Written and Directed by Less than Usual People

Starring Sterling Holloway (Winnie the Pooh), Edward Brophy (Not Thin Man), Herman Bing (Uncredited)

Once again, my age seems to be a factor in viewing a Disney film. In some part of my mind, I know every part of this movie, yet I also remembered more. So an elephant with big ears gets dropped off in the circus. His mom gets thrown in jail trying to protect him from bullies, so he goes on a bender and learns to fly. Pretty crazy damn story, to be honest, that I had added the mom's death to because, well… Disney likes killing moms. Made to recoup the losses of Pinocchio and Fantasia despite costing half as much, Dumbo is a treat. To be honest, it's the best looking of the Disney so far, adding the amazing visuals of Fantasia to the production of Pinocchio. A short movie at one hour, it packs an impressive amount of story with little dialog. So far, best of the bunch.

Notes (Beware spoilers for a 79 year old movie)

1. Baby Drop Off

I get magical realism and all that, but storks? It's effective and kinda lovely the way the babies get unpacked and snuggle up, making it much worse when Mrs. Jumbo does not get one. Also, kinda love the Indiana Jones map of the one dumbass stork tracking the train.

2. Love the Soundtrack

That's a catchy song that went right out of my head now that I try to remember it. And in keeping with our Disney slipping shit in, the talking train and the song are right out of Reluctant Dragon. Also, talking train.

3. Dumbo Got Shitty Stork

Everybody else got babies dumped with parachutes while Mrs. Jumbo gets Jumbo, Jr. AKA Dumbo with a song and requires a signature. Dude's a menace to baby delivery.

4. Dumbo Mama Will Slap a Bitch

Kinda loving Mrs. Jumbo. Once she gets a kid, she will ride or die that little big eared bastard. Shunning the other snobby elephants, she makes a line in the sand: fuck with my baby and I'll spank that ass.

5. Elephant Building Song

As the circus settles, well… it's pretty obvious they use animal labor as slaves. The elephants are singing a song about labor not getting paid while the roustabouts are pretty clearly meant to be black men. Kinda dark, Disney.

6. Dumbo Mama Will Kill a Fool

As people get let in, people gonna people. The shitty kids starts pulling on Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo is not taking that shit. As before, she snaps and this time for real, spanking a kid, and generally fucking shit up.

7. Elephants are Assholes

Tell me what you would do: Someone who's lived with you for years gets thrown in jail for protecting her child. Do you a) talk shit about the mom b) shun the kid c) get scared by mice. If you chose any of those, see Dumbo because all these damn things happen.

8. Mouse Causes Issues

While it's nice that Timothy the Mouse wants to help Dumbo out, he's not really recognizing the fact that Dumbo was just born. Of course he's gonna fuck up springboarding up onto a pile of elephants doing a cheerleader routine they never practiced. Of course, then they have actual fire in the clown act they force him in, failing even harder. At this point, I also have to address all the talking animals and trains… the fuck are the rules?

9. Dumbo Mama Gonna Make Me Cry

Motherfuckers had to let Dumbo see his mom and sing the saddest damn song of all time.

10. Drunk Dumbo

The writer's meeting went like this:

"How do we get Dumbo from depressed to flying?"

"Get him drunk?"

"Brilliant."

"And add racist crows"

"Hell fucking yeah."

What makes this crazy drunk sandwich is the most visually stunning element in the movie. It's a trippy mess of psychedelics and madness that is amazing.

11. Racist Crows

Soooooooooooooo… yeah. While they perform actual guidance and advice to our hero, they don't do anything particularly helpful as their depiction. No reason to be a pile of stereotypes. Still, the characters are there and the actor voicing them is white. Catchy song or no, this shit's wrong.

12. Magic Feather Bullshit

I do kinda like the magic feather confidence trick. We all need a little bullshit to believe in to get us through.

13. Mouse Signs Contract

So the dude flies and becomes toast of the world (another Reluctant Dragon thing with the story of the talking baby), and again… what's up with people and animals? Timothy is Dumbo's manager, signs a contract, yet earlier nobody was like "Mrs. Jumbo was trying to protect her baby." Just weird and all over the place.

13 Notes About Dumbo (1941) That Will Not Make Me Cry