Animation Celebration Saturday - Dumbo (1941)

Disney, 1941
Voices of Edward Brophy, Verna Felton, Herman Bing, and Sterling Holloway
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen and others
Music by Frank Churchill; Lyrics by Ned Washington

With the live-action remake now in theaters, I thought this was an appropriate time to revisit the original animated story of the little elephant with the big ears. Does this simple tale soar like its pachyderm protagonist in the finale, or does it collapse like bubbles in flat champagne? Let's follow Mr. Stork to the winter quarters of a circus in Florida and find out...

The Story: Dumbo is a baby elephant born with unusually large ears. His mother, Mrs. Jumbo (Felton), loves him, but all the other elephants think he looks strange and shuns them. A little boy makes fun of Dumbo's ears, prompting Mrs. Jumbo to attack him and her to be confined in a cage. Dumbo does find one friend in Timothy Q. Mouse (Brophy), who doesn't appreciate the elephants' catty remarks about the newly-orphaned child. Timothy persuades the ringmaster (Bing) to feature Dumbo as the pinnacle of a pyramid of elephants, but Dumbo trips and sends all the other elephants and the Big Top crashing to the ground.

Neither Dumbo nor the other elephants are pleased when the ringmaster makes him a clown. Dumbo, however, has a special ability that no other elephant has, one that he and Timothy discover when they accidentally get drunk one night after visiting Mrs. Jumbo in her cage. Dumbo can fly. Now they have to figure out how to show everyone from the obnoxious elephants to a pack of crows that having big ears doesn't mean you can't be a big star.

The Animation: Disney intentionally did this one on a budget after Pinocchio and Fantasia flopped. Their work may not be as elaborate as those two masterpieces, but that doesn't mean it's bad. For most of the movie, it's colorful and a bit cartoonier than either of those two earlier films, with the talking mouse and elephants and the circus setting. Two sequences in particular stand out. The use of dark colors and negative light in "The Roustabouts' Song" adds a bit of grit to the first half of the film. The infamous drunk sequence, "Pink Elephants on Parade," takes the negative lighting to an even greater extreme, with its wild and creepy mauve pachyderms capering on a black background.

The Song and Dance: This is such a sweet story. Timothy and Dumbo may be the only decent creatures in that entire circus. Timothy certainly was a good friend, sticking up for the little elephant when no one else would. Dumbo himself is so adorable, I don't know why anyone made an issue of his ears. Sterling Holloway has fun in the opening sequence as the confused stork; I also liked Herman Bing as the blustery ringmaster.

Favorite Number: "Pink Elephants" is Disney going back into psychedelic territory after Fantasia. It's weird, it's wacky, it's kind of creepy, and it absolutely must be seen to be believed. In a more traditional mode, "When I See an Elephant Fly" is a fun number for the crows in the end when they're joking about the idea of Dumbo in the air. "Baby Mine," which plays over Dumbo visiting his mother in her cage, is one of the most heartbreaking ballads in any animated film (and was nominated for an Oscar).

Trivia: Dumbo was one of the biggest hits of 1941, more than recouping the losses of Fantasia and Pinocchio. It would go on to be Disney's most popular animated film of the 40's. That popularity continued over the years; Dumbo and Alice In Wonderland were the first Disney animated films to be released on home video in 1981.

At 64 minutes, Dumbo is the shortest of the "canon" Disney animated films.

What I Don't Like: Almost everything that happens to Dumbo and his mother in this movie would probably be considered to be animal abuse today, from the little boy grabbing at Dumbo's ears to him being used in the clown act. I wish Dumbo had spit something a lot harder than peanuts at the other elephants in the finale. They were a bunch of obnoxious old biddies, and other than their wisecracks during the elephant pyramid, they were mostly annoying.

Though the crows seen in the "When I See an Elephant Fly" number and the finale don't really bother me, quite a few people consider them to be racist caricatures and may find that song a bit hard to watch. "Pink Elephants," which involves a minor having hallucinations after drinking liquor, doesn't sit well with some folks now either.

The Big Finale: The crows may make some people uncomfortable, but this largely remains one of Disney's simplest and most touching movies. If you have kids who are too young to sit through longer Disney movies, try this short one on them.

Home Media: I have the older Big Top Edition, but most people should be fine with the 70th Anniversary Edition from 2011.

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