Dumbo

First Hit: Overdone, overreaching, and overproduced leaving little to the imagination — dumb.

Director Tim Burton has a habit of creating worlds and often what we see is his complete vision. He tidies the storyline in such a way that the audience can only watch and not imagine themselves. With fantasy, I think it is important to leave things to the imagination.

With Dumbo he’s created a world where we have to feel sorry for the Medici Circus because it has fallen on hard times. The circus is run by Max Medici (Danny DeVito). The train cars are perfectly faded. There is the strong man who is also the accountant, as well as assorted clowns, snake charmer, and other mixed people. The only animals that are left in this dilapidated circus are dogs with colored fur and elephants.

Two children are running around the circus, Millie and Joe Farrier (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins respectively). They are being taken care of because their mother has died and their father, Holt (Collin Farrell), had to leave the circus to fight in the war.

Upon the father’s return, he’s missing an arm which adds to the depressing scene. Holt’s act with the circus was riding horses, and when he returned with one arm, he discovered the horses were already sold. He’d hoped he’d do a one arm riding act. Max tells Holt his new job will be to tend the elephants, including the new huge one who is pregnant.

When the elephant gives birth, they find out the baby elephant has enormous, I mean really huge, ears which makes him the laughing stock of the circus audience. Here is where I see a mistake, why is the audience laughing? It is merely a ploy used to make everyone feel even more bad for the Medici Circus clan.

The children are fascinated by the big-eared pachyderm, and through an accident of inhaling a feather, Dumbo sneezes and ends up leaving the ground. Soon the kids discover they can induce Dumbo to fly by flapping his ears and coaxed by a feather.

The circus is about to fold when evil villain V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and his girlfriend, Collette Marchant (Eva Green) come to see the flying elephant. Vandevere likes what he sees and buys the Medici Circus, and now everyone works for Vandevere.

Unfortunately, V.A.’s money man J. Griffin Remington (Alan Arkin) puts conditions on V.A. and Dumbo’s performance. This enhances the sadness because Dumbo’s mom is taken away again and now the Medici Circus team wants to retaliate.

You can easily imagine what happens. The whole story is to make everyone feel bad, then let Dumbo save the day along with the kids.

The most positive aspect of this film was the quality of the pictures. Burton does this well, and he’s to be commended for this, but otherwise, the movie is predictable and sadly lacking soul. The computer-generated Dumbo was a work of thoughtful art, but at times, he seemed to human-like.

Farrell was reasonably adequate to the role, but there was nothing for him to stretch into and make it his own. Keaton was OK as the villain, he’s good at it. DeVito was charming as the small circus owner, but I found it hard to believe he owned or ran the circus. The actual running of the circus, like putting up tents, seemed to happen through magic. BTW: The tent poles were longer than a train car, so I kept wondering how did they get them from place to place? Parker was stunning. Her intelligence and maturity were well beyond the child character she played. She embraced this role and was the best thing in the film. Hobbins was equal to the task as well, and it is his and Parker’s performances that kept me engaged. Green was excellent and put something of herself into this role and made it work. Arkin was sardonically perfect for this role as an arrogant banker and money man. Ehren Kruger wrote the screenplay which seemed too buttoned up and left little to the imagination. Burton was himself. His visuals were good and generally dark in character. I also thought that Vandevere’s “Dreamworld” was overdone and took the film too far out of any sense of wanting this film to be real and down to earth.

Overall: Everything was perfect and the way it was to be seen, therefore when I left the theater, nothing came with me.

Big Eyes

First Hit:  Captured the era in a great way and was effective in telling this story.

Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) painted the “Big Eye” paintings that captured the hearts of many. The question is would the paintings have been so well known, distributed, and sold if it weren’t for her husband?

Probably not, however Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) also took credit for painting his wife’s paintings. Walter wanted to be a painter but his skill was in selling. And because he could sell his wife’s work, he also wanted to feed his ego and take credit for painting them as well. Why Margaret agreed to this deception wasn’t explored very deeply.

Although the story was interesting, noteworthy, and gave credence to the power of owning one’s own power, what I liked about the film, were the cars, dress, and representation of the 1950’s and early 1960’s. The brightness and newness of the time after WWII was palatable. To me the defining scene about the time period was early when Margaret and daughter Jane (young Jane – Delaney Raye) escape in the green Ford and head out across the country. The roadside signs, the car and other cars on the road was representative and magical of the time.

Adams was very good as Margaret. She really embodied the time and spirit of a woman wanting to own her power in a societal time where it was felt that men ruled the roost. Waltz was delightfully deceitful, charming and snarky. I loved the courtroom scenes where he ranted, raved and showed that he struggled to paint anything. Both Raye and Madeleine Arthur were wonderful as Margaret’s child Jane. Danny Huston as the reporter Dick Nolan, from which this story is told, was very good as well. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote this dialogue rich script. Tim Burton, as expected, focused on the cinematography, rather than creating interest in the characters.

Overall:  Although I really liked the story, there was something missing from it to make it memorable.

Dark Shadows

First Hit:  This film was a study in what Tim Burton likes to create, however it wasn’t very entertaining to the audience.

When there are very few laughs in a film that is labeled a comedy there is a problem.

This was a somewhat convoluted story where a witch (how did she become one?) is more powerful than a vampire but not more powerful than a ghost. What was this film about?

