Dumbo (2019)

I went in expecting not to like Tim Burton's Dumbo, the feedback I'd gotten from people who had seen it as well as the critical consensus was negative to middling, however I rather liked the movie. If Disney is going to do live action/CGI remakes of its classic animated canon, I don't see a point if all your doing is a clone because we already have the superior version of any such clone, do something a little different, mix it up or approach it from a new perspective, Tim Burton's Dumbo does this. It's a different Dumbo story, but it touches the main points of the original, and I liked the little homages, referencing things, giving them the little nod, like the mouse or the pink elephants, but not building everything around them. I loved Dumbo's design, adorable.

I gather a lot of people didn't care for the new human characters, they weren't deep but I liked them, they were a good fit for the movie. Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito together again under Burton's direction nearly 30 years after Batman Returns. Keaton's character is like an evil version of Walt Disney, but he personifies many of the criticisms that Disney held about earlier amusement parks. I liked the whole post World War I setting of the film, and of course the visuals are great, and not too Tim Burtonie. Their are few more seemingly perfect parings of director and muse then Mr. Burton and Eva Green, if she didn't exist Burton would just have to make her up, like he attempted to do with Lisa Marie. An enjoyable film, which I though benefited from being undemanding. Yes their is a definite "woke element" to the film but I didn't think it was overwhelming or off putting, Tim Burton seems good at keeping his films politically mellow. So again I liked it, a little surprised more people didn't.***