Disney’s live-action remakes, absent in 2018, are going to flood cinemas in 2019. The Mouse House currently has THREE scheduled for release in FOUR months next year: Dumbo in March, Aladdin in May, and The Lion King in July. That’s probably at least one too many for all to succeed. The Lion King is a lock, Aladdin is probably in the most precarious position only a few weeks after Avengers 4, Dumbo was a wild card. Now, after seeing this, I have to say, I’m looking forward to seeing what Burton has done with the film. The original debuted six weeks before Pearl Harbor in 1941 and, obviously, it’s going to undergo a lot of “reimagining”. It’s tough to tell a lot from a teaser trailer, but this looks better than I had hoped. More below from Coming Soon.
From Disney and visionary director Tim Burton, the all-new grand live-action adventure Dumbo expands on the beloved classic story where differences are celebrated, family is cherished and dreams take flight. 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),
Dumbo flies into theaters on March 29, 2019.
I’m here but where’s the teaser?
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No clue what happened. My post got munched. Rewritten and updated.
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No link! I had to go elsewhere to see this. And clearly my skepticism surrounding this movie was a little premature…. I didn’t consider what heights Burton might achieve in a circus setting, and much more importantly I caught a glimpse of a PINK ELEPHANT ON PARADE!
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I have no clue how my whole post got eaten, but it’s updated. Sorry about that. We saw a little of Burton in a circus in Big Fish, which was his last masterpiece. This honestly was way better than I could have imagined.
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Yes! Way, way better. Of course, it’s only a trailer… I was blown away by the Charlie trailer first time I saw it, and was expecting a masterpiece. On the other hand, the very first promotional images of Depp in Alice showed that something was off there. So you never can tell. But the cautious optimism I’m now feeling is better than the outright hostility I was feeling before.
All I can say is that Dumbo, the original Disney version, is right in Burton’s wheelhouse… like Edward Scissorhands, it’s about an outcast whose fantastical deformity, the source of his isolation, becomes his ticket to celebrity. Except that the Disney movie cuts off as soon as celebrity is achieved. I’m pretty sure Burton has been making movies like CATCF and Alice so that he can get stuff like Sweeney Todd made, too. I can’t imagine his heart was in Alice in Wonderland. If he can be a director for hire, AND connect with the material in a significant way, then we have something.
The big problem is, the screenwriter wrote three of the Transformers movies, Ghost in the Shell, and the Brothers Grimm, one of the few Terry Gilliam movies that Gillaim’s heart was not in. I can see Burton connecting with a movie that hewed close to the original, but I fear we’ll get hollow eye candy.
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Big Fish was so his last masterpiece. Last time I felt genuine magic in a Burton movie, last time I really felt transported. There was a sparseness to some of the production design, including the circus scenery… Burton was trying to charm us and put us under a spell, not dazzle us. What a spinner of fairy tales.
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Sorry for dropping in again, but I have some time to kill, and this place is literally called “Killing Time.”
I do not understand the scheduling thing. Especially after Solo. Are they just viewing SW in a vacuum? I guess they don’t know at this point if their unofficial Live Action Remake brand will perform more like SW or the MCU when put to the test.
Dumbo will not be the one to suffer. It’s the first one that comes out, and at this point in the Live Action Remake experiment, people are not saving up their money for the Live Action Remakes they REALLY want to see. They’re just going to the movies. (That does not mean they won’t get burned out, just that they will not preemptively abandon Dumbo for Aladdin, especially since the elephant is clearly adorable, and Aladdin is going to SUCK, and the awfulness will be readily apparent from the trailers, just like the noted auteur’s last outing). It looks like Disney pulled out all the stops with Dumbo, the elephant like I said is adorable, and Burton knows how to play the role of Director For Hire when that’s his job. He knows how to churn out a guaranteed hit. It took time for people to realize how bad CATCF and Alice were. Those movies were out of theaters before people stopped and said, “Wait, what just happened there?” In addition this one looks at LOT more magical than those did, and his pet themes are on the surface this time.
