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Video

Dumbo Goes Bollywood

They got me. I've fallen in love with a dancing elephant.

Doretta Lau 19 Mar 2008TheTyee.ca

Doretta Lau is a Vancouver-based writer and YouTube addict.
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Singing and dancing...and Republican?

The administrator at turbanhead.com was so inspired by the multi-talented elephant in this clip that he or she wrote: "We at turbanhead.com officially endorse the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States. The RNC convinced us to vote GOP after this video." (For Canadians who don't follow American politics with hockey-like fervour: the elephant is the Republican symbol.)

This video, like an increasing number of clips on YouTube, is an excerpt from a film. (I wish I could tell you the name of the source film, but the person who posted the video didn't know the title either -- also a common YouTube phenomenon.) YouTube film excerpts and DIY trailers show what regular moviegoers love about a movie, rather than what film industry marketers think audiences will like. Studio-produced trailers often bear little resemblance to the movies they are trying to sell, and completely miscalculate what audiences actually find appealing in a film.

I imagine that if Hollywood remade this Bollywood clip, the elephant would be recast as a dog, and Steve Carell would play the dancing man. It would be a straight-up comedy -- and all the tragic elements would be lost. Lucky for us, amateur editors on YouTube don't aim for "universal" appeal. We get to witness an elephant dance to a rocking Indian soundtrack and see it play a horn -- cute overload! Also, the classic scenario of a woman tied to railway tracks plays out with the elephant as the damsel in distress. What's not to love?

Even though the elephant in the video is adorable, I haven't succumbed to rooting for the Republican candidate. Though, if the elephant was the nominee, I might change my mind. And while this clip did divert my attention from more serious concerns, one thing is still bothering me: why is the Democratic symbol a donkey?

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