But as a reintroduction for the rest of us, and a reminder that great things come in small packages, Dumbo delivers the goods and then some. Rather, it comes because we watch, recognize and identify with its characters' core emotional needs after all, who doesn't need to feel like that odd feature or quirky quality serves some greater purpose to be celebrated by all? Given its relative dearth of bonus materials, the new Big Top Edition DVD may prove redundant to those animation fans who already own the film the extras are generally aimed at underage audiences or classically-trained cinephiles. Ultimately, Dumbo is one of the greatest animated films, but that achievement does not necessarily come as a direct result of some technological achievement, cultural context or even narrative proficiency. But overall, none of these moments overshadow the emotional core of the characters and their story - which is what elevates such films to 'events', and further, those events to the realm of movie mythology. In the same scene, there are shots of sublime beauty and frightening strangeness, all executed with expert, unwavering dexterity that those shadowy figures continue to haunt the dreams of almost everyone who sees the film is a testament to its power and artistic significance. At the same time, the animators clearly had a ball putting together the movie's many weird and wild sequences, most notably the hallucinatory 'pink elephants' sequence. As in all of the best Disney movies, there's also a moral - in this case 'don't judge a book by its cover' - but director Ben Sharpsteen treads so delicately over this easily bruised subtext that we aren't even aware it's there until long after Dumbo has turned his co-stars' hearts. At 65 minutes, there's barely enough time for a plot, but the filmmakers do a spectacular job rendering these characters in dimensions that we respond to from his initial cuteness to his tearful reconciliation with his mother, Dumbo is completely silent, and scarcely an agent of his own destiny, but we are imminently compelled to care about him and seek his redemption. There's the irresistible introduction of mother and baby the upturned trunks of the other elephants when they discover Dumbo's 'disfigurement' the incarceration of his mother after she spanks a misbehaving adolescent the tearful moment shared between mother and son between the bars of her cage the drug-fueled journey through 'pink elephants on parade' and, of course, Dumbo's triumphant flight over his tormentors once he learns the true purpose of his mammoth ears. The interesting thing about the movie is that its brevity seems to have produced an almost encyclopedic familiarity among fans with every scene and sequence it's been 65 years since it was originally released, and at least 15 since I last saw it, and yet I remembered every moment as if it were tattooed on my brain. Initially released in 1941 following the artistic triumph of Disney's pet-project Fantasia, the tale of a cute, clumsy elephant with oversized ears might outwardly have seemed like a featherweight endeavor to those who had only recently begun to see animation as a legitimate art form.īut the movie's lasting commercial success and well-earned place in the hearts of animation fans everywhere since demonstrated that its significance cannot be underestimated and as the recently-released Dumbo (Big Top Edition) DVD reveals, the biggest lesson audiences can learn comes less from its legacy than the film itself - namely, that even the most unassuming underdog can go on to accomplish great things. At a svelte 65 minutes, Dumbo is the one of the shortest of Disney's feature-length films, but it remains one of the medium's most memorable efforts.
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