Dumbo is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, and illustrated by Helen Durney for the prototype of a novelty toy ("Roll-a-Book"). The main character is Jumbo Jr., an elephant who is cruelly nicknamed "Dumbo", as in "dumb". 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.
Made to recoup the financial losses of both Pinocchio and Fantasia, Dumbo was a deliberate pursuit of simplicity and economy for the Disney studios. At 64 minutes, it is one of Disney's shortest animated features. 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.
Rating[]
Dumbo is rated G by the MPAA, making it the fourth Disney animated film to deserve that rating, after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio and Fantasia.
Cast[]
The cast was uncredited in the opening credits. Here are the voices:
- Frank Welker as Dumbo
- Edward Brophy as Timothy Q. Mouse
- Verna Felton as the Elephant Matriarch and Mrs. Jumbo
- Cliff Edwards as Dandy Crow
- James Baskett as Fats Crow
- Hall Johnson as Deacon Crow
- Jim Carmichael as Dopey Crow
- Nick Stewart as Specks Crow
- Barnett Parker as Specks Crow Yelps (archive sound)
- Herman Bing as the Ringmaster
- Margaret Wright as Casey Junior
- Sterling Holloway as Mr. Stork
- Noreen Gammill as Catty
- Dorothy Scott as Giddy
- Sarah Selby as Prissy
- Malcolm Hutton as Smitty
- John McLeish as the Narrator
- Billy Bletcher and Eddie Holden as Clowns
- Jimmy MacDonald as Lion
- Pinto Colvig as Gorilla
- Billy Sheets as Joe
Music (Original Songs)[]
The songs were uncredited in the opening credits. Here are the songs;
- Look Out for Mr. Stork
- Casey Junior
- Song of the Rustabouts
- Baby Mine
- Pink Elephants on Parade
- When I See an Elephant Fly
Credits[]
Gallery[]
United States[]
First 1941 original release poster
Second 1941 original release poster
Third 1941 original release poster
1949 re-release poster
1959 re-release poster from the Lobby cards
1972 re-release poster
1976 re-release poster
Trivia[]
- The film's copyright was renewed on September 5, 1968.[1]
- Dumbo was supposed to appear on the cover of TIME magazine for the first week of December as their "Animal of the Year", but the December 7 bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese overshadowed him.
- In Steven Spielberg's 1979 movie 1941, a few clips of the film were seen in a theater where General Stillwell (played by Robert Stack) goes to, since that was the same year it 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 film is considered to be "The most emotional film in Disney history".
- According to the newspaper at the end, it should be noted that the setting of the film took place in March 1941, making it the first Disney film to be set in the year it was released. This would not occur again until One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
- It was the first Walt Disney animated feature to be set in America, and the first movie for Sterling Holloway (Mr. Stork) and Verna Felton (the Elephant Matriarch/Mrs. Jumbo). Both would become regulars in Disney animated films for the next thirty-five years.
- The film was the first Walt Disney Animated Classic to be released on videocassette. Its first video release was in June 1981 for rental only, and put on sale in summer 1982. It was then repackaged in November 1985 and September 1989 and again in July 1991 and October 1994. Then it was first released on DVD in 2001 and again in 2006, and the newest release in 2011. It 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-released 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).
- The voice line in the movie from Casey Junior, the train, where he says "all aboard" was originally from the 1941 movie The Reluctant Dragon, which was released in June 1941, on the scene showing the sound recording area of the Walt Disney studios, coincidentally, that film marked Casey's first appearance on the cinema screen as Dumbo wouldn't be released until October.
- The film is the sixth Disney animated classic to have the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo at the end, on current releases.
- In order to keep the audience focused on the animals, only two human characters have their faces clearly visible: the Ringmaster and Smitty, the bully kid. All the others are shown with low quality details or faceless (the various crowds and workers), kept in the dark (the circus builders), hidden under makeup (the clowns) or only visible as silhouettes (the clowns again and Joe).
- The movie has a somewhat circular structure, because it opens with white storks flying and closes with black crows flying in a similar formation.
- This film has more (if not the most) plot changes in printed/book adaptations compared to other Disney films. The amount of changes vary depending on the book, but the most common change usually involves the exclusion of the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence. It would usually be replaced with a scene of Dumbo falling asleep and having a dream about flying, before ending up in the tree the next morning. In addition to this:
- Sometimes, the circus would make Dumbo into a clown after his mother gets locked up and before he meets Timothy.
- Sometimes, Dumbo actually practices flying (resulting in many failed attempts) before he and Timothy get help from the crows. Additionally, Timothy would sometimes get the idea that Dumbo could be able to fly early after they first meet.
- Sometimes, at the end, Dumbo is able to fly perfectly after jumping from the clown platform but loses his feather mid-flight. Like the film, Timothy helps Dumbo to pull himself back up in the air.
- In a few adaptations, Dumbo is not as naïve as he is in the beginning of the film, notably being on the verge of crying after his ears are revealed and the circus elephants give him his nickname. Sometimes, he even has the ability to talk, notably in the Wonderful World of Reading adaptation by Random House in 1978.
- Starting in 2019, by the release of the live-action remake, book adaptations of the original film remove any appearances or references of the Crows.
- As of January 2021, Disney has pulled this film, along with Peter Pan, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Aristocats, from children's profiles on Disney+ due to the "negative connotations concerning racist stereotypes".