First shot of animation: Storm and rain effects over opening narration, gives way to storks flying in formation.

Dumbo is primarily about large blocks of bright, primary colors. It's a storybook with sound. Very pleasant to look at. I think that's why the Pink elephants song is so remembered, it's completely incongruous and nightmarish. It's also the most dynamic and visually interesting thing in these first four features. More of this, please.

Odd notes of morality here. Dumbo's given name is Jumbo Jr and his mother is specifically called Mrs Jumbo at all times, assuring us this elephant is a product of holy matrimony. The stork also says he came from heaven in two separate rhymes.

Dumbo is too damn cute. He's all round and bright. Clumsy little fella. Best character just for being fun to watch.

This was made during the 1941 animators' strike. People talk about the clowns in that context, but the real labor stuff is in the Roustabout song: "We work all day, we work all night We never learned to read or write We're happy-hearted roustabouts ... We don't know when we get our pay And when we do, we throw our pay away" What the fuck is going on here? This is sung by a chorus of black laborers, real John Henry-framed, proud sturdy dudes, working in tandem with the elephants to raise the circus grounds. They're also the first black people in a Disney feature. (The minstrel centaurs in Fantasia aren't people, they're centaurs). And they disappear after this scene, presumably "throwing their pay away" during the circus' run.

But the plot is a story about the cruelty of incarceration and ostracism. Baby Mine is a great scene that nails that point. And instead of following that through, even in the simplest way of giving comeuppance to the meanies, Dumbo learns to fly, gets rich, the end. That's all in the last five minutes. The story structure is bizarre. RKO asked Walt Disney to add another 10 minutes to approach typical feature length and he refused, saying there was no room for more story. How about Mrs Jumbo being released from prison? How about Dumbo having the magic feather for more than 30 seconds? Turning anything from the end montage into a real scene? That was clearly a lie because he didn't want to pay for more movie when the war prevented international distribution and revenue.