Disney Reveals Live-Action Dumbo at CinemaCon

Screen Rant

By Robin Burks

Published Apr 24, 2018

Disney offers a first look at its live-action Dumbo re-imagining at CinemaCon and confirms some plot details for Tim Burton's film.

Disney offered a first look at its Dumbo live-action/CGI reimagining during its film presentation at CinemaCon 2018. The high-flying elephant will make the transition from animated character to being the star of his own live-action feature next year, with Tim Burton directing.

Dumbo is the story of a circus elephant who is far from normal; he spends most of his childhood getting teased for having ears that are far too big for him. Eventually, however, Dumbo learns that the very things that hold him back in life are the very things that lift him up, quite literally, into the sky. Dumbo then goes on to become the biggest star of his circus as the world's only flying elephant.

Disney showed a featurette for Dumbo at CinemaCon that was accompanied by a first look image of the CGI flying elephant himself (see Omega Underground's tweet below). It seems the live-action Dumbo will differ from its animated counterpart plot-wise, as the featurette revealed that Dumbo is already flying by the time Burton's movie begins (something he had only started to do at the end of the animated film). That suggests the live-action Dumbo will be similar to Burton's Alice in Wonderland, in the sense that it's more of a sequel than a strict remake of the animated feature before it.

Disney seems to have recently embraced the CGI technology that allows the company to turn some of its most beloved franchises into live-action movies. Disney has already brought Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Pete's Dragon, and The Jungle Book to life in live-action, generally to critical and commercial success alike. With several more live-action projects already in development, this trend of Disney re-imagining its animated films doesn't look to go away anytime soon.

As far as Dumbo goes, the film's cast includes Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, DeObia Oparei, Joseph Gatt, Alan Arkin, and Michael Keaton as the villain. Disney further confirmed at its CinemaCon presentation that Dumbo remains on-schedule to hit theaters in 2019. The animated Dumbo remains one of the most beloved of Disney's classic films - and with Burton calling the shots, it's likely this live-action re-imagining will become yet another hit for the studio.