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Elephant Men: Operation Dumbo Drop (1994)

 


Operation Dumbo Drop (1994), which celebrates – albeit with muted fanfare – its 30th anniversary this year, is based on the true story of American soldiers who helped transport an elephant across enemy territory to a small village during the Vietnam War. Because the film is a live-action Disney product of the 1990s, it brushes only very faintly against the darker realities of the Vietnam War – as might be expected from the writers of Police Academy 3 and 4 and Snow Dogs, among other credits – and stars Danny Glover, Ray Liotta and Dennis Leary, all headliners in more corrosive entertainments, are amiable but sedated, all rough edges sanded down. 

Of films from recent memory, George Clooney’s The Monuments Men – about military personnel in World War Two retrieving stolen art back from the Nazis – is Operation Dumbo Drop’s closest companion. But Operation Dumbo Drop is the better film and Australian director Simon Wincer a less heralded but far more consistent director than Clooney. For one thing, he has repeatedly defied the proverbial mandate to never work with children and animals – evidenced here, Free Willy, Phar Lap, and elsewhere – and generally elicited solid performances from both. 

Of the four Wincer films I’ve discussed on Down Under Flix – see also The Lighthorsemen, Lightning Jack, and The Cup – I wouldn’t necessarily peg one as better than the others, which speaks again to his consistency but also lack of special sauce. Nonetheless, as 1990s Disney programmers go, this is enjoyable and boasts dome skillful location shooting by Wincer’s Phar Lap DP Russell Boyd.

Ben

 


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