I have to admit that Disney has finally overturned on the smooth road that seems to be safe to make money in the live-action remake of the movie.
Although Disney's live-action remakes started a decade ago with "Alice in Wonderland" and received a lot of mixed reviews, it is fair to say that these live-action remakes of the past decade may have changed too much. As a result, it broke the beauty in the hearts of some fundamentalist fans, maybe it is not a breakthrough compared to the original, it is pure money-making, maybe the style of painting collapsed due to casting errors, but because of the script structure that has withstood the test of the box office and the classic characters that are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. , they can always keep the basic plot of the plot; and on the point of " how to play a hand of cards on the basis of the plot of the classic works ", the recently released Tim Burton version of "Dumbo" is probably the only one A live-action remake of Disney that achieves this feat.
Formal innovation: "remake" + "sequel"
First, when evaluating the live-action version of Dumbo, we have to talk about the original Dumbo itself. Although as an early Disney animated feature film, "Dumbo" has long become a classic in the hearts of countless people, in the final analysis, it does not have a DNA that is suitable for remakes like other early Disney works. The problem mainly arises from the plot of the original animation: unlike the live-action remakes we see now, the plot of the original animation is more focused on "Dumbo's ability to learn flying in a crowded environment, and use this skill to make Both myself and my mother lived a prosperous life in the circus" . In terms of the short one-hour duration of the original animation and the positioning of children's animations, this straightforward plot without turning points and simple character motives complement each other in the movie. But if Disney is to launch a live-action remake based on this at this stage, this storyline will obviously not be able to slightly add some character settings/add a few songs like several other remakes (such as "Beauty and the Beast", etc.) Original songs can rely on the emotional bonus to receive countless praises from the fan community.
That's why the live-action version of "Dumbo" takes a new path that several other live-action remakes have never dared to take: cramming both the "remake" and the "sequel" into one film . In this film, the first 40 minutes are the original "Dumbo" story condensed from the original , and compared to the original film, in this part (the following content may contain minor spoilers, but please believe me , this film will not affect the viewing experience without spoilers): Dumbo's mother was not crowded out by other elephants in the circus (because the film's realistic setting makes all animals unable to speak ); the scenes of the birds mocking Dumbo were completely cut off; Timothy's scenes were almost cut off, the reason for "almost" is because Timothy is still in the image of a mouse in some shots It swayed around, but it had no interaction with Dumbo; Dumbo eventually learned to fly with the help of the two human child protagonists instead of Timothy. Of course, the entire first half of the entire first half is pretty basic, except that the scenes of Dumbo's mother and Timothy were greatly cut, the basic setting of "animals can talk" was deleted, and the animal characters were completely given way to human characters. The original work is restored, especially the restoration of the end of the original work: Dumbo's unique flying skills allow the circus to make a lot of money, and at the same time, it also allows himself to embark on a road of willingly working for the circus boss as a high-level slave .
When I watched the original work before, I was a little puzzled by this ending - is the so-called Happy Ending "the whole family can be a stable slave together with peace of mind"? In addition to allowing everyone to watch animal performances with greater peace of mind in the future, and to cultivate more potential slaves for capitalists, does this ending have any beneficial educational significance for children?
Apparently, the live-action remake also found this issue. Therefore, the plot of the second half of the film almost completely answered everyone's curiosity about "what will happen to Dumbo after he became famous? " Although I personally admire director Tim Burton for adopting this bold innovation that has never been seen in Disney's live-action remakes, the content of the second half almost infinitely magnifies the flawed parts of the first half, and finally , they seem to burn out the audience's feelings for the original "Dumbo" and their expectations for the live-action remake, like the last fire in the film that burned all capitalist creations.
Shrinking of the inner core: How does Dumbo look so much like a dog?
Since the title of the film is "Dumbo", the problem with the script of this movie is probably inseparable from Dumbo itself . In the original animation, Dumbo was from start to finish a tool used by the Circus of Sweat for profit, not a living being. This live-action remake is obviously eager to overturn the ending of the past, to rectify the name of Dumbo's "elephant", and at the end of the film, Dumbo and his mother are arranged to return to the mountains and spend the rest of their lives together. However, ironically, jumping out of the story itself in the film, from the perspective of the plot structure, Dumbo is just a tool for aggregating the story clues of other characters, which makes this film different from the instrumental use of Dumbo. The original animation has the same purpose, but in the original it is a tool in the play, and in the live-action remake, it is an off-screen tool .
Unlike in the original work, which promoted the narrative from the perspective of elephants , this work focuses more on the perspective of people -especially the perspective of the two children of the male protagonist. In addition to the two newly added child protagonists, the film also needs to be used to portray characters such as the male protagonist Hult, the high-altitude queen Colette, and the circus leader Max. Think about it: at the end of last year at Disney In "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms", the whole movie took an hour and a half to create a rational heroine who loves science - it hasn't been done well yet, while in "Dumbo", the director not only has to first Explain the original story line of Dumbo and his mother (for this reason, the roles of mother and other animals have been greatly reduced), and also tell the growth line of the little girl Millie (eh? The little girl is not a strong woman from beginning to end ). What? Where is the growth?), the education line for single fathers to face their children, the love line for single fathers to meet beautiful actresses from the villain camp and rejuvenate their second spring , and even set up a small capitalist circus leader to explore the big capitalists Hypocrisy and cunning regain the personal sublimation line of the bond between people.
In a movie that clearly uses Dumbo as its main selling point, the result of forcing into such a complex character camp and story line is that no character can stand up, and almost no story line makes people feel immersed . The director wants to express too many things, but it seems to be limited by the story structure of "Dumbo" itself, and it is difficult to unfold all the ideas. Some characters and settings in the story are slightly redundant, for example: the one-armed setting of the male protagonist, the little monkey of the circus leader, and even the whole character of the male protagonist's son - you really remember him in the film Is there any irreplaceable move made by China alone ?
And many classic characters that shined in the original work, under the squeeze of the new characters, either the scenes were deleted completely, or they were reduced to simple props. The most ironic thing is that the only part of the film that really made my nose feel sour is precisely the scene where the mother elephant and Dumbo are left speechless compared to the original version .
Even though Dumbo retains a large number of scenes as the core character, in order to achieve a harmonious coexistence between Dumbo's original story setting and the newly added realistic story background, this film has deleted the "animals can talk to each other". world view setting . Although in the original, Dumbo himself has almost no lines, he is surrounded by Timothy the mouse who always helps him out and the elephant who protects his self-esteem in the ostracized "office politics". Mom, it makes people feel as if Dumbo's environment is not as lonely and indifferent as it seems. In the live-action remake, scenes about Dumbo's personal emotions and interpersonal communication often give way to exchanges between other human characters, which makes people feel that this film is just like the circus leader. Dumbo's name attracts attention, but the illusion of disregarding its inner world . As a result, the core of Dumbo's story has also been reduced from "the growth story of the cowardly protagonist" in the original work to a third-rate pet movie where "the human protagonist group helps weak animals find their mothers".
"Dumbo" is a classic animation; Tim Burton is a good director. The combination of the two, with the visual effects that keep up with the times and a strong cast, why can it become what it is now? I'm baffled.
Probably, the rollover scene of this movie and last year's "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" (although not a complete remake) may really be worth Disney's rush to remake the classics. Reflect on what we really need live-action remakes.
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