Disney's little elephant with the big ears turns 70 - The Blade Disney's little elephant with the big ears turns 70 By Bruce Dancis | SACRAMENTO BEE Published on Print Dumbo, the little elephant with the big ears and an even bigger heart, has been with us for 70 years. Walt Disney's fourth animated feature film, Dumbo, originally was released during the fall of 1941, then re-released in theaters in 1949, 1959, 1972, and 1976. It made its debut on the Disney TV series in 1956 and first appeared on video in 1981. Unlike other Disney features, Dumbo always has remained available on video, first on VHS, then DVD. This week, a 70th anniversary edition marks its debut in high-definition Blu-ray, restored from the film's original nitrate camera negative stored in the U.S. Library of Congress (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, $39.99, Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack, rated G).

The movie also is available in a standard DVD edition ($29.99) and as a download from disney.com/dumbo ($29.99/$39.99 high definition). Shorter, at 64 minutes, and made at a quicker pace and for a far smaller budget (between $800,000 and $900,000) than the Disney features that preceded it (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia) and immediately followed it (Bambi), Dumbo was an instant success at the box office and with film critics. In his Oct. 24, 1941 review, the New York Times' Bosley Crowther, for one, called it "the most genial, the most endearing, the most completely precious cartoon feature film ever to emerge from the magical brushes of Walt Disney's wonder-working artists." While Dumbo remains in many ways a delightful story about a baby elephant overcoming adversity by turning a physical abnormality (his oversized ears) into an attribute (he can fly!), the film always has had its problematic aspects.

It is at times too scary and threatening for younger kids, and one scene has long been viewed by some critics as an example of racial stereotyping. As is explained in the DVD's audio commentary by Pete Docter (the Oscar-winning Pixar Animation director of Up), film historian Paula Sigman, and Disney Studios animator Andreas Deja, Dumbo was more like a cartoon short than the other Disney animated features, with bright colors, simple backgrounds, an easy-to-follow story and circus animals which were drawn more like caricatures than in the naturalistic style of Snow White or Bambi. The commentary also notes that the film was made while the Disney Studios was in financial difficulty caused by the elimination of much of the European movie market by the onset of war in 1939 and the building of a new plant. And principal animation of Dumbo was completed just before the onset of a long and bitter strike by some of Disney's animators. Many enjoyable, even thrilling, moments are packed into Dumbo, especially the little elephant's friendship with the brash, New York-accented Timothy the Mouse and, of course, his discovery of his own ability to fly.

The brave little guy continually has to confront and triumph over the ridicule heaped upon him by mean female elephants, who first ignore, then ostracize Dumbo, and the circus' human clowns. Film historians have long observed the absence of mothers in Disney films (sometimes replaced by evil stepmothers); in the case of Dumbo, the baby elephant's loving mother is chained, imprisoned, and separated from him after causing a disturbance when she thinks her child is in danger. This leads to one of the film's most tender and powerful moments -- when the little elephant visits his mother late at night and their trunks intertwine through the prison bars -- and most moving songs, "Baby Mine." But Dumbo's forced separation from his mother also is a very disturbing moment for kids, even if the two are reunited by the film's end. The much-heralded "Pink Elephants on Parade" scene, in which Dumbo and Timothy experience strange and shocking hallucinations after drinking champagne that had been poured into a water barrel, is a tour de force of animated creativity. But the scene gets crazier and scarier, and the music becomes more sinister, as it proceeds. Its frightening images can induce nightmares in some children.

The most controversial scene in Dumbo involves the little elephant and Timothy's encounter with a group of crows in a tree high above the ground. The five crows, who are incredulous of Timothy's claim that he and Dumbo flew up to a high tree branch, are presented as black males. They all speak in a combination of jive slang and African American dialect. They wear hipster hats and sing and dance the song "When I See An Elephant Fly" in a jazzy, quick-witted style. The lead bird is named Jim Crow (a term "Safire's New Political Dictionary" defines as "laws and customs that discriminate against, segregate, or humiliate blacks," as in "Jim Crow laws") and his voice was provided by a white actor, Cliff Edwards; the other crows were voiced by members of an African-American vocal group, the Hall Johnson Choir. In his book The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin defends this scene, writing that "most" of the controversy it has spawned is unjustified. "The crows are undeniably black," Maltin writes, "but they are black characters, not black stereotypes.

There is no denigrating dialogue, or Uncle Tomism in the scene." In the DVD commentary, historian Sigman states that the scene "wasn't meant in any way to be derogatory." And it is noted that the crows become Dumbo's enthusiastic supporters and it is Jim Crow who comes up with the idea of the "magic feather" that enables Dumbo to gain the courage to fly. The problem with these defenses of Dumbo is that they miss the context of the times. Although there were some exceptions, in the early 1940s African Americans were regularly featured in Hollywood films as comic relief for white audiences. They were often portrayed as happy-go-lucky types who loved to sing and dance. That music and dance constituted an important aspect of African-American culture is undeniable, but the reduction of African-American characters to jive-talking singers and dancers is precisely what is meant by stereotypical. The kind of stereotyping we see in Dumbo wasn't just a product of the perspective of Disney and his crew; it was shared by many in white society, from audiences to film critics.

