10 Huge Changes In The Live-Action Dumbo Remake
7. The Pink Elephants Are Real
For most of the film, the closest thing to magic is Dumbo's ability to fly. This changes on the night of Dumbo's first performance at Dreamland, when the remake offers its own version of the classic "Pink Elephants On Parade."
It begins with a group of circus entertainers waving giant bubble wands to create large, pink bubbles. They connect these bubbles to form the shape of an elephant, similar to the elephant created by Dumbo's champagne bubbles in the original.
After creating several of these pink elephants, the circus performers step back as the bubble monsters begin to take on a life of their own. The pink elephants dance and stomp their way through the air as Dumbo - very much sober in this version - watches in amazement, bobbing his head to the music.
It's a visually enchanting scene practically destined for a Tim Burton film, made all the more wonderful by the fact that it comes out of nowhere. The film never explains if the pink elephants are supposed to be a technical illusion or if the bubbles are simply alive.
Dreamland is supposed to make the impossible possible, and this could simply be a well-choreographed feat of Imagineering. The mystery of these potentially sentient bubbles adds to the wonder of the scene, much more than if they had been mere hallucinations by a drunken child.