The original Dumbo was a movie without a villain, and the new version never entirely tipped its hand in that regard during marketing.
It was clear from the very first trailers that the live-action Dumbo was going to tell a very different story than the original animated classic.
Still, I found myself watching the new film in utter amazement this week when I realized that the villain in Disney’s newest movie… is basically an evil Walt Disney.
It seemed clear that Michael Keaton’s character was being set up as the bad guy, but details were left to a minimum.