Consider this pertinent part of the previously quoted review of Dumbo in the New York Times: "There is Jim Crow, the loud and fancy sport who cackles, 'Well, hush mah beak!' and his raffish crew of dusky satellites ..." The point is not to suggest that Dumbo is somehow unfit for audiences of all ages on its 70th anniversary. It's simply that parents might want to consider discussing some of these matters of scariness and stereotyping with their kids before viewing the film. Then we can all cheer as the little elephant soars above the crowd, saves his mother and becomes a national hero. Related Items Dumbo (film) | Disney Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [Source] Title card Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on October 23 , 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures before the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Sound was recorded conventionally using the RCA System. One voice was synthesized using the Sonovox system, but it, too, was recorded using the RCA System.

As the fourth animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon , Dumbo is based upon the book written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a novelty toy ("Roll-a-Book"). The main character is " Dumbo ". He is laughed at for his big ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using his ears as wings. Throughout most of the film, his only true friend, aside from his mother, is a mouse, Timothy — a relationship parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants. Dumbo was made to recoup the financial losses of Pinocchio and Fantasia. It was a deliberate pursuit of simplicity and economy for the Disney studio, and at 64 minutes, it is one of Disney's shortest full length features. Saludos Amigos in 1942 is the shortest, running at 42 minutes. Fortunately, it was a box office hit and became iconic for WWII as it was hailed by critics and audiences as a joyous film, appropriate for such vulgar times. Unfortunately, however, its performance was hindered by the outbreak of war in America, following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Today, the film is one of the most acclaimed animated movies of all time, often called the best in the medium. It is also known for being John Lasseter 's favorite movie, and it is among one of Walt Disney 's favorites. It is also a favorite of film historian/critic Leonard Maltin . Contents [ show ] Story The film takes place in a circus setting in Florida, possibly in present-day 1941 , and starts with a formation of storks delivering newborn babies to various circus animals. Mrs. Jumbo 's baby is delivered to her belatedly by an exhausted stork , and the baby elephant is well received by the other elephants - until the size of his ears are revealed after he sneezes. The elephant, nicknamed " Dumbo " is teased by the sarcastic female elephants. The mother ignores them, however, until Mrs. Jumbo is imprisoned as a "mad elephant" after trying to defend her son from a crowd of antagonizing boys. A mouse named Timothy befriends Dumbo, and crafts a plan to make the sorrowful little elephant a star in the circus.

Timothy subliminally convinces The Ringmaster (in his sleep) to set up a "pyramid of pachyderms," to the top of which Dumbo will jump (using a springboard). Due to Dumbo's long ears, the act fails, the big top falls to the ground, the other elephants are injured, the circus has to relocate, and Dumbo is unceremoniously reduced to a clown. Dumbo's clown act involves falling from an enormous platform in a dramatized fire rescue into a vat of pie filling. The audience responds well to the act, and the clowns decide to alter the act for the next show so that Dumbo will fall from a platform many times higher than the original one. After an emotional visit to his mother's cell, Timothy tries to cheer up Dumbo, who could not stop crying. They settle down for a drink of water outside of the clowns' tent. Unknown to them, the water has been accidentally spiked with champagne by the clowns, and the elephant and Timothy become inebriated and halluncinatory, seeing Pink Elephants sing and dance before their eyes.

Dumbo and Timothy awake the next morning—in a tree over 100 feet up, awoken by a gaggle of amused crows . Timothy guesses that Dumbo flew them to the top of the tree while they were drunk, an idea that the crows find hilarious. After Timothy tells them Dumbo's pitiful story, the crows decide to help Timothy teach Dumbo to fly. They convincing the elephant that he can fly with the use of a "magic feather," and succeed in getting him to fly. Dumbo shows up at his next clown performance with his magic feather; however, he loses the feather after leaping from the platform. Timothy admits to Dumbo that he can fly without the magic feather, and, barely avoiding death from the fall, Dumbo opens his ears and soars through the air, to the amazement of the audience. Dumbo the Flying Elephant is made a star of the circus and an international celebrity, and he and his mother are finally reunited and given their own private coach on Casey Junior , the circus train.

Cast Billy Bletcher as Clowns Production of Dumbo The film was designed as an economical feature, to help generate income for the Disney studio after the financial failures of both Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940 . Storymen Dick Huemer and Joe Grant were the primary figures in developing the plot, based upon a manuscript written by Helen Aberson and Harold Perl for a children's book. When the film went into production in early 1941 , supervising director Ben Sharpsteen was given orders to keep the film simple and inexpensive. As a result, Dumbo lacks the lavish detail of the previous three Disney animated features (Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ). Character designs are simpler, background paintings are less detailed, and a number of cels (or frames) were used in the character animation . However, the simplicity freed the animators from being overly concerned with detail, and allowed them to focus on the most important element of character animation: acting. Bill Tytla's animation of Dumbo is today considered one of the greatest accomplishments in American traditional animation.

