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Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 7/21

DumboDrop
7/21: The weird part about Operation Dumbo Drop is the Disney label.

This one involves the Vietnam War, guns, killing of an elephant, shoving a jumbo pill up another elephant's ass, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary, and V.C. In other words, they're not exactly appropriate for a Disney picture. Of course, nobody is ever killed, but occasionally uttering a profane word is okay.

The story isn't bad and is rather interesting for the logistics of moving a four-ton elephant, but it's tough to put up with the annoying Vietnamese boy who thinks he's Mowgli of The Jungle Book. When things don't go his way, Linh will start using English in broken sentences in the third person, act sad and confused, and go sulking off. After peace is made with him, he's happy again, preferring hugs all the time.

I wish I can say Operation Dumbo Drop is a funny movie, but it's not. The jokes don't click, and the comedic timing isn't well-developed. The following probably explains why when Denis Leary said, "The movie was so painstakingly terrible—because it took a long time to shoot—that all of us actually had pictures of the things that we were gonna buy with our money to keep us going."

Worse, the characters are bland. I thought the trio of Ray Liotta, Danny Glover, and Denis Leary would work instantly, but it doesn't translate well on screen. Best known for the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Corin Nemec plays the most nondescript character ever. At one point, he was seen filling up his canteen with water from the river. Uh, bad idea.

Finally, we come to the drop itself. I have to say the whole thing is impossible. The true story is a Green Beret taught the villagers along the mountainous central regions of South Vietnam how to cut lumber from their mahogany trees and run a sawmill. The trouble was transporting heavy lumber over the rough terrain, so they came up with an idea of using elephants.

Then, nothing happened for a long time because of the Tet offensive. When it finally did, how the plan worked out was essentially the same as what happened in the movie in terms of transportation with tranquilizers involved, but the two sedated elephants were wrapped in cargo nets and carried by an airplane instead of being blatantly dropped off.

The landing incident didn't receive much attention in the media because Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on the same day. Incidentally, the whole idea was a failure because the elephants were too small to begin with and couldn't carry the heavy load. The other reason was that they had to eat a lot in order to sustain their body weight and the villagers were forced to roam the countryside for food.

All in all, producing Operation Dumbo Drop under the banner of a company other than Disney would be a good idea, and while at it, they should've made the incidents more realistic.