The Ringmaster

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The Ringmaster is one of the villains imprisoned in The Isle of the Lost. He is now the father of Hermie Bing.

## Before The Isle of The Lost

He is first seen when the train named Casey Junior is all loaded and ready to go and shouts "All aboard!" and the train whistles back "All aboard! Let's go!". He is seen again leading the circus parade.

When some mean kids start to make fun of Dumbo's big ears, Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo's mother, starts attacking them to protect her baby. However, the Ringmaster tries to stop her and take her son away from her (unused concept art of the film imply that he guessed the reason of Mrs. Jumbo getting angry was because of Dumbo's appearance attracting unwanted and bad behaviour and attention), only to be splashed into Dumbo's barrel where he takes bath in.

Furious and humiliated, the Ringmaster has the "*mad elephant*" locked up in a cage. Later, he talks to his assistant Joe about a pachyderm pyramid but has no clue what his climax will be. Timothy the Mouse, who (along with Dumbo) heard this, convinces the Ringmaster in his sleep to make Dumbo the climax so that Mrs. Jumbo can be let out. The next day, the Ringmaster puts the act into use, but Dumbo trips over his ears and causes the pyramid to fall, setting off a catastrophic chain of events which leads to the tent itself falling down and leaving the Ringmaster horrified at the disaster that resulted from this big idea.

Furious and seeing no other use for Dumbo, he "punishes" Dumbo by teaming the little elephant with the clowns so to give him a role without causing anything disastrous but putting his safety and life in danger at the same time. During a show in which Dumbo jumps off a higher building, he sees Dumbo soar over the crowd. He points in amazement to see something he never saw before. He is finally humiliated in public when Dumbo learns how to fly, shoots peanuts at him, and throwing one of the clowns' elephant mask after he again falls inside a barrel. The mask then lands on his butt.

Though he isn't seen again during the film's end and despite his public humiliation, it seems the Ringmaster has redeemed himself and makes Dumbo his number one star and partners with Timothy who's now Dumbo's manager (though it is not even shown as the film finishes on Dumbo and his mother waving goodbye to the Crows in the distance).

## Trivia

* The Ringmaster's crimes were
	+ Imprisonment and separation (Mrs. Jumbo)
	+ Humiliation and physical endangerment (Dumbo)
	+ Hard labor exploitation (Roustabouts)
* His role may be considered similar to Aunt Sarah from *Lady and The Tramp*, Sir Ector from *The Sword In The Stone*, and Amos Slade from *The Fox and The Hound* as all four start off as antagonistic towards the protagonists (Dumbo for Ringmaster, Lady for Sarah, Wart for Ector and Tod for Amos), but they reform at the end of the films. It is more difficult to say it in the case of the Ringmaster, since he's not seen or heard of again in the film's finale after the climax.
* While an average and human agenda, his manner of doing so is extremely dubious, with several moments throughout the film hinting at the Ringmaster's nature behind closed doors.
* In his film, he's not really "evil", but rather a strict and arrogant man trying to run his circus the best way he can, although in questionable manners involving even his workers and employees.
	+ The Ringmaster releasing Mrs. Jumbo is revealed in the various novelizations of the film such as the 1977 book by Golden Shape. However, the part of Timothy becoming the new manager of Dumbo and signing a contract with Hollywood, implying also him running the circus or having a main role in its management, is completely omitted from the books. Plus, these books were released after the death of Walt Disney and many years after the original release of the film and don't show what happened to Timothy after Dumbo showed his ability to fly to the world, including other details omitting or contradicting each version.
	+ The reasons why the Ringmaster is generally considered a villain or at the very best an anti-villain are the following: he forced roustabouts and animals to work under terrible conditions, in their song the roustabouts also imply that the Ringmaster calls them with derogatory names, and it's also implied by the same roustabouts and clowns that he underpays his employees. He separated Dumbo from his mother and he locked Mrs. Jumbo up as "mad elephant" more for throwing him into a vat of water for the excessive whipping on her than for her going "mad", refusing also to investigate the incident because of this and thus being also willfully ignorant. He also "punished" Dumbo for ruining his act (with no reherseal) by forcing him to "perform" in dangerous, abusive and humiliating clownish acts at his expense (forcefully kicked off a high building on fire) and in the end Dumbo even literally risked his life with an even much more dangerous act and with no success guaranteed. If it wasn't for Timothy becoming Dumbo's manager probably things would have gotten even worse.

## Gallery

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