With the recent successes of Walt Disney’s animated classics getting the live-action treatment, Disney has added yet another to the list – baby circus elephant Dumbo!
The 1941 classic, Dumbo, is the fourth animated feature (and the shortest at 64 minutes) in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It tells the story of a baby elephant named Jumbo Jr. who is ridiculed for his prominent ears, thus receiving the cruel name Dumbo. After being separated from his mother, who gets locked up for presuming to be mad, Dumbo befriends a mouse named Timothy who tells him that with the help of a magical feather, he can fly.
The animation produced several classic songs, such as “When I See an Elephant Fly”, “Baby Mine,” and “Pink Elephants on Parade.” In 1942, Dumbo won an Oscar for best scoring of a musical picture and was nominated for best original song for “Baby Mine.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ehren Kruger will be writing the script, as well as producing the film alongside Justin Springer (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion).
It is evident that with Disney’s previous live-action victories, Alice in Wonderland (2010), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013), and Maleficent (2014) there is a huge market for more of these re-imagined Disney classics.
Disney is currently developing more live-action films, such as director Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, and director Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast. Another project in the works is Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella, starring Downton Abbey’s Lily James as the fairy tale princess. The re-imagined version is set to hit theaters March 13, 2015.
