Dumbo Review & Giveaway (US & Can)

Title: Dumbo (Two-Disc 70th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack in Blu-ray Packaging)

Release Date: September 20, 2011

Can you believe that Disney’s Dumbo is now celebrating its 70th anniversary? I’ve always kind of had a weird relationship with Dumbo; I think he’s such a cute, fun, expressive animal, but the story in Dumbo always made me so sad when I was a little girl. It began with Dumbo’s mother longing for her baby, and feeling so upset when all of the other animals received their bundles from the stork. Then again when Dumbo and his mother were separated because she protected him from the cruel human children who poked at him and made fun of him for his over sized ears.

I actually hadn’t watched Dumbo since I was a child, and I don’t believe I even owned a copy even on VHS. Watching it as an adult gave me a brand new perspective on Dumbo. Instead of focusing on just the story and how enjoyable or not that was to me, I really took a look at every aspect of the movie, from how it was drawn to the relationship between the characters, to its truly timeless qualities. There is this dream sequence in the movie where pink elephants dance. As a child, I would have easily become bored with that and fast forwarded to get back to the story. As an adult, I watched in wonder as these simple lines that utilized space and the color pink depicted an elephant. It’s a truly magical sequence, but never one I fully appreciated until my adulthood. Since it’s been so long since I last saw Dumbo, I couldn’t remember if he spoke any lines or not. He doesn’t; he has Timothy the mouse to speak for him. Timothy is a tiny mouse with a heart the size of an elephant. He is the friend that Dumbo needs because of how all the elephants turn their backs to him. And ultimately, Timothy is largely responsible for helping Dumbo reunite with his beloved mother.

The 70th anniversary edition of Dumbo has been released as a 2-disc Blu-ray Combo pack as of September 20th. It’s jam packed with some great bonus features, including:

• Deleted Scene: “The Mouse’s Tale”. This was a super cute scene that shows Timothy and Dumbo talking about why elephants are terrified of mice. Ultimately Walt Disney chose to have the scene cut because it slowed down the pacing of the movie and wasn’t really necessary to the plot.
• The Making of Dumbo: A somewhat short documentary about the writers and animators who brought Dumbo to life. It also shows a Disney favorite of mine, Sterling Holloway, recording the voice of the stork who delivers Dumbo to Mrs. Jumbo.

The Blu-ray version contains all of the same extras that are only on the DVD, but also some fun games that the kids will enjoy playing as well as couple of animated shorts.

Giveaway

1 lucky Simply Stacie reader will win a Blu-ray copy of Dumbo.



Check out the list of all my current giveaways!

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*I did not receive any financial compensation for this review, though I did review a sampleof the product for evaluation purposes. The opinions are based only on my experiences with the product.*