* CoolTrain: Casey Junior, of course. Although he's looking a little rough around the edges, he can still move like lightning down the tracks.
45	* CreditsGag: At the end of the closing credits, a jazzy version of "When I See an Elephant Fly" is heard.
46	* CruelElephant: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse at Dreamland's Nightmare Island. Mrs. Jumbo is revealed to be amongst the animals there, painted with makeup to resemble a skeletal elephant for the sake of RuleOfScary and gifted the cruel nickname of Kali the Destroyer (after an antagonistic goddess of Hindu mythology) in reference to her MamaBear rampage at the Medici Brothers circus.
47	* DadTheVeteran: Holt, who just got back from WWI in his introductory scene.
48	* DecompositeCharacter: Max Medici and V.A. Vandemere are this for the Ringmaster, the former having his looks and role as the leader of the circus, and the latter having his antagonistic role in wanting to exploit Dumbo.
49	* DefectorFromDecadence: Colette Marchant sided with the Medici circus troupe due to Vandemere disregarding her well-being during Dumbo's debut, and then later for instructing Dumbo's mother to be disposed of (read: killed).
50	* DemotedToExtra: Timothy Q. Mouse is barely even a character in this movie and is not even referred to by name. He only makes scattered appearances at the beginning of the movie and a cameo at the very end. He also never interacts with Dumbo.
51	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Vandermere is a filthy rich entertainer, owning his own brand, his own amusement park filled to the brim of characters of his own creation and using ''If you can dream it, you can do it'' as his personal mantra. Basically, a dark Walt Disney.
52	* DidntThinkThisThrough: In the climatic scene, where Vandervere, frantic to stop a plot to help Jumbo escape the circus, overloads Dreamland’s electrical system (after Dumbo and Collette had cut power to most of the park to allow Medici’s troupe to carry out their plan), starting a huge fire that destroys much of Dreamland. Had he just calmed down, taken a deep breath and listened to his control booth technicians, he would have properly restarted the electrical system.
53	* DisneyAcidSequence: The "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence returns instead as a quasi-magical part of the Dreamland performance, where the pink elephants are conjured up with pink bubbles.
54	* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler: Despite Rufus being disliked for his treatment of the circus animals, when he dies during Mama Jumbo's rampage, the crew still takes a moment to pay their respects as his body is carried off.]]
55	%%* DullSurprise: The performances of the actors playing the two Farrier children tend to be...inexpressive.
56	* EveryoneHasStandards: Vandemere’s assistant resigns after learning about his intention to [[spoiler:kill Dumbo’s mother.]]
57	* ExactWords: As part of his deal with Medici, Vandemere promises jobs for his entire staff. When Medici is ordered to fire the majority of them shortly after starting, Vandemere acknowledges he said they'd have jobs but never said for how long.
58	* ExtyYearsFromPublication: The film is set in 1919, exactly a hundred years before its 2019 release date.
59	* FakingTheDead: Downplayed. Holt is so ashamed of his position as the elephant handler that, when someone in the audience recognizes him, he says he isn't Holt and Holt died at the war.
60	* HandicappedBadass: Holt Farrier. The loss of his left arm doesn't stop his ChronicHeroSyndrome one bit, [[spoiler:to the point that he climbed up the outside of the Dreamland tent to help Dumbo escape]].
61	* HateSink: Rufus Sorghum, the cartoonishly evil hick who works at Medici’s circus, exists purely to piss people off and to abuse the animals. Vandemere’s lieutenant is also only there to serve as a more physical threat to the heroes during the climax.
62	* HorsebackHeroism: Holt's main act in the circus is rodeo, so he naturally uses a horse during the FinalBattle.
63	* HumanFocusedAdaptation: The human circus workers get just as much focus if not more than the title elephant. In particular, Holt and his children serve as Dumbo's surrogate family.
64	* HumansAreBastards: Unlike the original, this is only averted thanks to HumanFocusedAdaptation. The movie retains some avaricious, antagonistic humans, but there are also genuinely kind humans.
