Description
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures. Dumbo, the fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a novelty toy (“Roll-a-Book”). The main character is Jumbo Jr., a semi-anthropomorphic elephant who is cruelly nicknamed “Dumbo”. 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. Dumbo was made to recoup the financial losses of Fantasia. It was a deliberate pursuit of simplicity and economy for the Disney studio, and at 64 minutes, it is one of Disney’s shortest animated features. A stork delivers babies while circus animals are being transported, by train. Mrs. Jumbo, one of the elephants, receives her baby who is soon taunted by the other (female) elephants because of his large ears, and they nickname him “Dumbo”. Once the circus is set up, Mrs. Jumbo loses her temper at a group of boys for making fun of her son, so she is locked up and deemed mad. Dumbo is shunned by the other elephants and with no mother to care for him, he is now alone. Timothy Q. Mouse, who feels sympathy for Dumbo and becomes determined to make him happy again, appoints himself as Dumbo’s mentor and protector.
A stork delivers babies while circus animals are being transported, by train. Mrs. Jumbo, one of the elephants, receives her baby who is soon taunted by the other (female) elephants because of his large ears, and they nickname him “Dumbo”.
Once the circus is assembled, Mrs. Jumbo loses her temper at a group of boys for bullying of her son, so she is locked up and deemed mad. Dumbo is shunned by the other elephants and with no mother to care for him, he is now alone. Timothy Q. Mouse, who feels sympathy for Dumbo and becomes determined to make him happy again, appoints himself as Dumbo’s mentor and protector.
The title character is Dumbo, the nickname given to Jumbo Jr. He is an elephant who has huge ears and is able to use them to fly, carrying what he thinks of as a magic feather. Like Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Gideon in Pinocchio, Dumbo does not have any spoken dialogue.
When the film went into production in early 1941, supervising director Ben Sharpsteen was given orders to keep the film simple and inexpensive. As a result, Dumbo lacks the lavish detail of the previous three Disney animated features (Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs): character designs are simpler, background paintings are less detailed, and a number of held cels (or frames) were used in the character animation. Although the film is more “cartoony” than previous Disney films the animators brought elephants and other animals into the studio to study their movement.
The simplicity freed the animators from being overly concerned with detail, and allowed them to focus on the most important element of character animation: acting. Bill Tytla’s animation of Dumbo is today considered one of the greatest accomplishments in American animation.
Dumbo won the 1941 Academy Award for Original Music Score, awarded to musical directors Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Churchill and lyricist Ned Washington were also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song for “Baby Mine” (the song that plays during Dumbo’s visit to his mother’s cell), but did not win for this category.
On July 8, 2014, it was announced a live-action remake of Dumbo was in development. Ehren Kruger was confirmed as the screenwriter, and Justin Springer will be the producer as will Kruger.
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