Flying high with “Dumbo”

Photo Credit: (c) Disney Studios

World War I has just ended. Holt (Colin Farrell) has returned to his job at the circus after losing his left arm in battle. While he was away, his wife died. Since then, his daughter, Milly (Nico Parker), and son, Joe (Finley Hobbins), have been staying with kind circus performers. It is a sad and awkward homecoming for Holt, but things are about to get exciting.

Max (Danny DeVito), who owns the circus, recently bought Jumbo, a pregnant Indian elephant. When the baby elephant is born, everyone is shocked because he has huge ears. Max’s hopes for using the baby elephant as a crowd attraction are dashed because he sees the ears as a deformity.

Milly and Joe are curious and approach the baby elephant. When he inhales a feather through his trunk, he puffs up and sneezes so hard that his ears flop and he rises off the ground. When the children try to tell their dad, he doesn’t listen.

The children persist and Max agrees to let the baby animal perform, but things don’t turn out well. Some kids heckle him, and he flies around and out of the tent, scaring everyone.

V.A. (Michael Keaton) is an unscrupulous impresario on the lookout for a great act for his permanent circus, a precursor of a modern theme park. He talks Max into selling him the circus, and he hires all the performers. Colette (Eva Green) is a trapeze artist who trains the flying elephant, now called Dumbo, and together they amaze the crowds. But when V.A.’s financial backer, Remington (Alan Arkin), comes to check his investment, Dumbo hears the sound of his mother calling and flies off in search of her.

This reimagining of Disney’s 1941 animated classic is directed by Tim Burton and written by … to continue reading at St. Anthony Messenger click HERE