American, animated
color
Directed by Samuel Armstrong and like five other people
Starring voice talents of Edward Brophy, Sterling Holloway, James Baskett
(watched in the theater the first time I saw it, and on VHS and DVD after that)
The Plot Basically Breaks Down Like This:
So the animals at the circus all get visits from the stork, including Mrs Jumbo the elephant who is given her very own little bundle of giant-eared joy. She loves him as mothers will but the others at the circus make fun of him cause of his great honking ears. After a particularly bad episode where mommy sticks up for Dumbo, she is locked away and he is turned into a clown (which is just about the most humiliating thing EVER for an elephant I guess). Eventually Dumbo makes one good friend in a smart-mouthed mouse, and together they drink some boozy soap, have a few laughs, and learn how to fly. Hey, why not, it's a Disney movie after all, right?
My Thoughts Basically Break Down Like This:
I have never particularly liked Dumbo. I saw it when I was little and found it in turns boring, upsetting, and weird. As I got older I tried to see the good in it, but really it just continued to piss me off. That little elephant is so dang cute and so dang sweet and almost everyone is so dang mean to him that I just want to punch the damn TV screen. I'm sure we all learn important lessons from watching a film like this, about tolerance and acceptance and blah blah blah, but it still pisses me off. Dumbo shouldn't have to learn to fly and shoot peanuts at meanie heads and wow the dang audience just to get people to like him. So his ears are huge, so what? He is still adorable and just wants to be loved and I hatehatehate that everyone treats him so poorly (hello childhood where I was picked on, I guess I'm channeling some leftover feelings from you).
Moving on from my emotional rant, there are a few other elements of Dumbo that keep it from topping my list of fave Disney flicks. Unlike some of the animated features made over the years, this one does not exactly hold up over time. Sure the pink elephant scene is amusing (and bizarre and trippy and all kinds of weird things) but little kids getting drunk on boozy soap isn't exactly something we should all be laughing over. And the crows that teach Dumbo how to fly are more than just a little bit ... um, racist? Yeah. So while I cry every time at the scene where Mrs Jumbo rocks her little bundle of joy through the door of her prison car and all the baby animals snuggle in with their mommies to sleep and that sad sad Baby Mine song plays, this will never be a film I pop in my DVD player when I'm just looking for something to watch. I'll pick The Black Cauldron with its kettle full of re-animated dead people or Mulan with a heroine who saves all of freaking China first any day.
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