Dumbo

Dumbo
Released: October 23, 1941
Basis: Obscure 1939 American Children's book, Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Synopsis: A kindly old stork, Mr. Stork, delivers a baby elephant to an expectant elephant mother and member of a traveling Floridian circus, Mrs. Jumbo. Mrs. Jumbo names her son "Jumbo Jr.," but the discovery of the baby's unusually large ears causes him to be nicknamed "Dumbo" by the other elephants. Nevertheless, Mrs. Jumbo deeply loves her dear child, to the extent that she rampages when she discovers young gawkers teasing the naive baby. This causes Mrs. Jumbo to be locked away and the other elephants to blame Dumbo, treating him coldly.
A mouse named Timothy Q. Mouse overhears the other elephants teasing Dumbo and, sympathizing with the baby elephant, decides to help Dumbo become a big hit at the circus. Timothy suggests to the Ringleader/Ringmaster (I shall refer to him as the "Ringleader") that Dumbo could be "the climax" to the Ringleader's grand plan of an elephant pyramid. The Ringleader excitedly executes the act, but Dumbo trips on his ears and accidentally sends the pyramid of elephants toppling onto the unwitting audience and tearing down the Big Top.
As a result, the Ringleader makes Dumbo into a clown, shaming the other elephants and making them disown him as an elephant. To cheer Dumbo after an embarrassing performance, Timothy brings Dumbo to see his mother, who is locked in an isolated wagon labeled "Mad Elephant." Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo share a brief moment, but Dumbo is still sad that he can't be with his mother, and his tears become hiccups. Timothy instructs Dumbo to drink some water to cure his hiccups, but the duo unwittingly drink from a tub of water mixed with a bottle of alcohol and become drunk.
The next morning, the pair discover themselves high up in a tree. Timothy comes to the conclusion that Dumbo must have flown into the tree using his big ears, but a flock of five crows laugh at the idea. Timothy chastises the crows for teasing Dumbo, making the crows remorseful. The leader of the crows, Jim Crow, gives Timothy a "Magic Feather" with the idea that it would give Dumbo the confidence to fly again. With the "Magic Feather," Dumbo is able to fly across the countryside. Timothy and Dumbo then plot their revenge on the rest of the circus. During the next show, Dumbo and Timothy prepare to surprise the world with Dumbo's ability, but Dumbo loses grip of his "Magic Feather." Nevertheless, Dumbo is able to work up the courage to fly, and he chases after the clowns and Ringleader as well as spew peanuts at the other elephants.
In the end, Dumbo becomes a world-wide sensation and is reunited with his mother.
Notes

