4. Dumbo (1941)

Though both Pinocchio and Fantasia were critical successes and, particularly in the example of the latter, huge creative steps forward for both Disney and animation in general, they were financial disasters. After suffering these heavy losses, Disney needed a hit; they decided to scale back their scope and budget and make a more simplistic and basic story that would hopefully be a guaranteed money maker. The result was Dumbo and while it was not exactly a smash hit, it did successfully turn a much needed profit for Disney; unfortunately, that’s really all that Dumbo succeeded in doing. While Fantasia is difficult to critique or discuss because it is so different, experimental and abstract, Dumbo is difficult to talk about for the exact opposite reasons – it is so basic, unoriginal and lacking much of a story or identity, that there is really not much for me to say, because it says so little itself. That is not to say it is terrible, but after the groundbreaking Fantasia, it certainly comes off as a disappointing follow-up; regardless, let’s just jump right in.

For the first time, Disney does not take a step forward with their animation and perhaps might even stumble back a little here. The animation is definitely not as good as Fantasia, but considering that film relied entirely on its visual style and Dumbo returns to more conventional narrative techniques, that can be forgiven; however, the animation is also arguably not as good as Pinocchio, or even really Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It’s not worse, exactly, it’s just a lot more basic; the movement is still fluid and expressive, but there is much less life to the animation and quite a lot less going on in general. Disney usually takes the opportunity to have its characters move as much as possible and often in strange and over-the-top ways, so that they can show off their animation skills and creativity; in stark contrast to this, most of the characters in Dumbo seem to move as little as possible and are much less bouncy and energetic in their movements, there is certainly a lot less to look at, making it hard for the film to hold the audience’s attention. The art design is also a lot more bare-bones than previous Disney titles, the backgrounds are bland and lacking detail, mostly just empty fields and skies or maybe a few tents and carts – the beautiful, hand crafted backgrounds and careful attention to detail are sorely missed, here. The character design is mostly pretty basic as well, the humans are stock characters that require little imagination to design or imagine: clowns, ring masters, they all look exactly how you’d expect; some, such as the workers, aren’t even fully drawn, details like fingers, eyes, noses and mouths are left out in an attempt to keep the budget small. This leaves the characters mostly looking dull and lifeless. Dumbo and Timothy Mouse don’t look too bad, they’re certainly not too detailed but they look like suitable Disney protagonists; unfortunately, they might look a little too much like previous ones. Dumbo is basically Pinocchio as an elephant, the wide blue eyes and open grin, the prominent nose, right down to the little yellow hat; maybe I’m stretching a little here, but to me this just represents a lack of care or originality that is prevalent throughout the film.

Seriously, they all look like Morph

There’s even less to say about the story, which basically isn’t there; like Snow White, there is not much of a cohesive narrative, so much as just a bunch of different scenes happening that are weakly tied together. Most of the first half bombs along with one seemingly random scene after another that have little explanation or dialogue; there’s nothing wrong with telling a story visually and letting the audience figure things out for themselves, but personally, I don’t think the film really succeeds in doing so, nor do I think it especially intended to do so to begin with. Rather, it is simply an indication of how irrelevant the central “plot” really is to the film that the first half can really not say anything or tell you what’s going on and it ultimately doesn’t matter. Unlike the painfully slow pace of Snow White, the pace here is far too frantic, it keeps things from lulling too much I suppose, but it also means it doesn’t give you much time to get invested in the characters or their goals, which similarly do not get enough time to be properly established. The basic story is that Dumbo wants to be reunited with his mother... or is that Timothy wants to make Dumbo famous? Either way, neither of these developments happen until nearly half way through the movie, leaving most of the first half aimless and without direction and the second half clumsy and confused as it desperately struggles to decide what it’s going to be about before realising it has run out of time and needs to speed into a sudden and unearned climax. Each plot development (Of which there are basically none for the longest time and then suddenly 3 or 4 at once) is pretty sudden and rushed into and then stuff just happens. That’s pretty much it, a lot of stuff just happens; stuff which can be sweet and entertaining, but is too lost amongst the confused pace of the film, which cannot seem to decide what it wants to be about.  To call the climax rushed is an understatement, the whole film is rushed but it ends with breakneck speed, resulting in a very sloppy resolution - the other elephants hate Dumbo for the whole film and during the penultimnate scene he finally attacks them in retaliation, but one scene later they’re suddenly his friends and singing along happily, as if everything’s alright? How did Dumbo’s mother get out of solitary, did Timothy just have a friendly chat with the ring master? Why are they even still with the circus, which treated them horribly, I might add, if Dumbo is now a world famous superstar? None of these conclusions are reached properly, leaving a messy and confusing ending. I know it’s a kid’s movie, but still; Disney has always been primarily for kids, but Dumbo is certainly a lot “kiddier” than what we’ve seen so far. It’s sweet and harmless, but kind of hard for an adult to enjoy, as there’s very little to sink your teeth into, here.

