I started to write this post a year ago or so after first seeing Dumbo (that’s right, I never saw it during my entire child–or adulthood–for that matter) with my then 3 year old son. The film just bowled me over it was so good. But what initially inspired me to write about it was the first time I realized that the film was actually a political allegory.
But I stopped myself from writing because I said to myself: “what are you, an adult, doing writing something serious about a cartoon?” I wondered whether I was overanalyzing it and attaching too much importance to it. But after posting here about Alison Krauss’ wonderful cover of Baby Mine and doing added research about the film, I decided that–as one of the greatest animated film of all time–it certainly merits further discussion.

The film debuted in 1941, several weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As such, I see several of the elephant scenes as an allegory of the era. At the time, Americans were agonizing over what their response to the rise of Hitler and Japanese fascism should be. As a nation, we were outraged by the depredations of Nazism. But we also had a lingering romance with isolationism represented by Charles Lindbergh and his American Firsters.
Before I present my thesis, I want to acknowledge that Walt Disney appears to have been an undeniable bigot who hated an assortment of groups and races including Jews, African-Americans, trade unionists, homosexuals, etc. I realize that part of what I write below will appear to fly in the face of Disney’s prejudices. But if you consider that many writers contributed to the development of Dumbo’s storyline, plot and dialogue, its possible that what I view as Dumbo’s philo-Semitism was actually intentional to the story.
In the scene in which the circus elephants first see Dumbo’s ears, I see Dumbo as personifying Europe’s Jews under threat from Hitler. Dumbo first appears as an adorable baby elephant–until the others witness his extraordinary ears. To me, this represents Hitler’s hateful propaganda which caricatured Jews for their long noses and other objectionable qualities:
Oh! - Look at him!
Look at him!
Oh, what a– Oh, look!
Oh, you sweet little thing. - He is cute, isn’t he?
Oh, he is a darling little baby.
Adorable. Simply adorable.
Did you ever see anything so cunning?
Isn’t he a darling!
…Is it possible? - Isn’t there some mistake?
Just look at those, those–
E-A-R-S.
Those what? Oh, ears!
These! Aren’t they funny? Oh!
Oh, my goodness. - What a temper.
Oh, what did I do? Well, tell me.
Did I say anything? - Perfectly harmless remark.
I just said that they’re funny, and they are funny.
They certainly are. - After all, who cares…
about her precious little Jumbo?
Jumbo? You mean Dumbo.
Dumbo.
Dumbo, I say. - That’s good.
Dumbo! That’s good. - Dumbo.
[screenplay transcript from Script-O-Rama]
Later, the same elephants gossip about Dumbo’s mother, who’s been thrown into prison for protecting her baby from the taunting of unruly circus patrons:
Well, I heard today that they have put her in solitary confinement.
No! - You don’t mean it!
Oh, how awful for her!
Well, l-I must say, l-I don’t blame her for anything.
You’re absolutely right. It’s all the fault of that little–
F-R-E-A-K.
Yes, him with those ears that only a mother could love.
What’s the matter with his ears?
I don’t see nothin’ wrong with ‘em. I think they’re cute.
Ladies, ladies! It’s no laughing matter at all.
Oh. Oh, she’s right, girls.
Don’t forget that we elephants have always walked with dignity.
His disgrace is our own shame.
Yes, that’s true. That’s very true. - Oh, indeed it is.
Well, frankly, I wouldn’t eat at the same bale of hay with him.
No. Right. - Me either, dearie.
I should say. -Nor I. That’s just how I feel about it.
Here he comes now.
Hmm. Pretend you don’t see him.
Shh.
Timothy Mouse, who will become Dumbo’s mentor and biggest fan, steps forward in an act of immense bravery (a mouse facing down a tentful of elephants!) and shames the elephants for their treatment of Dumbo:
How do ya like that? Givin’ him the cold shoulder.
Poor little guy.
There he goes, without a friend in the world.
Nobody to turn to.
Oh, I’ll do somethin’ about this.
A mouse!
So ya like to pick on little guys, huh?
Well, why don’t you pick on me?
A proud race.
Overstuffed hay bags!
Boo!
When I first heard the line “A proud race” it brought chills down my spine. Introducing the word “race” into a film in 1941 couldn’t help but bring to mind Hitler’s race-hatred against Jews. In that case, the elephants are akin to Nazis and Dumbo and his mother are akin to Jews facing discrimination merely for (among other things) their physical appearance. Like Europe’s Jews, the elephant chorus views Dumbo as bringing shame upon his race through his “otherness.”
Later in the story, the elephant’s complete their social ostracism of Dumbo after he causes the collapse of the big top:
They fixed him good.
What do you mean? - Wh-What did they do?
Did they beat him? - What is it, darling?
Oh. Well, they’ve gone and made him–
Oh, dear, I just can’t say it. - Out with it!
Made him a clown.
A clown?
No! - Yes.
Oh, the shame of it.
Let us take the solemn vow.
From now on, he is no longer…
an elephant.
To me, the echoes of Hitler’s demonization of the Jews are evident here as Dumbo, like the Jews, is hounded out of the elephant fraternity.
