Happy Birth-a-day, Jumbo Jr. (You Can Call Him Dumbo)

John Nolte at Big Hollywood has an excellent review up for the 70th anniversary DVD/Blu-Ray release of Dumbo. I've been meaning to review Dumbo myself, not because of the new disc, but because my little son has been watching it over and over in the last couple months and I've been rediscovering what a masterpiece it is. Unlike some of the other early Disney animated features like Snow White, Pinocchio, and Bambi, Dumbo doesn't seem to be pushing the visual envelope; it basically looks like a long Disney cartoon, the opposite of what Disney was going for in those earlier feautres. As Nolte points out, Dumbo celebrates marginalized characters without being preachy, something that modern movies can't seem to pull off. I love how the movie celebrates small-town, blue-collar Americana, and yet there's also the psychedelic and unsettling "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence that adds a whole other, visually ambitious dimension to the film. And can you imagine the two lead characters getting drunk in a G-rated movie today?

11/7/11 update: How cool to see that Brian Wilson covers "Baby of Mine" on his new Disney-themed album. It's one of great Disney songs that tends to get overlooked.