On May 29, 1941, during the production on Dumbo, much of the Disney studio staff went on strike . The strike lasted five weeks, and ended the family atmosphere and camaraderie at the studio. A number of the strikers are caricatured into this film as the clowns who want to put Dumbo at risk for their own gain and go to hit the big boss for a raise. Timothy Mouse was voiced by Edward Brophy, a character actor known for portraying gangsters who has no other known animation voice credits. The pompous matriarch of the elephants was voiced by Verna Felton , who would later play the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella and Flora from Sleeping Beauty . Other voice actors include the perennial Sterling Holloway in a cameo role as Mr. Stork , and Cliff Edwards , better previously known for voicing Jiminy Cricket , as Jim Crow, the leader of the crows. To save costs, watercolor paint was used to render the backgrounds. Dumbo and Snow White are the only two classic Disney features to use the technique, which was regularly employed for the various Disney animated shorts. The other Disney features used oil paint and gouache.

2002's Lilo & Stitch , a simple, emotional story with influences from Dumbo, also made use of watercolor backgrounds. Trivia Spike.com ranks the circus 6th in their list The Top 10 Hollywood Villains Who Got Totally Screwed under the section What people Forget it quotes Wikipedia saying Despite their popularity in zoos… elephants are among the world's most dangerous animals. They can crush and kill any other land animal, even the rhinoceros. They can experience unexpected bouts of rage, and can be vindictive. In Spielberg 's 1979 movie, 1941 , a few clips of Dumbo were seen in a theater, where General Stillwell (played by Robert Stack) goes to, since 1941 was the year Dumbo was released. Story men Joe Grant and Dick Huemer wrote up the film as installments which they left on Walt's desk every morning. After reading them, he would run into the story department saying, "This is great! What happens next?" The movie is considered to be "The most emotional film In Disney history".

It was the first Walt Disney animated feature to be set in America, and the first movie for Sterling Holloway (the Stork) and Verna Felton (the Elephant Matriarch/Mrs. Jumbo). Both would become regulars in Disney animated films for the next thirty-five years. The movie was the first Walt Disney Animated Classic to be released on videocassette. Its first video release was in 1981 for rental only, and put on sale in the summer of 1982. It was then repackaged in 1985 and 1989 and again in 1994. Then it was first released on DVD in 2001 and again in 2006, and the newest release in 2011. Dumbo has never gone out of print, thus considered the longest Disney animated feature on video to be in print since it came out. It is also the top film that has been re-realesed on DVD and VHS in movie history. The name of the circus (seen on a sign as the train leaves the winter headquarters) is WDP Circus ( Walt Disney Productions ).

A direct-to-video sequel was in production but was cancelled due to John Lasseter putting an end to the practice of direct-to-video sequels. Some of the backgrounds were used in The Fox and the Hound 2 . This is the sixth Disney animated classic to have the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo at the end of the movie, on current releases. Release and reaction Dumbo was completed and delivered to Disney's distributor, RKO Radio Pictures, in fall 1941. RKO balked at the fact that the film only ran 64 minutes, and demanded that Walt Disney either: (a.) expand it to 70 minutes or more (b.) edit it to short subject length or (c.) allow RKO to release it as a B-movie . Disney refused all three options, and RKO reluctantly issued Dumbo, unaltered, as an A-film. After its October 31 release, Dumbo proved to be a financial success. The simple film only cost $813,000 to produce, half the cost of Snow White and less than a third of the cost of Pinocchio .

Dumbo eventually grossed $1.3 million during its original release; it and Snow White were the only two pre-1943 Disney features to turn a profit (Barrier, 318). The United States entered World War II in December 1941, reducing the box office draw of the film, which was nevertheless the most financially successful Disney film of the 1940s, thanks to a 1949 rerelease. Dumbo won the 1941 Academy Award for Original Music Score , awarded to musical directors Frank Churchill & Oliver Wallace . Churchill and lyricist Ned Washington were nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Song for Baby Mine, the song that plays during Dumbo's visit to his mother's cell. The film also won Best Animation Design at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival. The film's simplicity and charm have made it the favorite Disney film of many people, including film and animation historian Leonard Maltin. Of particular note is the Pink Elephants on Parade sequence, which depicts Dumbo and Timothy's drunken hallucinations. The sequence was the first venture into surrealism for a narrative Disney film, taking its cue from the experimental Fantasia .

The sequence essentially breaks all of the "rules" that the Disney animators had lived by for creating realistic animation over the previous decade: pink, polka-dot, and plaid elephants dance, sing, and morph into an number of various objects. The design of the sequence is highly stylized, and many of the artists who worked on it were the younger artists at the studio who joined the picket line in May 1941 and eventually would become the nucleus of United Productions of America, the most influential animation studio of the 1950s. The crow characters in the film are in fact African-American caricatures; the leader crow voiced by Caucasian Cliff Edwards is officially named Jim Crow. The other crows are voiced by African-American actors, all members of the Hall Johnson Choir. Though Dumbo is often criticized for the inclusion of the black crows, it is notable that they are the only truly sympathetic characters in the film outside of Dumbo, his mother and Timothy. They apologize for picking on the elephant, and they are in fact the ones that help Timothy teach Dumbo to fly. The roustabout scene which features African American laborers largely in shadow and singing a working song that many find offensive has drawn similar complaints.

