Dumbo

Dumbo is a 1941 American animated movie. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was first released on October 23, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, Dumbo is based upon a child's book of the same name by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Perl. The main character is Jumbo Jr., a baby elephant who is cruelly nicknamed Dumbo. He is ridiculed for his big ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using them as wings. Throughout most of the movie, his only true friend aside from his mother is the mouse Timothy, making fun of the stereotype between mice and elephants. Dumbo was made to make up for the damages of Pinocchio and Fantasia. The movie has been criticized in recent years as being "racist" (the leader crow in the movie was named "Jim Crow" and at some point in the 1950s was renamed "Dandy Crow" in attempt to avoid controversy, but the original name is still the one mostly known, although it was supposed to be just a sarcastic mockery to the Jim Crow laws in the Southern USA back then and was used only on the character's model sheets), yet is also considered to be one of Disney's best movies. It was an attempt to be simple and make profits for the Disney studio, is now generally regarded as a classic of animation. At 64 minutes, it is one of Disney's shortest animated features.
The story
Florida, 1941. Mrs. Jumbo sadly looks on how babies are delivered by the stork to other circus animals. As even a baby elephant makes a pretty heavy package, hers is the last to arrive, but soon becomes the laughing stock of the others because of his big ears, getting meanly named "Dumbo" by the others. When Mrs. Jumbo can not take the public making fun of her son, she is locked up as "mad elephant", and Dumbo finds himself all alone. A mouse named Timothy comes and scares the mean herd. He encourages Dumbo and tells the circus director to make Dumbo the top (literally) of an elephant pyramid stunt which ends up literally bringing the house down, and Dumbo is given the job of "baby clown" in a repetitive, humiliating and dangerous number as punishment. To cheer Dumbo up, Timothy brings him to go see his mother. The next morning, they find themselves up in a tree with a bunch of crows, who discover that Dumbo can fly.
Cast
Dumbo is the mute title character.
Edward Brophy: Timothy Q. Mouse
Herman Bing: The Ringmaster
Margaret Wright: Casey Junior
Sterling Holloway: Mr. Stork
Cliff Edwards: Jim/Dandy Crow
Hall Johnson Choir: Crow Chorus
Nick Stewart: Specks Crow
James Baskett: Fats Crow
Hall Johnson: Deacon Crow
Jim Carmichael: Dopey Crow
Verna Felton: Elephant Matriarch, Mrs. Jumbo
Dorothy Scott: Elephant Giddy
Sarah Selby: Elephant Prissy
Noreen Gammill: Elephant Catty
John McLeish: Narrator
The Sportsmen: Themselves
Note: These actors were credited in the opening credits of the movie.
Crew
Based on the Book by: Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl
Supervising Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Screen Story by: Joe Grant and Dick Huemer
Story Direction: Otto Englander
Sequence Directors: Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Bill Roberts, Jack Kinney, Sam Armstrong
Animation Directors: Vladimir Tytla, Fred Moore, Ward Kimball, John Lounsbery, Art Babbitt, Woolie Reitherman
Story Development: Bill Peet, Aurie Battaglia, Joe Rinaldi, George Stallings, Webb Smith
Character Designs: John P. Miller, Martin Provenson, John Walbridge, James Bodrero, Maurice Noble, Elmer Plummer
Music: Oliver Wallace and Frank Churchill
Lyrics: Ned Washington
Orchestration: Edward Plumb
Art Direction: Herb Ryman, Ken O'Conner, Terrell Stapp, Don Da Gradi, Al Zinnen, Ernest Nordli, Dick Kelsey, Charles Payzant
Backgrounds: Claude Coats, Al Dempster, John Hench, Gerald Nevius, Ray Lockrem, Joe Stahley
Animation: Hugh Fraiser, Harvey Toombs, Milt Neil, Hicks Lokey, Howard Swift, Don Towsley, Les Clark, Claude Smith, Berny Wolf, Jack Campbell, Walt Kelly, Don Patterson, Cy Young, Ray Patterson, Grant Simmons, Josh Meador, Bill Shull, Art Palmer
Story: Vernon Stallings
Art Direction: John Hubley
Animation Director: Frank Thomas
Cel Painter: Phyllis Bounds Detiege
Animators: Eric Larson, Retta Scott
Singing Voice for "Look Out for Mr. Stork": Thurl Ravenscroft
Characters
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Dumbo is the main character in the movie. He is a fictional anthropomorphic elephant who has really big ears. He can fly using his big ears. Similar to Dopey from Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs and Gideon in Pinocchio, Dumbo has no spoken dialogue. However, in the live-action/puppet television series Dumbo's Circus, Dumbo was voiced by Katie Leigh.
In the movie, Dumbo is delivered by Mr. Stork, and is made fun of for the strange size of his ears. As his mother, Mrs. Jumbo, beats up the bullies who pick on her baby, the ringmaster has his helpers chain her up and lock her up in a trailer, which says: "MAD ELEPHANT". It is then that Timothy Q. Mouse looks after Dumbo. The two of them try to make Dumbo famous and get his mother free. Thanks to the help of a "magic feather" from some crows, Dumbo flies to fame, and gets his mother free.
