Dumbo Discussion

[NarniaDis]

I've always enjoyed Dumbo, as a whole, like you though, the elephent sequence scared me bad the first time I saw it (I was about 5-6).

But sadly in my book, even though I love Dumbo, it doesn't hold a candle to some of the others (SB, Cinderella, Bambi, ect).

NarniaDis

[Lars Vermundsberget]

As for the "2 years": Dumbo came out in 1941, Bambi in 1942.

However, Bambi had been in the works for several years - if it hadn't taken unexpectedly much time to figure it out both story-wise and technically, Bambi could have been Disney's second animated feature, not the fifth.

Dumbo is very simple compared to the other animated features - it cost a lot less time and money than the others. Technically I guess it deserves to be compared to the better animated shorts from 1935 and later. Because of its comparatively low cost Disney was able to make more short-term money on Dumbo than on the other 1940-42 features - and they needed it bad.

The first time I saw Dumbo I pretty much considered the Pink Elephants sequence a waste of videotape. Eventually, however, I've come to appreciate that sort of "surrealism" in Disney animation very much.

[Zoltack]

P.S. - BTW What were they smoking whenever they came up with the Pink Elephants sequence, WOW..Such and odd sequence that just felt out of place to me, but hey thats just my opinion.

They wern't smoking... they were drunk!!!
I didn't get the "Pink Elephant" sequence until now. I mean when I was a kid I remember watching the movie and going "ya! Pink elephants!" not even knowing what it meant.

[bambifan56]

No I mean what were the animators smoking, I know they were drunk lol, "Blow a square one".

[RyougaLolakie]

I liked Dumbo! Well, it's definately not one of my top 5 disney favorites, but it was an enjoyable film. Every time I hear/watch "Baby Mine" sequence, I cried a whole lot and it was stunning. I didn't find the "pink elephants" really scary when I was very little but the musical sequence of the pink elephants really amused me! It kinda reminds me of watching Fantasia and the segmants of it. However, the intoxication part is kinda silly but weird.

As a result, very cute film!

[Isidour]

is a nice movie, pretty familiar I mean.

Too bad it`s so underrated

[RyougaLolakie]

is a nice movie, pretty familiar I mean.

Too bad it`s so underrated

Yeah, you can tell that Toon Disney showed that movie twice a month!

[Escapay]

One must wonder, though, how Dumbo would have fared had it run its original length. IIRC, when RKO asked Walt to add another 10 minutes to the 64-minute runtime, he told them that he stretched it out as far as it should have been, considering that he initially wanted it as a 30-minute featurette.

Anyways, Dumbo is one of my favorites, definitely in my top 10 (somewhere in the 6-8 range), and while the Pink Elephants sequence does confuse others, I never really questioned the artists' and storymens' intentions when they made it. After all, it served several purposes:

1. Showed the drunken hallucinations of Dumbo and Timothy.
2. Served as a transition between drunk Dumbo and Timothy to them suddenly ending up in a tree. It sets up the fact that Dumbo can actually fly, without having to how he got up there.
3. Is such a kickass animated sequence, my favorite part is always the "What'll I do? What'll I do? What an unusual view!"

Escapay

[BATBfan1]

LOVE the story don't get me wrong, but when I was younger I found it boring.

I've grown to like it now.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

I really liked Dumbo, it's somewhere in my upper teens on my favorites list. That scene was kind of weird, with the pink elephants...........

[Thad Komorowski]

Dumbo is one of the greatest things the studio ever did. You can watch the whole thing silent and it still has the same emotional impact.

[bambifan56]

Yeah, it does make you have empathy, but still was nowhere in the same emotional ball park as Bambi (for me anyways), but of course, nothing else has been haha .

[KubrickFan]

I bought the dvd a couple of weeks ago. I was probably eight or something when I watched it for the last time.
I am shocked how depressing this movie is. The clowns are not funny at all, Mrs. Jumbo gets locked up only for protecting her child. And I actually was crying during the 'Baby Mine' sequence (but I'm not alone in that one)

[Lars Vermundsberget]

"Dumbo" certainly isn't simply "one-dimensionally fun" - it has layers and levels.

[blackcauldron85]

Very interesting article:

The Dumbo That Never Was
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9011/The_Dum ... _Never_Was
(via disneyreport.com)

[blackcauldron85]

The Mysterious Dumbo Roll-A-Book
http://michaelbarrier.com/Essays/DumboR ... ABook.html
(via animatedviews.com)

[rodis]

As a little kid I always wanted to watch Dumbo but couldn't find the VHS anywhere. We had these old Disney books from the 70s-80s and I remember being dazzled by how he was drawn.

Anyway, in the early 90s I finally dound a copy in a local video store.
After watching it, I was disappointed with the movie.
I loved Disney's older classics (Snow White, Peter Pan, Cinderella, etc) and felt Dumbo was largely missing something. I watched it very few times.

Today, knowing the reasons behind it and being able to appreciate its simplicity and charm, I can fully enjoy it.

[Disney's Divinity]

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the Blu-Ray, and it made me realize how long it's been since I've watched this movie. I guess the reason I haven't watched it so much is because the film largely does feel like a long short and leaves me thinking it's a little inconsequential. Overall, I think this is okay, just not one of my favorites. I love the first half, but around the time Timothy enters the plot, I sort of lose interest. I guess because most of the appeal is the fact that Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo don't speak, and the front half is just quieter than the second half? Plus, when Timothy shames the crows for picking on Dumbo, I thought that was a little too OTT trying to get the audience to feel bad for him when they should already. The Elephant Troupe were still cruel, but I noticed that they weren't quite as bad to begin with this viewing. One of the elephants even said she didn't blame Dumbo's mom at all for what she did to the brats making fun of Dumbo. I guess they were trying to show that even normally average people can end up being nasty, shaming a child of all things. Especially sad how nice they were before they saw his ears. I wonder why we never see Jumbo, Sr. and why the other elephants were so proud of the new baby?

Dumbo is really cute. Not as cute as Figaro, but up there as one of Disney most adorable characters. I should make a list of adorable characters. I noticed that they clearly borrowed some of Pinocchio in Dumbo; the cheeks/eyes often look exactly the same when he's smiling.

[Sotiris]

I came across the bit of trivia and thought I'd share.

Ken O’Connors design of the Pink Elephants sequence in Dumbo (1941) was much cleverer than many animation fans suspect. O’Connor developed a method by which characters were composed of changing color gradations. It was virtually impossible to achieve this effect by airbrushing the cels, because a consistent density from cel to cel could not be achieved.

OConnor came up with a clever and simple solution. The color gradations of the Pink Elephants were painted on a background sheet and the elephants were left transparent areas on the cels placed over the background. The rest of the image on each cel was painted black. What appears to be the color of the Pink Elephants is actually the background, and what appears to be the black background is actually painted on the cels. The colors of the Pink Elephants appear to keep changing, without the need to duplicate color on each cel.

Source: http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/an ... dotes-320/

[Disney Duster]

That's so cool Sotiris!

Yea, good question, where is Jumbo Sr. Divinity?!