Dumbo
Appearance
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures. The main character is Dumbo, a semi-anthropomorphic elephant who is laughed at by the other circus elephants, but in fact is capable of flying by using his ears as wings. Throughout most of the film, his only true friend aside from his mother, Mrs. Jumbo is the mouse Timothy Q. Mouse, a relationship parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants.
- Directed by Ben Sharpsteen. Written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer.
The One...The Only...The FABULOUS... taglines
Casey Junior
[edit]- [whistling]: All aboard! Let's go!
Timothy Q. Mouse
[edit]- [To the elephants, while scaring them] So you like to pick on little guys, huh? Well, why don't ya pick on me?!
- [To Dumbo] Well, that's more like it! Y'know, your mother ain't crazy; she's just broken-hearted. Ain't nobody's fault you got them big ears… oops, I stepped in the mud that time. Aw, gee, Dumbo! I think your ears're beautiful! Sure! 's a matter of fact, I think they're decorative! Y'know, lots of people'd think your ears're famous! All we gotta do is build an act! Make y' a star! A headliner! Dumbo the Great! [Beat] The Great What? [Beat] Y'know, Dumbo, we gotta think of an idea. Not just any idea; something colossal!
- Remember, you come of a proud race. Why, you're a...a pachyderm, and pachyderms don't cry. What does crying get you, anyhow? Nothing but the hiccups!
- [As Dumbo falls off the platform, losing the feather on the way] Dumbo! C'mon, fly! Open them ears! The magic feather was just a gag! You can fly! Honest, you can! Hurry, open them up! PLEASE! [At the last moment, Dumbo opens his ears and soars over the crowd] WHEE! We did it! We did it! Let's show them, Dumbo! Power dive!
Other
[edit]- Narrator: Through the snow and sleet and hail...through the blizzard, through the gale...through the wind and through the rain...over mountain, over plain...through the blinding lightning flash...and the mighty thunder crash...ever faithful, ever true...nothing stops him! He'll get through!
- Lion: [yawning] Oh, dear...
Dialogue
[edit]- The Ringmaster: [in a tent, talking to Joe the janitor] Have I got an idea! What an idea!
- Timothy Q. Mouse: [to Dumbo, amused] Huh! He never had an idea in his life.
- The Ringmaster: Just visualize: one elephant climbs up on top of another elephant, until finally, all seventeen elephants have constructed an enormous pyramid of pachyderms! I step out! I blow the whistle! The trumpets are trumpeting!
- Timothy Q. Mouse: [smiling eagerly] Yeah!
- The Ringmaster: AND NOW COMES THE CLIMAX...!
- Joe: [after a short silence] Yeah? What is the climax?
- The Ringmaster: [chuckles and shrugs] I don't know.
- Timothy Q. Mouse: I knew he never had nothin'.
- The Ringmaster: [getting into bed] Well, maybe it comes to me in a vision while I dream. Good night, Joe.
- Joe: Good night, boss.
- The Ringmaster: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now present for your entertainment, the most stupendous, magnificent, super-colossal spectacle! On this tiny, little, insignificant ball, we will construct for you a pyramid! Not of wood, not of stone...
- Catty: To hear him talk, you'd think he was going to do it.
- The Elephant Matriarch: The stuffed shirt!
- The Ringmaster: ...a pyramid of ponderous, pulsating, PULCHRITUDINOUS PACHYDERMS! [his shirtfront rolls up, and he pushes it back down] I give you: the elephants.
- The Ringmaster: Ladies and gentlemen, you have now seen the impossible accomplished in front of your faces. Seven jungle giants, each one weighing...
- The Elephant Matriarch: [straining under all the other elephants] That windbag! Why doesn't he come to the point?!
- The Ringmaster: And now, I present the world's smallest little elephant, who will spring, from this springboard, to the top of the pyramid, in a grand climax! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Dumbo!
- [after the pyramid accident]
- The Elephant Matriarch: Oh, I never thought I'd live to see the big top fall.
- Prissy: Because of that Dumbo, I never can show my face there again.
- Giddy: Oh, look at my beautiful tail!
- The Elephant Matriarch: I just like to spank the daylights out of him, I... [raises her trunk from her cast, but the pain stops her, and she groans as she lowers her trunk back into the cast]
- Catty: Oh, that won't be necessary, dearie. They fixed him good.
- The Elephant Matriarch: What do you mean?
- Prissy: What did they do?
- Giddy: Did they beat him?
- Prissy: What is it, Darling?
- Giddy: Tell us!
- The Elephant Matriarch: Come, come, I demand to know!
- Catty: Oh, well... they've gone and made him... oh, dear, I just can't say it--
- The Elephant Matriarch: Out with it!
- Catty: Made him a clown.
- Giddy: A clown?
- Prissy: No!
- Catty: Yes!
- The Elephant Matriarch: Oh, the shame of it. Let us take the solemn vow. [all the elephants raise their trunks] From now on, he is no longer an elephant.
- [they touch trunks together]
- [The five crows find Dumbo and Timothy asleep in a tree]
- Specks Crow: Well, looky here! Looky here!
- Deacon Crow: My, my! Why, this is the most irregular sight I've ever seen!
- Dopey: [rubbing his eyes] Well, I just can't believe my eyes!
- Specks Crow: They ain't dead, is they?
- Fats Crow: [smirks] No. Dead people don't snore... [looks unsure] Or do they?
- [The crows quietly confer with each other, when Jim/Dandy Crow swoops down]
- Jim/Dandy Crow: What's all the ruckus? C'mon! Step aside, brother! Mmm...What's cookin' 'round here? What's the good news? What's fryin', boys?
