Given a baby elephant with ears that only a mother could love, the mother elephant (Mrs. Jumbo) is imprisoned for her insurrection against cruel circus-goers. Dumbo, her son, is willing to become top of the big top in hopes of freeing his mother with the help of Timothy the mouse and a cadre of crows.

Dumbo was to show up on the TIME magazine in 1941, but that was derailed by the horrific attack on Pearl Harbor.

In The Great Mouse Detective, there is a toy that has Dumbo blowing bubbles.

Not including Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Dumbo was the first animated feature by Disney to be given a release by Walt Disney Home Video, and this was prior to the “Classics” era. Alice in Wonderland would follow shortly afterwards (don’t ask how I found out about this; I only found this shit out because I was bored).

Like Peter Pan, Dumbo is often attacked for racism due to the roustabouts song and the crows.

One thing I noticed is that at the “end” card (only on releases prior to the Masterpiece Collection), it cuts straight to black. Weird. My tape (which I think dates to probably 1985 or something) does that.

Verna Felton would voice two other elephants in her career: Goliath II’s mother in Goliath II and Winifred in The Jungle Book. She also did other voice work as well, for example, voicing the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.

As far as I know, this was the first Disney movie (or any property of theirs for that matter) to have Sterling Holloway voicing someone.

Dumbo was animated by Bill Tytla, who also animated Chernabog in the Night on Bald Mountain segment in Fantasia and Stromboli in Pinocchio. No joke.

There aren’t really any villains in this movie. Closest would be the ringmaster, but he’s just trying to keep the circus from being dangerous.

Dumbo was the first movie that I can think of that got a show on Disney Channel (which was called Dumbo’s Circus) in the mid 80s, which was a weirdass show about people in animal costumes.

As an adult with Autism, Dumbo has become my favorite Disney movie of the 1940s. Bambi, Fantasia, and Pinocchio are all classics, but Dumbo, with the disadvantage of enormous ears, showcases that sometimes you have to make the best of your irregularities. That’s what Dumbo in my mind is about: accepting others regardless of their disabilities. Rankin/Bass’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer gets that same respect from me (eh disregarding the “bumble”).

The crows didn’t seem racist to me. Dumbo takes place in Florida, so obviously the locals would talk like that; saying stuff like “reverend rodent” sounds something like what a southerner would say and some of the voice actors who voiced them were from the south excluding Cliff Edwards unless you consider Missouri a southern state. Maybe I’m not reading this correctly, but I just thought it was southern talk. However, one of the crows is named JIM CROW (no, I’m not kidding). That’s a hell of a no-no and I don’t care how old this movie is.

The ringmaster didn’t give any time for the elephants to practice their act. Now see why an orchestra goes through numerous days of practicing?

I don’t understand why everyone says this movie’s really sad. I mean there is the “baby mine” song and I skip it all the time, but I’ve never cried at this one. Snow White’s “funeral” was much more depressing.

Not sure of when I first saw this; my best guess is on Disney Channel in the mid 90s around 1993 or 1994 – which would’ve been when I was around 1 or 2 years old.

1. One of the main reasons why Dumbo is a movie I’ve idolized so much is that it takes a character with disadvantages and showcases how that character can still succeed and/or use their disability as an advantage.
2. The pink elephants sequence is glorious, and over 80 years later looks a million times better than so many animated movies today.
3. You gotta hand it to Mrs. Jumbo. She didn’t give a rat’s ass about how Dumbo looked. All I know is, you fuck with Dumbo, you get fucked by Mrs. Jumbo. So don’t do it!
4. The scene of that little shithead getting assaulted by Mrs. Jumbo will never fail to soothe me disregarding that I’m completely against spanking. Sometimes I just want to break the screen and snap his fuckin’ neck!
5. Watching those elephants get pelted with peanuts is yet another amazing scene in Disney history.
6. The pyramid of pachyderms is better than any circus sequence I’ve ever seen (if any).

Cons

1. This movie is really short with roughly a measly 65 minutes.
2. As stated earlier, of ALL names out there… WHY oh WHY would you name a crow JIM?! That had to have been an oversight. Thankfully he was renamed “Danny” later onwards, so it was probably at my best guess an accident. Nevertheless, it’s still inappropriate.
3. Did I mention that I hate that freckled kid? God he pisses me off even more than Palpatine in Return of the Jedi electrocuting Luke Skywalker. Mrs. Jumbo’s reaction reminds me of Vader going after Palpatine and throwing him.