NFR Project: 'Dumbo' (1941)

 

NFR Project: ‘Dumbo’

Dir: Ben Sharpsteen, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Bill Roberts, Jack Kinney, Samuel Armstrong

Scr: Joe Grant, Dick Huemer

Premiere: Oct 23, 1941

64 min.

Dumbo derives from a “Roll-a-Book” tale told in 1939 by Helen Aberson-Mayer and Harold Pearl, with illustrations by Helen Durney. It’s a heart-warming tale of a little circus elephant with oversized ears, who is at first rejected but then accepted when it turns out that he can fly.

Disney sought to counter the financial losses incurred by Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940). He deliberately made this a low-budget film, content even have it clock in at a mere 64 minutes. The film profited wonderfully, getting Disney out of debt.

My aversion to Disney fare continues unabated, but not so strongly with Dumbo. Fear not, for it is politically incorrect, traumatizingly surreal, and emotionally manipulative. Beyond, that, it’s a fine entertainment.

Dumbo is a little elephant with big ears. He is, in fact, deformed. This deformed individual is scorned by all and demoted to the bottom level of his society. But then he demonstrates that his deformation is socially utile, and quickly becomes the favorite of all. It’s depressing.

It’s much the same conceit as the plot of the later-penned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Dumbo’s main problem is the crows. These comic-relief “black” birds are voiced by Black actors, who speak in a real shuck-and-jive kind of Negro slang that’s pretty offensive. Not Song of the South (1946) offensive, but bad enough.

Then there’s “Pink Elephants on Parade.” This drunken hallucination of Dumbo’s is pretty much what I saw when I had my tonsils out at age 5. Pure nightmare fuel. For supposedly sane children, I am sure it’s a delightful romp.

Then there’s “Baby Mine.” Is there anything more heart-rending than Mrs. Jumbo reaching through the bars of her cage to rock little Dumbo for while? No, there is not. I was traumatized for life.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Ball of Fire.