Dumbo 1941 Film Review

When it comes to animation Disney back in the day very rarely got things wrong with even there very few misfires being good films that pushed the boundaries of animation. With the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about being a good example of this as they had to make a character that doesn't say a single line of dialog work for a film and not only did they manage to it but they did it so well that they remade the film in 2019 and so then join me as I review that will make adults cry with the film in question being called simply just "Dumbo" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when his mother is locked up for saving him from some bullies who were mocking his huge ears an elephant named Jumbo but is is mockingly called Dumbo sets out to do everything that he can do to get her free again. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this film having the simple plot that it really does need as while it would have been tempted to give this film a more bigger a grand plot that is fitting for the big screen that's not always what you need as films like this one thrive on having smaller scale plots and while the 2019 Dumbo remake ditched that in favor of having that bigger and more grander plot in doing so it looses what made the original films plot work so well in the first place that being the fact that this i a film that should always have a smaller scale story and have these more simpler plots as that's where his film works best as it allows the characters to be there usual charming self and it allowed the film to have alot more heart and emotion to it and while yes this film would have worked just as well if it did have a more thought provoking plot to it as that would have been something that you'd expect to see in a feature length film at the same time tho a little story that's not that grand and that's not that epic can work just as well if it's told right which it is here with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Edward Brophy as Timothy Q. Mouse and Disney legend Verna Felton as The Elephant Matriarch and Mrs. Jumbo. Also starring in this film is Cliff Edwards as Dandy Crow , Herman Bing as The Ringmaster , Disney legend Sterling Holloway as Mr. Stork , Margaret Wright as Casey Junior , Hall Johnson as Deacon Crow , James Baskett as Fats Crow , Nick Stewart as Specks Crow , Jim Carmichael as Dopey Crow , Noreen Gammill as Elephant Catty , Dorothy Scott as Elephant Giddy , Sarah Selby as Elephant Prissy , Billy Bletcher as A Clown , Malcolm Hutton as Skinny and John McLeish as The Narrator.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films actors turning in some really goo performances in this film which is something that's not really all that surprising as alot of the Disney regulars in this film are a bunch of really good actors in this right with both Verna Felton and Sterling Holloway being Disney legends due to the fact that they've been in alot of the classic Disney films and for good reason as the pair of them are a bunch of good actors in their right with the same thing being true for alot of this films actors as even tho alot of them really didn't go on to do anything after this film they do still turn in a some really good performances in this films and whole the best acted character is one that doesn't talk a single line of dialog in the whole film he best actor in the film is quite easily Edward Brophy as Timothy Q. Mouse as even tho he's just the kind of character that always looks on the bright side of everything no matter the occasion how he's acted in the film does make you feel for him as a character as he is someone that is genuinely trying to be friends with Dumbo and wants the best for him with Edward Brophy turning in a performance that is fitting for that kind of character with the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that al this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to improve the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films animation being as good as it is being something that does make alot of sense given the fact that all of the classic Disney films have always had some really good animation in them and even tho this film had a really small budget you really don't notice it at all as this films animation is still mind blowingly good as even tho the films characters are backgrounds aren't as detailed as the ones in say Snow White or Pinocchio for example they still look really good and given the fact that the films title character character Dumbo doesn't talk a single line of dialog in this film it falls upon the animation to get across just what it is that this character thinking and feeling and that is something that this films animation does really well as with one look you know if Dumbo is happy or sad or if he's missing his mother the film is able to give this character so much emotion just through the use of it's animation with Dumbo being the films best acted character of it and while yes the films animation could have been better in places as the films backgrounds do look rather plain and boring and are lacking that Disney magic to help make them stand out but at the same time this films animation stands out on it's own due to how simple it is with the animation still being of the really high quality that one thinks of when they think of a Disney animated film.

This film has one of many things that the 2019 film is lacking quite severely that being heart as this film can and does make you cry alot of the time. With the best example of this being the famous "Baby Mine" song as this is a song that woks well enough in this film because it's not just a song that's being sung from one character to another it's a mother telling her son that she loves him and that even tho she can't be there with him right now she is still there with him in his heart and even tho the 2019 film did indeed include this song it doesn't work in the context of the film as there due to the films more grounded take on this film it's now song by one of the films human characters which changes the whole point of the song as the point of the song was to calm Dumbo down and to have him just be a kid with his mother and that's it and yet in that film they change all of that by barely showing Dumbo and his mother interacting during that scene and instead focusing the scene on the films human characters which causes it loose any emotional value when that song should be when the film is most emotional as we should want to see Dumbo and his mother reunite and be together again of course we should as there family with this being something that this film knew to get right as before this song they show us alot of scenes with them together just having fun and establishing that bond that the two of them with this song being the high point of that relationship and et in the remake we don't get to see any of that and therefor that film looses the one thing that it should have kept a hold of that being heart and yet for one reason o another they lost it in that film when it's the one thing that people wanted to see them do well from this film.

