Dumbo:
Release date(s): October 23, 1941
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Running time: 64 minutes
Release date(s): October 23, 1941
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Running time: 64 minutes
Director: Ben
Sharpsteen
Producer: Walt
Disney
Writers: Otto
Englander/Joe Grant/Dick Huemer
Based on Dumbo by
Helen Aberson
Music: Frank Churchill/Oliver
Wallace
Country: United
States
Language: English
Background:
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated
film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio
Pictures in the Sonovox sound format.
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.
Plot:
While circus animals are being
transported, Mrs. Jumbo, one of the elephants, receives her baby from a stork.
The baby elephant is quickly taunted by the other 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.
The circus director makes Dumbo the top of an elephant
pyramid stunt, but Dumbo trips over his ears and misses his target, injuring
the other elephants and bringing down the big top. Dumbo is made a clown as a
result, and plays the main role in an act that involves him falling into a vat
of pie filling. Despite his newfound popularity and fame, Dumbo hates this job
and is now more miserable than ever. To cheer Dumbo up, Timothy takes him to visit his mother. On
the way back Dumbo cries and then starts to hiccup, so Timothy takes him for a
drink of water from a bucket which, unknown to them, has accidentally had a
bottle of champagne knocked into it. As a result, Dumbo and Timothy both become
drunk and see hallucinations of pink elephants.
The next morning, Dumbo and Timothy
wake up in a tree. Timothy wonders how they got up in the tree, and concludes
that Dumbo flew up there using his large ears as wings. With the help of a
group of crows, Timothy is able to get Dumbo to fly again, using a
psychological trick of a "magic feather" to boost his confidence.
Back at the circus, Dumbo must
perform his stunt of jumping from a high building, this time from a much higher
platform. On the way down, Dumbo loses the feather; Timothy quickly tells him
that the feather was never magical, and that he is still able to fly. Dumbo is
able to pull out of the dive and flies around the circus, finally striking back
at his tormentors as the stunned audience looks on in amazement.
After this performance, Dumbo
becomes a media sensation, Timothy becomes his manager, and Dumbo and Mrs.
Jumbo are given a private car on the circus train.
Voice Cast:
Dumbo: (Mute)
Edward Brophy: Timothy Q. Mouse
Verna Felton: Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo's mother/Elephant Matriarch
Herman Bing: The Ringmaster
Margaret Wright: Casey Junior
Sterling Holloway: Mr. Stork
Cliff Edwards: Jim Crow
The Hall Johnson Choir: Crow Chorus
Noreen Gammill: Elephant Catty
Dorothy Scott: Elephant Giddy
Sarah Selby: Elephant Prissy
Malcolm Hutton: Skinny
John McLeish: The Narrator
Development:
Dumbo is based upon a children's
story written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl that was
prepared to demonstrate the prototype of a toy storytelling display device
called Roll-A-Book, which was similar in principle to a panorama. It involved
only eight drawings and just a few lines of text, and had Red Robin as Dumbo's
ally instead of Timothy Mouse.
Dumbo was first brought to the
attention of Walt Disney in late 1939 by Disney's head of merchandise licensing
Kay Kamen, who showed a prototype of the Roll-A-Book that included Dumbo.
Disney immediately grasped its possibilities and heartwarming story and purchased
the rights to it.
Originally it was intended to be a
short film; however, Disney soon found that the only way to do justice to the
book was to make it feature-length. At the time, the Disney Studio was in
serious financial trouble due to the war in Europe, which caused Pinocchio and
Fantasia to fail at the box office, so Dumbo was intended to be a low-budget
feature designed to bring revenue to the studio. Storymen Dick Huemer and Joe
Grant were the primary figures in developing the plot. They wrote the script in
chapters, much like a book, an unusual way of writing a film script. Regardless
of this, very little was changed from the original draft.
Casting:
None of the voice actors for Dumbo
received screen credit, much like in Snow White and Pinocchio. Timothy Mouse
was voiced by Edward Brophy, a character actor known for portraying gangsters.
He has no other known animation voice credits. The pompous matriarch of the
elephants was voiced by Verna Felton, who also played the Fairy Godmother in
Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and Flora of the Three
Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty. Other voice actors include the perennial
Sterling Holloway in a cameo role as Mr. Stork, Cliff Edwards, better known as
the voice of Jiminy Cricket, as Jim Crow, the leader of the crows, and John
McLeish, best known for narrating the Goofy "How To" cartoons,
providing the opening narration.
Animation:
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.
Watercolor paint was used to render
the backgrounds. Dumbo and Snow White are the only two classic Disney features
to use the technique, which was regularly employed for the various Disney
cartoon shorts. The other Disney features used oil paint and gouache. 2002's
Lilo & Stitch, which drew influences from Dumbo, also made use of
watercolor backgrounds.
Distribution:
Completed in fall 1941, Disney's
distributor RKO Radio Pictures initially balked at the film's 64-minute length
and wanted Disney to either make it longer, edit it down to a short subject
length, or allow them to release it as a B-movie. Disney refused all three
options, and RKO reluctantly issued Dumbo, unaltered, as an A-film.
Songs and Performers:
"Baby Mine" (Betty Noyes)
"Casey Junior" (The Sportsmen)
"Look Out for Mr. Stork" (The Sportsmen)
"Song of the Roustabouts" (The King's Men)
"The Clown Song" (A.K.A."We're gonna hit the
big boss for a raise") (Billy Bletcher, Eddie Holden and Billy Sheets)
"Pink Elephants on Parade" (The Sportsmen)
(preceded by two minutes of music on soundtrack version)
"When I See an Elephant Fly" (Cliff Edwards and the
Hall Johnson Choir)
"When I See an Elephant Fly" (Reprise)
On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, "Pink
Elephants on Parade" is included on the green disc, "Baby Mine"
is on the purple disc, and "When I See an Elephant Fly" is on the
orange disc. On Disney's Greatest Hits, "Pink Elephants on Parade" is
on the red disc.
Awards and nominations:
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.
The film also won Best Animation Design at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.
Allegations of racial stereotyping:
Writer Richard Schickel charged
that the crow characters in the film are African-American stereotypes in his
1968 book, The Disney Version. The leader crow, played by Cliff Edwards, was
originally named "Jim Crow" for script purposes, and is listed as
such in the credits. However, all of other crows are voiced by African-American
actors, who were all members of the popular all-black Hall Johnson Choir.
Despite suggestions by writers such as Schickel who have criticized the
portrayal as racist, others reject these claims. Defenders note that the
crows form the majority of the characters in the movie who are sympathetic to
Dumbo's plight, that they are free spirits who bow to no one, and that they are
intelligent characters aware of the power of self-confidence, unlike the Stepin
Fetchit stereotype common in the previous decade. Furthermore, the crows' song
"When I See An Elephant Fly", which uses intricate wordplay in the
lyrics, is oriented more toward mocking Timothy Mouse than Dumbo's large ears.
Funny Tidbits You Didn’t Know:
-- During the production of Dumbo, Herbert Sorrell
leader of the Screen Cartoonists Guild, demanded Disney sign with his union.
Disney declined saying that he would put it to a vote. Sorrel again demanded
that Disney sign with his union, but Disney once again refused. On May 29,
1941, shortly after rough animation on Dumbo was complete, much of the Disney
studio staff went on strike. A number of strikers are caricatured in the
feature as clowns who go to "hit the big boss for a raise". The
strike lasted five weeks, and ended the "family" atmosphere and
camaraderie at the studio.
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