Disney’s original Dumbo is one of the saddest animated films in the studio’s history, but it looks like Tim Burton is about to make things a whole lot worse. The second trailer is here for the live-action reimagining of the big-eared flying elephant tale, and it already looks pretty upsetting.
As expected from Burton, it also looks visually amazing – with the film set in two different circuses that each give him a chance to indulge his love of Big Top weirdness.
We only get a glimpse of Dumbo in flight (and it looks like there’s no wisecracking mouse in this version), but we do see plenty of Dumbo himself – a doe-eyed leathery looking ele-calf that retains a lot of the designs from the 1941 original.
Ringmaster Max Medici (Danny DeVito) hires washed up performer Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his kids 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. Dumbo inhales a feather in the trailer, which may or may not be the reason that he starts flying, but it isn’t long before Medici realises that he’s got a star attraction on his hands. Smarmy looking entrepreneur V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) realises this too, and comes along to try and steal Dumbo for his bigger, slicker circus – alongside Eva Green’s trapeze artsist.
From there on out, expect the film to expand on Disney’s original story with a lot of magic – and a lot of tears…
Dumbo is due to fly into cinemas on the 29th of March, 2019.
