Dumbo – the latest films coming to Portsmouth cinemas

Grab the popcorn for these new releases.
Dumbo. Picture: PA Photo/Disney Enterprises, Inc.Dumbo. Picture: PA Photo/Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Dumbo. Picture: PA Photo/Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Dumbo (PG)

You'll believe a digitally-rendered elephant can fly as quixotic director Tim Burton unleashes his wondrous imagination on a live-action reworking of Disney's 1941 animation.

Dumbo opens with a soaring flock of storks and one of the first creatures to befriend the titular pachyderm is a peanut-chomping mouse in a red ringmaster's outfit.

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In almost all other respects, Ehren Kruger's script packs its trunk and says goodbye to the outdated circus of racially stereotyped black crows, razzle dazzling our retinas with a giddy visual whirl akin to The Greatest Showman.

The title character, convincingly conjured through special effects wizardry, is instantly lovable as he emerges from a mound of hay and trips over his oversized ears.

‘A face only a mother could love,’ cruelly observes Danny DeVito's circus owner, alluding to a line by an elephant in the 1941 original, who dismisses Dumbo as a freak with ‘ears that only a mother could love’.

Children will tumble headfirst into the pools of the creature's baby blue eyes and cheer every time he swoops over the heads of cruel detractors, giving wings to a core message to never judge by appearance.

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Kentucky horseback rider Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) returns home from the First World War to a travelling circus run by Max Medici (DeVito).

In Holt's absence, his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) have coped alone with the death of their mother from influenza, which hit the circus "like a hurricane".

Holt begrudgingly tends the elephants and one of the females gives birth to a floppy-eared baby, which Medici christens Jumbo.

Milly and Joe discover the newborn can fly with the aid of a feather and their father incorporates Jumbo's gravity-defying talent in the clowns' daredevil fire-rescue routine.

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News coverage of Medici's miracle piques the interest of showman VA Vandevere (Michael Keaton), who persuades Medici to join his big top with a promise of jobs for the entire troupe. For the show's centrepiece, the money-grabbing entrepreneur orders Holt to train Jumbo to soar around the ring with aerial artiste Colette Marchant (Eva Green) perched on the animal's back.

Every time the plucky elephant took flight, I desperately wanted my heart to soar with him.

Released March 29. 

 

The Vanishing (15)

Produced by leading man Gerard Butler, The Vanishing is a psychological thriller directed by Kristoffer Nyholm, which draws inspiration from the Flannan Isles mystery.

In December 1900, three men – grief-stricken Thomas (Peter Mullan), doting husband James (Gerard Butler) and emotionally scarred orphan Donald (Connor Swindells) – are posted to a rugged island 30 miles off the Scottish coast to man a lighthouse.

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The discovery of a dead body and a chest containing gold bars stokes greed and paranoia between the co-workers.

Two threatening strangers arrive on the island asking uncomfortable questions about a missing crew mate and a chest. Consequently, Thomas, James and Donald spark a brutal battle for survival.

Nyholm's film is available to stream and download from April 1.

 

Eaten By Lions (12A)

Co-written by David Isaac, Eaten By Lions purrs gently for 95 minutes with a couple of uproarious interludes that play to the strengths of Britain's Got Talent finalist Jack Carroll, who pokes fun at his cerebral palsy in his stand-up routines.

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He delivers some cracking oneliners in his feature film debut while co-star Antonio Aakeel maintains his poker face. They are surrounded by an ensemble cast of homegrown talent including character comedian Tom Binns as a bogus fortune teller, whose hilarious predictions linger in the same realms of ridiculousness as his spoof spirit medium, Ian D Montfort.

Released March 29. 

 

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