Dumbo

In 1941, Walt Disney released his fourth completely animated film. Dumbo, based on the story written by Helen Aberson and starring Edward Brophy, Herman Bing, Margaret Wright, Sterling Holloway and Cliff Edwards, features an elephant mocked for his big ears, but is capable of flight. Made to reclaim the losses of Fantasia, it was a pursuit of simplicity and is one of Disney’s shortest features.

The story begins as a stork delivers babies while circus animals are being transported by train. Mrs. Jumbo, an elephant, receives her baby who is taunted by the other elephants because of his large ears. They nickname him Dumbo.

Once the circus is assembled, Mrs. Jumbo loses her temper at a group of boys for bullying her son. She’s locked up and deemed mad. Dumbo is shunned by the other elephants and is now alone. Timothy Q. Mouse feels sympathy for him and is determined to make him happy again. He appoints himself Dumbo’s mentor and protector.

The circus director makes Dumbo the top of an elephant pyramid stunt, but he trips over his ears and misses his target. This injures the other elephants and brings the big top down. Dumbo is then made a clown and plays the main role in an act that involves him falling into a vat of pie filling. Despite his new popularity and fame, Dumbo is more miserable than ever.

To cheer Dumbo up, Timothy takes himt o visit his mother. On the way back, Dumbo cries and starts to hiccup. Timothy takes him for a drink of water from a bucket, which accidentally had champagne knocked into it. As a result, Timothy and Dumbo become drunk and see hallucinations of pink elephants.

The next morning, Dumbo and Timothy wake up in a tree. Wondering how they gt up there, timothy concludes they flew up using his large ears as wings. With the help of a murder of crows, Timothy is able to get Dumbo to fly again, using a psychological trick of a magic feather to boost his confidence.

Back at the circus, Dumbo must perform his stunt from a higher building. On the way down, Dumbo loses his feather. Timothy tells him that the feather was never magical and he was still able to fly. Dumbo pulls out of the dive and flies around the circus, striking back at his tormentors.

After the performance, Dumbo becomes a media sensation and Timothy becomes his manager. Dumbo and his mother are given a private car on the circus train.

As stated above, Dumbo was made in order to regain the profits lost by Fantasia and it really does seem like a film made just to make money. The story is fine and the animation looks great, but the pacing is downright terrible. The film could either have been a lot tighter by shortening scenes to cut the film down by about 15 minutes or a lot more fleshed out if it had more time. Also, while the songs are pretty good, there’s only three that are actually memorable and one of them is the first instance of a Disney Acid Trip.

But, again, the story is fun to watch and the animation is vibrant and colorful, which really complements the setting of a circus. “The Pink Elephants on Parade” sequence is also done very well and might possibly be the best part of the film.

Final Call: fun story with good animation and a couple good songs, but needed to either be lengthened or shortened. Won’t drop into the Edge of Dissatisfaction, but does become #4.