An Elephant Flies: Dumbo 80th Anniversary
In 1939, Walt Disney bought the screen rights to a newly published children’s book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl.
What Walt saw in this simple book was the chance to produce a very emotionally resonant film.
To write the film, Walt assigned two of his top story artist, Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, to this task. In their initial draft, they brought in ideas that weren’t present in the book, such as the sidekick character Timothy Q. Mouse and the Pink Elephants on Parade sequence.
Despite a few changes that were made to the story when it went into the storyboarding stage, there was really little scrutinizing as there were with Snow White and Pinocchio.
One of the aspects of the film that’s been noted by fans is how simple the story is. While the story could be told in a ten minute short subject, what expanding it into a full-length film does is present amazing character moments by excellent animators.
Animation
By the time Dumbo entered the animation phase in the spring of 1940, Walt had to make a very important decision with this project. That would be that it had to be a more cheaper and simpler production than the last films. This included using less elaborate visual effects and the look of the film being simpler.
A very important part of the film’s appeal is the character animation was done by the top animators at that time. This would include master animator Bill Tytla.
For this film, Bill Tytla was responsible primary for the lead character Dumbo. This was a real contrast from the other characters he did in the last two films, which would be Stromboli in Pinocchio and the demon on Bald Mountain in Fantasia, because they were more powerful.
As is the case with most animators, after animating two characters with power to them, Bill decided to seek a new challenge by animating the adorable baby elephant. What makes the character very appealing is, despite not having any knowledge about elephants, Bill was able to evoke the personality of a toddler in his animation.
Another notable aspect of the film is how it has a more urban feel to the animation in contrast to the European feel of Snow White and Pinocchio. This would because a lot of the animators were from New York City. So the animation is more caricatured that makes the film more of a cartoon.
Music
With this film, the music plays an important part of the storytelling. Not only do the songs move the story forward, they also serve as a comment of what happens. For example, when the crows sing their song, what it does is continue their riff that becomes a song.
Troubled Time
While the production on Dumbo went smoother than the last films, it didn’t stop the trouble that was brewing behind the scenes that would change the studio.
What happened was that, around the 1930’s their was a start of unionizing in the Hollywood studios.
Even though Walt treated his staff well, there were a few, which included assistant animators, that thought he wasn’t giving them as much credit as the top animators. Then there was also when the Screen Cartoonist Guild tried to get Walt to sign with them.
It came to a head when one of the studio’s top animators, Art Babbit, was fired for union practice. Then in May of 1941, the Disney strike happened.
This was something that was unexpected for Walt because he considered his studio to be a family and now some had turned against him.
Eventually, the strike was settled while Walt and some of his crew were on their research to South America. But the way it was settled was that a certain number of strikers had to be rehired while an exact number of people that didn’t went on strike had to be fired.
Photos of the Disney animators' strike in 1941, during the production of Dumbo. The strikers won, earning union recognition. pic.twitter.com/0uMns5SF0J
— Adam Quinn (@adamquinn__) January 28, 2019
Release
Even after all that, Walt Disney fourth animated film, Dumbo, had its release in October of 1941. Not only would the film be very well-received by critics, it was also the studio’s first financial success since Snow White.
This would produce the much needed revenue for Walt after the financial failures of the more expensive Pinocchio and Fantasia the year before.
At one point, Time magazine had plans to put Dumbo on the cover for their December issue along with an article about the film. But around that time is when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happened and Time replaced their Dumbo cover with this event.
After 80 years, Dumbo is still as popular as ever. This would be because of the stories simplicity and emotional power that still touches people after all this time.