I Watch Every Disney Movie In Order So You Don’t Have To: Dumbo
It’s time to go back to another Disney Classic that had just as bad and controversial scenes than previous movies. Basically this movie had Black men building the circus while singing a pretty concerning song called “The Roustabouts” and then had crows dressed up as stereotypical Black men and speak in stereotypical accents. Dumbo is the fifth movie in the “Disney Movie Universe” (even though none of them are connected…unless they are) and was released in 1941.
This movie is about an elephant who’s actual name is Jumbo Jr. but because of his extremely large ears they call him Dumbo. (I guess having big ears makes you dumb)? Anyway the movie starts with the “birth” of all animals. Because an actual animal birth scene is too much for the youngsters at home, Disney decided to fill into their minds that baby animals are delivered by storks. Dumbo’s mother, Mrs. Jumbo, is waiting for her little, baby elephant to show up, but he takes a little longer than she wanted. The next day, however, she signs a paper claiming she has received her child and boy is Dumbo the cutest little animated elephant I have ever seen. Even the older animated elephants thought so, until whoosh come the big ears. (To be honest I think he looks cuter with the big ears, but my opinion doesn’t matter I guess). All of a sudden, Dumbo is like the freak of the circus. (They better watch, big ears means he can hear all the smack being talked about him).
*Sidenote: now that I think about it, I probably would use Dumbo to my advantage here. He’s got really big ears, which HAS to mean he can ear everything, right? I can use him to see who’s talking smack and get back at them.
Back at the circus, you know when the animals and the Black men are forced to set up in the rain, Dumbo has to climb to the top of this elephant pyramid, I don’t know where they got this idea, but we all knew Dumbo wasn’t making it up this pyramid. He falls, making the whole pyramid fall and boom he is now forced to do his part of the show with…..the dreaded clowns. The elephants even took an oath stating that Dumbo was no longer an elephant, because that’s how that works. Before this, a kid was messing with Dumbo’s ears and boy did Mrs. Jumbo get maaaaaad. Let’s just say she basically attacked every human in the tent and got sent to “confinement” for being a “mad elephant”. Heck yeah she was mad! Mad at the dumb kid who obviously isn’t smart enough to NOT TOUCH AN ELEPHANT. Like why? What was the purpose?
Anyway, after Dumbo is separated from his mom he meets this mouse named Timothy, we are naming him Tim, who is basically Dumbo’s only friend at this point. Back to the aftermath of Dumbo being “turned into a clown”, Dumbo and Tim go visit his mother. This is the sad scene in the movie. After the depression that was “Baby Mine”, and yes I did sing along, what kind of Disney fan would I be if I didn’t, Tim and Dumbo get wasted. Not on purpose of course, the clowns accidentally dropped alcohol in Dumbo’s bucket of water and you know, he drank from it and here we are. They were completely gone. “Pink Elephants On Parade” came on and I was just as terrified as I was when I saw this as a child. I hope to NEVER get as drunk as these two did.
After a long sequence of visions of colorful elephants we are greeted with, Jim Crow, yup. Disney did that. They named a crow. Jim. Crow. We got Jim, we got his buddy Deacon and we got Crows #3 and #4, at least that’s what it said on the wikipedia page. They’re smoking cigars on a tree and then they notice Dumbo and Tim. On the tree. An elephant and a mouse. On a tree. Anyway, they wake up, freak out and fall out of the tree. This is the scene where they realize that Dumbo can fly. They use the “lucky feather” to get him to fly and BOOM he is the talk of the century. “ELEPHANT FLIES” yata yata yata, suck on that elephants who made fun of him!
That was the end of the movie. He could fly and then it was over. No other story line. Mrs. Jumbo was able to be back in Dumbo’s life and they were on the train to the next destination. I wanted more of this flying elephant and I really didn’t get it. But I guess that’s okay since it is a kid’s movie. It has to get to the point. At the end of the day, the songs are catchy, “When I See An Elephant Fly” is a classic one as well. The lesson of this film for me: if you have big ears, try learning how to fly.
