[ad_1]
When it comes to Tim Burton's live action, "Dumbo," we have to talk about the elephant in the room: why is Dumbo not talking?
Disney's 1941 animated film tells the story of a stranger – a torch-eared pachyderm that defeats his enemies to take flight, mostly with the help of Timothy Q. Mouse, his encouraging rodent (and especially talkative). Although Dumbo and his mother, Mrs. Jumbo, are not particularly talkative in the animated film, all the other animals seem to never stop babbling, including crows, a stork and the obnoxious elephants trying to smash Dumbo .
In the trailers and teasers of the upcoming movie, it became quite obvious that the new cast of human characters, directed by Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Michael Keaton and Colin Farrell, would be left to the exchange. Aside from Dumbo's escapades, the animals would be essentially forced to respect their real-world limitations, namely squeaks of mice and elephant trumpets.
In an interview with HuffPost, producer Justin Springer and producer-producer Ehren Kruger explained why the film would be anchored in a more humane perspective.
"One of the things I really wanted to do was to be able to transport an audience to feel like part of the Dumbo Circus," Kruger said. "What an incredible experience it would have been if Dumbo had been real. If there was a real flying elephant, what would it be like to be part of his family? This is really what motivated the decision to tell the classic story that we all know and love from a different angle, with a human look, and really involving the audience as if it was in the golden age of the circus and witnessed the discovery of this incredible film. creature."
With this reinvention of history, many of the problematic elements of the original have been dismissed, including crows.
Over the years, the smoking and talkative crows of the 1941 version have been referred to time and time again as black stereotypical caricatures. Worse, they are led by a bird named Jim Crow, named for racial segregation laws and voiced by a white actor.
Kruger explained that the exclusion of crows really boiled down to the general exclusion of talking animals.
"At first, I made the decision [to exclude talking animals] in the spirit of realism and because Dumbo never speaks in animation [version]Jumbo has a line or two, and that's really the heart of our story, "said Kruger. "We would not have this image of talking animals. It meant removing some characters from the animated movie. "
On crows, he added: "This is only part of the original film that does not fit the story we are telling."
Some iconic moments have been adapted to the live-action version, such as these pink elephant parades, which you may remember as one of the most captivating (and traumatic) visuals of your childhood.
In the original drawing, the scene happens after Dumbo drank in a bucket of water that had been accidentally squirted with champagne. He sees haunted visions of colorful elephants as a result of his drunkenness and wakes up the next day in a tree without realizing how he got there.
Instead of rekindling the nightmarish sequence, Burton's film uses the art of bubble triumphs to capture the spirit of these visuals, which you can see in the trailers:
"One of the opportunities and joys is to take the most iconic elements of the original and find ways to incorporate them into your film," Springer said. "And as Ehren said, we really wanted to create a plausible reality in 1919, in which the circus lived to transport the public to this place."
According to the producer, the iconic moment of the pink elephant has been brought to the screen by pushing back slightly the limits of reality.
"It did not seem fair to cut a fully animated sequence and go as far in the same direction as the animated feature film, but it's something we knew from the start that It had to be a movie piece, "Springer said. .
The moment was in the script from the very beginning, but it was Burton who finally realized it. "We really wanted to root what we think could have been shot in the circus at that time," added Springer.
Although Dumbo was not seen performing libations before seeing the pink elephants, Kruger joked: "We see Dumbo in a big bath bathing, and I can not say with certainty if champagne is been paid or not. "
The first social media reactions to the film praise his artistic output and design, with a particular eye to Dumbo's performance. As in the rest of the movie, the key was to put the elephant on the ground, said Springer.
"The design process has been long," said the producer. "It is obvious that it is the main character of the film, and if it is not credible, it is difficult for the film to work. So we wanted to create this character so that it fits well in the real world, but was the cutest version. of himself."
As in the original drawing, Dumbo is certainly cute. But beyond his big eyes and his cheerful personality, Dumbo's eyes also include a scientific element, especially his famous oversized ears.
Springer continued, "We started looking at what the physics of this character would be, and how we should prune his ears so that we feel that adequate physics was at stake there, but also not to have his ears so big that when he lands and walking around him seems too stupid. "
Dumbo uses these realistic ears to enter theaters later this month.
[ad_2]
Source link