Two Disney Classics - Dumbo and Pinocchio

When I was stocking up on my movies for the past week, I knew I would need something to break up all the seriousness I was going to encounter (or thought I would). After watching Alien I decided to inject some fun, family-friendly movies into the weekend. I assumed that the following movies won for Best Animated Feature, but that award was presented in 2002.

10/12/13 Dumbo, Best Original Score for a Musical Picture, 1941

This was not the first time I have watched Dumbo (I know, with my track record you would not have been surprised), but I tried to watch it more critically than the other times. Dumbo was released in 1941 in the early years of Disney feature-length animation. In case you have never seen Dumbo or are not familiar with the story, Dumbo is a baby elephant with ginormous ears. This leads to teasing by everyone else, including the grown-up elephants who should have known better. Dumbo finds a friend in Timothy Q. Mouse who inadvertently becomes a drinking buddy. Dumbo and Timothy accidentally consume water that has been spiked with champagne, becoming quite intoxicated. The two of them find themselves up in a tree. A murder of crows (well, that's what a bunch of crows is called) cannot understand how an elephant landed in a tree, singing "When I see an elephant fly". Timothy capitalizes on this newly-found talent/gift and Dumbo becomes a great hit at the circus. The movie is a great length for kids (or adults with a short attention span), running a little over an hour. There is not a lot of character development, if it was made today, there would probably be about 30 minutes of self-discovery, but I think if you're a kid, the story arc works, Dumbo is bullied, he finds a friend, finds a talent and then overcomes adversity. I knew someone who took issue with the drinking scene and thought it promoted underage drinking. I don't think it promotes it; it is possible that kids accidentally drink adult beverages (weddings, holidays), and they also get sick, perhaps even seeing pink elephants. So, maybe this should be a cautionary tale. I mean, better for a two-dimensional fictional character to get drunk and teach the kids that way. The movie won an Oscar for its score, but it really didn't stick with me or make an impression the way the music from Fantasia did. It's not my favorite Disney movie, but I did like it.

10/14/13 Pinocchio, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, 1940

There is so much to love about Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, the songs (who doesn't know "When you wish upon a star" which won for Best Original Song?), the Blue Fairy, the cast of villains, and fatherly Geppetto, oh and of course, Pinocchio. There is so much magic in the movie, from the Blue Fairy, to Pinocchio becoming a living puppet and then a real boy, little boys turning into donkeys (as an older sister of four brothers, that's almost a fantasy) and everything else. I like the story a little better than Dumbo because it has some adventure, and Pinocchio grows and makes mistakes, learns from them and gets to be a hero. After a wish by Geppetto, the Blue Fairy makes Pinocchio almost human, including human foibles like telling lies and skipping school. Of course, all of these decisions have consequences, some a little more perilous than others, but with the help of the Blue Fairy (no, I'm not obsessed) and Jiminy, and the love of Geppetto, Pinocchio turns into a boy. Everyone can use a Jiminy Cricket in their life as a best friend and conscience. Over 70 years later, the animation still holds up (I read that it used a different animation style than Dumbo) and there are a lot of scenes with moving parts, especially the clock scene when all of the cuckoo clocks go off, that seems incredible to me now, I can't imagine how it seemed in 1940. There is more discussion about the animation in the Wikipedia article on Pinocchio; the whole idea of animation just makes my head explode because I cannot wrap my head around how to do any of it, I find it all very cool. This is a great movie (with or without the kids).