Disney’s latest live-action reboot struggles to get off the ground.

It’s been a funny few years for Tim Burton. For a filmmaker who spent much of the 80s and 90s cranking out hit after quirky, gothic hit, things have nosedived of late. Don’t get me wrong, the director still has his moments, yet something hasn’t quite clicked for the best part of a decade now.

It sounds like an odd to say for a film that made over a billion dollars at the box office, but the downturn really began with Alice in Wonderland. Coincidently, it was also the last live-action film Tim Burton directed for Disney and one that functioned as a point of divergence for both parties.

The film itself was a CGI-stuffed extravaganza that threw a lot into the mix but was ultimately found wanting as a satisfying adaptation. It made a truck load of cash that would eventually spur Disney on to double-down on their live-action reboots, yet something in the movie just didn’t feel right, especially when put up against its director’s earlier output.

From that moment on, the contrasting fortunes of the two parties has been fascinating. As Disney strike gold again and again with adaptations of titles like The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, Burton has barely made a dent in the box office or with critics. Even a trip back to Wonderland as producer on Alice Through the Looking Glass flattered to deceive.

Things, however, appear to have come full circle as Burton and Disney converge almost a decade after their last outing together for an adaptation that could well be the perfect boost for both the director’s career and the studio’s plans for world domination.

Depleted, ramshackle, and down on their luck, Max Medici (Danny DeVito) and his band of outcast performers are in desperate need of a new attraction for their struggling circus. Hoping to strike gold with a cute new-born elephant, Max enlists Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his two children to care for him, but when he’s born with comically oversized ears, things look bleak. However, when they discover that Dumbo can use those gigantic ears to take flight, the Medici Brothers Circus stages a startling comeback, prompting eccentric entertainment entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) to make them an offer they can’t refuse. Relocated to the impressive Dreamland amusement park, Dumbo soars to new heights, but as his shiny veneer starts to slip, it’s clear that all is not what it seems with the new boss.

By anyone’s measure, 2019 is shaping up to be a huge year for Disney’s lucrative live-action remake venture. What began in earnest with 2010’s Alice in Wonderland has rapidly snowballed through remakes of such classic titles as Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast, even stopping off for a chat with Christopher Robin and pals along the way.

But nothing so far has come close to the enormity of what Disney has in store this year. Before summer is out, we have retellings of both Aladdin and The Lion King, but it all starts right here with a title that’s no less iconic, yet one whose translation to a live-action setting is arguably easier to tackle.

The original Dumbo was certainly of its time, shall we say. However, putting aside its rather questionable approach to race for a moment, the 1941 film’s beauty lies in its simplicity. There are no castles, princesses, massive song and dance numbers, or even magic (apart from, you know, a flying elephant), just a short but sweet tale of tolerance and the importance of believing in yourself.

The original Dumbo’s simplicity and advanced age are such that, as opposed to Aladdin and The Lion King, the film feels ripe for a fresh interpretation. Of course, you could easily re-tread old ground for a quick buck, but thankfully Tim Burton and Disney have been at least a little more adventurous than that here.

In hindsight, the question with Dumbo wasn’t really whether to deviate from the original, but rather how far to go with it without losing the heart of the story. The dilemma of whether to stick or twist is something Disney are going to come up against a lot in the coming years as they continue to roll out their remake masterplan, but Dumbo certainly represents their most off-piste adaptation to date.

With narrative ambitions in the region of The Jungle Book than, say, the Beauty and the Beasts remake, Dumbo veers off from the source material rather dramatically at times but doesn’t ever truly follow through with its promises. The primary issue here is that, while The Jungle Book felt like it was doing something genuinely fresh with its narrative, Dumbo doesn’t really know what to do to effectively break free from the confines of the original.

The inclusion of human characters and the expansion of the plot are perhaps Dumbo’s biggest deviations from the source, yet while the former partially works, there’s a lot left wanting with the extended narrative.

In all honesty, it would’ve been tricky to pull off a full-length live-action Dumbo built entirely around a mute central character with only a wise-cracking mouse and a few racially inappropriate crows for company, so the choice to add human characters around our big-eared protagonist makes a lot of sense. And, while not all of it works, there’s just enough heart and humour on offer from the cast to warrant the padding.

