Set in 1968 during the Vietnam War, Green Beret Captain Doyle (Ray Liotta) reluctantly takes his assignment in a Montagnard village which is of strategic importance due to its proximity to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Captain Sam Cahill (Danny Glover), the man whom Doyle is replacing has grown an affinity for the Montagnard people which is not shared by Doyle who voices his frustration with the position. When the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) learns of the village assisting the U. S. Army, Colonel Nguyen (Hoang Ly) orders the village elephant shot as punishment. As the elephant was of ceremonial importance to the village that poses a threat to the village's cooperation with the military Cahill proposes the Army provides the village with a new elephant that they will transport much to the annoyance of Doyle. With arrangements made by acquisitions officer David Poole (Denis Leary) who accompanies them as well as Specialists Harvey "H. A." Ashford (Doug E. Doug) and Lawrence Farley (Corin Nemec). The team acquires the elephant Bo Tat (tai) who is accompanied by a North Vietnamese orphaned boy named Linh (Dinh Thien Le) who is the only one who can command Bo Tat with the group reluctantly taking him along as they try to transport the elephant and elude the interference of the NVA.
Operation Dumbo Drop is loosely based on the true story of Operation Barroom (so named for the flatulence noises of the elephant) where in 5th Special Forces Captain John Scott Gantt devised a scheme to fly a pair of Indian Elephants cross-country to a remote mountain top village (for reasons involving lumber collection. The story was detailed in a chapter of former Green Beret Jim Morris' book Fighting Men a collection of stories from the Frontlines of the Vietnam war that Morris transcribed as sections of his book with Gantt's operation Barroom detailed in one such chapter. The Walt Disney Company optioned the book (hence why Morris is given a story credit) with writers Gene Quintano and Jim Kouf adapting the film for Walt Disney Pictures. Given the animal centric premise of the project the movie was part of a mandate by Michael Eisner's era of Disney where he stressed producers to pursue more animal based stories inspired by the success of The Lion King and the Homeward Bound remake and given Disney's prior success with Cool Runnings and Good Morning, Vietnam with Operation Dumbo Drop playing like a friendly mixture of the tow you can see why Disney was attracted to the concept. Released in July of 1995 the film opened at number 6 behind some summer holdovers and the opening weekends of Waterworld and The Net and was largely lost in the shuffle. Critical reception tended to run negative with many critics dumbfounded by the concept of a making a family friendly comedy set in the Vietnam War. Despite Operation Dumbo Drop becoming a minor punchline in the annals of film history, upon actually seeing the movie it really isn't that bad.
While the movie lacks the edges of other Vietnam War films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, or even Good Morning, Vietnam, the cast and crew are largely still treated the movie like you would a Vietnam War story and despite a lot of the violence being bloodless or off camera the movie does place take an anti-war stance focusing on the collateral damage brought about on innocents in the war. Even Gantt who was loosely adapted as Danny Glover's character said the movie got certain details pretty accurate and hitting close to home despite some, by his words, "Keystone Cops" moments littered throughout. I actually did find myself somewhat endeared to the characters with Glover's Cahill whose very much "gone native" with his posting in the village a likable eccentric and Ray Liotta's Doyle makes a good straight man to the journey involving transporting the elephant. Denis Leary is also very fun as Poole and despite Leary's trademark motormouthed 4 letter word rants slightly handicapped by the film's PG rating they do give him enough of a swear budget that he inhabits his character quite well as a master of the ins and outs of military requestion processes that he can get anything he wants with seemingly little to no effort.
The biggest issue with the movie is in balancing the more dramatic or war film like elements with some of the more family-oriented moments but despite many critics pointing this out and these elements along with the Disney branding being responsible in part for the film's reputation they really aren't as in your face as you might think. Yes, there are low brow gags involving the elephant's posterior and the products thereof, but for every moment like that there are at least four others that do try and mostly succeed at building our characters with even Doug E Doug's superstitious character playing his seemingly over the top role with more subtlety than you'd typically expect from a Disney family film. Had the film wanted to be more accurate to the real life story it probably should've been a PG-13 at minimum but when you think of Walt Disney Pictures' take on the Vietnam War you're probably expecting something much more pandering and dopey (and the film's marketing certainly didn't alleviate that expectation) and the end result is actually pretty decent.