65	* IncorrectAnimalNoise: Crane sounds for herons meant to be storks.
66	* InnocentBlueEyes: Dumbo has these to distinguish himself from the other elephants.
67	* InterspeciesFriendship: The elephant Dumbo and the entire Medici circus troupe, particularly the Farrier family. One performer is also a snake charmer, with him and his snake obviously being on good terms.
68	* ItsAllJunk: Milly Farrier tosses her deceased mother’s pendant into the flames of the ablaze Dreamland, in order to convince Dumbo that he doesn't need a feather to fly any more than she needs that key to open doors. It works.
69	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
70	** Colette Marchant first appears as a haughty FrenchJerk, but is actually a lot nicer than she lets on, [[spoiler:to the point that she abandons Dreamland to join the Medici circus after helping Dumbo escape]].
71	** J. Griffin Remington appears as a stereotypical UpperClassTwit, but his final scene has him being chummy with Max Medici.
72	** Max Medici may have started as greedy and mean towards Dumbo at first, but he does care about his troupe and he’s happy to see Holt return to the circus. He also helps his troupe get Dumbo and his mother escape once he learns how crooked Vandemere is.
73	* KickedUpstairs: Max is given a partnership with Vandervere and the title of Vice President with his own secretary but when he straight up asks Vandervere what his job actually is it becomes clear he’s been this.
74	* MagicFeather: As in the original (which became the TropeNamer), Dumbo gets one. While in the original movie the crows introduced this pretty much out of nowhere (considering the audience already knew he had flown without one the night before), here it's used as a FalseCause - the first few times Dumbo propels himself into the air, it's the result of him sneezing from a feather he had sucked up his trunk, which leads Milly to conclude that he cannot fly without it. [[spoiler:But at some point Holt realises this isn't the case, outright telling her in the climax that he doesn't need the feather.]]
75	* MamaBear: Mrs. Jumbo is naturally protective of her calf when people make fun of his ears. She throws Rufus in a nearby water trough when he blows into Dumbo’s ears and she charges through the central tent to reach Dumbo when people start laughing at his ears.
76	* MaybeEverAfter: Holt and Colette get some ShipTease and their final scene has them performing together, but their actual relationship is only implied.
77	* MenagerieOfMisery: In the Dreamland theme park, there is the appropriately named Nightmare Island. In this attraction, all the animals on display are kept in small alcove style cages built into the walls of the island building's interior, given precious little ability to avoid being in constant view of the guests, heavily decorated and costumed to look as fearsome and scary as possible for the sake of guests' amusement, and also implied to potentially undergo brutal beatings for the sake of sticking to their 'acts'. And while the environments within the cages (with the potential exception of [[spoiler: Mrs. Jumbo's cage]]) seem to be relatively naturalistic, the overall size of said cages and other unpleasant living conditions make this detail a very small comfort for the animals.
78	* MetaTwist: In the original animated film, Dumbo's ability to fly is an eleventh-hour twist, while the story's main conflict is his outcast status because of his big ears. In this version, his ability to fly is revealed in the first act, and the film's true conflict centers on Vandervere's circus exploiting his talent.
79	* MissingMom: Holt's wife/the kids' mother was a victim of the influenza epidemic of 1918. Their concern for Dumbo being separated from ''his'' mother partially stems from the loss they suffered.
80	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: The catalyst for Colette's HeelFaceTurn is when Vandemere disregarded her well-being during Dumbo's debut by instructing to not place safety nets during her and Dumbo's act.
81	* MoodyTrailerCoverSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=calHOKucYMw "Baby Mine"]] has been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mTU_FBSdb8 covered]] ethereally by Music/{{AURORA\|Singer}} for the first trailer.
82	* MrAltDisney: V.A. Vandemere is a surprisingly evil example considering [[Creator/{{Disney}} who produced the film]]. He's a rich businessman running an amusement park very similar to Disneyland, using "If you can dream it, you can do it" as a motto.
