The last of the films from Disney’s "classic" age, a group that started with Snow White and is meant to represent the best in Disney animation before it supposedly all went downhill (just like AC/DC with Bon Scott, The West Wing with Aaron Sorkin as head writer, James Bond with Sean Connery, etc) – interesting how no one seems to talk about The Reluctant Dragon when discussing this age.
This one was done on the cheap, has the less detailed animation and only runs 61 minutes. Nonetheless, it’s a masterpiece, chiefly because the story is so simple yet so strong. Dumbo is incredibly appealing, a silent likeable baby elephant who just wants to be loved. So, too, is Dumbo’s mother – you’ll break your heart when the bitchy elephants tease her about the baby and when she goes berserk to protect him later against humans. Few scenes are more satisfying, too, than when Dumbo flies. Timothy the mouse at first seems a bit flat but he grows on you.
Many memorable moments: the antics of the clow, the gorilla who fixes up the broken bar on his cage, the drunken sequence (which at first I thought was padding put turns out to be crucial to the plot). On the issue of racial sensitivity: the men building the circus are faceless black people, and the crows who befriend Dumbo seem to be black stereotypes – but they are lively, independent creatures, good friends and full of sass, and identical to the sort of characters played by Chris Rock and Chris Tucker today.
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