The film received another distinction of note in 1980, when it was the first of Disney's canon of animated films to be released on home video. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of the critics gave the film a positive review based on 37 reviews. Home media China : July 12 , 1989 (Beijing) Difference Between the Film and the Novel In the original story, Mrs. Jumbo's original name was Ella. She wasn't locked away after defending her son from some bullies. A character named Jack the elephant trainer would announce the pyramid of pachyderms, not the Ringmaster. Timothy Mouse was originally Red the Robin. There was also Professor Hoot Owl, who taught him how to fly instead of the Crows. Ella named her baby just Jumbo, not Jumbo Jr. The Gossipy Elephants praised him for his big ears instead of shunning him. Dumbo was thrown into a donkey car by Jack and the Ringmaster, and on his pail they've crossed out J into a D for Dumbo, different from the elephants immediately renaming him Dumbo. He does talk in the novel, but not the film.

Proposed Sequel In 2001, the "60th Anniversary Edition" VHS and DVD of Dumbo featured a sneak peek of Dumbo II , including new character designs and storyboards. Robert C. Ramirez (Joseph: King of Dreams) was to direct the sequel, in which Dumbo and his circus friends navigated a large city after being left behind by their traveling circus. Dumbo II also sought to explain what happened to Dumbo's father, Mr. Jumbo. Dumbo's circus friends included the chaotic twin bears Claude and Lolly, the curious zebra Dot, the older, independent hippo Godfry, and the adventurous ostrich Penny. The animals were metaphors for the different stages of childhood. Dumbo II was supposed to be set on the day immediately following the end of the first Dumbo movie. John Lasseter cancelled Dumbo II soon after being named Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006. Other appearances Dumbo appears in the first Kingdom Hearts game as a summon spell. When Sora is riding him, Dumbo is invulnerable and sprays water at the enemies (which counts as ice magic). When the time limit expires, Dumbo disappears.

Sometimes Dumbo's friend Timothy help play the tuba in the Mickey Mouse Revue . Dumbo makes a cameo appearance in the Toy Shop in The Great Mouse Detective as a toy that blows bubbles from his nose. References Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503759-6 . Maltin, Leonard (180, updated 1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-452-25993-2 . External links Edward Copeland's Tangents: The Little Elephant with the Big Ears The Little Elephant with the Big Ears By Damian Arlyn Dumbo, which celebrates its 70th anniversary today, was Walt Disney Studio's fourth animated feature and its first to be based on something other than a traditional fairy tale, folk story or fable.

Although Walt Disney's debut picture, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was a huge critical and commercial success, his following two films (the wonderful Pinocchio and the boldly experimental yet wildly uneven Fantasia ) were unfortunately box office failures. Consequently, Dumbo — with its simpler animation, less ambitious storytelling and truncated length (at 67 minutes, one of Disney's shortest features) — was primarily an attempt to recoup much of the money lost on the company's two preceding efforts. While it is not perhaps the masterpiece that Pinocchio may be, it is deservedly a classic. It is a charming and heartwarming little parable told with sincerity, humor and a surprising amount of emotion, as corny as that may sound. I watched it often as a kid, and I have to confess that upon revisiting it recently, I was genuinely surprised by how moving it still is. The story for Dumbo has perhaps the most unique origin of any Disney film.

It began as a children's story, written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for something called a "Roll-A-Book." While I've personally never even heard of this item before now, a little Internet research reveals that it was a novelty toy, similar to a panorama, composed of only eight drawings and a few lines of text. Apparently Disney first discovered this children's trinket in 1939 and initially intended it to be a short film, though he eventually expanded it to feature length. Given its somewhat inauspicious beginnings, it's no surprise that Dumbo's story is simple, but it is nonetheless an effective one. In a nameless traveling circus, a maternally inclined elephant named Mrs.

Jumbo receives a special delivery from the stork (amusingly voiced by a pre-Winnie the Pooh Sterling Holloway): a baby son whom she calls "Jumbo, Jr." Although he is first fawned over by the other elephants, once it is learned that the little guy has abnormally large ears, he's immediately labeled a "freak" and treated rather cruelly, given the derisive moniker of "Dumbo." Naturally, his mother is the only one who loves and cares for him, but when she tries to protect him from a group of nasty teenagers, giving a much-needed spanking to one in particular, she's considered dangerous and is consequently ripped away from Dumbo and locked up. Things look pretty bleak for Dumbo, but with the help of a loyal circus mouse named Timothy and a group of sympathetic crows, Dumbo soon discovers a rather singular hidden talent: he can fly.