Timothy the Mouse
Timothy Q. Mouse is a mouse who became the only friend of elephants Dumbo and his mother Mrs. Jumbo. He teaches Dumbo how to become the ninth wonder of the universe, and the only flying elephant in the whole world.
Mrs. Jumbo
Mrs. Jumbo is Dumbo's mother. Deeply depressed at not having her baby delivered, she loves her son more than anything. She becomes angry when the boys pick on him.
Other characters include the other elephants who also make fun of Dumbo, the Ringmaster, the clowns of the circus, the Pink Elephants, Mr. Stork and the Crows who give Dumbo the "magic feather" and teach him to fly.
Release
Even though World War II was going on, Dumbo was still the most financially successful Disney movie of the 1940s. This was one of the first of Disney's animated movies to be broadcast, albeit severely edited, on television, as part of Disney's anthology series. The movie then received another distinction of note in 1981, when it was the first of Disney's canon of animated movies to be released on home video and also was released in the Walt Disney Classics Video Collection in 1985. That release was followed by remastered versions in: 1986, 1989, 1991 (Classics), and 1994 (Masterpiece). In 2001, a 60th Anniversary Special Edition was released that has original RKO titles. In 2006, a "Big Top Edition" of the movie was released on DVD that also has original RKO titles. A UK Special Edition was released in May 2007 and was a successful Disney release.
Theatrical release history
United States
October 23, 1941 (original release)
May 25, 1949 (the final RKO release)
June 6, 1959 (the first Buena Vista release)
June 3, 1977
Worldwide
Brazil: November 17, 1941
Argentina: December 24, 1941
United Kingdom: February 8, 1942
Canada: March 31, 1942
Australia: June 4, 1942
Mexico: July 9, 1942
Portugal: January 27, 1944
Spain: September 25, 1944 (Madrid)
Spain: December 14, 1944 (Barcelona)
Sweden: September 16, 1946
Netherlands: April 25, 1947
Belgium: April 25, 1947
France: October 25, 1947
Norway: December 26, 1947
Denmark: June 25, 1948
Hong Kong: August 19, 1948
Colombia: September 16, 1948
Finland: October 1, 1948
Italy: October 2, 1948
Argentinian inChilean Spanish: October 15, 1948
Poland: October 23, 1949
West Germany: April 8, 1952
Austria: May 22, 1953
Japan: March 13, 1954
Philippines: September 28, 1955
Israel: January 21, 1967
Lebanon: May 14, 1968
Iraq: October 18, 1979
Kuwait: October 14, 1986
Chad: January 12, 1989
China: July 12, 1989 (Beijing)
Home video release history
June 4, 1982, 1981 (VHS and Betamax)
June 4, 1982 (Laserdisc)
December 3, 1986 (VHS and Betamax - 45th Anniversary- Walt Disney Classics)
July 13, 1990 VHS and Laserdisc -Walt Disney Classics
May 3, 1991 (VHS and Laserdisc - 50th Anniversary Edition - Walt Disney Classics)
October 28, 1994 (VHS and Laserdisc - Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection)
August 17, 1999 VHS Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
October 23, 2001 (VHS and DVD - 60th Anniversary Edition)
June 6, 2006 (DVD - Big Top Edition)
September 20, 2011 Blu-Ray and DVD - 70th Anniversary Edition
April 26, 2016 Blu-Ray - 75th Anniversary Edition
Reception
The movie received very good reviews and did well at the box office despite being released less than 2 months before World War II.
It also has been known as both a classic and a masterpiece, and has received a Special Edition 60th Anniversary Disney DVD on October 23, 2001, exatly 60 years after its first release. That release featured a sneak peek of a direct-to-video sequel called Dumbo 2. The preview showed a lot of sketches and storyboard ideas. The main story has to do with Dumbo and his new friends getting separated from the rest of the circus as they wonder into the big city. Dumbo's new friends are Claude and Lolly the twin bears who leave chaos everywhere they go, Dot the curious zebra, Godfrey the hippo who is older and wants to do things for himself, and Penny the adventurous ostrich. Timothy returns as well. The story was supposed to be as if the first Dumbo ended and this one started the next day. The project seems to have been canceled,as no further announcements have been made since, plus the fact that The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Tinker Bell, and its sequels, were to be the last projests for DisneyToon Studios.
The crow characters in the movie are often seen as African-American stereotypes.
The leader crow voiced by Cliff Edwards was originally named "Jim Crow" for script purposes. The other crows are all voiced by African-American actors and singers, all members of the Hall Johnson Choir: Nick Stewart, James Baskett, Jim Carmichael and Hall Johnson. The late famous duo of African-American dancers Freddie and Eugene Jackson were invited and hired by Disney to work as live-action reference and models for the animators of the characters, like the chief-animator and Disney Legend Ward Kimball, improvising dances and movements then used in the iconic musical sequence "When I See An Elephant Fly". Despite suggestions of racism by writers like Richard Schickel, many historians, critics, writers, pundits and personalities such as John Grant, Leonard Maltin, John Canemaker, Floyd Norman, Eric Goldberg, Alex Wainer, Michael Wilmington, Whoopi Goldberg and Neal Gabler reject these claims. For instance, the crows are noted as forming the majority of the characters in the movie who are empathetic and sympathetic to Dumbo's plight (the others are Timothy Q. Mouse and Mrs Jumbo), they are free spirits who serve nobody, and intelligent characters aware of the power of self-confidence and of what means being ostracized and marginalized, unlike the Stepin Fetchit stereotype common at that time and in the previous decade. Furthermore, their song "When I See An Elephant Fly" is more orientated to mocking Timothy Mouse than Dumbo's large ears.
