How sad is Dumbo? At one point, while scrubbing Dumbo clean with a little brush, Timothy Q. Mouse catches a tear rolling down the baby elephant’s face and goes ahead and starts washing him with it. If that doesn’t make you a bit misty yourself, you’ll certainly be undone by the lullaby to come, “Baby Mine.” At this point, Dumbo’s mother has been caged away and declared “mad” after protecting her son from bullying kids. “Baby Mine” is sung as she cradles him through the bars with her trunk, their separation juxtaposed with shots of other circus animals in their pens, snuggling with their young. Dumbo ends happily enough, with Timothy helping the little elephant use his oversized ears to fly and become a famous circus act, but all that comes in a rushed finale; the movie is more interested in capturing the shadings and sounds of sadness (so many scenes take place in the blue night). Two other numbers are the exceptions that prove this rule: the psychedelic “Pink Elephants on Parade,” which is frankly terrifying with its dead-eyed pachyderms contorting into inexplicable shapes; and “When I See an Elephant Fly,” which can be interpreted either as offensive caricature or admirable attempt at diversity. (The main crow is named Jim Crow and voiced by Cliff Edwards, who was white, but the witty, delightful song itself is sung by the black members of the Hall Johnson Choir.)
