Behind the scenes: Dumbo

Dumbo is not only Disney’s latest live action remake of its classic feature animations but also the new film from Tim Burton, the auteur director whose quirky style frequently draws on elements of gothic, fantasy and the macabre.

“I think what attracted Tim to this project was that of all the legacy fairy tales that Disney were re-imagining as live action - from Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin - this story offered him more freedom to tell the story his way,” says Chris Lebenzon, ACE, the film’s editor and Burton’s regular collaborator.

A story about a semi-anthropomorphic circus elephant with massive ears who is teased, entrapped and given a cruel nickname also has the dark undertones that would appeal to the director of Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Batman Returns.

“His past work has featured likeable but offbeat characters whom the audience rallies around but Dumbo is not really a character that we know too well so a lot of the work on this film was finding out who Dumbo is and making him emotionally relatable.”

This is Lebenzon’s twelfth film with Burton, taking in all the director’s movies since Batman Returns in 1991. Like many long-term creative partnerships the pair have developed a trust and intuition that barely needs explaining.

“The only film Tim has really spoken to me at length about at the outset was Sweeney Todd (The Demon of Barber Street, a musical),” explains Lebenzon. “On that occasion he…