Aladdin will suffer, because Burton is an artist when it comes to visuals, and judging from this trailer, his artistry is going to be on full display. Guy Ritchie on the other hand was hired for Aladdin because he’s an expert on the world of street criminals. That was the official word from Disney, at any rate. I really doubt Disney let him use swearing and a handheld camera. That might have gotten me interested a little. Unless Disney does something really, really bold, and turns “Aladdin” into a gritty, realistic period piece, I think it’s going to look bad when compared to Dumbo.
And Will Smith. It’s good that the last guy who played the genie didn’t stick in people’s heads, that his performance barely made a blip on the cultural radar when the film came out. Otherwise Smith might have too much to live up to.
I will give them props for choosing a distinctive director. I like distinctive directors.
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Agreed. Aladdin is the one that will tank. Maybe two bombs in two years will scare them off Memorial Day. They really need someone over all the divisions controlling and coordinating release dates to maximize their brands and performance year round. They have enough stuff to have a big film a month, but they need to be judicious about it and they seem like five studios under a banner rather than an intrgrated machine.
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Gore Verbinski would have been the perfect live action Aladdin director. Just stop and think about it for a minute. I’m not saying Verbinski will ever work again, nor should he, but man, I would have loved to see his Aladdin.
With SW, MCU, Pixar, and the cannibalization of their old properties (ok that was harsh) Disney ought to be having no flops at all right now. I sometimes wonder why these big execs don’t see the obviousness of the mistakes they’re making. For example, in a catalogue of films with BROAD APPEAL, Aladdin is one of the most broadly appealing. The live action version needed big colorful sets, panoramic visuals, Indiana Jones style action sequences, and a Genie who (in the absence of Robin Williams) was at the very least a big box office draw IN THE YEAR 2018, someone not over the hill. Instead, they hired a director with no sense of style, famous for making grungy-looking crime dramas and action films, whose last movie was an abortion. (I’m going to stop commenting about Will Smith completely, because the fact that they think it’s a good idea for him to play the Genie is so weird, it defies reality.)
Also Disney is making a big mistake with SW. A big mistake. SW is no longer an event. Going back to one film annually will not fix anything. They need to release a film every other year, and be content with it. If they want to have additional television, stick to animation. Maybe animated theatrical releases would be ok, too. Maybe some offbeat premises that would be harder to accept in live action. This new live action TV series is going to be the kiss of death. This is what oversaturation looks like. It’s not just TLJ that kept people away from Solo. Fatigue is happening at an accelerated pace because of TLJ, but how long were people going to cheer at references to the same three old movies? Disney was wrong, SW is not like the MCU and was never going to be. The MCU could go anywhere, in subject matter, tone, aesthetic, ect. SW can explore all the genres it wants, but the aesthetic, the feel is never going to change that much, and it’s getting played out. I think that if Disney does not cut back, if SW does not become a semi-annual event again, Disney loses one of its pillars.
Disney did not need so much SW. It’s making so much money with all its other quasi-feifdoms. The live action remake thing alone has a ton of classic films to draw from, and it does not end with the actual animated movies, there are so many ways those old animated films, and the works they were derived from, could be spun off and exploited (ok harsh language again). I’m just saying, Disney could have afforded to have kept SW… classy. If that makes any sense.
Disney isn’t making many films compared to other studios. They could be king of the world. Space out your films, Disney, and don’t wear everyone out. You have a lisence to print money, and you’re positioning your films so that they compete. I don’t get it.
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Sorry for all the verbiage. Long night.
Maybe Disney can fight fan apathy by changing the title to “STAR WARb.”
OK, now it’s officially too long a night.
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I’ve got a bad feeling about this … elephants and circuses? … It will depend on what Timmy’s done with it … but, we’ll see. 🙂
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