The film tells the story of an elephant named Dumbo, with enormously large ears. Although Dumbo is teased for his ears, they allow him to fly. Aside from Dumbo's mother, the only character that is friend with him is Timothy, a mouse.
The story of Dumbo and his enormous ears goes like this; "The circus director makes Dumbo the top of an elephant pyramid stunt, but Dumbo's ears causes the stunt to go wrong, injuring the other elephants and bringing down the big top. Dumbo is made a clown as a result, and plays the main role in an act that involves him falling into a vat of pie filling. Despite his newfound popularity and fame, Dumbo hates this job and is now more miserable than ever.
To cheer Dumbo up, Timothy takes him to visit his mother. On the way back Dumbo cries and then starts to hiccup so Timothy decides to take him for a drink of water from a bucket which, unknown to him, has accidentally had a bottle of champagne knocked into it.
The next morning, Dumbo and Timothy wake up in a tree. Timothy wonders how they got up in the tree, and concludes that Dumbo flew up there using his large ears as wings. With the help of a group of crows, Timothy is able to get Dumbo to fly again, using a psychological trick of a "magic feather" to boost his confidence.
Back at the circus, Dumbo must perform his stunt of jumping from a high building, this time from a much higher platform. On the way down, Dumbo loses the feather and Timothy tells him that the feather was never magical, and that he is still able to fly. Dumbo is able to pull out of the dive and flies around the circus, finally striking back at his tormentors as the stunned audience looks on in amazement.
Back to our topic rasicm and stereotypes in this movie...
As this animation sets place in 1940s, yes, the crows in the film looks and sounds like they're the usual African-american Harlem-Renaissance Cotton Club[2] stereotypes of 1940s. They also use slang words and ebonics such as calling eachother "brotha" and speaking in southern accents with mutilated grammar. They sing the song "When I See an Elephant Fly." This song is in jazz style completely with scatting and one of the crows playing the jazz trumpet on his beak. This style of music was generally popular at the time in black communities.
But the biggest most obvious racism in the film was in the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where the circus is being set up. In this scene not only are the animals helping with the work, but also faceless black men are seen setting up. Their faces are completely featureless with no eyes, mouth, or nose. they possess no individual identities at all. This is characteristic of the time period because the 1940s was before the Civil Rights Movement, and although there was no slavery, blacks were still segregated and considered as lesser people at the time.
In the end an other Disney classic animation movie for our children whom we love and try to protect them from every kind of harm. But I am sure every other kid in the United states grow up watching these film. How can we overcome racism, stereotypes in a world where we grow up with these kid of racism full of films?
References
1- CineWiki - Dumbo . Retrieved 11/28/11.
2- Harlem-Renaissance Cotton Club . Retrieved 11/28/11.