First let’s dispense with the Dumbo in the room and say that the CGI Seven Stooges (er, I mean little people) are perfectly fine and fit Marc Webb’s overall vision of the film quite well. Their look is far more storybook than humans with a ton of make-up would have achieved. Second Rachel Zegler does a fine job as the tile character with her lovely voice and screen presence and kudos to Disney for continuing to expand their colour palette. And finally, Gal Gadot is more than entitled to her opinions as is every human being.
With some or all of the politics out of the way, what do we have with the new live-action remake of the 1937 classic? Trying to outdo the original hand-drawn version was never going to happen as it is one the most beautifully drawn works of art in the world, Every frame of that film is a masterpiece and trying to do that in the present day and paying the animators their proper due would have exceeded the $270 million spent on this version.
What we have is a modern take on a classic story and while it’s not perfect, it is highly entertaining and at times visually impressive. The story was never one with excessive depth to begin with and that continues but its underlying ethos is intact and you can still add as much subtext to it as you want. The singing is well done and the earworm ditties still stick in the head. Playing something more extreme on the way home from the cinema will help, my solution was Swedish Death Metal.
Will seeing it become a rite of passage for today’s children? They could do a lot worse and one can hope that the white noise surrounding the film subsides and it can be seen for what it is, an impressive attempt to update an old-school classic for the modern day and dilute some of the previous missteps.
Rob Hudson
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