DUMBO (director: Ben Sharpsteen; screenwriters: Dick Huemer/Joe Grant /based on the novel by Helen Aberson & Harold Pearl; music: Frank Churchill/Oliver Wallace; cast: VOICES OF: Cliff Edwards (Jim Crow), Sterling Holloway (Stork), Herman Bing (Ringmaster), Edward Brophy (Timothy Q. Mouse), Verna Felton (Matriarch Elephant, Mrs. Jumbo); Runtime: 64; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Walt Disney; Disney DVD; 1941)
“A Disney animation classic for all ages and all times.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A Disney animation classic for all ages and all times. Under the supervised direction of Ben Sharpsteen(“Pinocchio“) , who ably uses the screenplay by Dick Huemer & Joe Grant. They based the film on the novel by Helen Aberson & Harold Pearl. It features a nice little heartfelt moral story set around a traveling circus. It’ tells about Dumbo, an outcast baby elephant because of his big ears, who is forcibly separated by the circus from his loving mother, but who is befriended by Timothy Mouse. With his friend’s help, Dumbo finds a use for his freakish ears as wings as he becomes a flying elephant.
The artwork is first-class. Songs such as the one performed by Michael Crawford, “Baby Mine,” and the one performed by the crows, “When I See An Elephant Fly,” were terrific. The pic’s highlights are the parade of pink elephants, erecting the big top during the storm and the gossiping lady elephants gathered round to hear a ‘trunk full of dirt.’
REVIEWED ON 7/29/2013 GRADE: A
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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