Hey, did you guys know that Tim Burton is working on a live-action Dumbo movie? Yes, I’m being serious. It’s happening, whether we like it or not, written by Transformers writer Ehren Kruger. Sounds like a hoot. But there’s one small problem – PETA wants him to change the movie’s ending so that Dumbo can retire at an elephant sanctuary. Uh…
From The Hollywood Reporter:
PETA on Wednesday urged the Big Eyes director to give a new ending for Dumbo where the big-eared circus performer is allowed to retire to a sanctuary.
“We’re hopeful that in your adaptation of Dumbo, the young elephant and his mother can have a truly happy ending by living out their lives at a sanctuary instead of continuing to be imprisoned and abused in the entertainment industry,” PETA senior vp Lisa Lange wrote Burton in an open letter.
Lange, in her letter, added PETA likes the original Dumbo movie and storyline “because it tells the story of the heartbreaking abuse that elephants in circuses endure.”
She adds elephants in film and TV shows, as in the circus, don’t freely perform. They instead react to a bullhook, or a sharp weapon, used to control their movements.
“They [elephants] perform because they’re afraid that they’ll be beaten if they don’t,” Lange wrote, before wishing Burton gook luck while directing Dumbo for Disney.
I think PETA needs to dream on and stop acting like every damn thing needs to be a vehicle for their beliefs. Of course I love and support animals (and I’m so happy Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is going to stop using elephants in their shows), but it’s a story. The story is what it is – it doesn’t need to be changed to fit some idealist notion.
Maybe I’m just annoyed because PETA is the worst. Eh, anyway – I doubt this will happen.
PETA isn’t the worst, the Christian right wing of the Republican Party is. Taking away civil liberties is worse than animal rights.