Even as a kid I knew that Operation Dumbo Drop (1995) wasn’t as good as Angels In The Outfield (1994), even though it did sport some superior product placement ( all hail the Crunch bar). I loved Danny Glover as a kid, so it was only natural that I compare his two outings as a leading man for Disney. It’s not so much the premise of the film that’s insane (it is based loosely on real events) as much as the idea of making a Vietnam War movie for children is insane. In the whole movie, the only reckoning with gun violence comes in the form of an elephant. It’s heartbreaking to be sure, but it trivializes the atrocities carried out by the U.S. Armed Forces.
The idea is that Danny Glover is this big hearted G.I. Joseph who “understands” the Vietnamese. Because the “enemy” has killed the elephant at Danny Glover’s favorite village, he, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary, and Doug E. Doug must set out to replace that elephant on the army’s dime. What ensues is a mad cap adventure played mostly for laughs but still makes time for Glover to play father figure to a local boy.
Yes Operation Dumbo Drop is fun, but like director Simon Wincer’s follow up film The Phantom (1996) it isn’t good. Operation Dumbo Drop epitomizes what is fundamentally wrong with Disney. Time and time again, America’s most powerful movie studio has white washed our collective history and identity to serve their idea of the white, middle America fantasy. The noble, unquestioning depiction of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam is nauseating to the point that not even the tremendous talents of Danny Glover could elevate this film.
I’m tempted to say that a movie like Operation Dumbo Drop could only have been made in the nineties, then I remember John Wayne’s The Green Berets (1968). There was, however, a brief trend of elephant centered family comedies in the nineties, including Larger Than Life (1996). I suppose this relegates Operation Dumbo Drop into the category of historical curio. If I had to pick just one elephant comedy from the nineties, Larger Than Life would win, no contest.