Operation Dumbo Drop does the difficult task of making a PG rated family friendly Vietnam War movie and pretty much does the best you could possibly hope for from such a concept. It's not fully successful and takes some liberties with the original story, but it does do its job in introducing children to the concepts of warfare and the Vietnam War itself.
Operation Dumbo Drop is loosely based on the true story of Operation Barroom (so named for the flatulence noises of the elephant) where in 5th Special Forces Captain John Scott Gantt devised a scheme to fly a pair of Indian Elephants cross-country to a remote mountain top village (for reasons involving lumber collection. The story was detailed in a chapter of former Green Beret Jim Morris' book Fighting Men a collection of stories from the Frontlines of the Vietnam war that Morris transcribed as sections of his book with Gantt's operation Barroom detailed in one such chapter. The Walt Disney Company optioned the book (hence why Morris is given a story credit) with writers Gene Quintano and Jim Kouf adapting the film for Walt Disney Pictures. Given the animal centric premise of the project the movie was part of a mandate by Michael Eisner's era of Disney where he stressed producers to pursue more animal based stories inspired by the success of The Lion King and the Homeward Bound remake and given Disney's prior success with Cool Runnings and Good Morning, Vietnam with Operation Dumbo Drop playing like a friendly mixture of the tow you can see why Disney was attracted to the concept. Released in July of 1995 the film opened at number 6 behind some summer holdovers and the opening weekends of Waterworld and The Net and was largely lost in the shuffle. Critical reception tended to run negative with many critics dumbfounded by the concept of a making a family friendly comedy set in the Vietnam War. Despite Operation Dumbo Drop becoming a minor punchline in the annals of film history, upon actually seeing the movie it really isn't that bad.
While the movie lacks the edges of other Vietnam War films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, or even Good Morning, Vietnam, the cast and crew are largely still treated the movie like you would a Vietnam War story and despite a lot of the violence being bloodless or off camera the movie does place take an anti-war stance focusing on the collateral damage brought about on innocents in the war. Even Gantt who was loosely adapted as Danny Glover's character said the movie got certain details pretty accurate and hitting close to home despite some, by his words, "Keystone Cops" moments littered throughout. I actually did find myself somewhat endeared to the characters with Glover's Cahill whose very much "gone native" with his posting in the village a likable eccentric and Ray Liotta's Doyle makes a good straight man to the journey involving transporting the elephant. Denis Leary is also very fun as Poole and despite Leary's trademark motormouthed 4 letter word rants slightly handicapped by the film's PG rating they do give him enough of a swear budget that he inhabits his character quite well as a master of the ins and outs of military requestion processes that he can get anything he wants with seemingly little to no effort.
The biggest issue with the movie is in balancing the more dramatic or war film like elements with some of the more family-oriented moments but despite many critics pointing this out and these elements along with the Disney branding being responsible in part for the film's reputation they really aren't as in your face as you might think. Yes, there are low brow gags involving the elephant's posterior and the products thereof, but for every moment like that there are at least four others that do try and mostly succeed at building our characters with even Doug E Doug's superstitious character playing his seemingly over the top role with more subtlety than you'd typically expect from a Disney family film. Had the film wanted to be more accurate to the real life story it probably should've been a PG-13 at minimum but when you think of Walt Disney Pictures' take on the Vietnam War you're probably expecting something much more pandering and dopey (and the film's marketing certainly didn't alleviate that expectation) and the end result is actually pretty decent.
Operation Dumbo Drop does the difficult task of making a PG rated family friendly Vietnam War movie and pretty much does the best you could possibly hope for from such a concept. It's not fully successful and takes some liberties with the original story, but it does do its job in introducing children to the concepts of warfare and the Vietnam War itself.