His enormous ears, which previously had been the cause of his misery, become the secret to his success, or as Timothy aptly puts it, "The very things that held you down are gonna carry you up and up and up!" Dumbo subsequently wows audiences, captivates the world, reaps fame and fortune, gains acceptance, wins the release of his mother and is reunited with her for a joyous happy ending. Confession time: although I watched Dumbo frequently in my youth (along with just about every other Disney movie), it was never one of my favorites. I enjoyed it well enough — especially the character of Timothy, with his thick Brooklyn accent and powerful sense of justice (seriously, with a friend like him, you don't need any more friends) — but the whole thing just seemed very light to me at the time. Watching it now I can see why I might have thought that. Naturally the animation is lovely, but in an attempt to keep costs down so the film could turn a profit, it's done in a far simpler, less detailed fashion than Disney's usual output from that period; indeed, at times it almost resembles a Fleischer cartoon more than a Disney.

The backgrounds, though bright and colorful, are rendered in watercolors. Also, one of the most interesting characteristics of the film, which I can fully appreciate now, was one that I didn't care for when as a kid — namely, that the film's protagonist never speaks. Although Disney is iconic for anthropomorphizing animals in films such as Pinocchio, Bambi and even this one (interesting that all the other elephants have lots of dialogue), Dumbo's two main characters never speak. Except for a brief moment where Mrs. Jumbo tells the stork the intended name of her new arrival, Dumbo and his mom always look, sound and more or less act like real elephants, and I just wasn't as impressed by that as a youngster as I am now. In fact, all of the scenes between mother and son, which kind of bored me as a boy, now are the most emotionally resonant scenes in the picture. Of course, Dumbo is not without its flaws. Everyone remembers "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White or "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio, but Dumbo's songs, with the possible exception of the Oscar-nominated "Baby Mine," are pleasant enough but not especially memorable.

Furthermore, in recent years some rather serious charges of racism have been leveled at the film for, among other things, its portrayal of the gang of crows who help Dumbo learn to fly as a bunch of jive-talkin' black stereotypes. (Ironic for a movie that is essentially a condemnation of prejudice.) In spite of these shortcomings, however, Dumbo turned out to be the huge hit that everyone hoped for and, as I mentioned earlier, has become a classic and a hallmark in animation. It also is, ostensibly, Disney's personal favorite of his animated features.

Since very little can be said about the film that hasn't already been said in the 70 years that have elapsed since its release, I'll finish this anniversary tribute with a list of moments that I love from it (or that simply stood out to me during my most recent viewing): There's an amusing reference to "The Little Engine That Could" early on in the film when the circus train tries desperately to make it over a steep hill, the whole time chanting "I think I can, I think I can." The gag with the stork nearly losing the baby bundle within a cloud was re-used by Disney in Mary Poppins The first glimpse of Dumbo has to be just about the cutest thing I've ever seen on film. The animators wisely modeled the movements of the baby elephant after that of a newborn human child. Mrs. Jumbo's normally blue eyes turning red when she defends her son is a subtlety I don't think I ever picked up on before. Timothy's claim that "Lots of people with big ears are famous" is clearly a reference to Disney himself. The clown act, which always was my favorite sequence as a kid, now seems too broad and silly to be funny.

Along with the "Heffalump and Woozle" nightmare from Winnie the Pooh, which it very much resembles, the pink elephant number spooked me as a kid. Looking at it now, it just seems like a strange and almost out of place sequence that features some stunning and delightfully surreal animation. Without IMDb, I never would have figured out that the leader of the crows (unwisely named "Jim") was voiced by Cliff Edwards, a.k.a. Jiminy Cricket. However, I think I might've known, on some kind of deeper instinctual level, that the "leader" of the other female elephants was Verna Felton, a.k.a. the Queen of Hearts. I love the gag where Dumbo, having flown for the first time, lands on the telephone wires, and as far off as the eye can see, the poles buckle under his weight. The climax where Dumbo loses the "magic feather" while falling and Timothy pleads with him to open his ears to fly on his own is just as suspenseful and inspiring a moment as when Luke's about to destroy the Death Star at the conclusion of Star Wars.

Dumbo by Samuel Armstrong, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney |Samuel Armstrong, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney | 786936793192 | DVD | Barnes & Noble® Menu Overview The shortest of Disney's major animated features Dumbo involves a baby elephant with unusually large ears. Ostracized from the rest of the circus animals, poor Dumbo is even separated from his mother, who is chained up in a separate cage after trying to defend her child. Only brash-but-lovable Timothy Mouse offers the hand of friendship to Dumbo, encouraging the pouty pachyderm to exploit his "different" qualities for fame and fortune. After trepidatiously indulging in a vat of booze, Dumbo awakens in a tall tree. Goaded by a group of jive-talking crows, Dumbo discovers that his outsized ears have given him the ability to fly. The musical score by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace won Oscars for them both.

Advertising Editorial Reviews Barnes & Noble - Donald Liebenson Walt Disney 's fourth animated feature soars to new heights on this digitally remastered "60th Anniversary Edition" VHS and, for the first time, on DVD. This was Walt's favorite of his animated features (or so he claims in his introduction to the film's first TV broadcast, which is included on the DVD). Exquisitely simple, Dumbo tells the touching and triumphant story of the young circus elephant whose oversize ears mark him as a "Freak!" to other pachyderms. But thanks to his mother's love and the friendship of Timothy J. Mouse, he discovers that the very thing that holds him down will lift him up to become "the 9th wonder of the Universe" and the circus's star attraction.

