Dumbo

This Dumbo is certainly a visual spectacle, and it could've gone awry if not for the one key thing required to make this movie work: Dumbo is really, really cute.

I believed an elephant could fly, this Disney remake a beguiling fantasy that does its animated predecessor proud.

Expect to be impressed by the cinematography (Ben Davis), costumes (Colleen Atwood), production design (Rick Heinrichs), music (Danny Elfman) and the animation that created the adorable Dumbo with those large watery eyes that sparkle in the wild.

That this same blockbuster should turn out to be utterly soulless and the cinematic equivalent of a tacky Vandevere production is a gorgeously satisfying irony, and certainly the most interesting element of an otherwise vapid, uninspired remake.

While Dumbo has the premise of a Burton movie - an outsider cast adrift in a carnivalesque world - it hardly feels like one, with the director's signature visual style subsumed into a world of sunset hues and glassy CG veneers.

The animation of old feels so much more real than the live-action remake.

The new live-action remake of the Disney animated classic Dumbo is helmed by the darkly eccentric director Tim Burton and his latest film is like nothing I’ve ever seen from the master of juxtaposition: Safe, almost tepid, and it’s monotonously boring.

It feels hollow and cheap, despite the production values.

For me, this was a little odd and incredibly sad... I think too sad.

Sometimes more is less. The heart of the story is found in Dumbo's character not the layers of CGI action that surround him.