- “Dumbo, the ninth wonder of the universe! The world's only flying elephant!”
- ―Timothy Q. Mouse[src]
Jumbo, Jr., later known as Dumbo, is the titular protagonist of Disney's 1941 animated feature film of the same name. Delivered to a traveling circus by a carrier stork, he is a mute cute baby elephant belonging to Mrs. Jumbo. Dumbo was born with giant, floppy ears, for which he was mercilessly ridiculed by the other performing pachyderms. Under the guidance of his friend and mentor, Timothy Q. Mouse, Dumbo would discover that his ears grant him the ability to glide in the air, making him the world's only flying elephant.
Background
Personality
Dumbo has the personality of a small child. He is playful, innocent, fun-loving, and he loves being around his mother. He is naïve, as he did not realize Smitty and his gang were taunting him or that the "magic feather" was simply a way of thinking. Dumbo is also very easily scared, evidenced by his encounters with the clowns, the pink elephants, and, like all elephants, Timothy Mouse. However, he is also very closed-hearted, such as with Timothy and the Crows, and seemed to express true anger or resentment toward those who tease him. Upon discovering his ability to fly, Dumbo grew more confident and accepted his large ears even he loses the "magic feather", being encouraged to fly without it by Timothy.
As he is only a baby in his first appearance, he does not talk during the film, save for some quick squeaks. However, in Dumbo's Circus, he does talk when he's a teenager.
Physical appearance
Dumbo is a small Asian elephant. His skin is gray, his eyes are blue, and his tail is very small. He has big ears (which the other elephants don't like), but he uses them to fly. He has a small proboscis with two large nostrils at the end of it. Dumbo wears a small yellow conical hat, which Timothy uses as a seat to ride the elephant standing inside the brim, and a red clown collar with a yellow central stripe.
Appearances
Dumbo
In his debut, after being delivered by a stork, he is named "Jumbo, Jr." by his mother Mrs. Jumbo, and all the other female elephants remark on his cute looks. The baby elephant then sneezes after the Elephant Matriarch tickles him on his trunk and reveals that his ears are much larger than average. As soon as his big ears are revealed, he is teased by the other female elephants, who call him "Dumbo". After Mrs. Jumbo closes the door to their stalls, she wraps up Dumbo in his own ears, and they rest peacefully. Dumbo later takes part in helping set up the circus tent with his mother and the other elephants and circus animals at night as they arrive at their destination.
The next day, Dumbo takes part in the opening parade for the circus with his mother and the other elephants, but accidentally trips on his ears and falls in a mud puddle, thus causing everyone to laugh at him. A few moments later, Dumbo is given a bath by his mother, and they spend time playing. Once people come into the circus for a tour to see the circus animals, Dumbo gets laughed at by some boy bullies and his ears are pulled roughly by Smitty, the leader of the boys who broke into the pen to tease him.
When Dumbo's mother tries to protect him and attacks Smitty and the boys, they yell for help and cause a commotion. The Ringmaster and the circus guards arrive to the scene of the commotion and only see Mrs. Jumbo attacking the kids. When the circus tries to restrain Mrs. Jumbo, she makes a scene and throws the handler and the Ringmaster. As a result, Mrs. Jumbo is thought to have gone mad, separated from Dumbo and imprisoned in a lonely car to keep her away from circus guests.
Dumbo is left by himself feeling sad without his mother's presence and comfort, while the other elephants laugh at him and regard him a disgrace. When Dumbo tries to have a hay meal with the other female elephants, they give him the cold shoulder, and he walks away without a friend in the world until he meets his soon-to-be best friend, Timothy, whom he was afraid of at first when Timothy scared all of the elephants for picking on Dumbo, but then, Dumbo and Timothy become friends when Timothy offers to help him get his mother out of the clink.
Having overheard the teasing Dumbo endures earlier, Timothy decides to help Dumbo into becoming a circus star. The first attempt ends in failure, as Dumbo once again accidentally trips on his ears while attempting to jump to the top of a "Pyramid of Pachyderms" as the climax results in collapsing the big top and all the elephants become injured, he then emerges with his trunk through a hole on the big top swinging his flag, but it breaks in half due to the collapse of the big top leaving him swinging what's left of it. The failure results in the circus making Dumbo into a clown exploiting his appearance and putting him in the their clown acts, which depresses him and makes him a real laughingstock to the circus, the attendees, the clowns, and the other elephants. To cheer him up, Timothy takes Dumbo to visit his mother, but the visit ends too soon.
Dumbo takes flight for the first time.
