"The very things that held you down are gonna carry you up, and up, and up!"
Consistency and spare time to watch and write about movies? I don't know what those things mean, sorry.
This is not the movie to watch with hardcore PMS, kids. I did it anyway. Once you get over feeling like nothing in the world can be good ever again, it's not so bad. Anyway, Disney's beloved cinema classic Dumbo evokes the timeless magic of... a circus, in Florida, in the 1940s. Right, then. There are three major themes that run throughout the film:
1. Adorable baby animals
2. Horrific abuse and misery
3. Casual racism
I used to watch this movie on VHS at my grandparents' house when I was around 3-to-5 years old, and fortunately for me, the only thing I remember from that time period is the baby animals. I have seen the movie since then, though, so I did have some idea of what to expect.
Let's start with the nicest: ADORABLE BABY ANIMALS.
This movie is basically one long stream of "Awwwwwwwww!" interspersed with sobbing and "OH GOD, WHY"s. For an hour-long movie, you go on QUITE the emotional roller coaster!
Oh, fun(?) fact: This movie marked the Disney debuts of Sterling Holloway and Verna Felton! I'm gonna be hearing a lot more of both of them if I keep going with this. Exciting!
Anyway, this movie is cruel. What it does is this:
Movie: Oh, you like the baby animal? You like seeing him frolic and cavort with his loving mommy? Wouldn't it be a SHAME if someone were to pick on him, hurt him, whip his mom in front of him, take his mom away, ostracize and abandon him because he tripped during a performance, make him stand in a set piece that is ON FIRE while he sweats and looks frightened, push him out of the set piece so that he falls into a tub of plaster, and laugh when it gets in his eyes, all the while openly mocking him and keeping him separated from his mother?
You: You... you monster.
Movie: Oh, here's his mom gently rocking him through the bars of the solitary cell she was placed in for trying to protect him, and singing a lullaby while he cries.
You: ... There is no joy or virtue in this world. Only pain and suffering.
Movie: DISNEY MAGIC, BITCHES.
Seriously, I get that if Dumbo weren't unfairly discriminated against based on his appearance, there would be even less of a movie, but the abuse he gets is so extreme. Four grown-ass adult elephants openly mock and eventually ostracize a baby because he has big ears. That's the level of morality this movie operates on. Between the abusive and exploitative humans on the one hand, and the frigging Daughters of the Elephant Revolution on the other, this is a horrible, horrible world the movie creates!
Which is interesting to me. If Disney was trying to create a romanticized, fun and frivolous "circus" setting for this movie, they completely failed (for my money, at least). Sure, the colors are bright, and the animals are fantastic, but this is not a place of fun and whimsy! It's bizarre, because I don't think they were really trying to make a point about animal abuse in this movie, or point out how exploitative circuses were, or anything, but everything that happens behind the scenes (and much of what happens onstage) is so vile. Maybe it's just a different cultural sensibility, but you're supposed to feel bad that Dumbo is being mistreated, so... I really don't know what to make of it.
And let's talk about the specific ways in which the elephants are horrible, shall we? They repeatedly refer to themselves as a "proud race," and excommunicate Dumbo from elephant-hood when the ringmaster demotes him to clown. This attitude is clearly and repeatedly shown to be wrong, and is ridiculed by Timothy (who, incidentally, is really delightful, though that might be my personal weakness for wisecracking Brooklynites talking). What's interesting is how explicitly racial the discourse is. "Well, frankly, I wouldn't eat from the same bale of hay with him." WHAT R U SAYIN THERE, DISNEY? There's absolutely no need to have lines like that, or all the references to the elephants as being a "race" (and a "proud," reeeeeally WASP-y sounding one at that)-- they could have just stuck to generic things about Dumbo being a "freak," or ugly, or something-- but it's all there anyway.
And then, enter the crows.
Where do I even start?
Even knowing what was coming, hearing the accents/voices was really, really jarring for me at first. It's all the more uncomfortable to watch when you've learned that the actor who voiced their leader (who is credited as "Jim" because DISNEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING, AUGH, NO, SIT DOWN, though I don't think they ever actually use his name in the movie) is the same guy who voiced Jiminy Cricket.
This guy. Playing what is very, very clearly a caricature of a young, slick, fast-talking black guy.
This guy.
I don't think I really need to spend time pointing out why this is bad and wrong and offensive. I think we as a species can all just take for granted that that is bad and wrong and offensive.
Which is why I feel somewhat conflicted about the fact that I like the crows. A lot. As characters, anyway. The racial stereotyping and vocal blackface they bring with them is difficult to watch. But as people (well, as crows), they're kind of awesome? First of all, they're in something of a minority of a group of characters in this movie who are helpful and nice to Dumbo. They're the ones who ultimately come up with the plan to boost his confidence and send him to stardom. They're the ones who are actually moved by his plight instead of, y'know. Contributing to it. (I don't think they even mock his ears, just the idea that he could possess powers of flight, but don't quote me on that.)
And god damn it, "When I See an Elephant Fly" is probably the best song in the movie, even if it is horribly offensive for the reasons I've spelled out above (spoiler alert: it is that, yes). But it's got wordplay. Clever, clever wordplay. I can't resist that! And seriously, what is the competition here? "Look Out for Mr. Stork?" Fuck that shit. "Baby Mine" is lovely, but loses points for making me cry uncontrollably. "When I See an Elephant Fly" all the way.
Furthermore, you're obviously supposed to like these guys. They're on the hero's side. They're not conniving; they're not lazy; they're not foolish. They're clever and their leader, at least, is cool. Timothy's indignation at being called "brother rat" ("Now, listen! I ain't your brother, and I ain't no rat, see?") definitely reads as a "ha-ha aren't black speech patterns simply ridiculous?" moment. They call people who aren't their brothers "brother!" Oh, the satire! But Jim (erk) replies with a sarcastic, "Mm. And I suppose you and no elephant ain't up in no tree either." (For the uninitiated: they are, indeed, up in a tree when he says this.)
Now. This may be a virtue of watching the movie in 2013 instead of 1941, but for me, Timothy's the one who winds up looking foolish there (and kind of uptight, in a way reminiscent of the elephants), not Jim (erk).
Definitely, a very, very 1941-white-person take on what a perceived class of black men looked, sounded, and acted like is played for entertainment here. It is deeply troubling that neither the people who wrote the crows' lines, nor the people who acted the parts were themselves African American. It's a minstrel show. It is clearly racist, in a way that can and should make contemporary audiences uncomfortable, but I think the scenes are well worth watching, and the movie's treatment of race is well worth thinking about. The elephants' posturing about the sanctity and superiority of their race is played off as ridiculous and harmful, and then the main characters are helped out a lot by a group of barely-coded black guys who Timothy was ready to write off as lowlifes.
Basically, it's a racist movie about how racism is bad. Oh, and also I guess there are animals, and a circus, and a train, or something.
So, that was a serious note on a shameful legacy of American history and the ambiguities of "progressive" thinking in earlier eras. Now, who wants to see a baby elephant get drunk? Walt Disney Productions, that's who! (I should note that this happens completely accidentally- Timothy doesn't, like, take the baby out for a night on the town or something. Even so.)
Only 1941 and we've already seen two Disney movie characters hungover. One of whom is a baby. I should start a tally.
Anyway, final thoughts: Dumbo is a strange, but really sweet movie that tugs at your heartstrings about as often as it makes you go "holy shit, Disney, what are you doing with this, what is happening, please make it stop." It's not really one of my favorites, but even I am powerless in the face of an adorable baby elephant.
