Disney’s Dumbo in Theaters Now!

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Erin

Disney’s Dumbo in Theaters Now!

By Jonelle

Growing up I loved Disney. As an adult, I love Disney. Driving into the Disney Studios in Burbank, never gets boring. This was a placed I dreamed of working. As I walk to the theater where the special preview of Dumbo is screening, I wonder if Mr. Disney walked the same streets or turned the same corners.

I was asked to screen the upcoming Disney release Dumbo and here’s the thing, I never saw the original in its entirety, which I just found out is only about 60 minutes or so. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Dumbo was originally slated as a 30-minute short film. It ultimately expanded to just under 64 minutes (Dumbo is Disney’s second shortest animated feature film behind 1942’s “Saludos Amigos,” which was just 42 minutes).

I’ve seen the trailer for the live action version many times, and each time I had tears and chills. I kept thinking 1. Wow, Colin Farrell gets better looking with age and 2. That is the cutest elephant I’ve ever seen, where can I get one. Yes, that is how real the CGI looks.

Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) and his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) are charged with caring for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. ©2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Let’s be honest, I know a little bit about the original. It’s about a baby elephant who is taken away from its mother, has ginormous ears and is forced to fly in a circus. Beyond that, I had nothing. We all know about the famous music that came out of the original. Danny Elfman keeps those same elements in his reimagined score. You’ll find a few other elements from the original, like the pink elephants, a reimagined Timothy Mouse and of course the famous Casey Jr. Circus Train.

The film centers around a traveling circus in the height of the traveling circus craze. Colin Farrell’s, Holt Farrier, has just come back from WWI having sustained an injury that left him with one arm. His wife has died and his and his children were left, being raised by the “Circus Freaks” they’ve come to know as family. Holt and his wife were the main attraction of the Medici Family Circus, and once that duo ceased to exist, so did the attraction of this traveling band of misfits. With times hard continuing in the foreseeable future, Max Medici, sells Holt’s prized horses to purchase a pregnant African Elephant, call it a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. However, once baby Jumbo, Dumbo’s original name, is born, Max sees him as just another freak, saying, “a face only a mother could love.”

With his Jumbo ears, Dumbo, is made to dress up like a clown, perform horrific stunts and is teased mercilessly by the circus crowd. Mama Jumbo gets very angry at the people laughing at her baby and take matters into her own hooves. Because of her actions, one of the roadies get killed and many spectators get injured. This is going to wreck the Medici Family Circus, so he gets rid of Mama Jumbo and keeps his new attraction: Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Dumbo, even with the love of Holt’s children Milly and Joe, is depressed because he misses his mother, something Milly and Joe can relate to. There are so many parallels between Milly, Joe and Dumbo. They’re not taken seriously, they have lost their mother, they’re trying to just find their place in the world.

Once the circus begins to thrive again with Dumbo’s help –he’s forced to fly–, villain V.A. Vandevere, played by Michael Keaton, makes Max Medici an offer he cannot refuse, he becomes the Vice President (in name only) of Vandevere’s state of the art amusement park, Dreamland. Not everyone in Dreamland agrees with Vandevere’s treatment of his animals, especially his most prized item, Dumbo. This leads to the climax of the story. Dumbo is anxious to be with his mama once more.

FLYING HIGH

The movie itself is absolutely visually stunning. We are taken back to 1920’s America and then taken to a “Fantasyland” of entrainment called Dreamland. You forget you’re looking at CGI elephants. They look so real and Dumbo’s eyes are the most endearing eyes, you can’t help but want to save all the elephants. The costumes in Dreamland are brightly colored and magical, especially the costumes worn by Eva Green’s, Colette Merchant, the famous trapeze artist who is tasked to soar with Dumbo. She wears this this beautiful feathered outfit that truly makes her look like a soaring bird.

One thing that Max Medici says towards the end of the film is that animals “don’t belong in cages”. The messages in this film speak volumes. At its heart, this simple story is one of family and acceptance, acceptance of what makes us all different. We could learn a lot from Dumbo. And yes, animals don’t belong in cages.

Dumbo is directed by Tim Burton and stars Colin Farrell as Holt Farrier, Michael Keaton as V.A. Vandevere, Danny DeVito as Max Medici, Eva Green as Colette Marchant, Nico Parker as Milly Farrier, Finley Hobbins as Joe Farrier, Alan Arkin as J. Griffin Remington, Roshan Seth as Pramesh Singh, DeObia Oparei as Rongo the Strongo, Joseph Gatt as Neils Skellig, and Sharon Rooney as Miss Atlantis.

Like DUMBO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyDumbo/

Follow DUMBO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dumbo

Follow DUMBO on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dumbo/

Visit the official DUMBO website here: https://disney.com/dumbo

DUMBO is in theatres everywhere now!

Soaring with the Stars of Dumbo

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Erin

Soaring with the Stars of Dumbo

By Jonelle

We were invited as media to cover the press conference. All thoughts & opinions remain our own.

