Dumbo Reviews

One of Disney's finest films, this simple tale is set in a circus and spotlights a baby elephant, Dumbo, who is mocked and ridiculed because his ears are too big. With the help of his best friend Timothy the mouse and some very hip crows, Dumbo discovers that he can use his gigantic ears to fly and becomes the hit of the circus. The message of the film is spoken by Timothy as he declares to his doubting friend, "The very things that held you down will carry you up and up and up!" A small, flawless gem, DUMBO is one of the shortest animated features Disney ever made and inexpensive to boot, costing less than $1 million (whereas more ambitious films like BAMBI shot well beyond the $2 million mark). A masterpiece of visual story-telling, the film contains relatively little dialogue and Dumbo never speaks; his mother only speaks to him in the song "Baby Mine." Humans are shown in shadows and silhouettes, the animals taking center stage. As with all his major feature-length animation films, Disney made sure that none of the scenes were flat, that blades of grass rippled in the wind and leaves fluttered in the trees. A delight from beginning to end, the film's absolute highlight is the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence in which Dumbo and Timothy hallucinate after accidentally drinking liquor. It took the resourceful Disney craftsman a year and a half to design and execute this stunning achievement of animation art. This was time well spent. The result was an experience--alternately hilarious, thrilling, and heartbreaking--that will appeal to every child in the world and every adult who can still recall the happy world of childhood fantasies and fables. The film won an Oscar for its score and received a nomination for Best Song ("Baby Mine"). Warning to parents: the film contains some objectionable racial caricatures.