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'Dumbo' fails to take off

by Trevor Sheffield Of the original Disney animated features, no one is more infamous (or remembered, period) than Dumbo. Released in 1941, it tells the story of Dumbo, a baby elephant whose ridiculously large ears lead to him getting separated from his mother, belittled and shamed by everyone in the circus he lives in, and ultimately help him literally soar above the adversity in his life. He also gets verbally abused multiple times, gets drunk on clown beer and sees nightmares, and ultimately achieves his ability to fly after encouragement by a group of black racial stereotypes. Not even going into the controversy behind actually making this movie (Disney laid off roughly 207 people for wanting to unionize during the production of this thing!), it makes sense that Disney, currently in an era of remaking its most famous films, would want a shot at making a Dumbo divorced of the badly-dated elements of its source material. So, they did. It did not pan out well.

My beautiful one-armed cowboy

Image from IMDb
Dumbo Dumbo Beauty and the Beast Dumbo Dumbo

The elephant’s going to Nightmare Island

Image from IMDb
Alice in Wonderland Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

At least the Crows are gone…

Image from IMDb
Dumbo Dumbo II: Top ‘Phant
IMDb IMDb

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