Review Roundup: Was DUMBO Able to Lift Critics Off the Ground?

In the live-action remake of "Dumbo," Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists former star Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. But when they discover that Dumbo can fly, THE CIRCUS makes an incredible comeback, attracting persuasive entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who recruits the peculiar pachyderm for his newest, larger-than-life entertainment venture, Dreamland. Dumbo soars to new heights alongside a charming and spectacular aerial artist, Colette Marchant (Eva Green), until Holt learns that beneath its shiny veneer, Dreamland is full of dark secrets.

Directed by Tim Burton ("Alice in Wonderland," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger ("Ophelia," "Dream House"), and produced by Justin Springer ("TRON: Legacy"), Kruger, Katterli Frauenfelder ("Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," "Big Eyes") and Derek Frey ("Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," "Frankenweenie").

Find out what the critics has to say about "Dumbo" before it flies into theaters on March 29, 2019!

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Owen Gleiberman, Variety

"'Dumbo' is no folly; it doesn't leave you feeling cheated. But it's not exhilarating either. It occupies a carefully tailored, underimagined middle ground where even an elephant who flies can come to seem, by the end, a figure of flamboyant caution."

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

"The actors all do what they can, but mostly get lost in the shuffle and end up with too little to do, like Alan Arkin's cynical New York banker. This is a film in which Rick Heinrichs' richly textured production design and Colleen Atwood's beautiful period costumes are the stars. There are gorgeous images, such as the always alluring Green swinging from a giant chandelier in the big top, shedding her skirt before an aerial leap. But when that visual leaves a more captivating impression than a baby elephant spreading its ears and getting airborne like a glider, something is definitely off in the balance. The new Dumbo holds the attention but too seldom tugs at the heartstrings."

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"At heart, Dumbo is a simple story that fits Burton like a glove. It's a tale of misfits, with Dumbo as the ultimate outsider, fighting not to belong to but escape from a society that dismisses them as freaks. Burton didn't need Hollywood glitz and so-called human interest to get that point across. Only when the film moves past the audience pandering, does Dumbo cut loose and soar."

Pete Hammond, Deadline

"I have to say with a top drawer group of artisans led by Burton behind the scenes it is still a lot of fun and ought to be a smash. Burton's go-to composer Danny Elfman delivers a strong score while intertwining hints of the original Oscar winning music. At the end credits Arcade Fire offers a new version of "Baby Mine". The message about finding your own way and being true to yourself regardless of appearance, as well as a strong statement about keeping animals out of captivity, is worth remembering no matter when, how, or why Dumbo comes flying into our lives."

David Ehrlich, IndieWire

"'Dumbo' is a shallow Pop spectacle that's forced to rely on its more superficial charms; unlike many (or all) of those other movies, this one actually has superficial charms on which to rely. In its best moments, such flourishes and grace notes even manage to complement each other and suggest the presence of something that vaguely resembles a soul. Like, say, a flying elephant, it's the kind of thing you have to see to believe. It's just not quite the kind of thing you have to see in the first place."

Katie Rife, AV Club

"Both characters are just there to keep the story moving, to provide awestruck reaction shots as we move from oddly muted spectacle to agreeable callback to the heartwarming happy ending. And yes, these are all symptoms of the same RELENTLESS conformist drumbeat the film is critiquing in its script. But what's more Disney than Disney controlling the ways in which a filmmaker can critique Disney?"

Angie Han, Mashable

"As a whole, though, Dumbo ends up feeling more like a sideshow than a main attraction. Medici, a circus ringleader who can't figure out how to make money off of an adorable baby animal with larger-than-average ears, would probably love that it's so standard and basic.

For the rest of us, though, Dumbo probably would have been better off letting its freak flag fly. "

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

"There are some reasonable moments at the beginning when Dumbo teeters on the verge of flight. But these moments are cancelled out by boredom, as the pointlessly complicated and drawn-out story grinds on to its tiresome conclusion. This has been painfully de-tusked."

Vinnie Mancuso, Collider

"If you simply came to watch a precious baby elephant flying around the big top, Dumbo delivers the goods. But the movie tugs at the heartstrings in the same exact way Disney has been doing since those dang adorable woodland creatures heard Snow White singing in 1937. You can't exactly knock a formula, but it is a formula. Like most circuses, Dumbowill occasionally make your heart soar. But it's best not to look too closely behind the curtain, because those thrills might start to look mighty cheap."

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

"Its intentions seem good enough-for all its Disney-machine cynicism-that I FEEL BAD calling it, well, bad. But it's not a good movie. Dumbo is a perfunctory, tired, second-rate circus of wonderment whose limp gestures toward the fantastic freakiness of life feel lazily rehashed from its own filmmaker's oeuvre. Disney's new Lion King movie, a summer arrival that so far looks to be a shot-for-shot remake of a beloved classic rendered with computer gloss, at least seems to sport a hefty, reverent energy. Its trailers loom with a sense of inexorable, if regrettable, occasion.

Dumbo, on the other hand, makes a mishmash of less immediately cherished I.P. It's corporatized sentiment from a director who seems caught between his own fading impulses and the surging ones of capital. As innocent Dumbo, a weirdo of the old Burton days, haplessly flops into the maw of mass-market commerce, we catch a glimpse of Burton, too. An artist once prone to flight, now only batting at feathers, fluttering around him like ghosts of past possibility."

Scott Mendelson, Forbes

"Dumbo is a pretty good movie, with strong production values, excellent performances by a game cast and a third act that ends things on a very high note. Dumbo flies just high enough to merit a recommendation."

Rosie Knight, IGN

"Maybe if Tim Burton had made Dumbo before his Alice In Wonderland phase it could have had something more interesting to say, or perhaps at least some more original visuals. Sadly, this routine remake doesn't manage to recapture the surreal strangeness of the original Disney classic or elevate the dated premise into something better."

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