![]() Making up for them is Ed Brophy as Timothy, a motormouth with big ideas and a big heart, who takes Dumbo in and sticks up for him. ![]() Dumbo himself almost never utters a word, and likewise Mrs Jumbo, apart from naming her baby in the opening and singing in the central Baby Mine sequence (although this is sung over this moment to convey emotion and is not lip-synced to her character directly). Then there is the animation itself which, while not as delicately detailed as Pinocchio or Fantasia, still feels fully “alive”, with great special effects (such as the train Casey Jr’s night-time journey with all those multiplaned backgrounds and perfectly placed shadows), and brilliant invention – the famous Pink Elephants sequence wherein Dumbo and Timothy get drunk is worth the price of admission alone! Most of Dumbo’s success is down to its deceptively simply story, but there is also so much more to enjoy in Dumbo – the bright circus colors and atmosphere, the authentic hijinks of the clowns, and the music, by Disney staffers Ned Washington, Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Dumbo proved that a full animated feature (albeit slightly less in length that usual) could also be done as fast, with the pre-production time helping the actual animation process come in on time and under budget, in just one year of actual production. The Reluctant Dragon, a live action tour around the Disney Studio lot, which included several featurettes woven throughout the film, was an attempt to turn around a quality film quickly, but it was none too successful on its first release. With such a simplistic plot, the animators had time to pepper Dumbo with much more of the cartoon sensibility that had been lacking from Walt’s recent feature animation output. ![]() During this time, the film was brought into shape, eliminating at an early stage any un-needed elements and providing a tight structure that meant Dumbo could be put into animation quickly. ![]() Based on a short story by children’s authors Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, Walt considered producing Dumbo as a featurette, before Huemer and Grant’s treatment persuaded him otherwise. In script and storyboard production for six months, the entire story was honed and toned by a number of studio story men, including Dick Huemer and the legendary Joe Grant. Lost and alone, the little elephant is befriended by Timothy Mouse, a wisecracking rodent with a brainwave idea – maybe Dumbo could become the world’s first and only flying elephant! With the aid of a cynical bunch of crows, Dumbo and Timothy triumph, putting everyone else in the circus back in their places and saving Mrs Jumbo in the process!Ĭoming bang on film’s actual 60th Anniversary, this DVD of Disney’s most simple (and that’s a compliment) cartoon feature arrived with little fanfare, but with many new bonus extras that will please fans.Īfter the mega success of Snow White in 1937, and the then less than stellar box office runs of Pinocchio and Fantasia (partly based on the cutting off of revenue from foreign markets involved in the Second World War), Walt was looking for simpler entertainment that would take folks’ thoughts away from the carnage and destruction that was going on in Europe, and that would soon affect the American way of life as well. Dumbo is made part of the clown act as the brunt of the comic characters’ jokes. When the circus hits a new town and the local boys also make fun of her baby, Mrs Jumbo finally breaks and attacks one of the kids, leading to her eventual incarceration. Ridiculed by the other elephants due to his oversized ears, this Jumbo Junior is soon re-christened Dumbo and both he and Mrs Jumbo are ignored. Walt Disney Productions (October 23 1941), Walt Disney Home Entertainment (October 23 2001), single disc, 64 mins plus supplements, 1.33:1 original full frame ratio, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Rated G, Retail: $29.99 Storyboard:īrought to a thriving circus by a postman-style delivery stork, a little elephant finds his home with Mrs Jumbo, one of a posse of pachyderms.
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