Dumbo
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: March 29, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 55 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
31
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 27, 2019
The new story is decidedly, deliciously dark, veined with thin layers of Burton’s trademark macabre sensibility, which adds texture and tartness to the inherent charm of the story (at heart, one about the parent-child bond and the possibility of the impossible). Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 26, 2019
Burton’s command of this material and his masterful visual sense makes this Dumbo an engaging delight. Like that winsome elephant, it really does soar. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 28, 2019
Ho-hum until it takes a turn toward the fascinatingly weird, the movie is a welcome declaration of artistic independence for Burton...Watching him cut loose (more recklessly than his flying baby elephant) is by far the most unexpected pleasure of this movie, which dusts off the 1941 animated charmer with exhilaratingly demented spirit. Read full review
80
EmpireBen TravisMar 26, 2019
An enchanting blend of Disney twinkle and Tim Burton’s dark whimsy that’s at its best when venturing off the beaten path. Come for the super-cute elephant, stay for Keaton and DeVito’s glorious reunion. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 27, 2019
It’s made with families in mind – the material will resonate with children and parents (thankfully) will be sufficiently engaged not to wish to be elsewhere. Unaccompanied adults, however, may not be quite as enchanted. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 26, 2019
Burton’s Dumbo, while inevitably lacking much of the magic of the original, has charms and melancholies of its own, starting, naturally, with the elephant in the room. Of all the CGI make-overs, this Dumbo is the most textured, sweetest and most soulful of creatures. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 26, 2019
Fortunately, Dumbo is so awesome and so determined and so brave, and the heartwarming aspects of the story are so impactful, we never stop caring. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 26, 2019
It’s a lovely children’s movie, which isn’t to say that every moment of it is splendid and enchanted, because that’s not the case. The experience of watching Dumbo is more like, “This is OK, this is all very pleasant” — and then suddenly, there are tears in your eyes, and not from allergy season. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 26, 2019
A visually sumptuous effort with wondrous sights, though its character development falls short of those same heights. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMar 26, 2019
Those flight sequences — first suspenseful, then euphoric — take you back to the classic “Dumbo” as much as they do to classic Burton. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryMay 21, 2019
Dumbo achieves a minor miracle, taking a challenging animated classic and completely refashioning it into an effective, often-charming live-action movie. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlan NgMar 29, 2019
The Vandevere plot effectively turns the film from a cute animated story of talking animals into a thriller with corporate intrigue. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsMar 27, 2019
The film is just different enough to stick out amid the studio’s backwards-looking slate, and Burton, for the first time in years, shows he hasn’t lost his love for the idiosyncratic. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 26, 2019
It’s not hard to enjoy Dumbo. Like the circus owners and carnival crackpots who try to exploit the flying elephant for all he’s worth, Tim Burton still knows how to give us what we want. He may think of himself as the tormented freak on display, but he’s also clearly the all-powerful showman, ready to exploit our sense of wonder. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMar 26, 2019
If Dumbo 2.0 does have to exist, then you could do far worse than this sweet and occasionally quite nifty revamping. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 26, 2019
As a faithful update of a cherished classic, the new Dumbo will get the job done for restless kids on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Still, we’ve come to expect more magic, more bizarro pixie dust from Burton. Maybe that’s why the second marriage between the director and Disney feels more like an uneasy corporate alliance than a union of artistic passion. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 26, 2019
Farrell’s Kentucky accent here is as merely passable as his Chicago accent in Widows was, and Parker’s precocious interest in physics and chemistry seems similarly phoned-in. Both characters are just there to keep the story moving, to provide awestruck reaction shots as we move from oddly muted spectacle to agreeable callback to the heartwarming happy ending. Read full review
67
ConsequenceCaroline SiedeMar 26, 2019
Its characters are thinly written, its antagonist is one-note, and its clumsy third-act action climax is wholly perfunctory. Yet despite all that, Dumbo still manages to offer the sweeping old-fashioned magic of an earnest family blockbuster. Read full review
63
ObserverOliver JonesMar 26, 2019
Burton’s riff on the elephant that could fly and the circus freaks who love him is about as subversive as a Pottery Barn Kids fall catalog. Which is not to say it isn’t beautiful, and sometimes mesmerizingly so. Read full review
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