Dumbo (Special Edition) (DVD)

...some point in their lives. Dumbo was the 4th ever animated film made by Disney and was released way back in 1941.

The story:
Mrs Jumbo elephant wishes for a baby of her own like all the other circus animals. However when the stork delivers him she gets a surprise as he has huge ears! Mrs Jumbo loves him all the same and names him Dumbo. Poor Dumbo however is ridiculed by all the other animals because of the size of his ears. ...
...characters. Most noticeable is that Dumbo doesn't actually speak throughout the entire film! Even his mother Mrs Jumbo only speaks once and that is to say his name at the beginning of the film. However the main characters that do speak are listed here -

Mr Stork - Sterling Holloway
Timothy Mouse - Edward Brophy
The ringmaster - Herman Bing
Elephant Matriarch - Verna Felton
Clown - Billy Bletcher
... more

What a classic film this is! I can't imagine anyone hasn't seen this timeless Disney film at some point in their lives. Dumbo was the 4th ever animated film made by Disney and was released way back in 1941.

The story:
Mrs Jumbo elephant wishes for a baby of her own like all the other circus animals. However when the stork delivers him she gets a surprise as he has huge ears! Mrs Jumbo loves him all the same and names him Dumbo. Poor Dumbo however is ridiculed by all the other animals because of the size of his ears. Not to be put down by them, Dumbo befriends Timothy mouse and together they show how friendship, love and determination can overcome anything!

The cast:
The film has a variety of people doing the voices for the characters. Most noticeable is that Dumbo doesn't actually speak throughout the entire film! Even his mother Mrs Jumbo only speaks once and that is to say his name at the beginning of the film. However the main characters that do speak are listed here -

Mr Stork - Sterling Holloway
Timothy Mouse - Edward Brophy
The ringmaster - Herman Bing
Elephant Matriarch - Verna Felton
Clown - Billy Bletcher

Most famous out of all the voices is by far Verna Felton and Sterling Holloway who became favourites of Disney and did voices for many more films over the years. Sterling Holloway probably being the most famous as he was the man behind the voice of Winnie the Pooh! Verna Felton had voice parts in many very famous Disney films such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Alice in Wonderland after Dumbo.

Extras:
My DVD comes with a few extras too which include -

Celebrating Dumbo: Original Documentary
Sing along songs selection
Dumbo art gallery
Story time with Dumbo
Elmar Elephant - animated short
The Flying mouse - animated short

I like the two short cartoons as I always do like the Disney cartoons but the rest are mainly aimed at very young children and so would appeal to them over anybody else!

Overall opinion:
I think Dumbo is a nice film as it's cute and Dumbo himself is very lovable which is what the whole point of it was. I think it's quite amazing how a main character of a film has been done so that he doesn't speak and yet the film still manages to work so well. This is really a true test how well the film is made and how good the story is. The film is old and it does show in so many ways especially none more so than the delivery of the baby animals by stork! There are also some classic songs including 'Baby Mine' and 'When I see an elephant fly'. Although short the film is still one of the most popular films made by Disney and there are some really interesting facts surrounding this film that I found out which include -

Dumbo was very tightly budgeted as Walt needed to bring in revenue after the release of Pinocchio and Fantasia which had not really done that well. Dumbo was the least expensive animated film ever made by Disney and yet at the time made more than Pinocchio and Fantasia combined!

The name of the circus is seen as WDP -which was supposed to stand for Walt Disney Productions.

Time magazine were to do a cover on Dumbo to commemorate its success but it was dropped because of the attack on Pearl harbour

I highly recommend this Disney film to anybody and I'm sure that many young children who haven't yet seen it will fall in love with it. The DVD is available to buy from various online stores at around the £7 mark which at the moment seems to be the same price for the standard edition and special edition! 

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