Operation Dumbo Drop
Operation Dumbo Drop is a 1995 Disney live-action film set during the Vietnam war. In it, Capt. T.C. Doyle (Ray Liotta), a hard-nosed Green Beret, is assigned to a local village to keep watch on the Ho Chi Mihn trail. There he meets up with with Capt. Sam Cahill (Danny Glover). While the two are out scouting the trail, the Vietcong raid the village, discovering a chocolate bar wrapper, meaning the villagers were harboring American troops. As punishment, they shoot their prized elephant.
Feeling responsible for their loss, Cahill promises to get them a new one, a move that Doyle vehemently opposes. Despite his protests the operation is approved and Doyle is placed in charge. They set about gathering their team, comprising of two soldiers, a requisitions officer, an elephant and the boy who handles the elephant, Linh.
Along the way, the V.C.s are tipped off about what they are doing and, in an effort to keep them from keeping their word, set out to stop them. This begins a chase through the deep, green jungles of South Vietnam, which ends when they find the only way they can get the elephant to the village -- is up.
- A Boy and his Elephant:Linh and Bo Tat.
- American Political System: V.C.'s wondering why American troops are transporting an elephant:
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"I've got it! The elephant is a symbol of the America Republican party!" |
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- Ass Shove: The pills to tranquilize the elephant aren't taken orally.
- Big Damn Heroes: H.A. saving the team from the Vietcong.
- Blackmail: How Cahill gets Poole to come along. See below.
- Covers Always Lie: The poster depicts an African elephant in camouflage depicted as going to war. The movie is about the delivery of an Asian elephant.
- The General's Daughter: Actually, Poole just thought she was his daughter. Turned out to be his wife.
- Immune to Bullets: Averted with the village's first elephant, but played straight in Bo Tat's backstory.
- It's Raining Men: Five soldiers, one kid, and an elephant.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Attempted, but failed.
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Linh: They hit Linh this many times. (holds up ten fingers) |
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- Operation Blank
- Retirony: Lampshaded with A.H. who's about to go home, and certain he's going to bite the big one right before he does, but ultimately averted. Cahill is also on his last tour.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: The reason they wind up dropping the elephant out of a plane.
- Shoot the Elephant
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Twice, first after Doyle gets off of a hair-raising Helicopter ride, and then when Bo Tat gets seasick during the river chase.
- We Help the Helpless: Linh and Bo Tat go to help some villagers pull a massive stump out of the ground. In return they get use of their 16-foot flatbed truck.