Year Released: 1941
Michael's Movie Grade: A+
History
With the financial failures of Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, Disney was still in need of a money maker. From Pinocchio, and Fantasia, Disney had also learned how much a huge budget could hurt the chances of making money off of a film. For both these reasons. Dumbo was a made much cheaper than the average Disney feature film, this was also helped by it being much shorter as well. This film would essentially be a longer, and higher quality version of Disney's Silly Symphonies cartoon shorts. However since Dumbo was based off fairly short and simple source material, this was also probably an artistic decision as well as a financial one.
Rumor has it that the Disney writer Joe Grant found the story of Dumbo in a cereal box and felt it would make a good film. Dumbo was the first fully animated Disney feature to not have to be heavily re-written from it's original draft. Unlike Snow White or Pinocchio, Dumbo's script came along fairly easily, and the finished film is very close to Joe Grant and Dick Huemer's original script. However there is a hilarious deleted scene where Timothy explains why elephants are afraid of mice. This scene was cut to help the movie flow better, however here it is along with a deleted song sequence as well, both of these rare exceptions in a film where very little was cut:
Dumbo would also be Ben Sharpsteen last time as a supervising director on a Disney feature. He would direct a two more Disney animated shorts (The New Spirit, and Out of the Frying Pan Into the Firing Line), two True-Life Adventure (Live-Action Nature Documentaries) shorts (Water Birds, Switzerland), one People and Places (Live-Action Educational Films) short (Lapland), and become a producer on Disney's True Life Adventures series.
Again as in previous animated features animators were cast by character. While some of the casting seems natural, such as Ward Kimball being the supervising animator for the crows and Fred Moore for Timothy Mouse, one main choice is kind of unexpected. This choice was to use Bill Tytla being the supervising animator for the character of Dumbo, himself. Tytla had already proven himself as one of the great Disney animators, but this character was quite different than the ones he had previously been assigned, such as Grumpy. Stromboli, and Chernabog. Tytla based his animation of Dumbo off of his then infant son Peter. However his work on this film contains some of his most respected work.
Dumbo was finally the box office, and critical hit Disney was looking for. Despite the strike going on at the time (The clowns in the film as supposedly caricatures of the employees striking), Dumbo was considered a good and fun experience in the minds of most people working on the film. Critics that did not like Fantasia, and The Reluctant Dragon viewed Dumbo as a return to form for Disney. This film also helped Disney get out of the financial problems they got themselves into. This is what Disney had been waiting for after the success of Snow White.
Review
Dumbo is not only one of Disney's best films, but one of the greatest family films ever made, and one of this author's all time favorite movies. This film is as near to a perfect film as anyone will ever see. Dumbo is as good as it gets.
This film is one amazing scene after another. Baby Mine is one of the greatest tear-jerkers to ever appear on screen. Than that is followed by Pink Elephants on Parade, possibly the most inventive and imaginative sequence in Disney history, and one of the best fantasy sequences in film history. Than that is followed by the whole scene with the crows. While this has been called racist by many people, it is not, but is rather a spot on tribute to such great black musicians as Cab Calloway, and Louis Jordan , and Ward Kimball's animation and the vocal performances of Cliff Edwards (also the voice of Jiminy Cricket), Nick Stewart, James Baskett, and Jim Carmichael, provide us with one of the most energetic musical performances in film history. Yet with all these great scenes back to back the film never seems rushed, but flows perfectly. Much of this is due to the emotion of the characters and the story. This is especially emphasized with Bill Tytla providing some of the most effective animation in his career (and that is saying a lot). Since Dumbo is a mute character, he has to express his emotions all visually, and thanks to Bill Tytla, and his team of animators, he becomes one of the most sympathetic characters in Disney, and maybe even film history.
I can not praise this film enough, and if you haven't seen it you have no excuse not to, this was, is, and will always be a masterpiece.
Film Credits
Supervising Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Sequence Directors: Samuel Armstrong , Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts, John Elliotte
Based off a book by Harold Pearl, Helen Aberson
Writers: Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Otto Englander, Bill Peet, Aurelius Battaglia, Joe Rinaldi, Vernon Stallings, Webb Smith
Producer: Walt Disney
Songs: Frank Churchill (Music), Ned Washington (Lyrics)
Voices: Edward Brophy (Timothy Mouse), Sterling Holloway (Stork), Verna Felton (Mrs. Jumbo, Elephant), Cliff Edwards (Jim Crow), Nick Stewart (Crow), James Baskett (Crow), Jim Carmichael (Crow), Billy Bletcher (Clown), Eddie Holden (Clown), Billy Sheets (Clown, Joe), Herman Bing (Ringmaster), Noreen Gammill (Elephant), John McLeish (Narrator), Harold Manley (Kid), Tony Neil (Kid), Chuck Stubbs (Kid), Sarah Selby (Elephant), Dorothy Scott (Elephant), Hall Johnson Choir (Choir), Malcolm Hutton (Clown), The King's Men (Chorus), Betty Noyes (Baby Mine Singer)
Music: Frank Churchill, Oliver Wallace, Edward H. Plumb
Art Direction: Don DaGradi, Dick Kelsey, Ernie Nordli, Kendall O'Connor, Charles Payzant, Herbert Ryman, Terrell Stapp, Al Zinnen, Robert Cormack, John Hubley
Assistant Directors: Larry Lansburgh, Richard Lyford, Lloyd Richardson
Effects Animators: Jerome Brown, Paul B. Kossoff, Sandy Strother, Don Tobin
Supervising Animators: Art Babbitt, Ward Kimball, John Lounsbery, Fred Moore , Wolfgang Reitherman, Bill Tytla, Frank Thomas
Character Designers: James Bodrero, John P. Miller, Maurice Noble, Elmer Plummer, Martin Provensen, John Walbridge
Background Artists: Claude Coats, Al Dempster, John Hench, Gerald Nevius, Joe Stahley
Layout Artist: Kendall O'Connor
Assistant Animators: Bill Melendez, Clarke Mallery
Animators: Jack Campbell, Les Clark, Hugh Fraser, Walt Kelly, Hicks Lokey, Joshua Meador, Milt Neil, Art Palmer, Don Patterson, Ray Patterson, William Shull, Grant Simmons, Claude Smith, Howard Swift, Harvey Toombs, Don Towsley, Bernard Wolf, Cy Young, Stephen Bosustow, Basil Davidovich, Ed Fourcher, Franklin Grundeen, Van Kaufman, Eric Larson, Art Moore, Paul Murry, Ed Parks, Warren Schloat, Retta Scott, Karl Van Leuven
Painter: Phyllis Bounds Detiege
Resourses Used
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Essays/DumboRollABook/DumboRollABook.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033563/?ref_=rvi_tt
The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin
Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo (DVD special feature)
-Michael J. Ruhland
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