In my twenties, I chose to spend a holiday watching classic Disney cartoons. I watched them all day, every day, for a week; at the risk of outing myself as a raving lunatic, I would have to say it was one of the best holidays of my life.
Clearly, I am partial to anthropomorphic animals and there are some very cute ones in this CGI/live-action hybrid. None of these creatures is as adorable as Dumbo, but they’re a whole lot better than the nonentities in Tim Burton’s irrelevant Dumbo remake last year.
It’s sometime in the Nineties and Ivan the gorilla (voiced by Sam Rockwell) lives in a shopping centre, where he’s the main attraction in a circus that’s seen better days. In hopes of drumming up business, owner/MC Mack (Bryan Cranston) buys a baby elephant, Ruby (Brooklynn Prince). We’re encouraged to a) worry that Ivan will be sidelined b) hope that Ivan’s artistic bent — he’s nifty with crayons — will return him to the spotlight. But that’s a bit of misdirection.
An older elephant, Stella (Angelina Jolie), tasks Ivan with a mission. She wants him to give the newcomer a “better” life, ie one that doesn’t involve a cage. Suddenly, Ivan is flooded with memories of his Congo childhood. No one uses the phrase Stockholm syndrome, but it’s obvious that, though Mack is loving, he’s a toxic influence. Having wanted to win back the attention of humans, Ivan’s new goal is to escape their gaze for good. What does it mean to go wild? The cast have a lot of fun with this question, especially Helen Mirren as a poodle, Snickers, who can’t imagine life without “blow-dryers”.
Mike White wrote the fabulously quirky indie comedy, Chuck & Buck, as well as School of Rock. This isn’t his finest hour but he’s in his element when voicing the part of an over-anxious seal. There really was an artistically inclined gorilla called Ivan. He didn’t rescue a baby elephant but his life WAS changed by animal rights activists. Disney’s technically brilliant biopic, while it could have been grittier, reminds us that it’s hard to outrun humans. The supposedly happy ending is moving, unsettling and extremely sad.
On Disney+ from today