Listen for Sterling Holloway ( Winnie-the-Pooh ) as the weighted-down stork who delivers Dumbo; and wrestle with your sense of the politically correct as jive-talking crows sing one of the film's signature songs, "When I See an Elephant Fly." The Oscar-winning score also includes the heartbreaking "Baby Mine" and the surreal "Pink Elephants on Parade," two classic sequences that rank high among Disney's most inspired. The archival goodies included on the 60th Anniversary DVD editions are true treasures: There are several illuminating segments that chart the film's production, as well as insightful and meticulous commentary by animator and historian John Canemaker. Kids will enjoy two vintage "Silly Symphony" cartoons, two sing-alongs, and a DVD storybook. This is the definitive Dumbo -- pure and primal entertainment your family will never forget. Product Details 10 Pop Culture Elephants (Plus 4 Reasonable Facsimiles) | Mental Floss 10 Pop Culture Elephants (Plus 4 Reasonable Facsimiles) Image credit: Like us on Facebook You'd have to look far and wide to find a child who doesn't like elephants!

An animal so big, so extreme, and which comes with a nose that can do things was destined to be a pop culture favorite. Here are some the "biggest" elephant characters, past and present. 10. Elmer Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is the star of a series of popular children's books by David McKee. First published in 1989, the books focus on how it's okay to be different. The Elmer books were turned into a series on British television. Elmer was also the name of an elephant puppet who appeared on Chicago TV in the 50s and 60s. 9. Shep In the 1967 TV series George of the Jungle Shep was George's "pet". The comically stupid title character thought Shep was a dog and treated him as such. Shep responds by acting like a dog. Shep also appeared in the 2007 version of the TV show and in the live-action 1997 movie. 8.

Snorky Snorky is a member of The Banana Splits Club , a musical group of four costumed characters in The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, a TV show that aired from 1968 to 1970. The series was put back into production for The Cartoon Network in 2008. 7. Colonel Hathi Hathi is an older elephant who leads an elephant clan in the Indian jungle of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. In the 1967 Disney movie, he is called Colonel Hathi as he drills his troop of elephants and tries to relive his younger days in the Maharajah's service. The word hathi means "elephant" in Hindi. 6. Manny Manfred , one of the main characters in the Ice Age movies is a woolly mammoth, an extinct member of the elephant family that roamed North America and Europe until about 10,000 years ago (a small subspecies survived until 1700 BC).

In the second movie of the series, Ice Age: The Meltdown , Manny fears he is the only one of his species left until he finds a mate, and later on encounters a small herd of mammoths. 5. Stampy Bart Simpson won Stampy the elephant in a radio contest. His life as a pet didn't last long, but everyone remembers Stampy. He appeared in three episodes of The Simpsons TV show and The Simpsons Movie, and is also referred to in other episodes. 4. Tantor Ungawa! Tantor , a word meaning "elephant" is the elephant that Tarzan calls when he needs to stomp something flat, or catch a ride through an area with no vines to swing on. Tantor appeared in the original Edgar Rice Burroughs books, various live-action films, and in Disney's animated Tarzan movies. 3. Babar Babar is an orphan elephant who grew up to be king of the forest after his education by humans in the big city. He and his wife/cousin Celeste raise a family and teach them life lessons through their adventures. The series of French children's books by Jean de Brunhoff began in 1931.

Brunhoff wrote seven Babar books before his death in 1937, and his son Laurent de Brunhoff continues the series to this day. 2. Dumbo Dumbo , the title character of the 1941 Disney feature film, was born with abnormally large ears. He is ridiculed for his deformity until the other elephants learn he can use those ears to fly! Like Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, the story of Dumbo shows children that it's okay to be different. The film is also known for the tear-inducing separation of a child from its mother , which is a recurring thread in most Disney classics. 1. Horton Dr. Seuss' elephant Horton appeared in two of his books, Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940 and Horton Hears a Who! in 1954. In both books, Horton endures ridicule and hardship in order to do the helpful and ethical thing with no promise of a reward. Despite the facts that the book contained barely 2,000 words, Horton Hears a Who was adapted into a feature film in 2008.

Then there are the characters who are supposed to be some other kind of animal, but we recognize them as elephants anyway. Mr. Snuffleupagus Mr. Aloysius Snuffleupagus is known to his friends on Sesame Street as Snuffy. In his first two seasons on the show, adult humans never saw Snuffy, leading the audience to believe he only existed in Big Bird's imagination. The Snuffleupagus species differs from the elephant in their lack of big ears. Heffalumps Heffalumps (along with Woozles) were originally part of Tigger's tall tale which became shape-shifting elephantine goblins that haunted Winnie the Pooh'sÂ dreams . The Heffalump cartoon dream sequence is reminiscent of Pink Elephants on Parade from the movie Dumbo. The Heffalumps finally got their own movie in 2005 called, surprisingly enough, Pooh's Heffalump Movie . In this adventure, the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood get to know a young Heffalump named Lumpy and make friends.