Both young and old, the various workers and performers surrounding Dumbo are a charming enough bunch of quirky individuals that keep the plot ticking along, although almost inevitably, the more the film concentrates on developing its human characters, the more it detracts from Dumbo himself.

At its best in its opening act, the film works well when it flies low and aims for a personal approach. As we’re introduced to the quaint, ramshackle Medici Brothers Circus, it’s collection of eccentric characters and, of course, Dumbo, the film delivers, hitting just the right emotional beats along the way. It’s a small scale, intimate approach that lays the ground work for the more fantastical moments down the line, as our titular, high-flying elephant finally gets to spread his ears and soar.

However, as we move away from the modest surroundings of the circus, things start to spiral. The moment the action switches to the extravagant surroundings of Dreamland, the heart and soul that the film worked so hard in the first act to build, slowly ebbs away.

Try-hard and lacking in purpose, this portion of the film may look stunning but fails to land on an emotional level, with the plot stretched to breaking point and beginning to get in the way of its characters. Full of the kind of forced, overly-zany hijinks that have marred many recent Tim Burton outings, it’s not long before our big-eared protagonist starts getting side-lined in his own story.

Which is a massive shame, as the moments we do spend with Dumbo are an utter joy. Although he’s never centre stage in the same way he was in the original, Dumbo steals the show any time he’s in the spotlight with a character design that hits just the right balance between cartoonish cuteness and grounded authenticity.

Flying in the face of some early fears that Tim Burton was going to go weird with a design more in line with his usual gothic sensibilities, the CGI character work on Dumbo is of the highest order and affords the character a fully-rounded personality even with the lack of dialogue. It was a crucial piece of the adaptation process to get right but they’ve pulled it off as Dumbo succeeds in melting hearts whenever he’s on screen.

Alongside our CGI hero, however, some of the human characters are a far blander proposition. The two kids are cute, especially Nico Parker, and Danny DeVito is on form playing something of a toned-down Frank Reynolds (side note – look out for another surprising It’s Always Sunny cameo), and Michael Keaton has a whale of a time chewing every inch of scenery; yet much of the ensemble, including a lacklustre Colin Farrell and Eva Green, never really convince.

Say what you want about Tim Burton’s career over the past decade (and many have) but one accusation that can’t be thrown his way is in the visual department and Dumbo continues this impressive knack for offering up sumptuous, gothic-infused eye-candy.

You’ve probably noticed over the years that circuses are kind Tim Burton’s thing, so the world of Dumbo feels absolutely made for him. With candy stripes, quirky carny-folk, elaborate set design, and a colourful nostalgic glow; Dumbo feels very reminiscent of Big Fish (one of the most criminally underappreciated gems in Burton’s back catalogue), offering up a similar vibe while feeling far more subdued than much of the director’s usual output.

Whether this relatively muted tone is a good thing or not is a matter of personal taste but, while this may not be Burton at his most distinctive, he does just enough to keep things interesting. More importantly, there are no points in which Dumbo’s visuals feel as irritatingly forced as they have done with relatively recent efforts like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and, indeed, Alice in Wonderland.

To his credit, Tim Burton tries hard to put enough distance visually and narratively between Dumbo and the original to justify its existence yet is clearly happy to sprinkle the odd call back here and there for nostalgia’s sake. The original’s core themes remain present, while the period feel puts you right back there in 1941, while fragments of the animation’s classic music pop up at select moments in a manner similar to the recent The Jungle Book adaptation to keep you humming along throughout.

Most satisfyingly of all, elements like the baby-delivering storks and the trippy pink elephants are weaved into the story in a variety of surprising, yet satisfying, ways without ever hitting you over the head with it. Oh, and there’s not a racist crow in sight, thank god.

At this juncture, Disney pretty much has a license to print money with their live-action adaptations, so it would’ve been incredibly easy for Dumbo to copy and paste from the original for a quick buck. The fact that it doesn’t is to be applauded, however, in a bid to justify the movie’s existence on its own merits, Tim Burton drops in a collection of relatively bland human characters and a plot that stretches things much further than they need to go. The result is fun to an extent, but ultimately lacking in both emotional resonance and personality and, while Dumbo himself is the most adorable thing you’ll see all year (this side of a baby Simba), the film ultimately struggles to take flight.