That Duckfan's Eponymous Animation Review Series
Jun 21, 2020 17:19:01 GMT
Scrooge MacDuck likes this
Post by Matilda on Jun 21, 2020 17:19:01 GMT
On Dumbo: the emotional strength of the movie is definitely the mother/child bond. Disney animators knew how to convey a parent's love and a child's intense need for the parent when they are separated. The sentiment of the "Baby Mine" sequence is about as strong as you can get with its painful separation and tender trunk-entwining love. It's true that we don't get to see her released from jail, but we do see Dumbo and his mother at the end happily together in their private train car...did you just mean that more should have made of their reunion? Or that it should have been clearer that their reunion was the real happy ending?
Also, Dumbo is unbelievably cute. Witness the bath scene. Can't beat that for cute baby vibes.
I'd say that the lesson we take from the story is, to quote, "The very things that held you down are gonna carry you up and up and up." It's a sort of parable of how the difference for which you are mocked can turn out to be a gift that will eventually be recognized as such by the whole community. The flying itself is more important to the child-viewer than the fame--the fame is just the official end and reversal of Dumbo's former experience as the object of mistreatment and scorn. Certainly it's not about the market as in economic reward.
The movie could have been better in lots of ways, with better pacing and character development and resolution and less minstrelsy--though that scene is complicated, as you say, with the crows being the characters who recognize that it's not right to bully a baby. Even more clearly, the happy-hearted roustabouts who slave until they're almost dead and throw their pay away...that depiction has no redeeming aspect whatsoever. It's also true that we now recognize that, while some animals such as dogs may be quite happy and healthy in their circus life, doing complicated tasks and getting rewarded for doing them well, elephants are not among those animals...and it's difficult to get past that awareness when watching Dumbo. Overall, I don't like the movie much better than you do, though I do resonate with the mother/child scenes and Dumbo's cuteness more than you do. And I like the "lesson." I do enjoy the pink elephants sequence, though it does nothing to further or fill out the basic story!
Also, Dumbo is unbelievably cute. Witness the bath scene. Can't beat that for cute baby vibes.
I'd say that the lesson we take from the story is, to quote, "The very things that held you down are gonna carry you up and up and up." It's a sort of parable of how the difference for which you are mocked can turn out to be a gift that will eventually be recognized as such by the whole community. The flying itself is more important to the child-viewer than the fame--the fame is just the official end and reversal of Dumbo's former experience as the object of mistreatment and scorn. Certainly it's not about the market as in economic reward.
The movie could have been better in lots of ways, with better pacing and character development and resolution and less minstrelsy--though that scene is complicated, as you say, with the crows being the characters who recognize that it's not right to bully a baby. Even more clearly, the happy-hearted roustabouts who slave until they're almost dead and throw their pay away...that depiction has no redeeming aspect whatsoever. It's also true that we now recognize that, while some animals such as dogs may be quite happy and healthy in their circus life, doing complicated tasks and getting rewarded for doing them well, elephants are not among those animals...and it's difficult to get past that awareness when watching Dumbo. Overall, I don't like the movie much better than you do, though I do resonate with the mother/child scenes and Dumbo's cuteness more than you do. And I like the "lesson." I do enjoy the pink elephants sequence, though it does nothing to further or fill out the basic story!