It looks bleak for doe-eyed Dumbo, but a talking mouse (voiced by Edward Brophy) befriends him, and does his best to improve Dumbo's lot. One night, Dumbo and his mouse companion inadvertently get drunk, and wake up the next morning in a tree.
A flock of crows are astonished. How did the elephant get there? He must have flown. Dumbo can fly! His big ears aren't a handicap. Instead, they are an advantage that no other elephant has.
How others will see it. Dumbo was less expensive to make than its ambitious predecessors, Fantasia and Pinocchio. It was also shorter, at 64 minutes. But it was well received, and profitable.
Of course, the all-too-black crows inevitably drew criticism, but their defenders outnumber the detractors. The "white" characters come off worse.
Today at imdb.com, the user rating of Dumbo, (7.2 out of 10), is high but not especially high. The user vote total (142K) is huge, confirming its influence. One knock against the movie is it does not resonate with young audiences in the way that the myriad Disney Princess films do. Must there be a beautiful and slender 20-year-old heroine?
How I felt about it. Dumbo was one of the first feature-length animated features from Walt Disney's studio, and ranks among its best work. Only Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940) are comparable in quality. All three films are from the era when every frame was drawn by hand. No help from computers, or even copy machines.
But Dumbo does not appear often in best film lists, partly because of its ethnic humor. The flock of crows are black in color, and Southern black in dialect. Worse yet (by today's standards) the lead crow is voiced by a white man (Cliff Edwards) imitating black stereotypes, Amos 'n Andy style.
But I am only offended when a movie isn't good. All is forgiven if it is great. It is not a defense to say that standards were different then. Racism is racism. It is a defense when everything is well done. And anyway, the crows help save the day. That is, they play an important role in making Dumbo the star of the circus.
Dumbo clearly has a moral. What makes us different can make us special. Similar to the title characters in Snow White and Pinocchio, Dumbo the elephant is well intentioned and innocent, and in need of help to succeed. His Jiminy Cricket is the talking mouse. Unlike Jiminy Cricket, though, Timothy Q. Mouse isn't Dumbo's conscience. Dumbo's soul was never in doubt. Instead, he attempts to redeem Dumbo by making him a feature attraction.
Among the many blessings of Dumbo is its slow pace. It's not in a hurry, and that is a good thing. The pace emphasizes character development over plot. Timothy Q. Mouse becomes the advocate we all wish we had, and Dumbo's sweetness wins over the hearts of audiences, and the film's villains (the sneering matriarch elephant, and the clowns who wish to exploit instead of accept Dumbo) get theirs.
The slow pace also allows for marvelous moments like Pink Elephants on Parade, Mr. Stork (voiced by Sterling Holloway) delivering a singing telegram, and, yes, the crows expressing their surprise and delight at seeing an elephant in a tree.