83	* MythologyGag: Despite being structurally very different from the original, the movie still has a decent number of references to its source material.
84	** Early in the movie, Medici happily sings the Casey, Jr. theme song to himself as he goes to his trailer.
85	** An egret perches itself outside of Mrs. Jumbo’s train car the night she gives birth to Dumbo, a clear nod to the stork character in the original.
86	** Holt and his two children find Dumbo hiding under a pile of hay, just like how Timothy did in the original movie when they first met.
87	** When Dumbo is first presented to the crowds, he has his ears tied in a similar way Timothy tied them on Dumbo's first act in the original movie.
88	** Dumbo's mother's rampage causes the collapse of the circus' tent, just like Dumbo's accident in his first act caused the collapse of the entire circus in the original movie.
89	** Milly also tells Dumbo to "Show 'em" when she gives him the MagicFeather, which is what Timothy said to him in the original film when he flies at its climax.
90	** As Milly brings Dumbo a cage with several mice inside, and one of which is wearing a circus uniform in a nod to Timothy, Dumbo's companion from the original movie.
91	** At Dumbo’s Dreamland debut, the announcer quotes “When I See An Elephant Fly” almost verbatim.
92	** The PinkElephants return for a non-alcoholic scene involving bubble blowers.
93	* NamedByTheAdaptation: While the ringmaster in the original film was unnamed and simply called "[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Ringmaster]]", here the [[DecompositeCharacter names of his counterparts]] are Max Medici and V.A. Vandemere.
94	* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Holt was serving in WWI when his wife died.
95	* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse at Dreamland's Nightmare Island. Amongst the animals in this area of the theme park is an crocodile billed as Reptilla in a swamp-themed cage that is decorated with makeup, false spines, and a false nose horn to resemble [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a small wingless dragon]] for the sake of RuleOfScary.
96	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Vandervere guarantees that he won't be able to do anything to the Medici Circus for 'stealing' Dumbo when he unintentionally destroys his own park]].
97	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Dumbo is rarely referenced by his real name. Part of this is because Holt's children decide that calling him "Jumbo Junior" might increase his sadness over not having his mother around.
98	* PapaWolf: Holt Farrier without a doubt! When Dreamland is set on fire, Vandevere’s right-Hand man, Neils chases Holt’s children, Milly and Joe. Holt saves some horses and mounts one of them. As Neils chases Milly and Joe into the burning circus tent, Holt rescues his children by lassoing Neils and having the horse drag him away.
99	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
100	** Max Medici may have sold off and fired most of the circus employees over the course of the war to keep core circus in business, but he also allowed Holt's children to stay with the circus when they weren't actually doing anything in the ring, gave Holt a new job when it was impossible for him to continue his original role as a horse-rider, and [[spoiler:eventually sacrifices his new role as Dreamland's executive vice-president because Vandervere intended to fire his original employees while assisting in Dumbo's escape]].
101	** Mr. Sotheby, a high-ranking executive to Vandervere, resigned on the spot after the latter announced his plans to have Dumbo's mother killed and then ran off to tell Medici Circus on what might happen.
102	* SavageWolves: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse at Dreamland's Nightmare Island. Amongst the animals in this area of the theme park is a gray wolf billed as the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Werewolf of Central Park]] in a cage themed after New York's Central Park on the night of a full moon and presented to look as fearsome as possible for the sake of RuleOfScary.
103	* SelfDisposingVillain:
104	** [[spoiler:Rufus Sorghum, the abusive animal handler, deliberately causes Mrs. Jumbo to rampage in the circus tent to spite Holt. He is the only casualty when the beams fall]].
105	** [[spoiler:Non-fatally, Vandervere messing with the power controls causes an electrical surge just as the technicians warned him it would, setting fire to his own park]].
106	* SettingUpdate: Inverted; this film is set in 1919, while the original film was the first Disney animated film to be set when it was made and released to theaters, being 1941 during World War 2 (according to a newspaper at the end of the film).