Was it a film about long lost love, trying to tie together across 200 years? Or was it was about fishing, fish canning and how one family wanted to control it in a small town in Maine? Or was it was about great sex between a witch and a mortal but it wasn't enough to create a lasting relationship?

Heck, I really don't know but it might have been about Tim Burton plying his trade of creating fun off kilter spooky characters which have little basis in reality with no plot. Barnabas Collins (played by Johnny Depp) is the soul who doesn’t want to love a witch so he is turned into a vampire and is dug up from his grave 200 years later. He returns to his family home now run by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (played by Michelle Pfeiffer).

She is the matriarch of the now crumbling fishing and canning Collins Empire. Dr. Julia Hoffman (played by Helena Bonham Carter) comes to try and heal the vampire Barnabas. But how and why they found this person is completely left off the script. Which indicated that this was a totally unneeded and unwarranted part, but a way to get Carter, Burton’s wife, some work.

Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller) was another useless part as Elizabeth’s son. Eva Green played the witch Angelique Bouchard, who was one of two major protagonists in this story.

The third wheel was Victoria Winters/Josette DePres (played by Bella Heathcote) who was loved by and was in love with Barnabas but was killed centuries ago by Witch Angelique. Again, like Barnabas, she comes back to fulfill her love/dream.

This whole film is convoluted and didn’t make a good story worth telling. There was little intrigue but it did have Burton’s trademark ghoulishness.

Depp was OK as his character but the film was so poor it felt like he was re-treading past Burton work. Pfeiffer was lost and very miscast in this film and she simply doesn’t do ghoul well. She’s better off in a dynamic part. Bonham Carter as she has done lately, try to be over the top (see her stuff in Harry Potter films) as oppose to acting. The part was unneeded for this story and therefore her value was minimal. Miller was a wasted character and I had no idea why it was part of the film. Green was the most interesting of characters in the film. Her gazes and temperament were excellent for this part. Heathcote, was beautiful but in a role which was not fully utilized. There could have been more depth to this part. Jackie Earle Haley has a small part in this film as the Collins mansion handy man and unfortunately there was little Haley could do with this part. Seth Grahame-Smith and John August wrote a wasteful script which had a very flimsy storyline and dialogue was of little use. Burton does great visuals (bright red car, lipstick and dress for Angelique), but overall this story lacked something worth watching. It is a far cry from Edward Scissorhands and, my favorite, Beetlejuice.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time. This film isn’t funny nor is it an interesting story.

Alice In Wonderland

First Hit: Despite the beautiful and curiously created scenes, the re-telling of this story was not compelling. The 3D effects were used to demonstrate as much as enhance the scenes and after a short while I could have left and I wouldn’t have missed anything.

Tim Burton is known for creating interesting visual worlds and for the most part he does it again in this re-telling of Lewis Carroll’s famous tale.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much more to this re-do except an expansion of the characters and a different plot which probably wasn’t intended by Carroll.

The fantasy and quirkiness of the original tale is gone and what we have is Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) pondering a grown up decision at age 20. She is being asked her hand in marriage, but appears to struggle for the answer but how is this so hard? It is obvious that they aren’t a couple. She panics when asked in front of hundreds of people and runs away. She follows a vested rabbit into a hole and the now the story begins.

The Wonderland folks who greet her don’t know if she is the real Alice, and wonder if she is the original (sort of like the second coming). Alice herself doesn’t know because all she knows is that her name is Alice and it’s her dream, or so she thinks. She meets the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp) who has a lisp, falls in love with Alice and is bent on helping Alice rescue a dog family and others from the Red Queen's castle.

The Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter), who has a huge head and chops off the heads of anyone who crosses her, wants Alice captured because she is the one who is foretold (the original Alice In Wonderland story) as the slayer of the Jabberwocky who is the Red Queen’s main fighting force and protector.

But before Alice can be captured, Alice tries to rescue her fantasy friends who are locked in the Red Queen’s castle. To get across the moat, she walks across the bobbing heads of the Red Queens "off with their head" victims.

This scene sort of finished off the film for me. It moved it from fantasy and into a more Gothic heavy handed film that tries to make too much sense from the wild original tale of a little girl lost in Wonderland.

What we have is a grown up girl confused about making a decision about her life in the real world and her childhood dream overtakes her and through the spinning of this yarn, she gets her answer.

Wasikowska was interesting enough and did what the writer and director instructed her to do but she didn't bring a true sense of wonder to the role. Bonham Carter was probably the most interesting character in this version of the story. Her over sized head, fiery language and heart shaped lips were fun. Depp was quirky but why he played the Mad Hatter with a (sometimes) lisp was odd. Steven Fry the voice of the Cheshire cat was fun as a smiling disappearing cat. Anne Hathaway as the White Queen was lost and seemed clueless in this role. Matt Lucas the voice of Tweedledee and Tweedledum was funny at times. And Alan Rickman as the wise hookah smoke blowing Blue Caterpillar was overdone. Burton would have done well to do a remake of the original story to flaunt his greatness at making magical worlds. Making a complex story and plot took away from the original story and his beautiful scenes. Burton also needs to take a page out of James Cameron’s book on how to use 3D, we don’t need more demos of stuff sitting in our laps or being poked right at us.

Overall: This film ended up to be very disappointing despite the effort Burton put into making a wonderful “Wonderland”. This story is overly convoluted and would have been better if he had stuck to the original.