Dumbo: ‘Wrong then, wrong now’?

By Lucy Ward, First Year History and Spanish

On October 23rd, 1941, Disney released Dumbo, a film which received wide critical acclaim at the time for its simplistic yet striking animation and heartwarming story. More recently, however, Dumbo has been greatly criticised for the use of racist tropes and stereotypes which permeate the film.

Dumbo tells the story of a young elephant, part of a travelling circus, who is mocked for having comically large ears. After being taken away from his mother, he is befriended by an anthropomorphic mouse and later comes across a group of crows who encourage him to use his ears to fly, transforming him into a valuable, or perhaps more accurately, lucrative member of the circus.

It is this meeting with the crows which is the most famous example of racist stereotyping in Dumbo. The lead bird is named Jim Crow, referencing a character from a racist minstrel show in the 1830s, which later came to stand for the segregation of Black people in America.

Racialised depiction of crows as seen in Dumbo (1942)

The crows also speak with exaggerated, southern, stereotypical Black accents and sing jazzy songs in harmony. Cliff Edwards, a white actor, voiced Jim Crow, effectively committing vocal blackface.

Aside from this more well-known example of racial stereotyping, other scenes in Dumbo are guilty of using racist tropes. The ‘Roustabouts’ scene depicts faceless Black people working as labourers to construct the circus, playing to the ‘Song of the Roustabouts’ which includes racist lyrics. This is the only time that Black people are depicted in the film.

It’s not surprising, therefore, that Tim Burton’s 2019 remake of Dumbo works to eliminate these tropes whilst attempting to acknowledge them.

The titular elephant of Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo (2019)

It is a difficult balancing act to achieve, especially as some of these scenes feature the most famous lines in the film. The crows, for example, deliver the song ‘When Elephants Fly,’ perhaps the most famous of the film.

This song is so well known that Whoopi Goldberg called for the crows to be more merchandised because they ‘sing the song in Dumbo that everybody remembers.’

Clearly, it is not as simple as removing these scenes entirely, and to achieve this balance, Burton removes the singing and has a single crow introduce Dumbo using the most famous lines whilst avoiding the stereotypes.

Disney itself acknowledges the problematic nature of Dumbo, and other films like it, on its streaming service Disney+, displaying the message ‘This programme includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now’ at the start of each film.

These attempts to recognise and, in the case of remakes, transcend the prevalent racism in films such as Dumbo, are critical in moving towards a more progressive and diverse consumption of such films.

Yet, there is still more that needs to be done to promote a greater awareness of these films’ history, so that they can be consumed with the proper understanding of their impact.