The Message of 'Dumbo'

The 1941 Walt Disney movie Dumbo is an example of both cripping and ableism. This popular cartoon film is about a baby elephant born with most unusually large ears which makes him an outcast in the elephant community of the travelling circus. His mother Jumbo comes to his rescue while he is being mocked and abused by a boy who ironically also had noticeably large ears, and she is driven into a rampage which lands her in solitary confinement. Dumbo is heartbroken but is adopted by Timothy Q. Mouse who marches in to scare the other elephants who engage in cripping as they blame the “F.R.E.A.K.” (Dumbo, 1941) for his mother Jumbo’s wild behavior. In a display of ableism the mouse announces that there is nothing wrong with Dumbo, and that his ears will be an advantage for the elephant show. Dumbo’s ears cause him to trip and knock down the great elephant pyramid during the show which causes a major disaster that destroys the entire circus tent and sends the audience out in a screaming panic. In the aftermath the elephants discover that the circus ringmaster in another demonstration of cripping, demotes Dumbo to working with the clowns, and in yet another instance of cripping the elephants swear that from now on Dumbo is no longer an elephant. In an example of ableism Dumbo is welcomed into his new community of clowns and both he and the mouse accidentally get drunk on champagne that spilled into a water bucket. They wake up the next day and find themselves high up in a tree where they meet a murder of crows. Timothy mouse deduces that the only way that they could have ended up in a tree is that Dumbo’s ears enabled him to fly and he simply flew up there. In another expression of ableism Timothy announces that the very thing that held him down will carry him up. Dumbo doesn’t believe that he can really fly until Timothy and the crows convince him that he can fly if he uses a ‘Magic Feather’ to enable his flight. Timothy plans for Dumbo to spring the news on the world during a clown act that has Dumbo jumping from a fiery building and onto a trampoline. Dumbo makes the jump but loses the feather and during this crisis he realizes that the feather was merely a crutch that he didn’t really need.  Dumbo flies gracefully around the circus to everyone’s amazement and he instantly becomes a wild national success. His mother is freed, reunited with Dumbo, and given a favored status which is displayed by being given a private, elegant train car and they all live happily ever after.

The impact that this story has had over the years is to give individuals with obvious variations which made them targets for cripping, a relatable feel-good story which shows that such differences can be overcome and used as advantages rather than disadvantages.

The story opens with the stork delivering babies to many of the circus animals and each of which appears to be a perfect specimen of the animal. Dumbo is too until he sneezes and his ears explode into two giant flaps. The other elephants immediately start mocking him and dub him ‘Dumbo’. This society of elephants reject Dumbo’s obvious departure from the typical elephant ideal and this scene reflects the intolerance of society toward individual differences in the early twentieth century.

The movie also addresses the attitude toward individuals who are different from the standard variety in the World War II era during which a segment of our society embraced eugenics.  The ring master assigns Dumbo to the society of clowns after he trips on his ears and causes a disaster.  This event motivates the elephants to shun Dumbo and is analogous to removing human individuals with disabilities from mainstream society and institutionalizing them or doing even worse.

The movie offers hope and redemption to everyone who has something different about themselves which they would like to change when Dumbo flies during the clown act of the circus and exacts playful revenge on the elephants by machine-gunning peanuts at them. He shows the world that an individual variance which may be viewed as a disadvantage can be used as an advantage once it is embraced.

This is a relatively short, comedic, G-rated movie at approximately one hour in length and easily lends itself to a classroom environment. It evokes empathy as many students own a personal variance which they perceive as negative as were Dumbo’s ears to him. This movie can teach the folly of rejecting others because of their differences such as when the circus elephant community shunned Dumbo and is portrayed as mean and intolerant.

This film can also show that when the perspective about a disability is changed to a view that individuals are not disabled but it is merely their environments that are disabling, perceived disadvantages can be advantages. An example of such a turnaround is the advantage that a blind person has over a sighted person during a blackout situation. In this environment it is the blind person who is better adapted and can navigate in the dark.

I believe that Disney’s Dumbo movie contains classic examples of both ableism and cripping. It is certainly kid-friendly and sends a both clear and positive message that individual differences need to be embraced rather than mocked in a modern and more tolerant society.

References

Disney, W. (Producer), & Armstrong, S. (Director). (1941). Dumbo [Motion picture]. United States of
        America: RKO Radio Pictures Inc.