Later, Dumbo and Timothy accidentally become drunk when they drink water that has been accidentally mixed with champagne due to the clowns' clumsiness. Dumbo uses his trunk to blow bubbles for Timothy to play with, but shortly after, they both begin hallucinating, seeing Pink Elephants. When they awaken, they somehow end up in a tree after meeting some crows, who are amused by an elephant being in a tree and tell them about their situation. After getting back down to the ground while falling from the tree, Timothy wonders if Dumbo either jumped or climbed up to the tree until he finally comes to believe that Dumbo flew (due to one of the crows' ironic suggestion), thus, amusing the crows and making them sing "When I See an Elephant Fly". But after Timothy scolds them and tells Dumbo's sad story, they feel remorse about their earlier behavior and decide to help Dumbo use his ears as wings to fly and to use the "magic feather" as a token of encouragement and to boost Dumbo's confidence. Later, with encouragement from the crows and Timothy, Dumbo begins to flap his ears in an attempt to fly, but ends up creating a big cloud of dust, which makes Timothy grouse that it didn't work and assumes that the crows had tricked them again, until Timothy notices they're up in the air after spotting Dumbo's shadow beneath them, realizing to his amazement and delight, Dumbo is actually flying, a sentiment that the crows also share.
At the circus' next stop, during the clown act, Dumbo is prepared to fly. When he takes off from the now 18-story-tall burning building, the magic feather slips out of his trunk's grip and even Timothy is unable to catch it. Timothy begs Dumbo to open his ears regardless, saying that the magic feather was all a gag and that he can still fly, even without the feather after losing it. At the last minute, Dumbo finally opens his ears and glides into the air by evading the vat of custard pie, shocking the crowd into surprised awe and allowing Dumbo to perform aerial maneuvers other than getting some payback on his tormentors by taking off a clown's mask resembling his mother and throwing it on the rear end of the Ringmaster, who ended up getting his head dunked into a bucket of water. As the other clowns take cover into a barrel of water and accidentally burn themselves after driving the fire engine into the burning building, the flying Dumbo decides to vacuum up some peanuts with his trunk from a peanut seller's stand and spray them on his rude aunts who are Mrs. Jumbo's "sisters" like a fighter jet. Dumbo becomes the greatest star in America after his performance with Timothy as his manager and an inspiration for America's air force during World War II.
At the end of the film, it is shown that Mrs. Jumbo has been released and the two share their own private coach of the circus train built for them that is pulled by Casey Junior, the circus' tender engine. Once Dumbo happily reunites with his mother after flying escort from the crows, they wave goodbye to the crows who are standing on an electric pole as they head off to the circus' next stop.
Dumbo's Circus
During the launch of the Disney Channel in 1983, Dumbo's Circus premiered. It is a live-action/full-body puppet show that aired the same time as Welcome to Pooh Corner. Dumbo, now a teenager, is able to talk. Dumbo also has new friends, such as Lionel the Sideshow Lion (and his Chief Lieutenant), Q.T. the Calliope-Playing Orangutan, Fair Dinkum the Ringmaster Koala (and his sergeant), Sebastian the Ventriloquist Alley Cat, Lilli the Detective/High-Wire Cat, Barnaby the Magician/Clown Dog, and others as well.
House of Mouse
Dumbo and Timothy in House of Mouse.
Dumbo has made several cameo appearances in the television series House of Mouse. In the series' premiere, he flew in front of the spotlight projector, causing Mickey Mouse's spotlight to disappear.
In "Super Goof", Mickey mistakenly believed Dumbo to be Super Goof's secret identity.
In "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation", Dumbo hid in his ears when Donald and Daisy released the Pink Elephants, by accident, due to his fear of them but Timothy stopped them.
In "Donald Wants to Fly", he and Timothy advise Donald to use the magic feather but it backfires.
In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", Dumbo was annoyed when Mortimer Mouse mocked him.
He also appears in Mickey's House of Villains and along with the other guests locked in the club's kitchen and held captive as the villains take over.
Other appearances
Dumbo with Jiminy Cricket and Timothy in the animated opening of The Mickey Mouse Club.
In the 1950s, Dumbo and Timothy made an appearance in the animated opening of the Mickey Mouse Club.
In The Great Mouse Detective, Dumbo made a brief cameo as a bubble blowing toy when Basil, Dawson, and Olivia were investigating a toy shop.
Dumbo makes two brief cameos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His first cameo is at the beginning of the film, where he flies in front of R.K. Maroon's office, much to Eddie Valiant's shock. Mr. Maroon mentions that he has rented Dumbo from Disney along with half the cast of Fantasia, and the best part of it is that they work for peanuts (literally in Dumbo's case as Maroon gave him some before he flew off). His second cameo is at the end of the film, during the final scene where he is seen shaking Eddie's hand as he flies back to Toontown along with the rest of the Toons.
Dumbo made a brief cameo appearance in Bonkers, episode "Of Mice and Menace", which introduced the villain Flaps the Elephant. He is shown crying at the police station because Flaps had stolen his flag.
Dumbo also makes a cameo appearance in Flubber, seen on Weebo the Robot's computer monitor.
In Lilo & Stitch, Dumbo made a brief cameo as a toy plush on Lilo's easel.
Dumbo makes a cameo in the form of a silhouette at the end of The Lion King 1½.
In the Mickey Mouse episode "New Shoes", Dumbo is seen riding Casey Junior along with Timothy and the crows.
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, Dumbo is seen flying into the Oh My Disney website to meet guests near the Disney Animation pavilion.