Soundtrack listing
Main Title (01:47)
Look Out For Mister Stork (02:16)
Loading The Train / Casey Junior / Stork On A Cloud / Straight From Heaven / Mother And Baby (04:58)
Song Of The Roustabouts (02:38)
Circus Parade (01:28)
Bathtime / Hide And Seek (01:31)
Ain't That The Funniest Thing / Berserk / Dumbo Shunned / A Mouse! / Dumbo And Timothy (03:23)
The Pyramid Of Pachyderms (01:58)
No Longer An Elephant / Dumbo's Sadness / A Visit In The Night / Baby Mine (03:34)
Clown Song (01:00)
Hiccups / Firewater / Bubbles / Did You See That? / Pink Elephants On Parade (06:07)
Up A Tree / The Fall / Timothy's Theory (01:32)
When I See An Elephant Fly (01:48)
You Oughta Be Ashamed (01:10)
The Flight Test / When I See An Elephant Fly (Reprise) (00:57)
Save My Child / The Threshold Of Success / Dumbo's Triumph / Making History / Finale (02:14)
Spread Your Wing (Demo Recording) (01:08)
Songs
Baby Mine (Betty Noyes)
Casey Junior (The Sportsmen)
Look Out for Mr. Stork (The Sportsmen)
Song of the Roustabouts (The King's Men)
The Clown Song (A.K.A."We're gonna hit the big boss for a rise") (Billy Bletcher, Eddie Holden and Billy Sheets)
Pink Elephants on Parade (The Sportsmen)
When I See an Elephant Fly (Cliff Edwards and the Hall Johnson Choir)
When I See an Elephant Fly (Reprise)
Media and marketing
Dumbo's Circus
Dumbo's Circus was a live-action puppet television programme for preschool audiences that aired on The Disney Channel in the 1980s. Unlike in the movie, Dumbo spoke on the show. Each character would perform a special act, which ranged from dancing and singing to telling knock knock jokes.
Books
Walt Disney's Dumbo Happy to Help: () A picture book Disney Press by Random House Disney, written by Liane Onish, illustrated by Peter Emslie. It was published January 23, 2001, this paperback is for children age 4-8. Twenty-four pages long, its 0.08 inches thick, and with cover dimensions of 7.88 x 7.88 inches.
Walt Disney's Dumbo Book of Opposites () A book published in August 1997 by Golden Books under the Golden Board Book brand. It was written by Alan Benjamin, illustrated by Peter Emslie, and edited by Heather Lowenberg. Twelve pages long and a quarter of an inch thick, this board edition book had dimensions of 7.25 x 6.00 inches.
Walt Disney's Dumbo the Circus Baby () A book published in September 1993 by Golden Press under the A Golden Sturdy Shape Book brand. Illustrated by Peter Emslie and written by Diane Muldrow, this book is meant for babies and preschoolers. Twelve pages long and half an inch thick, this book's cover size is 9.75 x 6.25 inches.
Walt Disney's Dumbo
Dumbo (My First Disney Story)
Fly, Dumbo, Fly!
I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem
Theme parks
Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a popular ride that appears in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Park (Paris), and Hong Kong Disneyland.
Video games
Dumbo appears as a hero in the game Kingdom Hearts. Sora, the main character, flies on him and Dumbo splashes enemies with water from his trunk.
Titles in other languages
(Dumbo)
(xiao fei xiang, or Little Flying Elephant)
(Danbo)
(Dumbo)
(Dambo)
(Dambo)
(NOTE: Most of the above titles were later renamed simply Dumbo.)
Directing animators
Art Babbitt (Mr. Stork, Clowns)
Ward Kimball (The Crows)
John Lounsbery (Timothy Mouse and Dumbo)
Wolfgang Reitherman (Timothy Mouse)
Vladimir Tytla (Dumbo, the elephants)
Fred Moore (Timothy Mouse)
Frank Thomas (Pink Elephants)
Note:All directing animators were credited on supervising these characters except Frank Thomas.
Sequence directors
Wilfred Jackson (Dumbo)
Jack Kinney (The Crows)
Sam Armstrong (Casey Junior, Mr. Stork)
Bill Roberts (Timothy Mouse, Clowns)
Norman Ferguson (Pink Elephants, Circus animals)
References
Other websites
1941 adventure movies
1941 musical movies
1940s family movies
American family movies
American musical movies
Buddy movies
Disney animated movies
English-language movies
Movies based on books
Movies about elephants
Movies about animals
Movies composed by Oliver Wallace
Movies with circus settings