Review of Dumbo (1941) by Qwark1996 — 23 Feb 2020

Dandy Crow, Specks Crow, Fats Crow, Dopey Crow, Deacon Crow! My favourite Disney characters along with Jiminy Cricket and the best and most important and memorable part of the story! They were created to be a satire against the Jim Crow laws (including the original name of the head crow "Jim Crow" on the character's model sheets, then renamed to "Dandy Crow" in the 1950s), and in fact they are outcasts like Dumbo, but they are also free spirits who bow to no one, tough, generous (the film is set in Florida in 1941, there is another reference to the racial situation back then in the Southern USA and at least a pair to World War II), they relate to Dumbo's plight because they comprehend his condition (the crows are among the most smart and intelligent animals of Earth, even capable of empathy, just like the ones in the movie)! They never mocked him for his big ears and they are not based on the Stepin Fetchit stereotype common in the previous decade! They are inspired by the great Jazz artists masters in singing Scat of that period like Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong (the creators used as inspiration the backchat found on the band records of the singers, the spirit is in fact the same) and the brothers Freddy and Eugene Jackson worked as live-action reference and models for the animators (Rest In Peace, Ward Kimball) they gave the famous "magic feather" to Dumbo and taught him how to fly, helping the little elephant reunite with his mother and become a star! They did in one single scene and gesture more than Timothy did and he would have done for the entire movie, don't forget it! Plus, they sing the most loved, important and famous song of Dumbo film, the song that everybody remembers and sing,"When I See An Elephant Fly"! I love them, I'll defend them 'till I die, ignorant SJWs can go to hell! Thank you, guys! Rest In Peace, Cliff Edwards, James Baskett, Nick Stewart, Jim Carmichael and Hall Johnson, and of course the Jackson Brothers and the chief-animator of the Crows, Ward Kimball! Thanks a lot again!:').

P.S. I want to thank other important defenders like Floyd Norman, Whoopi Goldberg, Leonard Maltin, John Canemaker, John Grant, Micheal Wilmington, Eric Goldberg, Alex Wainer, Kevin Micheal Richardson! guys!:').

P.P.S. As veteran animator Floyd Norman stated, "The movie is quintessential Disney with a plot line that will tug at your heart and put a smile on your face. Add a few jazzy tunes and it’s knock down, drag out funny. Of course, it showcases a brand of humor you could never get away today. Drunken clowns, an acid trip of a dream and a host of cool black crows singing scat. It’s every marvelous thing we can’t do today and we’re all the poorer for it."..."Finally, as I spoke with Ward Kimball, I told him how much I enjoyed the cool black crows doing that jazzy little shuffle he animated. The black crows perform, “When I See an Elephant Fly,” and I guarantee it’s Disney animation at its finest."..."The song they sing is pure fun and entertainment and the animation is inspired. It’s the turnaround song for Dumbo and his life will never be the same. If you’ll recall, I did the same thing many years later in another Walt Disney movie called, "The Jungle Book". Much like the black crows singing scat, we had a little Mowgli encouraged by another group of cool birds who encouraged him with a song. Yet, there was no controversy over these singing birds who just happen to sound like another famous musical group from Liverpool."..."I’d like to remind you that George Clooney playing a poor Southern white in, "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou", did the same goofy shuffle and nobody found that "offensive". After all, weren’t the "Soggy Bottom Boys" the white equivalent of the black crows? Alas, sarcasm seems wasted on today’s clueless generation. The reason the head crow's name "Jim", is Disney taking a cartoony jab at the oppressive South. Ward Kimball was taking a dig at the south and their oppressive Jim Crow laws. They weren't "celebrating", Jim Crow. They were MOCKING Jim Crow. Doesn't anybody get sarcasm anymore?"..."African American singers and dancers inspired the Disney animators and they had a ball bringing that same joy and entertainment to the big screen. Should that delightful third act of Dumbo bring you discomfort, we’d better start reediting all the live-action movies made in the early fourties because they’re filled with the same." "It is totally wrong to revise history simply because it makes you "uncomfortable"."..."I knew the Old Maestro and I know he would not be keen on his classics being revised by the PC Police. The only thing these talented men and women wanted was to bring the very best Disney entertainment to the screen. Walt Disney was an artist and an entertainer and his animated motion pictures reflected and emulated the popular show business performers of his day. In this crazy and destructive era of PC nonsense, I thought you should know that.