Banthas In the Star Wars universe, Banthas are huge beasts of burden used on the desert planet Tatooine, and exist on other planets as well. Banthas are covered in fur, have no trunk, and sport curly horns instead of tusks. An Asian elephant named Mardji played a Bantha in the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Oliphaunts Oliphaunts (also known as mÃ»makil ) are beasts from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth that appear to be elephants but are many times the size of everyday elephants. They are seen used in battle in the second and third movies of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Dumbo / Disney - TV Tropes Alcohol Is LSD : " Pink Elephants on Parade ". All of the Other Reindeer : All the other elephants ostracize Dumbo on the account of his large ears. The four Gossiping Elephants are unnamed in the film, but the model sheets label them as "Catty", "Giddy", "Prissy", and "Matriarch". The big-eared kid who teased Dumbo was named "Skinny". The leader crow's name is "Jim".

(Doubling as a Stealth Pun .) Animals Lack Attributes : Played straight to the point where all animals have to rely entirely on delivery storks in order for them to have offspring. Animate Inanimate Object : Casey Jr., the train. He has eyes, and the various sounds he makes form words. "All ABOOOOOARD! Let's go!" Animal Talk : Played straight for the most part, but Timothy Mouse is able to communicate with a human who is sleeping. And he's seen acting as Dumbo's (apparently official) manager in the end, even signing contracts for him. Animated Musical Anachronism Stew : The real Jumbo died in a railway accident in 1885, the movie takes place in then present day 1941. Either Mrs. Jumbo was waiting for a very long time or something funny was going on with the writers. Anti-Villain : The Ringmaster is touted as 'main antagonist', but most of his controversial acts like locking Mrs. Jumbo and sending Dumbo to the clowns were all to maintain and protect his circus and every other animals there.

He also would try to honor Dumbo's attempts to get his mother free, but Dumbo screwed up the first one, and after he spectacularly succeeded, he kept his word and gave Dumbo and his mother a well-deserved luxury. Artistic License ï¿½ Biology : Dumbo's enormous ears would seriously lower his body temperature to potentially fatal levels. Artistic License ï¿½ Engineering : When Dumbo sits on the power lines, he's perfectly unharmed. Birds are able to do this because they normally only sit on one wire at a time and as electricity follows the path of least resistance will not pass through the bird. Dumbo sits on every wire at once and therefore has no excuse why he wasn't electrocuted. Butt Monkey : Dumbo, big time. Buzzing the Deck : Twice. First Dumbo buzzed the clowns in the arena the first time he showcases his flying skills in public. He does it again at the end with him flying low over the heads of everyone who harassed and made fun of him. Buzz Job : The climax has him showing off his new abilities by flying low over the heads of everyone who harassed and made fun of him.

Censorship by Spelling : The elephants use this when describing Dumbo . "Just look at those... look... E-A-R-S..." "It's all the fault of that little F-R-E-A-K." Children Are Cruel : The monstrous brats who taunt Dumbo. Children Are Innocent : Dumbo to the extreme, since he's so young. He doesn't even understand when others are laughing at him. Creepy Circus Music : The first part of " Pink Elephants on Parade " is a circus march played in a minor key, and made even more frightening by the surrealism of the scene. When the singing starts ("Look out! Look out! Pink elephants on parade!") the brass and xylophone are replaced by a circus-esque organ. Clever Crows : The crows here are friendly, comedic characters who are at first derisive but then help Dumbo discover his ability to fly (the Magic Feather was their idea). Cool Train : Casey Jr. Cute Mute : Dumbo never says a word in the entire film; he just looks mournful or happy when appropriate. Which is fitting, seeing as how he's, well, a baby. Dark Reprise : The Casey Jr.

song after the Pyramid of Pachyderms disaster. Delivery Stork : Dumbo is delivered this way. Deranged Animation : "Pink Elephants On Parade". Didn't Think This Through : Timothy really didn't think through his plan to make Dumbo a star via the Pyramid act. Disappeared Dad : Dumbo is originally named after him, and his mother sounds wistful when she reveals this, but that's the extent we know of him. Disaster Dominoes : Dumbo does this to a gigantic tower of adult elephants which ends up collapsing the circus tent! Disney Acid Sequence : "Pink Elephants On Parade", marking it an early example of the Disney Acid Sequence. Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off : Dumbo's mother administers a sound spanking to the backside of a boy who picks on Dumbo. Drunken Song : "We're Gonna Hit the Big Boss For a Raise". Early-Bird Cameo : Casey Jr. (or a prototype of him) makes an appearance in the previously released Disney film The Reluctant Dragon . Earn Your Happy Ending : After all the abuse Dumbo went through, having him become a worldwide sensation after buzzing his tormentors under the big top was so sweet.

