Everything you need to know about the new Dumbo

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The new version of the Disney classic directed by Tim Burton has already been released. Here we tell you how they made this new Dumbo and how it differs from its animated version

The rare and extravagant Tim Burton directs the latest version of the story of the Disney elephant. It's about the live action of Dumbo. This year will be released several remakes of Disney classics that the franchise will take to the real world. The first of them is this, Dumbo, but later will come to The Lion King and Aladdin to movie theaters. About the premiere of Dumbo, we tell you here how the flying elephant was given life and how it differs from the animated classic of 1941.

Leer en español: Todo lo que hay que saber sobre el nuevo Dumbo

Also read: Disney fan? 5 movies that you need to watch in 2019

The classic of 1941

At the beginning of the forties of the last century, Walt Disney Studios launched its fourth animated feature film: Dumbo. It was an instant classic, to the point that even the children who grew up in the nineties saw it. The film is based on the children's book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl. It lasted only 64 minutes and was made with a short budget to recover the losses that the creation of the extravagant Fantasy had caused to the studio. Dumbo, then, told the story of Jumbo Jr., an elephant that had been separated from his mother at a very young age by the cruel owners of the circus for which he had to act. The protagonist suffers from many humiliations in the circus for his big ears and is nicknamed Dumbo. He befriends a mouse that the other elephants fear: Timothy. In that friendship, Dumbo will find the self-confidence that was destroyed by the humiliations and separation from his mother. In the end, this film is about how what makes us different from others, although it can be a mockery for some, is what makes us unique.

The actors in the new version of the elephant story promise that it will bring the same message of self-confidence and self-love amid adversity. The story, however, has changed completely. Although it will be developed in a circus, the new version will present new characters and situations that we had not seen before. We will no longer see Dumbo drunk having hallucinations with pink elephants. We will not see either Timothy, the loyal little mouse, or the group of funny crows that in the animated version helped Dumbo learn to fly. Now, instead, we'll see Max Medici (Danny DeVito), the owner of a decadent circus that will give Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), a veteran who has lost an arm in the war, and his children Milly (Nico Parker ) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) the work of caring for an elephant that is a mockery for his big ears. Thanks to the care of the children and their father, Dumbo discovers that his ears give him the power to fly and will take the circus to glory. He will then call the attention of magnate VA Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who wants to include him in the show of his own Dreamland circus. Dumbo and his friends will discover that Dreamland keeps many secrets and will all embark on a new adventure.

How did Dumbo?

Although it is a live action version, Dumbo did not need a real elephant to tell his story. According to Colin Farrell in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, the actor Edd Osmond plays the little elephant: he wore a green suit that covered him from head to toe to give a guide to the director and the other actors during the recording of the film. Dumbo, the other animals and the scenography are made almost entirely of Computer Generated Images (IGC). This is how most remakes of animated classics are made. This technology gives more possibilities to directors and designers of costumes and scenery when it comes to imagining a world and characters. It is not the first time that Tim Burton uses it, of course. In his latest productions the director has already moved almost completely to the digital world when designing the worlds in which his stories are developed.

For some, however, as for the critic Kendra James, the IGC is not necessarily an entirely useful tool. For James, Burton and Disney have already failed with the excess of IGC in films such as The Lone Ranger and Alice in Wonderland, in which everything feels artificial and exaggerated. This will not be an exception, because it is a film in which the protagonist is built in its entirety digitally. According to James, this is somewhat counterproductive for the actors who must react to Dumbo's gestures or interact with him, because they must imagine everything. The same happens with the scenarios, which during the filming do not arouse any reaction in the actors since they do not exist until the editing and post-production process.

Also read: Where does the cinema go if it abuses the Computer Generated Images?

Maybe it's time, as James says, for Disney to wonder to what extent Dreamland is not a metaphor for themselves and that maybe the exploitative circus player Michael Keaton plays is a reflection of his evil and his talent squeezer and stories. The reader will judge when he sees the tender elephant.

LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Rodríguez Pabón

Translated from "Todo lo que hay que saber sobre el nuevo Dumbo"