On March 10^th I drove out to the Beverly Hills Hilton to sit in a Disney magical ballroom with Tim Burton, one of my favorite directors of all time, to listen to him talk about his latest project, Dumbo. Believe it or not, I’ve never seen the entire 1941 original, which comes in at only 64 minutes. My thought going in to this film was, how are they going to make a full-length movie about an elephant?

Journalist Grae Drake, our moderator for the day, dressed as a ringmaster, introducing her “circus”, and what a circus it was. First up we heard from Screenwriter Ehren Kruge, Producers Justin Springer, Derek Frey, Katterli Frauenfelde, Production Designer Rick Heinrichs, Costume Designer Colleen Atwood and Composer/Oingo Boingo founder Danny Elfman.

I remember taking a film music class in college where we analyzed the music of various film composers. Danny Elfman was one of the composers we studied, a composer that I greatly admire, and he’s worked with Tim Burton on 17 films. Come on, it wouldn’t be a Tim Burton film without an Elfman score. For Elfman, working with Burton, isn’t as simple as working with other directors. Burton’s mind is both strange and interesting. Just like the way audiences see the amazing characters that Burton creates.

Burton making a movie about a traveling circus is very fitting. Producer Derek Frey said that, Tim Burton’s films “are populated with outsider characters” and that “Dumbo was the original Disney outsider” in a world full of beautiful Disney Princesses. Burton took on this very simple, sweet story. You have a band of outsiders who make their own sweet, simple family. Burton himself, never liked the circus, but liked the idea of running away with the circus.

The Costumes created by designer Colleen Atwood were beautiful and magnificent. They had to represent both hardship and extravagance. She made the 1920’s heyday of the traveling circus come to life. Samples of these gorgeous costumes were on hand to admire. The red feather dress worn by Eva Green in the film was just breathtaking. All of her costumes were beautiful. As the trapeze artist, her costumes were delicate and flowy, similar to that of an elegant bird soaring through the sky.

The Mustang & Return to Freedom

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Erin

The Mustang & Return to Freedom

By Erin

I attended a screening and visited Return to Freedom as media for purposes of this post. All thoughts and opinions remain my own

Last week thanks to Focus Features, I had the opportunity to see The Mustang and learn first-hand how Return to Freedom is helping to save and protect wild horses and mustangs. The young female filmmaker, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre first unleashed The Mustang at Sundance 2019. Now audiences across the nation can see what all the fuss is about. You may have seen other films about the bond between humans and horses, but none like this one. It will tug at your heartstrings and have you feeling all the emotions right along with Roman and Marcus.

About the Film:

Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts), a violent convict in a rural Nevada prison who struggles to escape his violent past, is required to participate in an “outdoor maintenance” program as part of his state-mandated social rehabilitation. Spotted by a no-nonsense veteran trainer (Bruce Dern) and helped by an outgoing fellow inmate and trick rider (Jason Mitchell), Roman is accepted into the selective wild horse training section of the program, where he finds his own humanity in gentling an especially unbreakable mustang.

Matthias Schoenaerts (left) as Roman Coleman & Jason Mitchell (right) as Henry in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang, a Focus Features release. Credit : Focus Features

Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Writers: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mona Fastvold (“The Sleepwalker”), and Brock Norman Brock (“Bronson”)

Producers: Alain Goldman

Executive Producer: Robert Redford

Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Connie Britton, Bruce Dern, Jason Mitchell, Gideon Adlon and Josh Stewart

Return To Freedom

We also had the amazing opportunity to meet the folks behind Return to Freedom and the mustangs who live here. Return to Freedom provides a safe haven to about 400 wild horses and 29 burros. With ongoing federal roundups, the sanctuary fills a very important need to meet the immediate needs of rescue and sanctuary for wild horses and burros. It is also a very important venue to educate the public about America’s wild horses and burros along with solutions to protect them in viable free ranging herds for future generations.

Return to Freedom is dedicated to preserving the freedom, diversity, and habitat of America’s wild horses through advocacy, sanctuary, education, and conservation, while enriching the human spirit through direct experience with the natural world.

KoLa ( formerly known as Viggo). Born at RTF’s wild horse sanctuary in the Hart Mountain Herd. You can see him in The Mustang!

They are pioneering the way with innovative alternatives to standard wild horse management that can be applied on the range and advocates for viable solutions to prevent the removal of wild horses from their natural rangelands.

Located on 1500 acres on the Central Coast of California, as natural an environment as possible is provided for the herds to maintain the natural behaviors and social structures they knew in the wild.

Spirit who was used as inspiration & a model for DreamWorks Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron also lives at Return to Freedom.

I love that their first priority is to keep wild horses in their original family bands or naturally selected social groups, to provide for their emotional well being as well as their physical care. Wild horses are herd animals and within this herd structure, bonds are formed and education is taking place all the time. In the wild, the herd ensures survival.

If you ever get the opportunity to visit Return to Freedom, do it! Be sure to check out their website to see how you can go visit the mustangs or go on one of the safaris to see these amazing creatures running free in their natural environment! It is an amazing experience you will NEVER forget!

Meeting Isadora-Cruce a special Spanish Mustang who was also a Breyer Model Horse in 2010!

Horsing Around In LA

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Disney’s Dumbo in Theaters Now!