DISNEY’S "DUMBO"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 136, 30 January 1942, Page 14

DISNEY’S "DUMBO"

|F it is probable that Walt Disney is king of all cartoonists, it is quite certain that he is King of the Jungle, in the sense that he is at his

superlative best when working with animals-or birds, fishes, and insects. In Snow White the fluffy creatures of the forest outshone the Seven Dwarfs in My opinion; my happiest memory of Pinocchio is of Cleo the Goldfish; and it is no accident that Disney’s most

famous and popular characters are Micky Mouse and Donald Duck. So for a start, Disney’s fifth full-length film Dumbo, has a great advantage in that it takes him right back to the jungle, or more correctly, to the world of the circus tent, where he can exercise his special genius to his heart’s content on elephants, tigers, monkeys, mice, and all the rest. In a sense, also, the film takes Disney back to his own simple beginnings, for it eschews the too-elaborate invention and artfulness of some of his more recent pictures and much of the satire and caricaturing of others, I am not going to say that Dumbo is the best of a remarkable bunch. But it is certainly refreshing. Its chief character is an endearing, blue-eyed baby elephant named Dumbo, afflicted and later blessed by an outsize pair of ears. These wing-like appendages earn him the scorn of his fellow elephants in the circus, cause his fond mother much distress, and bring him into severe disfavour with the audience and the management. Forsaken, the little fellow is befriended by tiny Timothy Q. Mouse, and under Timothy’s guidance finally stages a sensational come-back by learning to: fly with his ears. This simple, almost childish, theme is expanded and embellished by all the Disney wizardry of animation, draughts-

manship, colour, music, and wit. Technical ingenuity reaches a startling pitch in the Pink Elephant Ballet, a nightmare lurid enough to make any toper forswear the bottle; music and movement are perfectly synchronised in the burlesque episode of the Five Black Crows; warm sentiment finds its place in the sequences with the baby animals; and comedy runs riot when Dumbo dive-bombs the cruel clowns. * * * IKE all the best of Disney’s animal characters, Dumbo and his offsider Timothy Q. Mouse are genuine per-sonalities-the one appealing in his helplessness, the other hard-boiled and vigorous, but warm-hearted. Timothy reminded me very much of Jiminy Cricket of Pinocchio and, as always happens in these films, I kept trying to place the Hollywood actor who supplied him with a voice. It is a very distinctive voice, but for the life of me I can’t think who owns it. This worried me all through the picture and all the way home, and'kept me so absorbed during supper that my wife deservedly rebuked me for being absent-minded. Even when I went to bed the problem of that voice kept me awake. And I still haven’t got it. x * * AN one have a surfeit of Disney? Not long ago I should have strenuously denied the possibility. Now, however, having seen Dumbo close on the heels of The Reluctant Dragon and several short subjects, I must admit a slight feeling of temporary repletion. But the arrangement of diet is to blame for that, not the cooking. In any case, you'll probably have a longer interval between the courses than I did, for Dumbo is hardly likely to be released publicly for a month or so. ; By the way, can anybody help me about that voice? ,