Dumbo

I will never get how people still say that Bambi losing his mother is the worst in the classic disney films. For me it's Dumbos mother being imprisoned because she tries to protect her child. Yes, she's not dying, but it's still so very sad! And then we get this little adventure for Dumbo and his mousey companion. These two always remind me of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket. The parade of the elephants - which Dumbo and Timothy Mouse are seeing when they're drunk (!) - is one of the craziest drug moments Disney ever did (probably only Alice in Wonderland can match it with it's weirdness). And it's so much fun to see Dumbo fly in the end and how he becomes a worldwide phenomenon after he got bullied around for such a long time.

As a kid, I would watch over and over several Disney features: Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, and Dumbo. When I come back to those films now, I recognize that they are all marvelous films and gave Walt Disney much deserved success. It's truly sad how far Disney has fallen. All kids' flicks now are awful. I revisited Dumbo, by the way, on the same night that I first watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, destined to be one of the most successful films of all time. It is execrable, and it is simply pathetic how bad films like it are nowadays. I say, bring your kids back to Dumbo, Pinnochio, Bambi, and the like. They may not be as harmless as the kind of movie Disney and others shove out today. You shouldn't be afraid of your children showing emotion. I can remember more than anything being profoundly affected by the "Baby Mine" number from Dumbo, where he visits his imprisoned mother. Films like these will mould your children's emotional stability instead of keeping them at a safe distance and selling them toys.

This is the quintessential Disney cartoon: brief, engaging, and profound – storytelling at its finest. Where "Snow White" doesn't make the cut (begins with rapidly developing melodramatic plot, pauses for most of an hour to allow forest creatures and midgets to play cute, and wraps up quickly), "Dumbo" spins its wise lesson with elegant timing and charming characters. We all can use that magic feather once in a while.

Dumbo for me is a mini- masterpiece, with beautiful animation, an inspiring message and the sweetest elephant on screen. Dumbo is an elephant born with big ears, but who cares? True beauty comes from within. Dumbo's mother was like Bambi's mother, wise and memorable, and like Dumbo, misunderstood. The song "Baby of Mine" is so sad, that I always cry when I see this film because of it, Casey Jnr is very rousing and having a good laugh during "Seen an Elephant Fly". In regard to the crows, I saw nothing racist about them, they are stereotypical yes in a sense but in a positive way. Timothy the mouse is also memorable, a bit like Dumbo's conscience in a sense. For me, the highlight was Dumbo's dream, with the elephants dancing(a bit unrealistic but very imaginative), with ballet-like incidental music towards the end. I found the song "Elephants on Parade" catchy and I love how trippy the whole sequence is. In conclusion, I rejoiced when Dumbo conquered his fears, when it looked impossible. Great idea, Disney, about the flying elephant, although Don Bluth used a similar idea 50 years later for Pebble and the Penguin. A beautiful film, 10/10 Bethany Cox

Disney had spent vastly more money than he'd planned on "Pinnochio" and "Fantasia", and got little of it back. "Dumbo", next off the rank, was made cheaply, quickly, without fuss. The result is simple but handsome. However handsome "Dumbo" looks, the animation is not very detailed, character design is hardly adventurous, the colours are few but bright, and in an hour it's over. It needn't be more than this, though: the story is far from complicated. It is, I'll admit, a story that has made me cry more than once; and in this instance I don't feel that I've been cheated into crying, because there really is something poignant and heartbreaking about this ugly duckling variant.

Like Hans Andersen, Disney has to pad the outfit a bit to make it fill the space available; yet, with the exception of the introductory bit with the storks, it doesn't feel like padding. In fact the most gratuitous piece of padding is the most necessary. I refer to the pink elephants sequence: a masterpiece of extended unreality (caused by such a tiny quantity of champagne!) which dazzles and sizzles and all but soars out of the screen. It's the sting in Dumbo's tail, and nothing produced since can match its verve.