Dumbo

I watched Dumbo last week. I think I remember seeing it as a little kid. What I mostly remember is having a picturebook of the story, and I somehow remember Dumbo chained to a little house like a dog kennel? Turns out that's not in the movie--maybe I was remembering when Dumbo's mom gets locked up in little caravan. That must have been it.

David Mamet talks about Dumbo in his book On Directing Film. Animation, quoth he, is the ultimate form of visual storytelling for a writer/director because the only limit on what you can show or what you can make happen is your own imagination. Well, yes. It's hard to see how the pink elephants sequence could work as live action. Actually, it's probably that sequence that inspired him to make that comment. It's such a quintessentially from-whatever-you-can-imagine film moment and it's so weird and fantastical that it feels like deep subconscious brain rumblings.

But it really is a pretty awesome piece of film. Set aside the racial stereotyping, if you will. And the whole part about the infant elephant accidentally getting really really drunk, although I liked that a lot. The characterization is excellent, the story--though it takes its meandering turns--works (the sequences work even better than the overall story) and the visuals are consistently beautiful and compelling. Lots of deep space. And it's funny. And the baby elephant is really cute.