DVD Reviews

Dumbo (70th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 21, 2011, 23:39 GMT

For the first time ever, in celebration of this landmark film\'s 70th anniversary, experience the daring adventures of the world\'s only flying elephant with a dazzling all-new digital restoration and brilliant Disney Enhanced High Definition Theater Mix Sound. The inspirational tale of Dumbo, the courageous baby elephant who uses his sensational ears to soar to fame with the help of his clever best friend Timothy Q. Mouse, will thrill and ...more

“I saw a peanut stand, heard a rubber band, I saw a needle that winked its eye, but I think I will have seen everything when I see an elephant fly.” 

Well, Dumbo certainly soars onto Blu-ray in a fantastic print that will reduce other editions to pink elephants. 

Dumbo is the tale of a big eared circus elephant.  Mrs. Jumbo is expecting a delivery; it’s not from the U.S. Postal service, but the stork.  She’s disappointed when her package doesn’t arrive and the circus pulls up stakes from their headquarters and heads for another performance. 

Mrs. Dumbo’s stork (voiced by Sterling Holloway) is late because a baby elephant can be heavy to carry.  He finally arrives on the train and makes his delivery. 

Mrs. Jumbo and the other elephants are overjoyed and Mrs. Jumbo names the baby elephant Jumbo Jr.  However, disaster strikes and Jumbo, Jr. sneezes and his enormous ears unfurl. 

The once friendly female elephants make fun of his ears and dub him Dumbo, so Mrs. Jumbo slams the dividing door in their faces.  Disaster strikes again after the circus has set up and an annoying kid taunts Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo “attacks” him. 

The Ringmaster (Herman Bing) orders Mrs. Jumbo confined.  This later leads to the tear jerking moment when Mrs. Jumbo sings a lullaby to Dumbo, sniff.  A circus mouse overhears the Matriarch elephant (Verna Felton) and the others discussing Mrs. Jumbo’s confinement and their rejection of Dumbo. 

Timothy Q. Mouse (Edward Brophy) takes pity on the poor kid and takes him under his wing (after he scares the wits out of the old biddy elephants). 

Timothy becomes Dumbo’s friend and mentor and they try to find Dumbo’s place in the circus.  Timothy subconsciously implants that Dumbo is the answer to the Ringmaster’s idea for a big finish to the pyramid of elephants show sequence. 

As usual, Dumbo’s luck doesn’t hold out and he trips on his ears and chaos ensues.  Dumbo is disowned by the other elephants and shamefully put into the clown act. 

After the show, Dumbo and Timothy accidentally drink some of the coarse clown’s rotgut champagne and see “Pink Elephants on Parade.”  When they wake up they’re in a tree, but how did they get there?  The jazzy crows in the tree know and wonderfully sing “Did you ever see an elephant fly?” 

Guess those ears are good for something, but how to use them in the circus? 

If the elephant hadn’t taken off then Walt Disney and his studio might’ve ended up as a footnote and not an ongoing entity.  Fantasia and Pinocchio, although we consider them classics today, were not box office hits and Disney needed one to pay for the costs accumulated by them. 

He took a story about a circus elephant that was going to be a short and expanded it to feature length.  The precious pachyderm proved to be box office gold and it kept the studio going. 

Dumbo is a film that works miracles in its short running time and has become loved by generations.  Our main character says not a word but eventually finds his purpose in his previously reviled ears. 

It’s a wonderful film and I’ll offer no opinion on the animated crows except to say that they have the greatest song in the film.  For its simplicity and uplifting storyline, Dumbo earns the audiences’ tears and a high place on the roster of classic animated films. 

Dumbo is presented in fullscreen, but if you don’t like those black bars you can choose the DisneyView feature that fills them with high-def art from James Coleman.

Special features include the picture-in-picture “Cine-explore” option with commentary from animators and historians, a commentary from animation historian John Canemaker, the 30 minute “making of” “Taking Flight” (in high def), 10 minutes of deleted scenes (HD), the 15 minute “Celebrating Dumbo” (SD), the 3 minute “Magic of Dumbo” (HD) about the amusement park ride, a 1 minute TV introduction from Walt (SD), a 6 minute clip (SD) from the Reluctant Dragon about Dumbo’s sound design, two Silly Symphony shorts (18 minutes total, HD), interactive games, galleries, and trailers. 

Disc two is a DVD copy of the film. 

Dumbo stands the test of time and looks fantastic in this new age.  This new edition soars to a high place on your purchase list.  If not, you probably twirled your mustache and cackled when Dumbo’s mom went to jail.

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