Dumbo
Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Year Released: 1941
Rating: 2.0
Tiny elephant with enormous ears gains confidence in himself through the help of a go-getter mouse in this famous but unaffecting Disney film. Not only was I not thrilled with the animation - granted, it was 1941, but Snow White looked a lot better and that was years earlier - but the Dumbo character is a manipulative, pathetic mute, whose only function in the picture is to be mocked, screw-up, and cry repeatedly (the image of a dejected Dumbo with an animesque teardrop suspended from his one eye is, admittedly, adorable). The "Pink Elephant" sequence, albeit trippy and wonderfully surreal, has little to do with the rest of the movie, which, with a running time of just over an hour, makes it less a feature film and more an overblown Saturday morning kiddie-cartoon serial.