- Specks Crow: Just look down there, brother!
- Fats Crow: And prepare yourself for a shock!
- Jim/Dandy Crow: [looks down and sees Dumbo and Timothy] OHO! Well, hush my beak!
- Dopey Crow: Go ahead. Wake 'em up, brother.
- Specks Crow: Yeah, find out what they're doin' up here.
- Deacon Crow: Yeah.
- Fats Crow: And ask 'em what they want.
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Okay, boys. Leave it to me.
- Timothy Q. Mouse: [groaning] Oh, those pink elephants...
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Ah! Pink elephants! Mmmm-mm! [the crows laugh]
- Timothy Q. Mouse: What's so funny? What are you birds doin' down here, anyway?
- Jim/Dandy Crow: What are we doin' DOWN here?! Well, hear him talk! [the crows laugh again]
- Timothy Q. Mouse: Fly up a tree where you belong.
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Say, look here, Brother Rat-
- Timothy Q. Mouse: [jolts up in fury] BROTHER RAT?! Now listen! I ain't your brother and I ain't no rat! See?!
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Uh-huh. And I suppose you and no elephant ain't up in no tree, either! [the crows laugh again]
- Timothy Q. Mouse: [angrily] No! No, me in no tree and I'm no... Huh? Tree?
- Timothy Q. Mouse: I wonder how we ever got up in that tree, anyway. Now, let's see...Elephants can't climb trees, can they? Nah, nah, that's ridiculous. I Couldn't jump up. Mm-mm, it's too high.
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Hey there, son! Maybe y'all flew up?
- Timothy Q. Mouse: Maybe we flew up. Yeah, maybe we- [excited] That's it! Dumbo! You flew! Boy, am I stupid. Why didn't I think of this before?! Your ears! Just look at 'em, Dumbo- why, they're perfect wings! The very things that held ya down are gonna carry ya UP and UP and UP! I can see it all now! DUMBO! THE 9TH WONDER OF THE UNIVERSE! THE WORLD'S ONLY FLYING ELEPHANT!
- [The crows laugh hysterically]
- Specks Crow: Did you ever see an elephant fly?
- Deacon Crow: Well, I've seen a horse-fly...
- Fats Crow: Ah, I've seen a dragonfly...
- Dopey Crow: [giggling] I've seen a housefly!
- Jim/Dandy Crow: I've seen all that, too! [singing] I seen a peanut stand, and heard a rubber band! I seen a needle that winked its eye! But I be done seen about everything when I see a elephant fly!
- Timothy Q. Mouse: [After the crows sing "When I See an Elephant Fly"] Alright, you wise birds! This has gone far enough!
- [The crows are still laughing]
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Quiet, gentleman! The Reverend Rodent is gonna ad-dress you.
- Timothy Q. Mouse: You oughtta be ashamed of yourselves. A bunch of big guys like you, picking on a poor little orphan like him. Suppose you was torn away from your mother, when you was just a baby? Nobody to tuck you in at nights. No warm, soft, caressing trunk to snuzzle into. How would you like to be left out alone in a cold, cruel, heartless world? And why, I ask ya? Why?!? Just because he's got those big ears, they call him a freak! The laughingstock of the circus! And when his mother tried to protect him, they throw her into the clink! And on top of that, they made him a clown! Socially, he's washed up! Oh, but what's the use of talking to you cold-hearted birds? Go ahead! Have your fun! Laugh at him! Kick him now that he's down! GO ON! We don't care. [He turns away and blows his nose. The crows cry] Come on, Dumbo. [they walk away]
- Jim/Dandy Crow: Hey, brother! Wait up! Don't go 'way feelin' like that. We've done seen the light. You boys is okay.
- Timothy Q. Mouse: Please. You've done enough.
- Jim/Dandy Crow: But we's all fixing to help you. Ain't that the truth, boys? [The other crows agree] You wanna make the elephant fly, don't you? Well, you have to use a lot of 'chology. You know, psy-chology. Fellas, gather round... [They huddle up] First you, uh... [Whispering] Then after that, you... [He then plucks a feather off Specks Crow's tail, and gives it to Timothy] Use the magic feather! Catch on?
- Timothy Q. Mouse: The magic feather? [looks at the feather, which briefly glows in a "lightbulb idea" way] Yeah, I gotcha. Dumbo! [rushes to Dumbo, giving him the feather] Look! Have I got it! The magic feather! Now you can fly! [Dumbo looks at the feather, puzzled]
Taglines
[edit]- Walt Disney's Latest...Most Lovable...Funable Characters!
- The One...The Only...The FABULOUS...
Cast
[edit]- Dumbo is the mute title character
- Edward Brophy - Timothy Q. Mouse
- Sebastian Cabot - Timothy Q. Mouse
- Corey Burton - Timothy Q. Mouse
- Margaret Wright - Casey Junior
- Sterling Holloway - Mr. Stork
- Cliff Edwards - Jim / Dandy Crow
- Verna Felton - Elephant Matriarch / Mrs. Jumbo
- James Baskett - Fats Crow
- Nick Stewart - Specks Crow
- Hall Johnson Choir - Crows
- John McLeish - Narrator
External links
[edit]- Dumbo quotes at the Internet Movie Database
Categories:
- 1941 films
- 1940s American animated films
- American children's animated fantasy films
- American children's animated musical films
- Animated films about elephants
- Animated films about mother–son relationships
- Circus films
- Films about mice
- Traditionally animated films
- United States National Film Registry films
- The Walt Disney Company
- Dumbo