In the series finale of At Home With Olaf, a short clip of his film featuring himself and her mother Mrs. Jumbo appears during a montage of heartwarming moments from Disney films playing in Olaf's song "I Am with You".
In the 2022 adaptation of Pinocchio, Dumbo is seen in one of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks.
In Once Upon a Studio, Dumbo is seen flying with Mickey down to the lobby. Dumbo then joins all other Disney characters for a group photo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Disney.
In Wish, Dumbo was among the Disney animated characters that appeared during the credits.
Video games
Disney's Villains' Revenge
In the game, Disney villains have taken control over their stories and altered the endings so that they can have the "happy endings". For Dumbo, the Ringmaster made it so Dumbo must endlessly perform humiliating stunts at his circus, as his slave. Fortunately, the player, as well as Jiminy Cricket, are able to save the briefly fallen heroes.
Kingdom Hearts series
Dumbo is a Summon character who can be called forth by Sora in combat in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
In Kingdom Hearts, he was apparently the sole survivor of the destruction of his world. Like several other Summon characters, Dumbo's spirit survived in the form of the Watergleam Gem, which Sora discovered while trapped inside Monstro. Upon giving it to the Fairy Godmother, she restores Dumbo's spirit and Dumbo becomes a summon companion for Sora. It is likely Dumbo returned to his homeworld after the Keyblade Wielder seals Kingdom Hearts.
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Dumbo is recreated from Sora's memories, in Castle Oblivion, and returns as a summon.
Kinect: Disneyland Adventures
Just like in the parks, elephants resembling Dumbo serve as the ride vehicle for his Disneyland attraction Dumbo the Flying Elephant. It is one of the few attractions in-game that do not have a story connected to them, and instead, can be ridden normally by the player. A bronze statue of Dumbo with Timothy can also be found in the hub of Main Street U.S.A. alongside other characters just like in real life.
Disney Parks
Dumbo making a rare appearance as a walk-around character in the Disney theme parks.
In the 1955 opening of Disneyland, Dumbo was a character that met guests. Over the years, Dumbo was seen in pictures, ads, and merchandise only. He notably has his own attraction known as Dumbo the Flying Elephant, one of the most popular attractions in the parks.
Disneyland Resort
In Magical, Dumbo appeared as a puppet figure in the fireworks show during the show's rendition of Baby Mine, descending from the Matterhorn similar to Tinker Bell's usual fireworks show role.
Walt Disney World
Dumbo has a spell card known as Dumbo's Pink Elephant Parade in the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and briefly appears in Celebrate the Magic.
In December 2012, Dumbo made a special live appearance at the opening ceremony of Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom.
Dumbo also appears in the bubble montage of Fantasmic! in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Hong Kong Disneyland
Dumbo can be seen in Flights of Fantasy parade as the first character atop a float as fully working audio-animatronic with the parade's logo.
Shanghai Disneyland
Dumbo is seen riding Casey, Jr. in the opening unit of Mickey's Storybook Express.
Disney Cruise Line
Dumbo represents the Disney Fantasy ship; a statue of Dumbo and Timothy can be seen on an outer display.
Disney's Electrical Parade
Dumbo was one of the original characters and this marks one of his few live appearances in the parade. Dumbo has since been removed, but in the Tokyo Disneyland version, Dumbo is present as a part of the parade float.
Gallery
Trivia
- Dumbo's real name is Jumbo, Jr. He is given the nickname Dumbo by one of the other elephants.
- Dumbo is the only title character in both the animated and live-action movies who does not speak (not counting many live-action title characters who are animals).
- With the exception of three hairs on the top of his head, Dumbo is completely hairless.
- Dumbo inspired animators to create another elephant character almost like him named Goliath II in Goliath II.
- The animation of Dumbo getting caressed by his mother during "Baby Mine" was recycled for use in Goliath II for the scene with Goliath II getting caressed by his mother.
- Dumbo's trumpet squealing was later reused on Goliath II from Goliath II.
- Even though Dumbo comes from a herd of Asian elephants, he looks in many features like an African elephant.
- He is almost hairless, except for the three strands of hair on his head, baby Asian elephants have a full head of hair (a lot like Hathi, Jr. from The Jungle Book).
- His head is conical with one hump; Asian elephants have two humps, even as calves.
- His characteristic huge ears is another African elephant trait; African elephants have much larger ears than Asian elephants.
- DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is the name of a district from New York City.
- Dumbo made a rare speaking appearance in the 1954 record album Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party, voiced by Stan Freberg.
- He also has a major speaking role in the TV show Dumbo's Circus, provided by Katie Leigh.
- Another time he spoke was in the Walt Disney's World on Ice show Happy Birthday, Donald, when he asked Mickey about Donald's surprise party and bid him goodbye.
- A species of octopus nicknamed Dumbo octopuses was named after this character for its large protruding "ears".
- When Dumbo eats the peanut that Timothy gives him to come out of the hay, he makes the same snorting sound as the bull from the 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Rival.
See also
External links
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|