The current craze at Walt Disney involves live-action remakes of their animated classics, from Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (and his upcoming The Lion King), to the Emma Watson-led Beauty and the Beast take that Bill Condon brought to audiences. The trend won't slow anytime soon, as adaptations for Mulan, Aladdin and more are on the radar at the Hollywood studio. And this morning, we get a look at the next one on the docket, Dumbo -- as directed by Tim Burton.
Oh my God, I am so on board for that interpretation of this classic Disney story. And what a vast improvement this was over the footage that Disney brought to CinemaCon in Las Vegas earlier this year. That footage, which firmly established the cast and the circus atmosphere that Tim Burton looks like he established here, was totally absent of an actual look at Dumbo! The shot of the faces of the people in the crowds looking up at the flying elephant made up the majority of the footage in the Vegas clip, so I am THRILLED that Disney gave us a far better look at the lead character in this fantastic fairy tale.
But even outside of the elephant, who looks photo-realistic, there's a lot that Disney and Tim Burton can promote to get audiences excited for this 2019 movie version of the animated Dumbo. Starting with the Batman Returns reunion of Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito, working once again with Tim Burton! Don't think we didn't notice that exciting casting news. Colin Farrell is also on board as what looks to be the father of the children who fall in love with baby Dumbo. The cast rounds out with Eva Green, Alan Arkin and Nico Parker.
In addition to this new trailer, Disney dropped a teasy Dumbo poster that puts the flying elephant in silhouette.
Dumbo will be the first of three live-action Disney movies reaching theaters in 2019. This slate also includes Aladdin (starring Will Smith) in May 2019, and Jon Favreau's The Lion King, slated to drop on July 19, 2019. If you think about the fact that Disney will have Dumbo and Captain Marvel in theaters in March, it might be a good idea for the rest of the studios to just take the early part of 2019 off. Because it's going to be hard to sell tickets to your competing fare, when the Mouse House is dominating in such fashion.