107	* SignsOfDisrepair: In this film, Jumbo Junior gets his titular nickname from a damaged sign that originally read "'''D'''ear Baby J'''umbo'''".
108	* SillySimian: A circus monkey appears in several scenes as comic relief.
109	* TheStrongman: Rongo works as the circus' strongman, his strength coming in handy in the climax when he does his part to help the other circus performers save Mrs. Jumbo.
110	* SupportingProtagonist: The film is about Dumbo, but Holt is TheHero along with his children.
111	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:After Dumbo starts playing with the controls for Dreamland's power grid and accidentally turns the whole park off, Vandervere angrily turns the power back on, against the advice of his own engineers, who flat-out tell him that the breakers have to be reset otherwise there will be a power surge. He doesn't listen, causing the park to be set ablaze.]]
112	* TrashTheSet: [[spoiler:Dreamland literally burns to the ground thanks to Vandervere's own VillainousBreakdown.]]
113	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Holt and Colette get some ShipTease and some close moments, but [[MaybeEverAfter they never explicitly get together]].
114	** Bordering with [[spoiler: ImpliedLoveInterest, as in the epilogue Colette becomes part of the ''Future Cowboy'' act with Holt Farrier and she's shown sweetly leaning on him while he shoots her down from the sky popping the ballons keeping her afloat with his gun, taking the place of Farrier's wife in a revamped version of their past act.]]
115	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Dreamland was a real amusement park on New York City's Coney Island owned by real estate developer William H. Reynolds. The park opened in 1904 and was very sophisticated and high-tech for its day. In 1911, an accident while attempting to repair an electrical malfunction started a huge fire that destroyed most of the park and the park was never rebuilt. The movie's Dreamland is based on the real-life Dreamland, from the demonstrations on future technology down to the sideshows (including an act featuring a clown firefighting troupe responding to a skyscraper fire) to the park's destruction. Unlike the real-life events:
116	** The owner's name was changed to V.A. Vandervere and was depicted simply as a smug, unethical promoter indifferent to others and the safety of his animals.
117	** The fictional Dreamland was destroyed in 1919, eight years after the real park was destroyed.
118	** The real-life Reynolds was able to recoup his losses by selling the land where Dreamland once stood and cashing in on outstanding bonds. In the movie, Vandervere's future is unclear, as he is last seen watching the park being destroyed by the fire.
119	** The cause of the fire is also fictionalized. The real-life fire was caused by an accident as electrical repairs were being made to the Hell's Gate attraction, in which, following an power outage, a worker accidentally knocked over a bucket of hot tar, which found an ignition source and started the inferno. In the movie, Vandervere -- in trying to stop the Medici troupe from helping Dumbo's mother escape execution [[note]]Dumbo and Collette had gained access to the control tower and cut power to the park, so as to thwart Vandervere and his men[[/note]] -- in a panicked moment of overzealousness attempts to restore power to the park but completely overloads the electrical system.
120	* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: A literal {{Deconstruction}}, as Vandervere's tantrums directly leads to him unwittingly burning his own business to the ground.]]
121	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Nothing is said of the fate of Dreamland owner Vandervere after [[spoiler: a huge fire heavily damages or destroys most of the park; the last viewers see of him is his watching the park enveloped in a huge inferno.]][[note]]Although it can be presumed that Vandervere was financially ruined afterward.[[/note]]
122	** The fates of the wolf, crocodile, and grizzly bear that were being kept in Dreamland's Nightmare Island alongside [[spoiler: Mrs. Jumbo]] are likewise never revealed after Dreamland's destruction.
123	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: [[spoiler:Medici’s circus more successful than ever (presumably financed by multi-millionaire financier Griffin Remington), and Dumbo and Jumbo returning to their native Asia and reuniting with their herd.]]
124	----
125	->''"Show them."''

Context Film / Dumbo2019