Much like alot of Disney animated films this film does have alot of racial undertones in it be it from some of the characters to even one of the song lyrics. This is something that will never be all right and to Disney's credit they haven; edited those things out of the Disney+ version of the film rather they've just made it available to kids who are seven years old and older and that's great as it shows that they are willing to show us some of the darker history with a good example of some of this films racial undertones being in the opening lyrics to the song "Song Of The Roustabouts" they very openly and proudly sing "We never learned to read or write" which OK fair enough could be the fact that there circus people and they just aren't that very bright but then you add in the fact that all of the workers shown singing the song and putting the tent up are people of color now that one innocent lyric suddenly has a more racial motivated meaning to it with there also being another lyric in the song being about how there happy to be slaves which unlike the previous lyric is one that you really can't defend yet for some reason people fixated on The Crows and they come across as the least racially offensive characters in the film as they are presented as characters who are allies to Dumbo and want to help him out and while yes hey could have been written and possibly drawn alot more better they are characters that aren't that bad in the context of not only the film but also when the film was being made and the fact that they did go out of there way to actually hire people of color to voice those characters does say that the makers of this film did at least try to be not as racially offensive as they were being.

Whilst this film never really has a straight forward villain which is oddly refreshing even for an older Disney film. One could make the argument that the film actually has two main villains the first of which being the kids who taunt Dumbo thus causing Mrs. Jumbo to get mad at them in the first place and the second of which being The Elephant Matriarch and her friends as they outright shun Dumbo the moment that they find out that he has large ears and don't even try to befriend him the moment that they see his mother is no longer with him both of these groups of villains do work as they do present the world not as we want it to be seen but as it is as kids would bully someone who looks different to them and adults even those that are friends with the kids mother would talk about them behind there backs and while this fil does present with a more idealized ending of this with Dumbo getting revenge on the elephants near he end of the film we don't get to see any kind of payback for the films humans who taunted him in the first place as those are the characters that did deserve the most payback for putting him through all of this heartache to begin with and yet its only one of the characters Skinny that gets some small amount of payback right after he's taunted Dumbo but the film does credit for the fact that it does show us that a film doesn't rally need to have a true villain in order for it to work as while it would have been super easy for the makers of this film to to add a villainous character to the film just for some added drama the fact that they didn't do that does show that they knew that this story didn't really need one as it works just fine without a main villain character.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time for exactly one hour and three minuets and fifty six seconds. Which is something that does make this film either the shortest Disney animated feature film or one of the shortest Disney animated feature films but either way it is astonishing that the makers of this film were able to fit in as much plot as they did with this film having more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time in the first and despite the fact that this films does have a shorter running time it does use it's running time really wisely as the film does take the time to fully develop it's plot due to the fact that alot of the films plot doesn't come from any of the big moments rather it comes from all of the films smaller moments that make the films plot feel alot more developed with this even being or the films characters as well as all of the films main characters get there character development in all of the smaller moments of the film like for example Tim and Dumbo's friendship get's established in a scene with Timo offering a clearly upset Dumbo a peanut which is a scene that very easily could have been cut from the film as it's not all that important to the plot of the film and yet it's that scene that gets across there bond as friends which is something that does hit home the point that you don't need plot and character development to happen in big plot driven scenes as all you need is the more smaller for that to happen and heck you could even make the case that "Baby Mine" isn't that much of an important scene and yet it's in that scene where we see just how much Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo really mean to each other something which isn't a big scene but it makes the whole film work but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. As while alot of this films jokes are more cute jokes like Dumbo waving his little flag to appease Timothy or the fact that we get to see Mrs. Jumbo get her own sort of revenge on the boys that bullied her son which is something that does result in her being locked up by The Ringmaster it is still a funny scene as she does take things to the extreme like any parent would do and yet the best joke in the whole film is easily near the end of the film where Dumbo gets his own sort of revenge on people who either do slight him during the film or unknowingly got him drunk or just straight up mocked and shunned him when he needed them the most which was a really funny scene as we the audience got to understand just how Dumbo felt when he was with them and therefor the payback that he gave those characters was not only fitting but also really funny as it did feel in character for him to take some small amount of revenge on those people with the film having lots of really cute jokes in it like Dumbo just playing his mother which is something that does feel like something that an actual kid would do in the first place and yet it is something that does oddly work well enough for this film with this film proving that it can do these smaller cuter jokes just as well as the more laugh out loud funny jokes and still make them as funny as the more laugh out loud jokes are in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall it really doesn't need to be said but this film is easily better then the live action remake is as this film knows just what it needs to get right and does those things well and while yes it does have a few downsides to it those downsides mean nothing when compared to the amount of things that this film does and does well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used used in this very review well then boys and girles and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.