PETA Asks Tim Burton to Change the Ending to His Live-Action Remake of Walt Disney's 'Dumbo'

Tim Burton, 56, best known for his work on such films as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Dark Shadows, Planet of the Apes, Big Eyes, Alice in Wonderland, among others, is directing Disney's coming live-action remake of Dumbo, based on a script written by Ehren Kruger who is also producing the remake with Justin Springer. He is being asked by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to give the character in the title role "a truly happy ending."

In Disney's 1941 animation, the main character is Jumbo Jr., a baby elephant who is cruelly nicknamed Dumbo by his human handlers as well as by his fellow animals at the circus, who also always like to make fun of him because of his disproportionately big ears. Throughout most of the film, his only true friend, aside from his mother Mrs. Jumbo, is the mouse Timothy, who later on helps him to learn how to fly by using his ears as wings. After he has mastered this extraordinary ability, Dumbo becomes a media sensation, Timothy becomes his manager, and Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo are given a private car on the circus train. The end.

In an open letter addressed to Burton at the PETA website, signed by Lisa Lange, it says: "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." It also mentions that "just like in the circus, elephants used in film and television don't perform because they want to. They perform because they're afraid that they'll be beaten if they don't."

Lange's open letter to Burton makes reference to a recent news that the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey circus will stop using elephants in its shows by 2018, and suggests that the director consider a similar stand in his treatment of the live-action adaptation. As previously announced by Disney, the Dumbo remake will be using a mix of CGI and live action to bring the classic 1941 elephant story to life.

Walt Disney Pictures president of production Sean Bailey in a recent interview with Wall Street Journal said "it's a big world" when asked about the planned storyline for the new Dumbo movie,

hinting that perhaps the plot for the upcoming adaptation of the animated classic will be broader than the original tale of a circus elephant with large ears who learns to fly. So, there's hope that PETA's wished for ending for Dumbo can be made true by Burton.