Emily Woodward at Popmatters.com, agrees that the film is a political allegory though she posits a different approach to the above scene:
Dumbo…is set against the other circus elephants, who may be seen as representing the European Allies. Key among these is Dumbo’s mother,…separated from her son throughout much of the film, just as America was cut off from Great Britain and other allies at the time of Dumbo’s release.
This strikes me as wrong-headed and unpersuasive. Though I do find much of her review to be cogent and informative. She propounds an interesting allegorical characterization of the circus ringmaster:
At the beginning of the film, the other elephants treat Dumbo with cruel condescension. They know precisely how big an elephant’s ears should be, and they ridicule Dumbo for not measuring up. The rest of the circus community also ostracizes him. With its assortment of jeering clowns and faceless roustabouts, this community exhibits a sinister mob mentality, suggesting Fascism and, by association, Nazism. Significantly, the circus is presided over by a preening, bombastic Italian ringmaster, an apparent caricature of Mussolini (voiced by Herman Bing).
I would agree with everything in this passage except what she writes about the ringmaster. With his preening moustache, grandiloquent speechifying, goose-stepping gait, gleaming uniform, he clearly represents a fascist dictator. But I do not see him as Italian. His accent is clearly German (the voiceover is by Herman Bing, who I assume is German-American, though I have not researched this). As such, the reference to Hitler seems clear.
Dumbo is, for me a philo-Semitic allegory which contains deep empathy for the plight of European Jewry under the heels of fascism. As such, it must’ve seemed revelatory to viewers of the film at the time it first debuted. Not only did Dumbo represent the height of Disney’s cartooning art and a deeply-felt storyline, but the political-allegorical subtext would’ve lent the film even more authenticity and power. For this and many other artistic reasons, Dumbo deserves its reputation as one of the finest animated films ever made.
Despite the stirring elements of Dumbo I discuss above, there is much that is base and despicable in the screenplay. And this corresponds to the various deep-seated prejudices from which Walt Disney himself suffered:
Disney projected his own sense of alienation onto “others” in Hollywood, namely, Jews, blacks, and union workers. In retaliation against the studio moguls, who were predominantly Jewish, he refused to employ Jews in high-level positions at his studio or as actors in his live-action features. Not until 1969, two years after Disney’s death, did a Jewish actor, Buddy Hackett, feature prominently in a Disney film, The Love Bug. Disney Studios also denied black workers even minimal opportunities, as technicians and support personnel. Such racism is apparent in the crow sequence in Dumbo…The black caricatures are shown to be anonymous members of a marginal group. Only one is given a name, “Jim Crow”…
[Leonard] Mosely reports that Disney saw union workers as a third parasitic subset of U.S. society. It is significant that many of Disney’s employees had gone on strike in the spring of 1941, costing his studio some $2 million and paralyzing operations for almost three months. The release date for Dumbo had to be pushed back several months, awaiting final changes that could only be made after production resumed. These changes included the insertion of a new scene featuring drunken clowns. Thinly veiled caricatures of the strikers at Disney, they scheme to “hit the big boss [the ringmaster] for a raise.”
Woodward would’ve made her argument even stronger had she referred to the film’s roustabout sequence and song. The circus workers have no names, no separate identities, no distinguishable facial features (except that they are black). The song they sing is about as stereotypical and subtly hateful as you could get:
…We work all day We work all night
We never learned to read or write
We’re happy-hearted roustabouts
Hike, ugh, hike, ugh hike, ugh, hike
When other folks have gone to bed
We slave until we’re almost dead
We’re happy-hearted roustabouts…
We don’t know when we get our pay
And when we do we throw our pay away
When we get our pay we throw our money all away
We get our pay when children say
With happy hearts It’s circus day today
Then we get our pay just watching kids on circus day
Muscles aching Back near breaking
Eggs and bacon’s what we need
Yes, sir! - Boss man houndin’
Keep on poundin’
For your bread and keep
There ain’t no letup
Got to set up
Pull that canvas
Drive that stake
Want to doze off Get them clothes off
But must keep awake
Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave!
Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave! Hep! Heave! Hep!
Swing that sledge Sing that song
Work and laugh the whole night long
“You happy”-”hearted roustabouts”
Pullin’, poundin’ tyin’, groundin’
Big top roundin’into shape
Keep on workin’ Stop that shirkin’
Grab that rope,you hairy ape
Poundin’, poundin’
Poundin’, poundin’
Despite the odious prejudices inherent in the lyrics, the music and the scene powerfully represent the back-breaking labor necessary to present the tremendously popular circuses of the day.
The jive crow, When I See an Elephant Fly sequence near the movie’s conclusion also traffics in stereotypes as Woodward notes above. The crows talk jive, dress like flamboyant African-American males and flaunt various ethnic stereotypes. That being said, the song sequence is absolutely vital and full of tremendous wit and energy. Unlike the roustabouts, these crows are each brimming with humor and character. And as the song is meant as a rousing closing number, it is central to the entire film. One could argue that despite his personal hatreds, Walt Disney has allowed African-Americans to steal his film.
The greatness of Dumbo is that despite the prejudices introduced into it by its creators, the film rises above them to champion the oppressed and downtrodden. It gives them hope that they might use those very qualities which mark them as despised to eventually vindicate themselves and triumph over their adversity.
tags
disney,
dumbo,
fascism,
hitler,
jews,
race_hatred