Although Walt Disney Studios had a lot of clout after the release of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the company was a lumbering giant plunged into financial hardship with the box office failure of both “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia” during the war. Like in the movie “Dumbo,” the big top needed a sweet, weird and tiny little hero to save the day.
“Dumbo” was little more than Disney’s cash cow (or elephant) when it was released in 1941. The movie was made cheaply, and at only 63 minutes long, was notoriously short to be released as an A-Picture. And although it’s an adorable film, you can see it doesn’t have the same nuanced, dark edges as its earlier, more innovative counterparts.
Rather, “Dumbo” is pure storybook fantasy intended for the littlest of toddlers. The colors are prominently primary and bright, the words “Florida” are written on an overhead view of the state, and a train yelps and jumps along with cartoonish creativity more befitting one of Disney’s original shorts.
Thankfully then the subject is ideal for young children. Without too many words on the whole, “Dumbo” familiarly visualizes for kids and parents the stages of early development as seen from a toddler’s eyes. Little Dumbo has double vision and instant love at the first sight of his mother, Mrs. Jumbo. We see him taking baths, scurrying in fear of the rain, and being laughed at for reasons he can’t comprehend. Even the WASPy elephants who spend their afternoons cattily gossiping may be familiar sights for a child of the ’30s and ’40s.
Rudely nicknamed Dumbo because of his giant ears and cast out by the snotty elephants, we feel a lot of pity for Dumbo because he’s a character never given a voice but is no doubt anthropomorphized. Even the chaotic scenes inside the circus tent are punctuated with a bit of pathos. And yet “Dumbo’s” plight never feels as depressing as Bambi’s, nor is it as jaded and twisted as Pinocchio’s. “Dumbo” on a whole is much glossier, sweeter and adorable.
The plus side of this however is that we get absolutely precious scenes like Betty Noyes (best known as Debbie Reynolds’s dubbed singing voice in “Singin’ in the Rain”) performing the Oscar nominated “Baby Mine.” The song beautifully captures the perfect essence of a mother’s love for a child, all of it encapsulated in a few images of animals and Dumbo rocking soundly in his mother’s trunk.
And yet even when Disney is phoning it in, The Pink Elephants number is a fine example of Disney’s longstanding commitment to experiment and innovate with surreal color, music and moods. The animation is simple, strange and formless, the sequence is barely attached to the main plot, the staging is hyper kinetic and full of jazzy activity that seems ahead of its time. The kaleidoscope patterns and gracefully cel-shaded figures are infectiously nightmarish. It’s an absolutely brilliant sequence, and enough to mostly lessen the blow of the questionably racist ragtime (Jim) crows to come after.
“Dumbo” is a film about growing up and doing the thing you never thought possible. It’s not as iconic or daring as some of its counterparts, but it proves that even when Disney was average, they were still lovely.