Ears as Hair : Before he tries to participate in the pachyderm pyramid trick, Dumbo's ears are tied above his head so he won't stumble on them. Guess what happens while he's running out to the spring board. Eek, a Mouse!! : Timothy takes full advantage of this. Fat Bitch : While elephants are naturally large animals, the matriarch is noticeably fatter than the other elephants. Flanderization : The ringmaster in the movie wasn't necessarily an outright villain, just yet another human jerkass. But he's upgraded to being the main antagonist for Dumbo in Disney's Villains' Revenge . Innocent Blue Eyes : Dumbo has big baby-blue eyes. Irony : When you think about it, Dumbo could've made the Pyramid of Pachyderms act a success if he had discovered his gift of flying beforehand. Jerkasses : The other circus elephants, the clowns, the ringmaster, the boys that make fun of Dumbo. Nearly every character besides Dumbo, Mrs. Jumbo, and Timothy is one. Asshole Victim : One of the kids making fun of Dumbo gets grabbed and spanked by Mrs. Jumbo (though he is not killed).

Jerks With Hearts of Gold : The crows. Their song was more mocking of Timothy's notion of a flying elephant (and it's easy to see how one could be mistaken). They were making fun of him a lot more than Dumbo. Also, they're willing to apologize when Timothy tells them off, and help Dumbo learn how to fly. Killer Gorilla : Amusingly subverted during the circus parade: a gorilla ferociously shakes the bars of his cage, roaring at the audience. But when he accidentally loosens one of the bars, he gets embarrassed and puts the bar back to its place, implying that his ferocity was just part of his circus act. Large Ham : Timothy at times. The Ringmaster too. Literal Metaphor : The pink elephant parade, given that "pink elephant" was a decades-old expression for a drunken hallucination. Literary Agent Hypothesis : At the very end of the film, one of the Spinning Paper newspapers announces that (the now famous) Dumbo's manager (Timothy Mouse) has struck a Hollywood deal. Lost in Translation : The whole meaning of the name "Dumbo" and the Visual Pun regarding the crows is lost for non-English speaking audiences.

Mean Character, Nice Actor : In-Universe with one of the circus gorillas; see Killer Gorilla above. Meaningful Name : In a bit of Fridge Brilliance , the mute main character is nicknamed Dumbo. Dumb used to mean "unable to speak." The Mountains of Illinois : Or Florida in this case, as the movie depicts Florida as having mountains. In Real Life , Florida is one of the US states that doesn't have mountains. Mushroom Samba : "Pink Elephants On Parade". Mysterious Middle Initial : We never learn what the "Q." in Timothy's name stands for. Nearly Normal Animal : The circus animals know the routine of setting up and performing a show. The elephants even work as a team to help pitch the main tent without any obvious handling or guidance. Only Known by Their Nickname : Dumbo. His name is actually Jumbo Jr. Ostrich Head Hiding : During the Baby Be Mine segment the camera shows a shot of the circus animals taking a rest at night, including a mother ostrich and her two baby birds, sticking their heads underneath the sand.

Papa Wolf : While he may not be a papa, or a wolf ( since he's a mouse ), Timothy sticks up for Dumbo by scaring the elephants tormenting him and yelling at the crows for constantly laughing at him...thus making the latter nicer . Pink Elephants : Featured in the most famous part of the film. And no, this film is not the Trope Namer —the phrase existed long before this film was conceived. This film just made a Visual Pun out of it. Protagonist Title Protest Song : Again, "We're Gonna Hit the Big Boss For a Raise". "The Reason You Suck" Speech : Timothy gives one to the crows when they pick on Dumbo. They realize the error of their ways and proceed to be encouraging and supportive of him for the rest of the movie. Red Eyes, Take Warning : Mrs. Jumbo's eyes turn red when defending Dumbo. Repulsive Ringmaster : Downplayed. While the ringmaster is rather mean, he's not exactly evil. The Speechless : Dumbo. Synthetic Voice Actor : Casey Junior's voice is a warbled robotic voice; this is because Margaret White spoke through a voice vocoder.

Take That : The drunken clowns planning to hit up the boss for a raise is a dig aimed at the animators who went on strike — and succeeded in making Disney a union shop. The Disney character encyclopedia writer, John Grant, noted that the analogy doesn't make sense when you realize that the apparent leader of the circus in the film, The Ringmaster, is not depicted as being anything like Disney. Totem Pole Trench : After the clowns perform their first performance with Dumbo when he was demoted to a clown, we see silhouettes of the clowns backstage getting out of their costumes. One of the clowns turns out to be two short people stacked on top of each other. Trailers Always Spoil : All the advertisement for this movie gave away the fact that Dumbo could fly. See the poster image. Triumphant Reprise : "When I See an Elephant Fly" gets two reprises, both of which celebrate Dumbo's flight. Truth in Television : Elephants do in fact live in herds consisting of females, with male elephants typically being solitary or visiting other males.

Walt Disney Dumbo HD Part 1 - Videos - Metatube Walt Disney Dumbo HD Part 1 by McLOVIN 2010-05-22T16:05:17+00:00 Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a novelty toy ("Roll-a-Book").[1] The... main character is Jumbo Jr., a semi-anthropomorphic elephant who is cruelly nicknamed Dumbo. He is ridiculed for his big ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using his ears as wings. Throughout most of the film, his only true friend, aside from his mother, is the mouse, Timothy — a relationship parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants. Read more

Question: What animated Disney movie featured an elephant with big ears?
Answer: Dumbo