Dumbo – the 2019 Movie

In 1919, Equestrian performer and World War I veteran Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) returns after the war to the Medici Brothers’ Circus, run by Max Medici (Danny DeVito). However, the circus has run into financial troubles and Medici has been forced to sell the circus’s horses, so Medici reassigns Holt as the handler for the circus’s pregnant elephant Jumbo.

Jumbo gives birth to a calf with abnormally large ears and Medici orders Holt to hide the ears before he’ll allow the public to see the calf. However, the calf accidentally reveals his ears in his debut performance. The crowd mockingly names the calf Dumbo and pelts him with peanuts and other objects. Jumbo is distressed by Dumbo’s treatment and rampages into the ring causing extensive damage and accidentally killing a member of the circus staff. Afterwards, Medici sells Jumbo in order to prevent a public relations disaster. Holt’s children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) comfort Dumbo and realize Dumbo can fly by flapping his ears. They also discover that feathers are the key to Dumbo’s willingness to fly.

In another performance, Dumbo plays the role of a firefighter to put out a fire with water sprayed from his trunk. However, the performance goes wrong and Dumbo is trapped on a high platform surrounded by flames. Milly risks her life to deliver a feather to Dumbo, giving him the confidence to fly. The audience is astounded when Dumbo begins to fly, and word of Dumbo begins to spread.

V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton), the owner of the Dreamland amusement park, approaches Medici and proposes a collaboration. Medici would become Vandevere’s partner and the Medici Brothers’ Circus’s troupe would be employed to perform at Dreamland. Later, Vandevere demands that Dumbo should fly with trapeze artist Colette Marchant (Eva Green) on his back. However, their debut performance at Dreamland goes wrong with Dumbo nearly falling off a high platform leading to him trumpeting in alarm. Dumbo hears his mother’s call in response and realizes that his mother is an exhibit elsewhere in Dreamland. Dumbo flies out of the circus ring and reunites with his mother.

Fearing that Dumbo’s mother may become a distraction to Dumbo, Vandevere orders Jumbo to be taken away and killed. He also fires all of the Medici performers from Dreamland. When Holt and the rest of the Medici troupe learn Vandevere intends to kill Jumbo, they resolve to set both Jumbo and Dumbo free. The circus performers utilize their various talents to break Jumbo out of her enclosure while Holt and Colette guide Dumbo to fly out of the circus. Vandevere attempts to stop them, but accidentally starts a fire triggered by mismanagement of Dreamland’s electricity system which spreads and destroys Dreamland.

Holt, Colette, the children, and the troupe bring the elephants to a port where Dumbo and Jumbo board a ship back to their native home. Afterwards, the Medici circus (now named the Medici Family Circus) is re-established and flourishes while Dumbo and Jumbo reunite with a herd of elephants in the jungle.