{"id":3827,"date":"2024-09-05T03:31:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T03:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3827"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:55:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:55:55","slug":"operation-dumbo-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/05\/operation-dumbo-drop\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Dumbo Drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Operation Dumbo Drop <\/strong>(1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Action-Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (war action, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Simon Wincer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gene Quintano and Jim Kouf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Russell Boyd\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 28, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary, Doug E. Doug, Corin Nemec, Tai, Dinh Thien Le, Tcheky Karyo, Vo Trung Anh, Marshall Bell, James Hong, Long Nguyen, Tim Kelleher, Scott N. Stevens, Kevin Larosa.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $24.6M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Three decades after the fact and I\u2019m still contemplating how Disney thought they were going to sell Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> to the moviegoing public. It\u2019s a hard, almost impossible movie to market. On the one hand, it\u2019s a PG-rated family movie involving an elephant. Kids like animals in movies. By all counts, a cute pachyderm that can do tricks ought to attract them in droves. On the other hand, it\u2019s a war movie, the Vietnam War to be exact. How do you even begin to explain that terrible war to grade schoolers? While there\u2019s no graphic violence or soldiers dying in battle, all that business with the VC might be too much for some kids. At the same time, the makers sanitize the war to the level of a McHale\u2019s Navy rerun. Then there\u2019s the question of genre. It\u2019s advertised as a comedy and while it has comedic elements, it\u2019s really more of a drama. Loosely based on a true story (by retired Army Major Jim Morris), I doubt it really went down the way it\u2019s depicted in the movie. Either way, once little kids realize Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> isn\u2019t all about a trouble-making elephant wreaking havoc, they\u2019re bound to lose interest. It might be the weirdest movie ever made by Disney.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Marketing woes aside, Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> is actually pretty good. I didn\u2019t much care for it when it first came out. Although I was well beyond childhood in \u201995, I was disappointed it wasn\u2019t funnier. After rewatching Larger Than Life last weekend, I decided to make Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> part of this week\u2019s \u201cSaturday at the Movies at Home\u201d package. I was pleasantly surprised this time around. It\u2019s a sweet and humorous piece with a top-level cast and compelling storyline. I was actually moved by it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set in \u201968, by-the-book Capt. Doyle (Liotta, Goodfellas) arrives in the small Vietnamese village of Dak Nhe to relieve about to be discharged Capt. Cahill (Glover, Lethal Weapon) of his command. This village is important as it allows Americans a strategic vantage point to the clandestine Ho Chi Minh Trail.\u00a0 Thanks to a serious gaffe by Doyle, the VC learns of the villagers\u2019 cooperation with the Americans and shoots their work elephant in retaliation. In order to appease the village elders who blame Doyle for the pachyderm\u2019s death, Cahill agrees to bring them a new one in time for an important festival.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With less than a week to make good on their promise, Doyle (who\u2019s in charge of the operation) and Cahill convince their CO (Bell, Total Recall) to provide them with additional men. He gives them two, artillery expert H.A. (Doug, Cool Runnings) and clerical guy Farley (Nemec, Drop Zone). H.A.\u2019s going home in a week and doesn\u2019t want to jinx it by risking his life. Farley, despite growing up on a farm in Iowa, isn\u2019t good with animals. They\u2019re joined by Poole (Leary, The Ref), an opportunistic supply sergeant who has to be blackmailed into going with them. He\u2019s the one that arranges for the purchase of the elephant Bo Tat (Tai, Larger Than Life) whose owner, a Vietnamese orphan named Linh (Le), demands they take him along on their mission, one that involves travel by air, water, land and parachute.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think we can all agree that Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> is a silly title. It\u2019s obviously meant as a reference to another famous Disney movie, one that gets referenced more than once. The problem is that it misrepresents the movie which, like I said, isn\u2019t entirely comedy. Sure, it has the expected jokes about elephant dung and stuff getting knocked over (including a fruit cart). There\u2019s one bit involving tranquilizers in the form of suppositories and another involving Bo Tat getting seasick (ew, gross!). The emphasis, however, is on the mission which proves to be more difficult than any of the guys could imagine. It isn\u2019t easy traveling with an 8000 lb. passenger. On top of that, VC soldiers are out to stop them. They\u2019re responsible for the long trip\u2019s hairier moments. Drama comes in the form of Linh, a boy who has good reason for not trusting Americans or anybody else. He develops a real bond with Cahill along the way. It\u2019s the nicest human aspect of the film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cast does an amazing job. I never realized what a dynamite cast Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> has. Glover and Liotta have some good comic interplay. True, it\u2019s not on the same level as Glover and Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies, but what is? Leary shows his softer side as a hustler with a heart without losing any of his wise guy appeal. Doug is funny as the scared rabbit soldier loaded down with good luck charms. Nemec has some good moments as dim Farley. Lihn, in his only film role, is affecting and naturalistic. As for Tai, I believe a retroactive Oscar for Best Performance by a Pachyderm is in order. Heck, make it a Lifetime Achievement award.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I never imagined I\u2019d ever say this about a Vietnam War movie but Operation Dumbo Drop<\/strong> is extremely good-natured. Director Simon Wincer (Free Willy) set out to make a feel-good movie and largely succeeds. His movie could have been as clunky and heavy-footed as its titular elephant, but it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s not an accurate portrayal of war, but who says every Vietnam War drama has to be Platoon? Why not a nice movie about a mission of kindness? It works better than you think.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Action-Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (war action, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Simon Wincer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gene Quintano and Jim Kouf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Russell Boyd\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 28, 1995 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary, Doug E. Doug, Corin Nemec, Tai, Dinh Thien Le, Tcheky Karyo, Vo Trung Anh, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Operation-Dumbo-Drop-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3827"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5181,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827\/revisions\/5181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}