Tim Burton Movies Ranked Worst To Best

As far as classic Disney films go, Dumbo, the story of a large-eared elephant who must learn to fly despite ridicule from everyone around him, is still a favorite, and in 2019, Burton helmed a live-action remake of the original 1941 film. Led by Colin Farrell, the star-studded cast boasted names like Michael Keaton, Eva Green, Danny DeVito, and Academy Award winner Alan Arkin. Plus, it told a new story of Dumbo from a human perspective, focusing on a World War I amputee, Holt Farrier (Farrell), who takes a job as an animal caretaker for a circus. His main responsibility is caring for a pregnant elephant who eventually gives birth to a baby with extraordinarily large ears, and though the crowd nicknames him "Dumbo" to mock him, he does eventually, as in the original, take flight and successfully reunite with his mother, thanks to Holt's efforts.

However, this inspiring tale didn't seem to translate with a live-action cast, and it fared poorly with critics, as well as at the box office. The overall critical conclusion was that the film didn't capture the magic of the original, likely thanks in large part to a weirdly expanded story and the completely unnecessary nature of the remake as a whole. Seriously, out of Disney's entire classic film collection, was anyone clamoring for a live-action version of Dumbo? Sure, Dumbo may have flown at the end of the film, but Burton's remake never left the ground.