The original 1941 Dumbo is easily one of the scariest things Disney’s ever made, right up there with Fantasia and that Black Cauldron movie everyone has collectively decided to forget about. It was a creepy-ass movie full of animal abuse, creepy carnivals, and some kind of alcoholic drink that gives people horrible trips. It was also generally pretty racist. And yet, in spite of all of that, the movie has still managed to become a beloved cartoon, cherished and periodically feared by children for generations.
Dumbo is now the latest Disney movie to get the live-action treatment, following Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Jungle Book, and from the look of the new teaser trailer, Disney has fixed the most glaring problem in the original: the lack of Danny DeVito.
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Wednesday’s minute-and-a-half-long trailer for the Tim Burton remake feels a bit like Big Fish cut with a sizable share of The Greatest Showman and a CG elephant thrown in for good measure. It’s cute and heartwarming and seemingly neither racist nor terrifying. It’s also not particularly exciting, at least until the very end, when we are blessed with the sweet, sweet visage of, yes, DeVito himself.
The American legend, potential antichrist, and dance machine is playing circus owner Max Medici, which seems only natural since DeVito’s proven himself as a brilliant ringleader in It’s Always Sunny and has already played similar roles in a handful of Burton’s old movies.
Though we only get a brief, tantalizing glimpse of DeVito the clip, he’s obviously the best thing in the entire trailer—the shocked face! The wonder-filled eyes! The zebra-striped bowtie!—so let’s hope Burton gives him a sizable amount of screen time in the film and a Lando-style spinoff in the future.
Dumbo is due out in theaters March 29 of next year. It stars Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, and Eva Green, among others, but who cares about them? Danny DeVito should just play all the roles—his motion-capped Dumbo would be too pure for this world.
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