Dumbo

Dumbo is the fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney, and first released on October 23, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. The main character is Jumbo Jr., an anthropomorphic elephant who is cruelly nicknamed Dumbo. more...

He is ridiculed for his big ears, but it turns out that he is capable of flying by using them as wings. His only friend is the mouse Timothy, parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants. Dumbo was a deliberate exercise in simplicity and economy for the Disney studio, and is today considered one of its finest films.

Story

The film takes place in a circus setting, ostensibly in present-day 1941, and begins with a formation of storks delivering newborn offspring to the various circus animals. Mrs. Jumbo's baby is delivered to her belatedly by a mixed-up stork, but the baby is well received by the other elephants until the size of his ears is revealed. The elephant, named Jumbo Jr. by his mother, is immediately renamed "Dumbo" by the gossipy, giggly female elephants, who regard both mother and son as outcasts. The consequences of this were painful, as Mrs Jumbo slammed the shutter on their heads. The two get along fine without them, however, until Mrs Jumbo tries to defend Dumbo, but Dumbo is grabbed by his ankles, and is pulled away from her while she is imprisoned.

Timothy subliminally convinces the circus ringmaster to set up a "pyramid of pachyderms," to the top of which Dumbo will jump (using a springboard). The act goes horribly wrong, the big top falls to the ground, the other elephants are seriously injured, and Dumbo is unceremoniously demoted to being a clown. Dumbo's clown act involves him falling from a platform in a dramatized fire rescue into a vat of pie filling. The audience reacts well to the act, and the clowns decide to alter the act for the next show so that Dumbo falls from a platform many times higher than the original one.

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