Dumbo (1941)

Even today Walt Disney’s animation mills regularly turn to traditional fairy tales and
familiar folk favourites for inspiration. But Disney’s fourth animated feature, Dumbo, like the
immediately subsequent Bambi, was derived from a relatively low-profile book, which
apparently freed the animators from more standard issue prince-rescues-princess
romanticism.
Dumbo is still awash in sentimentality, but the anthropomorphised leads- Dumbo, the
outcast baby circus elephant whose giant ears and clumsiness make him the object of ridicule,
and Timothy, his worldly rodent companion lend themselves to some joy full chaotic action as
well as some creatively rendered circus sequences. Yet two scenes during Dumbo’s quest for
self-worth stick out above all the rest: the protopsychedelic pink elephant hallucination and
the tender, wrenching meeting between Dumbo and his wrongfully “jailed” mother.
Animation has rarely been as inventive, moving and alive as in these two segments, which are
paired with equally memorable songs. Dumbo’s eventual triumph over adversity, as well as his
reunion with his mother, may be telegraphed from the start, but the film’s emotional arc is so
carefully constructed that the jump-through-the-hoops challenges faced by the pit-upon
elephant only enhance the heart-warming conclusion.

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