Pretty much how I was feeling for most of this movie

There are very few characters to talk about, the side characters at the circus mostly being as bland as possible so let’s not even go into them much and just say they’re boring. As a silent protagonist, Dumbo has the difficult task of conveying personality and influence through no dialogue; unsurprisingly, Disney doesn’t even really try to tackle this, he’s just there to look cute. As always, his expressions are well animated and they at least convey emotion pretty well, but since Snow White and Pinocchio were already dull, uninteresting protagonists, Dumbo is expectedly even less interesting, as he doesn’t even have the benefit of a voice. He is as devoid of a personality and easily led by other characters as ever, showing pretty strongly than Disney still has no clue at this point how to make an interesting protagonist, as opposed to a bland, innocent, squeaky-clean Mickey Mouse clone. As I said before, Dumbo is basically Pinocchio as an elephant and I meant that in terms of his personality as well as his design, for the most part; appropriately, then, Timothy Mouse plays a very similar role to Jiminy Cricket, as the little helper who follows his charge around and tries to lead their life in a good direction. Timothy, however, is a lot more forceful and controlling than Jiminy and makes sure that Dumbo listens to him. While Jiminy could be a little mischievous, he was mostly quite flat; Timothy has a lot more personality and energy, he is optimistic and joyful, always thinking of a new plan and never giving up and also has a playful and confident attitude.  Even though his character is a little derivative, his strong personality is a welcome addition to an otherwise dull cast and makes for some pretty enjoyable moments. The only other fun characters in the movie are the crows; while these days the crows are often considered to be racially insensitive, I don’t think I really see it. While I can definitely see someone being a little uncomfortable with the way they talk, I don’t think their characters or role in the story are offensive or stereotypical at all – they are charming, witty, confident and the first characters to actually be nice to Dumbo and Timothy and offer them help, showing them in a positive and admirable light. They teach Dumbo the importance of confidence and self-belief and are undeniably a positive force in the film; they are also the only characters not to be shown-up or made fools of, even Dumbo and Timothy themselves don’t have this distinction. Though perhaps a little inappropriate for current times, I think the crows are fun, likeable and definitely the best part of the movie.

‘I been done seen about everything when I see a black president.’ – Jim Crow

Musically, the film isn’t bad, but for the most part the songs feel a little out of place. The songs aren’t bad, per se, but they feel more like contemporary pop songs you might hear a barbershop quartet belting out, as opposed to appropriate musical numbers. The lyrics and theme of the songs are also mostly superfluous and have little to do with the actual plot of the movie, contributing nothing to the progression of the story. There are two exceptions to these issues, the first being “Pink Elephants on Parade”, probably one of the more memorable of all of the Disney songs and with good reason. Not only is the song catchy, with lyrics that are interesting and fun, but the animation that accompanies the sequence is fantastic – the whole scene is very surreal, creative and visually interesting. Despite it being a great song however, it, again, has little to do with the movie itself; Dumbo and Timothy getting drunk is simply used as an excuse to let the animators do this scene. Based on this, combined with the fact that it kind of comes out of nowhere, has nothing to do with the plot and lasts quite a long time compared to the other musical numbers, you can kinda tell that Disney put all of their time and budget into this scene and realised this was the best thing they had in a film that was mostly a little dull; it’s a great segment, but looks like it belongs in Fantasia more than it does Dumbo.  The other exception is “When I see An Elephant Fly”, again, one of Disney’s classics. Not only is the song catchy and actually relevant to the plot, but the lyrics here are finally starting to show a seed of inspiration for Disney’s future style – using wordplay and unusual, or uncommon words to create interesting and unexpected rhymes; the puns are delightfully goofy and playful, while still being actually quite clever and humorous. Of their earlier work, these are two of Disney’s best songs.

Elephantasia

Honestly, I think that’s really all there is to say. Is Dumbo offensively bad? Not really, it’s just very safe; it takes no risks, does nothing new or original and is not up to the standard set by the previous Disney movies. I understand that Disney needed a hit and so played it safe, here, but it’s still disappointing; it’s not like there’s nothing to enjoy in Dumbo and its good-hearted nature makes it a lot easier to like than some of Disney’s other weaker films, but the good moments are few and far between. Dumbo is, quite simply, average.

Other Thoughts

• This film has a song about a goddamn anthropomorphic train. It has nothing to do with anything but it’s just pretty funny it even exists, shouts out to Casey Jr.

Jesus Christ, why did they make a Disneyland ride for this of all things just why why does the train have eyes why is it called Casey Jr. what happened to Casey Sr. what kind of name for a fucking train is Casey I don’t understand

5/10

Next Week: Bambi!

Email: joetalksaboutstuff@gmail.com

Twitter: @JSChilds