• Although the movie follows the basic events of the original story, there are still a few key differences: Mrs. Jumbo was named "Mother Ella" and Dumbo was simply "Jumbo"; Dumbo's ears grow large over the years instead of being large immediately after birth; an elephant trainer, Jack, devised the plan of the "elephant pyramid"; Mother Ella and Jumbo were separated only after the Big Top's collapse and Jumbo was renamed "Dumbo" out of human spite (none of the other elephants were antagonists in the book); the role of Timothy Mouse was taken by a robin named Red, whom Dumbo first meets after becoming a clown; Red himself teaches Dumbo how to fly after his friend Dr. Hoot Howl motivates Dumbo into learning how to fly; and Dumbo's first public flight is performed distinctly in Madison Square Garden, putting the setting more towards the Northeastern States rather than the Southeastern States.
• This is one of the few Disney movies to be contemporary, at least at the time of its writing.
• The animation in this movie has fallen into a "cartoony" look distinct from the "Silly Symphonies" shorts but much like the latter Disney movies - the distinct Disney "style," I suppose, is emerging, here. Certain aspects of some of the animals look realistic, though - the lions' and tigers' eyes, the hippo's lips.
• Rather than a storybook opening like in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, Dumbo starts with credits placed on circus advertisements.
• After the credits, an opening narration is given. It's made to sound like it's discussing air mail services - it mentions about how they'll deliver even through snow and sleet, lightning and booming thunder, etc - with airplane sound effects thrown in towards the end, but then it cuts to the storks delivering babies. I kinda liked that.
• There's a larger focus on music in this movie, to the extent that spoken dialogue isn't as prevalent as sung lyrics or instrumental pieces. This works for the movie, as the protagonist himself is a baby and can't talk - he himself isn't going to be saying much, so dialogue isn't as important for most of the movie.
• Still, what dialogue is used can be enjoyable - the elephants' snarking, the clowns' bantering, the crows' chattering...
• That's Sterling Holloway as Mr. Stork - he'd go on to provide voices and/or narration for several Disney movies and shorts, but here he's providing a cameo role.
• I like the idea behind there being a specific set way to the Stork Delivery Service - there's the delivery, a poem is recited, paperwork is signed, and "Happy Birthday to You" is sung.
• Actually, that "Happy Birthday to You" is performed is a bit of a rarity these days - as the song itself is copyrighted, royalties must be shelled out for every time it's used in a contemporary movie or TV show, hence various substitutes used (like in The Emperor's New Groove - more on that when we get there).
• Dumbo's innocence is presented quite well, in my opinion. He's aware of the events going on around him, but he doesn't quite seem to understand their meaning - he smiles when he's being teased by the elephants and the circus visitors because he doesn't realize their laughs are mean, he's bashful around crowds, and his motivation throughout the movie is that he wants to be reunited with his mother. He matures a little bit in the story and gains a sense of dignity - he is deeply ashamed to be part of the clown act.
• By definition, a "roustabout" is a person who is hired for laboring work, often for circuses. The roustabouts who set up the circus towards the beginning of the movie are notably all African-American (and are incidentally animated without faces). With both here and with the crows later in the movie, it's easy to come to the conclusion that the depiction of African-Americans is somewhat racist, but as the movie takes place in the southern states, I feel it's more accurate to what might have happened at the time than stereotypical here. The song the roustabouts sing is somewhat depressing if you can make out the lyrics, though - "we don't know when/we get our pay/and when we do/we throw our pay away."
• When Mrs. Jumbo starts rampaging after that big-eared orange-haired kid (Smitty is his name, apparently), her eyes turn red. A nice touch.
• I was originally going to make a comment that Mrs. Jumbo is mostly misunderstood and receives undue abuse from the elephants and the circus as a whole, and while I still think the elephants got what was coming to them in the finale, this article made me rethink my take on the Circus.
• The other elephants discuss at a couple points that honor and dignity are a big part of being an elephant, making me think there's a big elephant society with complicated rules and such not touched upon in the movie.
• Timothy's role in this movie is more or less the same as Jiminy Cricket's in Pinocchio (with less flirting and more wise-cracking) - I have to wonder if that's the point of the character's design. He does interact more with other characters than Jiminy did, though.
• I'm not sure what the movie's rules are on "animal talk" - most of the time, it seems like humans can't understand the animals (like when the elephants are grumbling about the Ringleader during the show), but Timothy is able to not only suggest having Dumbo be the climax of his great "elephant pyramid" act but also the name of the elephant.
• The Ringleader is typically cast as a Disney Villain (having appeared in the video game Disney: Villain's Revenge as a villain alongside The Queen from Snow White, The Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook, but... he doesn't really seem villainous, and never really occurred to me as being a villain even before reading the aforementioned article. He doesn't do villainous things; he's just trying to run his circus.
• The Elephant Matriarch calls Dumbo an "assassin" as the Big Top is tumbling down. Interesting both in the choice of words and in the timing of the insult, I thought.
• Dumbo doesn't wear his "signature" outfit until he's cast as a clown, being at least half way through the movie.
• Throughout the song "Baby Mine," there are shots of other animal mothers and children resting. It works to make the song about a mother's love for her child. It's a very comforting song, but also sad.
• The clowns discuss how they can get more laughs - they reason that if they got a lot of laughs by having Dumbo jump 20 feet, he should get double for jumping 40 feet. It's what I call Pooh Logic: logic that makes sense on its own or in its own silly way (named after Winnie the Pooh, as it's along the same sort of lines of something he'd reason).
• Amidst all this planning, one of the clowns pipes up, "Don't hurt the little guy," to which another clown responds not to worry about it - "Elephants ain't got no feelings - they're made of rubber." Stealth pun aside, the clowns do kinda sorta care about Dumbo.
• There's not really anything I can say about the "Pink Elephants" sequence that hasn't already been said a million times, but I do have to say that I like how the imagery is constantly transforming and is completely crazy.
• The crows are another easy thing to label as racist towards African-Americans - they're stereotypical caricatures, and they have the misfortune of their leader being named "Jim Crow." However, I see them in quite the positive light - they're clever (as shown in the complicated wordplay of "When I See an Elephant Fly" and in their planning of using "'chology - psychology" to get Dumbo to fly again), they're free spirits, and they're some of the few characters sympathetic with poor Dumbo's plight (they're more laughing at the idea that an elephant flew than at Dumbo himself in "When I See an Elephant Fly"). On top of that, they're really fun characters with their chattering and being silly. Also "When I See an Elephant Fly" is a very fun song itself.
• Timothy rules out Dumbo climbing or jumping up the tree as being "too silly," but he snaps at the idea of Dumbo flying when Jim Crow suggests it.
• The newspapers towards the end reference the escalating war in Europe subtly in some of the smaller headlines as well as with the "Dumbombers" apparently made in his honor.
• Dumbo's ears are insured for $1,000,000. What
• The shot of Timothy getting a Hollywood contract as Dumbo's manager is a direct reference to the conclusion of the original book - Red and Dumbo were planning on turning the young elephant into an actor in the very end.

Dumbo was a different take on an animated movie for Disney - as Pinocchio and Fantasia flopped, it was essential that Dumbo was a considerably lower-budget movie. This can be seen in its relatively short length (it's just over an hour long) and its fairly simple art-style. The end result was a very simple movie, one which tells a simple story mostly in song. There's not much depth, perhaps, but there doesn't need to be - it's a story about a baby wanting to reunite with his mother. It's a very sweet story, all in all.


Next Up: Bambi (November 20)