Sotheby is a character who appears in the 2019 remake of Dumbo. He is a businessman who works for Vandevere Enterprises while working for park owner V.A. Vandevere until he resigned his position.
Role in the film[]
After Dumbo's act was a success, Sotheby approaches V.A. Vandevere who tells him to cancel his dinner with the president and tells him about business with Dumbo. He later tells the audience to welcome Vandevere at the circus grounds introducing Vandevere and Colette Marchant to the crowd to which Max Medici happily approaches him. He is later seen during a conversation between Max and Vandevere discussing about Dumbo not for sale.
At Dreamland, Sotheby takes Max Medici to Vandevere's company Vandevere Enterprises as a group of colleagues and their owner Vandevere applaud him for a new arrival to the company to which Sotheby later takes Max to his office where he introduces Max to his receptionist Miss Verna who is happy to help Max with his schedules to help out with his circus to which after being introduced, Max decides to discuss with Vandevere to know what he should do for the day.
After Vandevere tells Holt, Milly, and Joe at his office to accept the changes Dumbo will be doing whatever he wants, Vandevere walks alongside Neils Skellig in a plan to get rid of Mrs. Jumbo, to which Sotheby warns him that he can't just kill her, to which Holt and his children approach Vandevere as Holt tells him to avoid separating Dumbo, fearing that he would be orphaned without his mother just before Vandevere tells Holt to fend for himself.
The next day, Sotheby approaches the fired circus performers who fear that Dumbo would be lost, as they begin to lose faith about the Medici Bros. Circus' future. Sotheby explains to them that he resigned his position as he heard Vandevere give order, to which he explains to Holt and the rest of the troupe that Mrs. Jumbo will be gone by tomorrow night, fearing that she would not survive, much to Holt, his children, and the other performers losing faith in themselves. As a result, Holt, his two children, and the performers decide to help free Mrs. Jumbo and reunite her with her son. It is unknown of what happened to him after that.
Trivia[]
- It is unknown if Sotheby was aware of Vandevere's betrayal due to his own park Dreamland destroyed after his suspicious plans to reactivate the attractions' lights inside the control center which caused the park to be destroyed.
- When Sotheby introduces Max Medici to Miss Verna during the scene where Max is introduced to Vandevere Enterprises, the receptionist whom Sotheby introduces to Max is named Miss Verna. It is possible that Miss Verna is named after Verna Felton, the original voice actress of Mrs. Jumbo from the original film.
- In the deleted scene "Elephant Heist" during a plan to reunite Dumbo with his mother and release them back to the wild, Holt explains to the circus performers that he received information from Sotheby, to which according to Sotheby himself, the truck planning to take Mrs. Jumbo away will arrive at the time before the circus performance starts in a plan to intercept the truck and get Mrs. Jumbo out of it without getting caught.
- He was created solely for the remake and has no animated counterpart.
