Dumbo (1941)

When you have children of course you can’t escape having to watch movies with them. Of course this give you the opportunity as a parent to pick out quality movies and see how they react to them. Often watching their response is more enjoyable than the movie itself. Dumbo is an animation classic which is, especially compared to the current animated movies, relatively simple. It was a while for me since I had last seen it and was curious if I would still enjoy it, but I was also looking forward to seeing my own daughter respond to it as she saw it for the first time.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it is about the baby elephant Dumbo, who stands out with his huge ears and therefore is laughed at in the circus where his mother works. When she tries to protect him she’s taken away and locked up and it’s up to innocent Dumbo to survive on his own. The message of the movie is not to be afraid if you are different and that its a quality that could be changed into an advantage as long as you believe in yourself.

The great thing about the film is that it’s one which isn’t too long. With its 64 minutes it’s quite short and that gives it its charm. As a viewer you are waiting for the moment the little elephant will fly and when he finally does that’s pretty much the end of the movie. He learns his skill, uses it in the next scene and the movie ends. It’s one of the reasons why Dumbo is so powerful. It doesn’t waste time on unnecessary sequences.

Dumbo also is a character which immediately is a hit with whoever watched the movie as he is irresistible with his big eyes and large ears. When his mother is taken away you are almost automatically forced to care for him and you feel the pain he’s experiencing. You are happy when he gets help from Timothy the mouse.

The animation is, as is to be expected from Disney films from this time, excellent with some real standout moments. The piece where Dumbo and Timothy are drunk (my daughter’s favourite moment) and see all types of weird elephants one which feels like a dream because it look very experimental. Something you wouldn’t immediately expect in a Disney movie. It’s moments like that which to me make it an endlessly watchable animated movie.